Louth Photographic Society
Our speaker last night was Alan Harness, he spoke about his Flickr project “100 Strangers”, the intention was to photograph 100 Strangers around his home town of Birmingham. He often found it daunting to walk up to complete strangers in the street, and ask to take a photograph of them, often he retreated to a local public house for refreshment, and sometimes found subjects in there. Alan's collection of images that he showed represented a complete cross section of British society, young, old, beautiful, care worn, characterful, and ethnically diverse. Alan’s work was inspired by the eminent portrait photographer, Jane Bown, and he had one of her photographic books on display. After the break Alan showed images from his next project, “One Family”, he spoke about his dismay about negative media commentary on ethnicity, when his experience of talking, and watching people living their lives painted a completely different picture, people just living life, and making friends whilst being indifferent to colour, race, or religion. Alan’s collection of images with mixed race couples, or friends demonstrated the diversity of current British society. Thanks Alan for a fascinating talk, with some amazing imagery, perhaps his talk will inspire members to begin a project of their own.
Graham Harrison, Dave Turner and I attended the LPA PDI Inter club Competition yesterday, 3rd November. It was well attended by the 12 LPA clubs that entered the competition. The judge was Steffan Nicholson from Newark, who apparently stepped in at the last minute as the original judge had Covid. Steffan though very critical, was very fair in his comments. However, he did make many assumptions concerning some of the images. There were some very good images from the clubs and the standard was high. The judge held 15 images back from the 108 entrants and of those he gave three 20’s. Dave Turner was one of the 15 and scored 18 points for his image, Louth’s highest scorer. Well done, Dave. The eventual outcome was Grimsby taking the honours with Axholme 2nd and Cleethorpes 3rd. We came 7th which unfortunately was not as high as last year. Diane Seddon from Cleethorpes took the individual trophy with a stunning image called The Travelling Man, it depicted a man on a bench in the pouring rain. Well, that’s it for another year, let’s hope next year we can again be in the top four, illustrated here is one of Dave Turners earlier images, Kings Cross - Going Down
Good Morning All Last week at the club we had members giving 15-minute mini lectures on club outings as well as other subjects. There is a report on our website, but it was a very good evening ending in Richard Hildred showing Bromoil prints. This week, Wednesday 6th November Alan Harness will be speaking and showing PDI's, Alan is travelling quite a way to speak to us so hopefully as many members as possible will be there on the night. If you have not entered the PDI of the year, send your entry to Harry as soon as you can please. Today at 1pm we are as a club taking part in the LPA club PDI competition at Nettleham, hopefully we will have a few members attend the competition. Regards Graham
At our meeting last night, members of the Society gave a series of “mini lectures”. The topic for the evening was intended to showcase images from the summer Society outings to the nature reserves at Donna Nook, Chambers Wood, and Kirkby Gravel Pits. Unfortunately, owing to the paucity of wildlife this year at the various nature reserves the wildlife images were short on the ground, members stepped up and produced some exceptional images from over this summer. Dave Turner produced some beautiful monochrome images of grasses, and thistles from Chambers Wood. Tony Gaskins stunned with one of his trademark long exposure seascape images, followed up by atmospheric images of his trip to the isle of Harris, and a beautiful image of a Gannet inflight at Bempton Cliffs. Paul Twomey produced some excellent considered images from a visit to the National Trust properties at Quarry Bank, and Lyme Park in Cheshire. Graham Harrison as the Society President had attended all three outings found the greatest concentration of wildlife at Kirkby Gravel Pits, and this stunning image of mating damsel flies is testament to that. Chris Birchmore treated members to a selection of his images of local churches from the Open Church week, as well as photos from the Heckington Show, and steam road engines at the Driffield Showground. Last, but not least, Richard Hildred passed around some of the prints from the Bromoil Circle box, this heritage photographic print technique creates some exquisite artistic prints. It was fascinating to see the diverse skills of members of the Society, a big thanks to members who participated in the lectures making for a wonderful evening. Thanks also to Dave Mann who tirelessly provides refreshments for our evening meetings.
One of the many things that life has taught me, is to be very wary of Politician's promises; alongside this is a growing skepticism in the ability of Weather Forecasters. Knowing October, I was expecting a cool, perhaps damp day but no indication of the fog at the Coast (according to our esteemed TV forecaster). Heading south over the Wolds and then past Alford the mist was bad, turning into nasty fog patches. Chapel St Leonards, as my destination, was pretty much a white-out in parts. Yet again, I do what most photographers do and adapt as best as possible to the situation. I had committed myself to a walk along the sea front, but in setting off, with the muted colours and absence of people, I thought a moody Black & White set may present itself. I enjoy attempting to visualise a B&W scene, then trying to produce my thought on the monitor with the software. I'm nowhere near as proficient as some, but the fun is in the trying. Armed with the Canon EOS 5D iv and the 24-105 f4 L IS series lens, I shot in Manual mode, setting1/250sec and using the aperture range of f8-f10, letting the camera traverse the ISO scale in Auto ISO. I find Auto ISO a real bonus as I can establish both the depth of field I want, and the time the shutter stays open (despite the light level), to let me hand hold, having confidence that the exposure is maintained as I want, through the Auto ISO. Another clever feature (useful when mist and fog are involved) is the Canon's functionality to alter the EV in Manual mode by reassigning a Fn button, rather than compromising a change in set aperture or shutter speed. I spent about an hour walking round, hardly any people around other than a few hardy walkers taking the air and a lovely lady with a Greyhound. Any day with a camera in hand is a good day, it was also pretty much free until we called in at the Garden Centre on the way home, but that's another story... Don't be put off by the weather, where possible embrace it, there's an image out there somewhere. The visit in the mist showed me low contrast levels, muted colours and how it's nice not to be trapped by people in every scene.
Good Morning All We were away last week staying at Loftus which is about 15 miles north of Whitby. We had some very good weather which was lucky for this time of the year and visited many places on the North Yorkshire coast as well as inland. Last week at the club you watched part two of the N&EMPF Exhibition DVD, I hope you all enjoyed looking at some of the best club photography in the East Midlands. There is a report on our website blog. This coming week, Wednesday 30th, we are holding a series of mini lectures (15 mins) with photo's from this years outings, please let me know ASAP if you would like to take part. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI of the year (PDIOTY). Regards Graham
At our meeting last night we held a showing of the N&EMPF Exhibition Print DVD, as always the standard of entries was of an extremely high standard. The images demonstrated the pinnacle of photographic excellence amazing wildlife images of birds, insects, and I loved the pride of lions gazing at a herd of antelope. The stunning night time images of heritage steam locomotives were very atmospheric. As usual images of sports featured highly, but there seemed to be fewer landscape images this year. For me as a portrait photographer, I was particularly interested in several of the images shown, and wondered if I have sufficient talent to enter next year, this image of a “Beach Maiden” is possibly headed in the right direction. It was a very interesting evening.
Last week at the club we held a print competition, with the categories of "Monochrome" and "Open", there were some very good prints in both subjects and the results are on our website. I would just like to congratulate Paul Gray for first place in the open and Dave Turner for first place in the Monochrome. This week, Wednesday 23rd October, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition print DVD with the best prints in the East Midlands. You can also send Harry your PDI of the year entry (PDIOTY) if you wish. Regards Graham
A print competition was held last night with the categories of "Monochrome", and "Open". The judge for the evening was Jorj Malinowski who critiqued the prints in his usual competent, laconic, and humorous style. In the Monochrome section, Dave Turner was placed first with his stunning "Down to Platform 8" taken from the top of the stairs on the London Underground. For the Open section Paul Gray was rightfully awarded first place for his beautiful capture of Gannets taken from a boat off Bempton cliffs. The competition page has been updated with the full results, and the top 3 placed images in each section.
Photography is one of those hobbies where you’re constantly learning whether it’s the details of your camera, or photographic techniques. Incorrect camera settings – How many times have you been on a photo shoot and found that the photos didn’t look great when viewing them on a computer screen? Recently on a photo shoot with a model in a low light situation, I left the ISO at 160, when I should have used an ISO of 400, even though I opened the aperture to f/1.8, the shutter speed was still too low at 1/42, as a result the image appears soft, and more by accident than design the photo does have a certain aesthetic and is usable. Later in the shoot I did notice my mistake and I’ve managed to create some rather lovely images of the young lady. After reviewing my images, I’ve adjusted my camera settings to use Auto ISO with a range of 160 – 3200, and a minimum shutter speed of 1/60 which should overcome any further mistakes. Blown Highlights – This is a common mistake, and one that’s frequently brought up by judges. Photographs of birds with white plumage such as swans, and gannets in bright light can often result in blown highlights which are unrecoverable in post processing. For my portraiture work bright window lighting, open sunlight, or indoor LED lighting can result in blown highlights on the face. With the camera in Aperture Priority mode, the exposure compensation dial is your saviour, I have selected the “Live View Highlights Alert”, otherwise known as the “Blinkies” on my camera. With the correct settings on your camera turning the exposure compensation to a negative value can preserve the highlights as this image of a swan on the boating lake at Cleethorpes illustrates. Dynamic Range – Modern digital cameras have a tremendous range of dynamic range, and a lot of detail can be teased out of the shadows even from a jpg image. However, when shooting a subject against a bright sky often photographers will lose detail in the sky, even where the sky is overcast. To overcome this, use the exposure compensation dial to retain detail in the sky, your subject will appear dark, but lifting the shadows on the subject will recover all the details. This image of the steam locomotive Cranford at Ludborough straight from camera is shot at -2 EV, the sky detail is retained, the detail on the locomotive and train can easily be recovered in post processing. Composition – Possibly I should have listed this at the top of this post, as it’s one of the most important aspects of photography, together with mastering light. Creating a photographic image that tells a story, that impacts the viewer is the key to a successful photograph, and begins even before you have a camera in your hands, ask the questions: What is it you’ve seen? What’s the intent? Can the subject be viewed from another angle? Where is the light falling? For this image of St. Hybalds Church, I wanted to take this photo because of the sunlight falling on the church, and the wispy clouds in the sky. The path from the bottom left of the image leads into the photo, I allowed sufficient room at the top of the church to correct the verticals and converted the image to monochrome as I like the sky details. Cropping slightly into the image removed any distractions at either side of the church. Enjoy your hobby, and keep learning.
