Les Forrester - The Art In Architecture 02/09/20

Last night around 35 members of HPIC and a handful of honoured guests from other Yorkshire clubs were treated to a highly anticipated return visit from Les Forrester BA (Hons) