Hi All,


Here are my notes from last week’s ESIG, and here’s the recording - https://youtu.be/yNX3G12-Las?feature=shared


Present: Steve, Gerry, Judith, Brian, Jackie, Vaughn, Dries and me


We had three very different and interesting talks.


Gerry started us off with a very different talk about the large format 4x5 camera he has made – see photo at end of email.  Having been inspired to make a start, and following research on how to construct the camera, Gerry concluded that it should not be too hard.  The materials were a mix of homemade (eg the bellows), purchased (eg the lens) and 3D printed at home.  Gerry explained the process of loading the film, setting the shutter (there was no aperture), focusing and then taking the photo.  Gerry showed his first actual print, and proved it does work.   Gerry intends to use the camera ‘for real’ so we can look forward to more non-conventional work.  Well done Gerry.


I next showed the work of two street photographers, Rupert Vandervell (https://www.rupertvandervell.co.uk/) and Alan Schaller (https://www.alanschaller.com/).  Both have uTube channels that are worth viewing. Their styles are similar, this being high contrast B/W, where a person is included as a small object as part of the overall composition. I then showed some of my own images, taken at the redeveloped Battersea Power Station.  I tried to follow the same style, with mixed success, even though the location was very suitable for this type of photography.  What was interesting is that Steve had previously visited the same location and showed his photos.  They were entirely different in look and feel.  Two people in the same place producing very different work.


Finally Dries gave a very unusual talk.  At work he is researching AI and has a model set up that will critique a photo in the way a competition judge might.  It was remarkable.  Simply load up your photo and in seconds out comes a very comprehensive set of comments, and a score out of 20.  I’m sure it would help in selecting images for competitions.


The Portfolio session had a small number of photos so we were able to give them a good review. Always interesting.


Next meeting is on 13th May and will be the last for this season.


Peter

Hi All,


Here are my few notes from this week's ESIG.  And what a good meeting it was too. Several of you have emailed me to say how much you enjoyed the meeting.


Present:  Steve, Brian, Judith, Gerry, Peter W, Greg, Mark, Liz, Jackie, Ali and me.


Here’s the link to the You Tube recording:  https://youtu.be/JbhEIy37Kjg
We had three excellent talks:


Brian took us through this year's International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) and modestly showed us his 2nd and highly commended awards in the 'Beauty of Plants category - see https://igpoty.com/competitions/the-beauty-of-plants-competition-18-results/.  This is the 3rd successive year that Brian has gained an award - well done Brian.  There are now 18 categories in the competition, covering such a wide range of subject matter, and I'm sure many HPS members would have images that would qualify.


Peter W has recently returned from a workshop with the Outdoor Group, to the Lofoten Islands.  The workshop leader was Mark Banks who Peter highly recommends - see https://www.markbanksphotography.com/.  Mark it seems is more than just a tour guide, and genuinely provided helpful instruction.  Peter showed some excellent images and is planning a panel for the upcoming HPS exhibition.  The images including a number involving 15 shot bracketed panoramas - a technique demonstrated by Mark.  Peter also was encouraged to try the 'x-pan' aspect ratio of 65:24 (approx two 35mm frames together), the white layer technique in photoshop and also Omega Rag paper from Permajet,


Liz was our third speaker talking on 'the magic of mushrooms'.  Liz has recently become a bit fixated with mushrooms, and has been growing them at home, and has built a 'shadow box' studio set up to photograph them. Apparently home grown mushrooms come in different colours (pink, yellow, blue and black oyster) and require watering every 2 hours.  Liz has been researching the subject and has been inspired by the likes of Edward Weston and especially the chiaroscuro presentation by Paul Coghlin- see https://www.paulcoghlin.com/fleur-noir-limited-edition-photography-prints.  Liz is attracted to the lines, curves, textures and details available and I can still clearly recall one such image Liz showed, which filled the frame and had all these qualities.  Well done Liz.


Our portfolio session had a good number of images this month and as usual generated some good discussion.


Thank you all for attending.  Our next meeting will be on Tues 8th April.


