Seven presentations in the March meeting took up the whole evening with a variety of images to inspire us with new ideas.
John Chamberlin presented some wonderful examples of ICM with vertical movement which work well with tall trees, in particular aspen trees with long straight silver-coloured trunks with autumn leaves to give a splash of colour. The second half of his presentation was on his continuing interest in bird photography, this time showing some striking images of eagles in action.
Sian Jones recently toured Spain going from Bilbao in the north to south recording all aspects of the country to present ‘A Taste of Spain’ covering architecture and a glimpse of daily life in the streets of cities. One particular feature which stood out was greening of the city environment with vertical gardens on the side of tower blocks and planting in open spaces.
John Hudson continues with his project of photographing cathedrals from the air. He has earned his place in the theatres photographing dance performances alongside professionals in difficult lighting conditions and theatre restrictions. Some of the recent images he presented at the meeting showed the stunning quality of images, both in composition and technical aspects. He is due to talk to the club later in April, which I would fully recommend attending.
Linda Meaton’s first presentation to the DI group gave an insight into her academic world of photography working towards a degree. She described the assignment she was working on – conceptual photography where you have to define three ideas and implement them by producing images for an exhibition, quite a tall order compared to the prescribed subject in our club competitions. She picked Lightbulb Moment, Reflections and Why Do you need a Camera (i.e. Artificial Intelligence), I was very impressed with ideas she visualised for the first two. For the third one she used words to guide AI software to produce an image in the likeness of the image she supplied. Below are some of the images she presented.
Anita Fullerton has been walking along Uphill beach with the RPS Talk-Walk-Talk group which is being promoted in recent months by RPS in different locations. She created wonderful impressionist style images of the coastline using ICM technique together with composite imaging. She has also been busy creating mini panels i.e. a single image with multiple images and presented several beautifully created images, each having nine individual images with a theme of colour, texture and content or a combination of one or more. Work on her pressed flowers for creative images is ongoing and look forward to seeing more in future.
Mike Martin, always experimenting with creating images, presented some of his recent urban landscapes in the awful wet weather we have been suffering. The frogs in the local park have been taking advantage of the season giving Mike an opportunity to take some wonderful macro images of the frogs and fungi.
Lastly, I did a short presentation on desktop ICM i.e. using Photoshop. ICM in the field requires a lot of practice and intuition to visualise the end result which is pleasing. I have been experimenting with Path Blur filter to create a similar effect but with the benefit of full control to adjust the image at any stage.
The next meeting of the DI group is on Monday 8 April in about four days’ time, when Rachel Domleo will be co-hosting with me, with a view to taking up the reins later in the year.
It is in the usual format of presentations submitted by members. All BPS members are invited to share their images in an informal atmosphere. It is a good opportunity to show your work or to invite comments on your images from your fellow members, especially if you are planning to submit them for competitions or exhibitions. You are also welcome to ask questions on digital imaging or just sit and watch the proceedings if you wish.
For the submission of images I would still like to maintain the current system of sending them to me before the meeting. It allows me to prepare the presentation folder in advance for a smooth presentation. When you are ready, please email your images for presentation (about 2 to 20 minutes) to reach me by 6pm-ish Sunday 7 April. Images: JPG format, sRGB colour space, 1600 x 1200 pixels (same as competitions but not strict). To show them in a specific order, please prefix filenames with 01, 02, 03 etc. Email attachment size - max 20Mb per email, as many as necessary. You may also use WeTransfer or Dropbox link if convenient.
