Tuesday 15th December - Christmas Fun

Well, we may not have had our usual Christmas Dinner celebrations but we still managed to celebrate 'Zoom' style.  Christmas hats, reindeer antlers, Christmas jumpers and flashing bow ties were all seen in abundance and as a special treat we had a visitation from Father Christmas!

We had a slideshow of everyones homemade Christmas cards - some photographically designed, some beautifully painted and all looking splendid.

Next came a Christmas themed quiz which worked surprisingly well. Judging from some rather 'rosy' faces plenty of alcohol and mince pies were being consumed as well!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and looking forward to a healthy New Year when we can all meet up again.

Some of our Christmas cards can be seen below:

Tuesday 8th December – The Diary of a Nature Photographer

Last week we heard from a Spaniard living in Ireland this week we have a  Dutch gentlemen living in London, Rene de Heer, to talk to us about his nature photography, mainly birds.

Rene took us on a world tour and showed us many stunning bird photographs. It was good to see some of these birds which are not the normal birds seen in the UK, including golden eagles, pigmy owls and cranes.  Rene researched and planned his trips so he knew exactly where to go to find  the species he was looking for. Although frequently frustrated by poor weather, it was evident from Rene's pictures that he was very patient spending many hours in hides, not always in the most comfortable of positions, and it was clear his perseverance paid off.

Unusually for such a talk Rene also included some images of the hides and even an occasional landscape view to show the sort of areas he visited.

An interesting evening which had a good attendance from members who were captivated by the images displayed on screen. Some of Rene's pictures can be seen on his website: http://www.naturepics.co.uk  I can imagine that there will be several members wanting to go along on one of Rene's tours to Spain when travelling restrictions are lifted!

Tuesday 1st December – "Architectural Photography – In search of the genus loci"

We were delighted to welcome Iñaki Hernández-Lasa FRPS, FIPF, AFIAP, all the way from Limerick, to our club meeting this week. When you think of architectural images you tend to think of photos of a building, often in its entirety and in its environment. 

Iñaki shared with us his vision for architectural images which was very different and he tried to capture the spirit of the place by showing abstract or minimalist images. His talk was centred around his two panels, one from the Guggenheim in Bilbao for his FRPS and one based on Valencia for his FIPF; both of which can be seen on his website, https://www.ihlphotography.com  

Iñaki emphasised the need to plan and prepare your shoots, the need to often wander around the buildings for some considerable time before even taking out the camera. He frequently arrived at the venue early before there were too many people around then having the patience to wait until the person/people were in just the right place.  The importance was the thought process behind the image and not the gear used to capture the image. 

Many members commented that they were inspired to go out and take some images of more contemporary buildings when we are able to travel around more freely.