Graham Light from Abbey Studios made his second appearance at the Club and ran a workshop demonstrating lighting techniques for studio portraiture. With a plain white backdrop and a couple of powerful and versatile studio lights, Graham was able to show the effect of various lighting conditions using direct and reflected flash.

By tethering his camera to Lightroom, Graham was able to project the recorded images thus giving immediate feedback on the impact of the lighting changes that were made. Members were given the opportunity to set their cameras to the metered light conditions and take their own images of the models Grace and Ben, who kindly agreed to sit for us.

The clear and uncomplicated approach to lighting adopted by Graham was effective in communicating the factors to consider and the range of effects that could be achieved by relatively minor changes to the lighting set up. An enjoyable practical evening that gave us all a much better appreciation of lighting processes and the versatility that a simple lighting arrangement could achieve.

A small but hardy group of members attended the meeting, neglecting the opportunity to bathe in summer sunshine in their garden or watch the Championship play off semi-finals. Some technical challenges were faced with different software versions and file formats being used but Brian Holden was able to show a couple of his AVs. The first featured Norfolk Island and combined background music and narration to convey the tranquillity of the location and its pristine and varied coastlines. His second AV on New Zealand linked some enchanting music tracks with haka video footage showing the ceremonial dance routine of the Maori culture. The vigorous movements, stamping of feet and extreme facial gestures invoked both feelings of unease and also some amusement.

After the break, some AVs from the WCPF 2016 competition were viewed.  These encompassed some strong messages and a couple of examples of the musical track being the starting point and then images being deliberately chosen to reinforce the audio component.

A strong attendance of members experienced an interactive and very different evening that was led by David Southwell. The audience was firstly invited to think about what a “personal style” meant in terms of the images they take and importantly from the perspective of others viewing their images. Steering clear of technical considerations, emphasis was placed on describing the emotions and feelings that the photographer intended to convey and developing dialogue in small group discussions to unearth other inputs. Simple models were shared enabling the photographer to review both their thinking and approach as part of a conscious learning journey and development of an unique individual style if they so wished.  The evening concluded with a few members showing an image that had a particular significance to them and gauging the response from the wider audience.

In all, an intriguing evening with plenty of food for thought and exercise for parts of the grey matter that had been dormant (in my case for many years).  It will be interesting to see how some of the ideas are taken forward and reflected in future images.

The winning audio-visual presentations from the 2018 Western Counties Photographic Federation regional competition were viewed by club members. Presentations were allocated into 3 categories: Short (lasting less than 4 minutes); Long (exceeding 4 minutes) and Photo-harmony (no story necessary but appropriate transitions between images and strong harmonisation with the sound)

Many of the AVs had a melancholic approach and there were a number of historical presentations which included animation techniques and video footage. The most innovative AV was entitled ” Going Underground” and featured excellent wide angle camera shots taken at London underground stations and also incorporated time-lapse sequences which had a powerful effect of enhancing the feeling of actually being underground.

It is hoped that the AVs shown will stimulate Club members to compile their own audio-visuals and share at the meeting in one months time.