Retford & District Photographic Society
UNUSUALLY Chris Stone’s visit to the club was notable for the story he had to tell rather than the quality of the photos he showed.
Visitors to Matlock are now spared the mile long steep trek to the top of Masson Hill thanks to the construction of an alpine style cable car. Chris was able to document the construction of this popular attraction from the site alongside the workers.
Sometimes members take centre stage in a ‘Show and Tell’ evening, when several of them bring their own images to share.
Jane Brownley showed some underwater images taken in British waters to emphasise just how good those shown by David Keep had been. Two members showed shots from London, but they could not have been more different. Lee Dalgleish had documented some of the colourful graffiti in the East End while Ben Searson had recorded a visit to Battersea Power Station in black and white. Simon Carr rounded off a great evening with a selection of his beautiful bird shots.
Our annual portfolio competitions are designed to test the versatility of our
photographers. Each person entering has to produce four images, each in a different genre.
When the night’s judging was done, the honours were taken by Simon Carr for his colour portfolio and Alan Burkwood for his monochrome entry.
Alan is a successful exponent of the art of converting the colour image obtained from the camera to a crisp black and white image. This is not as easy as it sounds and subtle changes to the colours in the original are often needed to create the most pleasing tones in a monochrome image. Cameras might offer a conversion feature, but they throw away a lot of the information recorded and don’t give the photographer control over the finished product.
Chris Hodgson bravely came to give us a live demonstration of how to go about the conversion process. She lived up to her own guideline that when she had finished there should be no sign that she had done anything. By this she meant that her changes to the image should be sufficiently subtle that they enhanced the result without anything being so heavy handed that it stood out. She worked on two different examples and promised notes of her processes to be shared with members.
Our final evening in this period was devoted to hearing from Steven Fairbrother about ‘Easy Wildlife Photography’. He quickly clarified that this did not mean the actual photography was easy, but rather that the subjects were close to home and did not require trekking across the globe to get the shots.
Steven divided his talk into sections, starting with the subjects which visit our gardens. He obviously has a wonderful garden because in addition to numerous birds, he plays host to hedgehogs, foxes and badgers. He uses a combination of a ‘serious’ DSLR camera, a compact, a Go Pro and his mobile phone and usually has at least two working at the same time, with one recording video.
Steven showed a number of videos and we were amused by a short clip of a raven which came so close to him that he needed to use his phone to record it. The noises the bird was making added to the interest of this clip.
The Farne Islands exert a magnetic pull on photographers for the mix of nesting birds and resident seals. Steven’s photographs didn’t disappoint and he added to this section with other shots taken from the spectacular nesting ground at Bass Rock.
Details of the remaining speakers and competitions of the season are on the web site: www.retford-photographic.co.uk site, along with more information about the club.
Find us in St Joseph’s Hall, Babworth Road, Retford at 7.30pm on Mondays..