Meeting Reports
HPS Meeting 13/10/08
Self-confessed obsessive printer, optimist, humanitarian and raconteur, the charming, ebullient Bob Moore Hon FRPS from Smethwick Photographic Society returned and introduced us to his wife Sue, also a Fellow of the RPS. On 13th October, sponsored by Permajet, together they entertained us with more stupendous photographs!,
In the knowledge that most people love to be photographed, Bob can engage strangers in conversation who then need no persuasion to be in his pictures. Unfortunately it’s not a gift we all have but this Course Director of Jessops School of Photography motivated us, in the name of passion, to get out there and charm not the birds from the trees but the souls out of the people! Which is what they did in India, Georgia and Cuba, wherever their camper van took them! His pictures told stories which tugged at our heartstrings and especially those taken at the Addis Ababa Eye Hospital in Ethiopia where patients would struggle sometimes from as much as 500 km away to see a surgeon!
Having done little or no sports photography, Bob challenged himself at the sand racing on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare, taking an amazing number of pictures (the beauty of digital; his Nikon D700 camera a new economy) and when it rained his pictures were the richer for it. Putting his camera on motordrive and shutter priority, he went out to cover speedskating, racquetball and rugby, taking some seriously stunning images, especially when he used a manual fisheye lens!
Their monochrome landscape taken in the Caucasus mountains had a dynamic all their own, winning many awards on the exhibition circuit. They printed on Permajet’s Oyster and Royal papers.
He urged us to use our common sense; that just a novel approach can be the hallmark of success. Knowing Bob of old, he never ceases to surprise us!
HPS Meeting 29/09/08
Professional landscape photographer and longtime member of our Society, Steve Gosling has done it again! Unexpectedly standing in for an absent speaker on 29th September, he exploded the myths surrounding photography, asking us to take a hard look at the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ when it comes to our own take on the art.
‘What would get us out of our beds?’ For Steve, the early mist on Swinsty Reservoir, his feelings and mood his major motivator. ‘For maximum effect, set out early for dawn or late for sunset!’
‘Are we out to get pictures to sell or win competitions?’ Steve takes pictures to please himself, he told us, whilst showing us Glen Coe in dappled light! ‘Ignore the magazines’ advice, as while you worry about a market, you cramp your style and spoil your day!’
‘Do we need a photogenic location?’ It certainly helps but Steve’s ‘three p’s’ are ‘planning, patience and persistence’ and ‘with an understanding of the seasons, you can mostly get it right.’ Steve certainly did as we saw magical landscape, sea and sky! ‘Should the sun be shining every time?’ ‘No, some of my most powerful landscapes are taken in bad weather.’
‘Rules on composition?’ If you know the rules you can flout them more easily, he inferred, leaving us in no doubt of an audacious free spirit! ‘Tripods can be cumbersome on a field trip, are they a must?’ For Steve ‘Yes,’ but a monopod or beanbag can be used to similar effect.
‘What camera (?)’ is mostly asked of him while mainstream photography magazines obsess over equipment. Well, Steve’s book called ‘Lensless Landscapes’* is just out, everything taken with a £100 pinhole camera (modelled on the first ever camera) what could be simpler!?!
Over and over, the ‘master’ gave us an answer while blowing us away with stunning pictures that we would die for!
*costs £35 (£30 for HPS club members) contact steve@stevegoslingphotography.co.uk or dial his mobile (0776 996 7933)
HPS Meeting 22/09/08
You need not only quick hand/eye co-ordination to be a photojournalist but a gift for anticipation and eyes in the back of your head (!) we learned from ex-Fleet Street photographer Deborah Brady in her riveting presentation on 22nd September, 2008.
Fifteen years in Fleet Street have prepared Debbie to now run her own series of photographic courses (‘Picture This!’) in Rugby, Warwickshire. She gave us a resume of her career which started in her late teens, taking shots of rock bands in Bristol. For 2 years, she learned her trade working for a Press Agency. Whilst talking, Debbie flashed dynamic pictures on the screen, with punchy headlines: her picture of a bird on a dog’s head she captioned "Bird Brain"!
Full of surprises, she demonstrated the equipment she had to carry by loading it onto a club member and we were amazed to see just how much it had weighed her down, often for 8 hours at a time and in all weathers!"! In an age of celebrity, the ‘point-and-shoot’ scoops of the paparazzi have become the norm!
She had madcap adventures covering stories of scams and skulduggery, especially for the tabloids, which often meant taking great risks, as when once she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun!
Debbie hated the carnage of the Clapham train crash and the Lockerbie disaster, two of many she had to witness, but gained her greatest sense of achievement moving her readers’ emotions and sympathetically interviewing shocked loved ones, sometimes even sharing their photograph albums and listening sensitively.