Peter

Hi ,
Here are a few notes from the ESIG meeting this week.
 
Present: Steve, Vaughn, Liz, Gerry, Judith, Greg, Brian and me
 
Our speakers were
Vaughn, who took us down a bit of memory lane with some colour images from Ashridge and mono from Redbourn.  What was interesting is they were taken on film.  Vaughn has been experimenting with film recently, using Portra 400 colour and FP4 mono.  The difference in dynamic range compared with digital was evident, and Vaughn felt the colour performed better than the mono.
Vaughn used ‘Analog Wonderland’ to purchase the film and also to get the negatives scanned. See https://analoguewonderland.co.uk/
 
Greg showed us some recent images of the rolling hills at Therfield, which are always so attractive, and also from Sweden in the icy cold.  
 
Judith’s talk was on the ‘photographer who inspired a generation’. John Blakemore died recently and had built up over the years a large and varied body of work.  Judith’s presentation was very comprehensive and carefully put together. It contained more material than I can usefully summarise here, but the following links provide more info.
 
Selected links:

• https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50140/photography/1415/john_blakemore/3
  
• https://britishphotography.org/artists/74-john-blakemore/overview/
• https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/john-blakemore-1936-2025
• https://www.lensculture.com/articles/john-blakemore-remembering-john-blakemore-an-appreciation
• https://hymancollection.org/artists/55-john-blakemore/overview/
• https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2015/04/john-blakemore-book-binding-sequencing/
• ALSO: OnLandscape magazine – articles and video
  

 
The video on the OnLandscape site is a talk by John at the conference in 2018
The other video Judith mentioned is the Birmingham Library archive about creating the archive with John
 
 
 
Our portfolio session always provides interesting discussion and today was no exception.
 
Thanks to all our speakers.  Next meeting:  11 March

Hi All,


Here's a few notes from our ESIG last night, along with the links to the photographers we looked at.  Here's the recording of the meeting https://youtu.be/i7RPcUo-WBo


Present: Jackie, Steve, Vaughn, Gerry, Judith, Gia, Greg, Peter W, Peter S


We had three speakers:


Steve started with a little project he is working on at the moment, taking double exposure of pubs in Harpenden along with near by trees.  The effect was to produce an image that appeared to be like a floating island.  Very unusual and very effective.  The technique was to take a double exposure in camera, using additive blend mode.  The first shot is of the pub.  The second shot of the tree is taken with the camera upside down.  Turning the camera upside down is the key to creating the 'island' effect.  Worth trying for a bit of fun.


Steve also showed us the work of the street photographer, Alex Webb - see video https://youtu.be/rEI5JpewAgU?si=UdiQs5-hYfQGktjv.  This introduces the idea of layering when composing images.  I hadn't come across this before.  The idea is to have a number of points of interest in the composition.  This challenges the normal advice of keeping an image simple and removing clutter.  Watch the video and see what you think.


Peter W recently spent 6 days photographing trees - in Burnham Beeches, Low Stubbs and Ashridge.  Peter explained that trees are not his usual subject matter, but inspired by the work of Simon Baxter, Joe Cornish and Mads Peter Iversen, he gave it a go.  Trees are difficult subjects.  They never quite line up in the way you want.  But Peter produced some great images and plans to do some more.


I then showed the work of two photographers I recently discovered.  Firstly Charles Brookes.  Charles is a professional cellist, but also has built a strong reputation as a photographer taking images of the inside of instruments - strings, wind and keyboard.  See https://www.charlesbrooks.info/.  His technique is to take multiple images using equipment based on medical endoscopy technology.  The results are very unusual and undoubtedly beautiful.  Over the last few years this series has apparently become one of the most popular on earth with over 16 million reproductions.  I also showed the work of still life photographer Christian Coigny - see https://christiancoigny.ch/. I thought these were unusual still life shots both in terms of subject matter and composition.  I liked them a lot.  Gia wasn't so sure.


We then as usual had our portfolio discussion.


The next meeting will be on 14 January.  Hope to see you then.


