Photo memories
BRIAN Stephenson, a member of Rolls-Royce Photographic Society, was Sileby Photographic Society’s guest at its meeting held on Monday, March 6, when he presented ‘Forty Years of Photography’.
Brian described his progression and photographic experiences from using his first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, together with roll of film, forty years ago to the one he now uses, a Canon 400D plus all attachments.
He illustrated his commentary with pictures and digital images to evidence many changing techniques which had taken place over the years.
From small beginnings in 1974 Brian captured on camera many good pictures which one might describe as holiday snaps, but even then it was obvious that Brian had a keen photographic eye when his audience viewed some of his experimental landscape pictures as a teenage snapper.
Up-grading to a Pentax 1000 in 1981, Brian took his first trip abroad and produced some interesting slide photography, capturing scenic landscapes in the French Alps and the Greek Islands, but it was probably the eager anticipation of receiving his slides back from the developer which produced most excitement.
Brian’s Pentax became a solid friend for the next few years and accompanied him on his travels recording the many stunning landscapes at home and abroad.
His third choice of camera resulted in the acquisition of a Pentax Super A which provided him with added interest but, by October 2005, the acquisition of the latest digital Sony came his way.
Continuing to move with the times, and with digital photography taking a hold, a Canon 400A, joined his ‘fleet’ in 2007. Image on image saw a gradual improvement in his ever-growing repertoire, and in September 2008 he decided to enter competitions within his Club, and whilst presentable scoring was achieved, he realised that he still had a long way to go to compete with the elite.
He plugged away, still learning the tricks of the trade, and with dogged determination over the months and years, his successes at competition and exhibition level became more regular and eventually he was awarded the elusive score of 20, the maximum available.
Having more recently had many acceptances at major exhibitions, Brian is now a very successful and accomplished photographer, having achieved gold medal standard and holding the prestigious award of BPE4*.
Nigel Atkins thanked Brian for a very interesting evening and for showing his progression from the beginning of his photographic journey to the present day, fantastic work.
The next meeting will be held on Monday, 20th March when the annual Panel competition will take place. This competition is open to prints and digital images in panels or sets of three or four images with each panel combining to form one image for projection.
Visitors and prospective new members are always welcome to attend the Society’s meetings which commence at 7.45pm for 8pm and are held at Sileby Community Centre. Further information can be obtained from the Society’s website, www.silebyps.org.uk