- Next week, Tuesday 30 October, bring along your cameras and some interesting things (not too big) to photograph as we have “The Art and Science of Studio Techniques” with Tony McMaster
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Last week’s meeting – Interesting Stuff with Justin Minns
And interesting stuff it was. He structured his talk around the Jim Richardson famous quote: “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” However the photographer that has had most influence upon is Joe McNally after his wife had bought Justin one of McNally’s books, and this transformed his approach to photography.
Local interest: Justin’s local area is the south-east coast running from Essex, through Suffolk and up to the Wash in Norfolk. Quite a patch and Justin has done it justice with some excellent seascapes and landscapes. He plays with light and slow shutter speeds. The Dovercourt lighthouse in Essex on a hazy day in a calm sea at 121 second exposure was superb. So was his shot Happisburg lighthouse, this time not in the sea but next to a wheat field which won him photographer of the year 2018. He is also keen on wide angle shots of Southwold Pier and boats at low tide on mud flats of the Thames estuary, the wide-angle lens adding extra drama to the shot. He also likes what he calls ‘swooshery’ – getting movement in a shot using a slow shutter speed that blurs grass in the wind or waves breaking on a beach.
Making it interesting: He had some excellent Intentional Camera Movement and also an Unintentional Camera Movement when he was doing a very long exposure of Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland he had to quickly get away from the incoming tide not realising he still had the shutter open. The result was pretty impressive. The castle was visible in the distance and the rest of the image was like an impressionist painting. He liked blurring foregrounds especially for woodland shots. The out of focus blur was very effective. And he had some impressive infra-red shots.
Interesting places: Yosemite in the US compare with East Anglia made stunning photography seem easy, where you can pitch up at a car park and have a view to die for. You still have to pay attention to details and walk around the area to get the right composition. He showed photos of places from the Canadian Rockies, Iceland (everybody’s favourite destination and the best place in the world for swooshery), Slovakia, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Venice and his favourite destination of the island of Madeira.
Interesting timing: being in the right place at the right time. He relies very much on the weather to give him the right conditions – frost bring things alive in a photo where everything stands out. Snow is even more exciting than frost. The Beast from the East a few years ago transformed everything and made simple compositions easy and Justin showed us some perfect examples of this. Nothing though beats the northern lights for stunning shots and Justin had some amazing shots of the phenomenon.
He ended by saying that it is what we do, not just what we stand in front of and gave us Henri Cartier Bresson’s quote to ponder: “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head.”
- Next Tuesday’s meeting: Print competition 1.
Judge is Peter Cox
Our first Print Competition of the season
- Upcoming meetings in October and November
Tuesday 30 October: “The Art and Science of Studio Techniques” with Tony McMaster of Camera Club Live
The first half of the presentation it all about the Science, f stop, inverse square law, flash energy, etc. Sounds a bit daunting but I will make it as interactive as possible with lots of audience participation.
Then after the break the second half will be practical sill life table top shoots, with your members being able to use their own cameras to capture some pictures.
Please encourage your members to, not only bring their cameras but also, bring along interesting things (not too big) to photograph.
Tony runs a You Tube channel Camera Club Live which has over 14,000 subscribers. See this channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/cameraclublive
Tuesday 7 November: GULAG: a journey into the darkness of Stalin’s Siberian prison with Barry Lewis
https://www.lensculture.com/projects/1811790-gulag-a-journey-into-the-dar
After three years as head of chemistry in a Leicestershire school while pursuing a personal interest in photography, Barry won a scholarship in 1974 from the Royal College of Art for an MA in photography. Two years later he won the Vogue award and joined the magazine as a staff photographer.
From 1977, he worked as a freelance photographer, covering international stories for magazines and newspapers as well as working on over twenty books. His work has been widely exhibited worldwide – including, in the UK, the V&A museum, Oxford Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of London and The Photographers Gallery.
In 1981, along with seven others, he founded Network Photographers, which for over twenty years was a significant British agency, with an archive of over a million images and a critical forum for image making. Since Network closed in 2005 Barry has been working with the international agency, Getty.
Barry has won several awards for his work, the most important being the World Press Oskar Barnack Award in 1991, for a photo-essay on Romania after the revolution.
His work ranges from photojournalism to portraiture and he has directed over 20 documentary films, collaborating with sound artists, musicians and performers.
He divides his time between London and France, collaborating with other artists, publishing his work and always striving to keep a fresh eye on the world around him.
Tuesday 14 November: Digital Image Competition 2
Judge is Chris Foster
Tuesday 21 November: Lightroom/Bridge file management and editing
With Brian Worsley
Tuesday 28 November: Living and working as a professional photographer in Namibia
Scott Hurd via zoom
- General photographic interest
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine review – a master of the floating world
Hayward Gallery, London
In images that transfix and mystify, the great Japanese photographer seems to conjure a dream state outside of time and place in this magnificent first UK retrospective
‘They call me lucky Jim’: pioneering Ghanaian photographer James Barnor
James Barnor’s historic images documented his country as it freed itself from colonial rule. In his 80s, he finally received recognition. In his 90s, his drive is stronger than ever
Moments of magic and bliss: Chris Burkard’s ocean photography
Outdoor and surf photographer Chris Burkard has explored the seven seas capturing their diversity and wild beauty. His arresting work from the colder northern regions to the tropics shows the world’s ocean as a source of inspiration that needs our respect and care
Polluted, violent and ablaze: the real Brazilian rainforest – in pictures
We tend to idealise the Amazon as the lush, green ‘lungs of our planet’ – but Tommaso Protti’s photographs reveal a darker side of deforestation, disease and crime
APOY 2023 Wildlife winners revealed
Almost without fail, wildlife is the strongest round in APOY. Competition is fierce and the standard is exceptionally high. We see entries that feature everything from the tiniest insect to the most majestic of the big cats, and whether they were shot in the back garden, a zoo or on safari, all are considered. This makes it an extremely tricky category to judge, and it can also be a very subjective category, possibly more so than any other: one judge’s first-placed image might not even be commended by another. It’s also important for the judges not to be swept away by the drama of a subject simply because it might be more ‘exotic’.
https://amateurphotographer.com/apoy/apoy-wildlife-winners-revealed/
Best photography competitions to enter in 2023 – besides OPS’s
One of the best ways to challenge yourself photographically is to enter photography competitions. Luckily, there are dozens out there to choose from, no matter your genre, style or level.
https://amateurphotographer.com/latest/articles/best-photography-competitions-to-enter/
CEWE Photo Award 2023
CEWE, one of Europe’s leading photo printing and finishing suppliers, recently announced the winners of its annual photo contest, the CEWE Photo Award 2023, at the PHOTOPIA Imaging festival in Hamburg, Germany, last month. This year’s theme of the photo contest was ‘Our world is beautiful,’ and Indonesian photographer Dikye Ariani, took home the overall grand prize for a candid photo of people playing a card game inside a traditional Indonesian cafe.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/4013016047/cewe-photo-award-2023-winners