Enjoy your Christmas,


Peter

Here's a brief reminder of what we covered at our Sept ESIG meeting, but if you want to see the whole thing, then here's a recording https://youtu.be/v-pmrEaKuiI.

Present: Brian, Gerry, Judith, Dries, Steve, Peter 
Apologies from:  Liz, Mark, Ali, Jackie, Gia, Greg, Hannah.

Last season we changed our meeting date to the 4th Monday in the month, but in practice this doesn't work for a number of our regulars.  Would the 2nd Tuesday in the month be better. Please let me know if you could make this.

We had three speakers:

Peter Whitehead kicked off the evening with photographs of bears, wolves and wolverines, taken on a workshop in northern Finland, close to the Russian border. The workshop was run by Richard Peters - see https://www.richardpeters.co.uk/wildlife-photography-workshops/finnish-summer-predators/.  Great photos, some real close ups right just there in front of the camera.  But I think the photo we will all remember is of the 5 star hide  - not much more than a large garden shed, with viewing positions on one side and bunk beds on the other!  Peter spent several night here with the other workshop attendees.

Gerry followed with some photos of St Albans Cathedral.  He explained how he was exploring the light, and there was certainly some great lighting effects.  But Gerry gave us the profound thought that he was 'not photographing the light, but was photographing the dark.'  That's worth thinking about.

I finished off the talks by showing the work of two photographers that I have recently added to 'my favourites'.  I found these via Photosnack, which sends me a daily email with a recommended photographer - sign up here if you're interested https://www.photosnack.email/.

The first photographer was Jonquin Pastor Genzor - see https://joakkin.com/. Jonquin is a street photographer, very much using the light and positioning people as elements in the composition rather than the main subject.
The second photographer was very different.   Reuben Njaa work is characterised by highly saturated intense colours - see https://reubennjaa.com/projects.  The subject matter is varied from abstracts, derelict buildings  to cityscapes.  Very different but our views were mixed.

Finally we had the Portfolio review with a reduced number of images, but still a good discussion.

Present:  Steve, Gerry, Judith, Brian, David, Liz, Mark, Peter W, Peter S, Iain, Vaughn.
Apologies:  Julie, Greg, Ali, Paul, Gia
 
Here's a few notes from last night's ESIG, and a recording for those that could not attend - https://youtu.be/XLpxPq9SvHk
 
We had three speakers as follows:
 
Mark showed us the work of the wildlife photographer, Racheal Bigsby - see https://www.rachelbigsby.com/. Rachal is making a name for herself working with some high profile sponsors and winning awards in prestigious exhibitions. Her approach definitely leans towards the artistic image, rather than showing the wildlife in the environment. This led to some interesting discussion within the group. Excellent work.
 
David showed us some images from a documentary project he is working on to create environmental portraits of violin maker and friend John Dilworth. The project is not yet complete, and John is working on his final violin so the pressure is on. David asked for our thoughts and ideas on how he might progress with the project. The overwhelming view was that the images have to tell the whole story, so if at all possible more images need to be taken of the construction of the violin through to completion. Some further ideas on how the work could be presented included accompanying words, in the form of a book maybe, and even the sound of the violin playing in an AV. It would be great if David could return to ESIG at some future date and show us the completed project.
 
I then showed images from the 2023 London Salon of Photography exhibition - see https://thelondonsalon.org/109th-exhibition-2023-medal-winners/. The London salon is now in its 110th year and is held in high regard. It is an independent exhibition and not part of the many salons run by the PAGB, FIAP or BPE. It is run by 'the members' who are recruited by invitation only. Some of the members are well known in the camera club world and include for example Hugh Milsom, Irene Froy, Colin Westgate, Chris Palmer, Stephen Le Provost, and others. There was a great variety of work shown and I think we all liked some, and disliked others. Our views were mixed and we didn't always agree - which is as it should be.
 
Our portfolio session was down in number but produced plenty to talk about. The most animated discussion was started by Gerry when he showed a photograph of the Iceland volcano, taken from his television. Gerry had merged a couple of images but the question was whether the result was his own image, or the work of another. We didn't come to a conclusion. My thoughts were that it is the work of another person, but there are arguments both ways.
 
