With photography using smartphones showing continued growth, and the features of phone cameras being the main focus of advertising campaigns to differentiate between brands, this presentation by Jeanette Lendon was both opportune and topical.

Jeanette starter out a teacher and developed her love of photography through training with several photographers and working in the corporate/commercial photography sector before setting up her own company expressly focused on smartphone photography. She no longer owned a DSLR camera and started the Zoom talk by showing a range of images taken on various smartphone models. From there she shared a multitude of tips and tricks of taking creative photos with your smartphone. Adjusting exposure manually, slow camera focusing movements and minimal reliance of the camera’s zoom were key factors to improve results. Reflections using shiny surfaces and puddles featured heavily in her image collection and often involved getting the phone wet.

Snapseed was her preferred photo-editing app and its wide ranging capabilities were fully demonstrated using a bird of prey image. Photo Retouch was also mentioned as a complementary photo-editing tool and details of camera accessories such as selfie sticks/tripod and detachable lenses were also provided.

Most of us never let their phone leave their side and hopefully the new tricks that Jeanette showed will help us all make our phone images more creative.

A selection of winning audio-visuals from the 2020 Western Counties Photographic Federation competition were selected and presented using Zoom, which contrary to some expectations and initial concerns, worked satisfactorily. Entries were classed in three main categories; Short – which related to presentations that were less than 4 minutes in length; Long – for presentations exceeding 4 minutes and a Photo-harmony section which allowed perticipants to demonstrate their skills in marrying images through appropriate transitions and strong harmonisation with the sound track.

The subject matter ranged widely from a light hearted look at the psychedelic 60’s to documentary type presentations on the Welsh slate industry, and personal connections therein, to the Italianate village of Portmeirion on the coast of N Wales. Religious and environmental presentations conveyed strong messages and showcased elegant transitions and effects. One can only marvel at the both the skill and patience that must have been used to achieve the final results.

Our fourth and final competition contributing towards the Mayor’s Cup trophy was held on Zoom and judged by Derek Stratton from Okehampton Photography Group, which is a similar sized club to our own and facing similar challenges.

Firstly Derek progressed through all the images submitted and gave a critique of each image but focussing on those that did not make his final shortlist of 8 images. His comments were candid and constructive and included many suggestions how the photographer could have made more of the image. In particular, Derek looked for those images in which there was significant input and forethought by the photographer as opposed to merely a record shot, however pleasing that might have been. He admitted that he didn’t pay too much attention to the image title as the image should visually communicate its meaning and “speak for itself”.

After a brief break, the shortlisted 8 images were then critiqued in detail and placings finally awarded. The overall winning image was a still life entitled “Studio beach” by Jim Bullock, who like many others had used the additional time afforded during the lockdown period to experiment with their photography.

David Lowe from Smethwick Photographic Society extolled the virtues of long exposure daylight photography and started his presentation with an impressive and extensive selection of images. Long exposure photography enables movement to be rendered and to contrast those elements that are moving with static objects, often to obtain an impressionistic effect. Water and architectural structures were particularly good subjects for such treatment but the process could be applied more widely.

Having witnessed the results that are possible, the second half of the talk covered the practical and technical aspects of taking photographs including equipment, filters and the all important exposure calculator once filters are incorporated. He shared a myriad of tips and techniques to avoid many of the common pitfalls which can be encountered ranging from unwanted light ingress to health and safety considerations when operating in wet and slippery conditions. Recording the scene was really only the start of the process and extensive Photoshop processing was expertly used to manipulate the image to give the desired outcome and effects.

David’s passion and enthusiasm was evident and hopefully will have motivated a number of attendees to go out and practice the skills needed, supported by back-up notes and references to well known proponents of the process.

Steve Myall gave an intriguing talk to the Club on British moths, dispelling many misconceptions that they are drab in appearance and “second-class” citizens to their butterfly companions in the Lepidoptera class of insects. With almost 10 times more species than butterflies and over 2500 species in the UK, the opportunity to see and photograph moths are immense……..if only we look hard enough.