Brady produced superb pictures with fascinating stories and in giving us a warm, amusing and lively lecture, she left us in absolute awe…
Self-confessed obsessive printer, optimist, humanitarian and raconteur, the charming, ebullient Bob Moore Hon FRPS from Smethwick Photographic Society returned and introduced us to his wife Sue, also a Fellow of the RPS. On 13th October, sponsored by Permajet, together they entertained us with more stupendous photographs!,
In the knowledge that most people love to be photographed, Bob can engage strangers in conversation who then need no persuasion to be in his pictures. Unfortunately it’s not a gift we all have but this Course Director of Jessops School of Photography motivated us, in the name of passion, to get out there and charm not the birds from the trees but the souls out of the people! Which is what they did in India, Georgia and Cuba, wherever their camper van took them! His pictures told stories which tugged at our heartstrings and especially those taken at the Addis Ababa Eye Hospital in Ethiopia where patients would struggle sometimes from as much as 500 km away to see a surgeon!
Having done little or no sports photography, Bob challenged himself at the sand racing on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare, taking an amazing number of pictures (the beauty of digital; his Nikon D700 camera a new economy) and when it rained his pictures were the richer for it. Putting his camera on motordrive and shutter priority, he went out to cover speedskating, racquetball and rugby, taking some seriously stunning images, especially when he used a manual fisheye lens!
Their monochrome landscape taken in the Caucasus mountains had a dynamic all their own, winning many awards on the exhibition circuit. They printed on Permajet’s Oyster and Royal papers.
He urged us to use our common sense; that just a novel approach can be the hallmark of success. Knowing Bob of old, he never ceases to surprise us!
HPS Meeting 29/09/08
Professional landscape photographer and longtime member of our Society, Steve Gosling has done it again! Unexpectedly standing in for an absent speaker on 29th September, he exploded the myths surrounding photography, asking us to take a hard look at the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ when it comes to our own take on the art.
‘What would get us out of our beds?’ For Steve, the early mist on Swinsty Reservoir, his feelings and mood his major motivator. ‘For maximum effect, set out early for dawn or late for sunset!’
‘Are we out to get pictures to sell or win competitions?’ Steve takes pictures to please himself, he told us, whilst showing us Glen Coe in dappled light! ‘Ignore the magazines’ advice, as while you worry about a market, you cramp your style and spoil your day!’
‘Do we need a photogenic location?’ It certainly helps but Steve’s ‘three p’s’ are ‘planning, patience and persistence’ and ‘with an understanding of the seasons, you can mostly get it right.’ Steve certainly did as we saw magical landscape, sea and sky! ‘Should the sun be shining every time?’ ‘No, some of my most powerful landscapes are taken in bad weather.’
‘Rules on composition?’ If you know the rules you can flout them more easily, he inferred, leaving us in no doubt of an audacious free spirit! ‘Tripods can be cumbersome on a field trip, are they a must?’ For Steve ‘Yes,’ but a monopod or beanbag can be used to similar effect.
‘What camera (?)’ is mostly asked of him while mainstream photography magazines obsess over equipment. Well, Steve’s book called ‘Lensless Landscapes’* is just out, everything taken with a £100 pinhole camera (modelled on the first ever camera) what could be simpler!?!
Over and over, the ‘master’ gave us an answer while blowing us away with stunning pictures that we would die for!
*costs £35 (£30 for HPS club members) contact steve@stevegoslingphotography.co.uk or dial his mobile (0776 996 7933)
HPS Meeting 22/09/08
You need not only quick hand/eye co-ordination to be a photojournalist but a gift for anticipation and eyes in the back of your head (!) we learned from ex-Fleet Street photographer Deborah Brady in her riveting presentation on 22nd September, 2008.
Fifteen years in Fleet Street have prepared Debbie to now run her own series of photographic courses (‘Picture This!’) in Rugby, Warwickshire. She gave us a resume of her career which started in her late teens, taking shots of rock bands in Bristol. For 2 years, she learned her trade working for a Press Agency. Whilst talking, Debbie flashed dynamic pictures on the screen, with punchy headlines: her picture of a bird on a dog’s head she captioned "Bird Brain"!
Full of surprises, she demonstrated the equipment she had to carry by loading it onto a club member and we were amazed to see just how much it had weighed her down, often for 8 hours at a time and in all weathers!"! In an age of celebrity, the ‘point-and-shoot’ scoops of the paparazzi have become the norm!
She had madcap adventures covering stories of scams and skulduggery, especially for the tabloids, which often meant taking great risks, as when once she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun!
Debbie hated the carnage of the Clapham train crash and the Lockerbie disaster, two of many she had to witness, but gained her greatest sense of achievement moving her readers’ emotions and sympathetically interviewing shocked loved ones, sometimes even sharing their photograph albums and listening sensitively.
Brady produced superb pictures with fascinating stories and in giving us a warm, amusing and lively lecture, she left us in absolute awe…