Thanks for another entertaining evening.

Thanks to those that managed to attend our ESIG this week. A few of you have emailed me to say how much you enjoyed it, which is great - thank you.  Here's the recording of the meeting - https://youtu.be/QrtgZk6U5ac
 
We had two speakers:
 
Brian took us through a selection of the award winners from the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition (IGPOTY). I think we were surprised by the number of categories offered, not all of them having an obvious link to gardens. Our feeling was that the organisers have increased the categories to boost the number of entries. We had doubts about some of the winners, particularly in Abstract for example, but that said, there were some beautiful images on show and well worth reviewing again here - https://igpoty.com/garden-photography-winners/.
 
Well done Brian for your Finalist Award in the 'Discovery in Cambridge University Botanic Garden' category.
 
I then showed the work of an American photographer, Cole Thompson. Cole is self taught and claims his qualifications are his images. We looked particularly at his ‘eye and vision’ gallery which showed examples of images before and after post processing. This was Jackie’s suggestion (good idea) and generated lots of discussion. Cole converts all his images into black and white, and uses just a few Photoshop tools to significantly alter the brightness and contrast of selective parts of the images. See here - https://colethompsonphotography.com/home/eye-vs-vision/. Take a look also at the ‘Story behind the images' gallery, where Cole gives an audio description of the story behind a number of his images - see https://colethompsonphotography.com/story-behind-the-image/
 
Cole is an advocate of of ‘Vision driven Photography’ and promotes this approach at every opportunity. I’ve always found this elusive concept, but Cole has written an interesting blog post on the subject. See ‘How I Found My Vision’ - see https://colethompsonphotography.com/2014/05/09/finding-vision/
 
One of the steps Cole suggests to help us find our own personal vision is to select a number of our very favourite images from our back catalogue and then, Cole argues, these will in effect reflect our own Vision. The blog post explains in more detail, but I invite you to have a go at this and show us your results at our next meeting. This could generate an interesting discussion.
 
Our Portfolio session this month produces some imaginative images (Gerry’s bombing raid and Paul’s boat) and some images of the highest quality. Excellent. I feel sure that HPS is producing work that is certainly up to the standard of the big exhibitions. Something to aim for.
 
Our next meeting will be on 22nd April. I don't have any speakers lined up at the moment, so please step forward.

Thanks to all who managed to attend our ESIG meeting on Monday - here's a link to the recording  https://youtu.be/gqmF4aG8z70

Present: Peter W, Gerry and Judith, Gia, Brian, Malcolm, Liz, Jackie, Steve, Iain, Vaughn and me.
Apologies: Ali, Greg, Julie, Mark and Marianne. If I've missed anyone, then my apologies.

We had two speakers, rather than three. Unfortunately we ran out of time for Brian's talk, but we'll have Brian up first for the March meeting.

Liz gave us an extensive review of the Minimalist Photography Awards 2023 - see https://minimalistphotographyawards.com/. I really like this type of photography and I sense its gaining in popularity at the moment. I've been book marking a few photographers lately and enjoy their work. See for example Guido Klumpe (https://www.guido-klumpe.de/?lang=en) and Maarten Rots (https://www.maartenrots.nl/). Liz took us through the winners of most of the award categories and encouraged discussion. There was a debate about what minimalist means and whether all the examples were in fact minimalist. Some images were great, some less so. I think at the end we had a split vote, with some of us finding this type of photography inspiring, but others not so sure. Liz thanks for a thought provoking presentation.

Peter W took us on a trip down memory lane. Peter has started a project documenting his favourite locations from his home county of Yorkshire. Peter was born in York and has walked extensively in the county. The photographs were all of the countryside, with rolling hills and enticing paths. The iconic Flying Scotsman was shown steaming over the Ribblehead viaduct. Peter has given himself another 18 months or so to finish the project and to hopefully produce a book. We look forward to seeing the final result.

Our Portfolio session was down on numbers a bit this month, but included some interesting images and discussion.

Our next meeting will be on 25 March.