Moths are loosely classsed by size into macro and micro categories and also whether they are day or night flyers. Night time is the most productive period to collect specimens using a light source mounted above a containment box. Steve outlined the equipment he uses including a 100mm macro lens and tripod to record images both outdoors and indoors under more controlled conditions.  All images were shot using natural light with manual focus and the subject placed against a wide variety of colourful backgrounds. Depth of field is critical and a small aperature (f/14 typically) is used with a one second exposure time.

The end resut was a stunning collection of images showing the beauty and diversity of moths, supported by detailed narrative and some amusing anecdotes. Steve’s passion for the subject was evident as was his knowledge and experience gained over many years from his early schoolboy days as a avid caterpillar collector. His enthusiasm has tempted us to see moths in a totally different light.

The Club welcomed Arthur Kingdon who gave a fascinating talk on a very passionate subject to him. Arthur took up diving in 1968 and was able to combine this with his love of photography. He firstly outlined the specialist equipment he used (primarily a Nikon D500 housed in a highly engineered and watertight aluminium housing) which also served as his first line of defence in the event of a marine animal becoming too inquisitive.  This was complimented by a fish eye lens and macro lens along with the vitally important flashguns to provide both illumination and help correct the colour balance due to the preferential red light absorption by the water which increased with diving depth.

He then shared an amazing collection of images taken at a number of locations around the globe spanning from Indonesia to the west coast of Canada with many diving sites in between. His images showed the amazing diversity of marine life ranging in size from minute coral polyps to massive sharks, along with highly coloured nudibranchs, expertly camouflaged marine life and intriguing and downright unusual fish.  After showing the marine life at a number of exotic locations, Arthur finished his talk with a series of images taken in UK waters to demonstrate that if you know what you are looking for then many photogenic examples can be found on our doorsteps (not literally!)

His work has been recognised with various awards and magazine front covers and his enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge of marine life contributed to a first class presentation.

Our third competition of the season was judged by Peter Ottley from the Bleadon Photographic Group at Weston-super-Mare and a record number of entries had been submitted.

Despite struggling with a slow broadband connection which meant that images and their respective critiques could sometimes lose their synchronisation, Peter was able to provide concise and helpful feedback and offer suggestions how the images could have been strengthened. He appreciated the different viewpoints that had been adopted in several images and challenged some of the tight cropping that had been used which, had in his view, overly restricted the space around the image. This was evident in some wildlife images where he felt that showing more of the environment and the habitat of the subject could have benefitted the image.

The overall winning image was a still life entitled “Forgotten” by Jim Bullock.

Stu McKenzie, an ex-Army photographer and senior BBC cameraman, gave us a revealing insight into his personal photographic journey. After several demanding tours of duty in the military and hectic overseas assignments with the BBC, Stu sought solace in photography as a therapeutic tool and means to destress his lifestyle. He travelled to Mongolia and joined some Kazakh eagle hunters as they journeyed into the Altai mountains and experienced first hand their way of life. Their isolation and basic way of life resonated with him and building a rapport enabled him to take many images from an insider perspective.

By chance Stu became aware of the indigenous Nenet people living in northern arctic Russia whose livelihood depended heavily on reindeer herding and fishing. He planned a tortuous journey to join them as they moved their reinder herds in extreme conditions.  Through immersing himself in their culture he was once again able to both experience and record their life style and witness the threats posed to their way of life from climate change and development of the oil and gas industry.  Operating in temperatures which could drop as low as -40C presented many photographic challenges including frozen LCD screens, shortlife batteries and operating the camera controls whilst wearing two or three sets of gloves!!.

Despite these demanding and extreme conditions, Stu managed to record striking and powerful images that reinforced the narrative of his approach to photography and the benefits it had delivered to him. He hopes to revisit the Nenets and join their 1000 km migration when conditions permit.