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.

The Club started the New Year with an evening that allowed members to share their images and engage in general discussions on photographic topics of interest.  But before that a quiz was held with 30 questions on different photographic topics ranging from the straightforward to more obscure facts and figures. No-one achieved a maximum score but the results were tightly grouped and everyone learned something new in the process.

After the quix, Adam showed some images including opportunistic shots of “retired” Boeing 747s at Kemble airfield whilst passing by along with a miscellany of local Christmas images including our photoshoot of the RWB Christmas lights. This was followed by Jim with some multistacked images of plants, Autumn themed shots and stiched panoramas of local landscapes. Dave then shared images of puffins taken on the Farne Islands both in flight and proudly displaying their catch of fish. The evening concluded with some images by Peter taken at the Longleat Light Festival and of a scatty cockerpoo off the leash. Thanks to all those who shared their images and a Happy New Year to all the Club’s members.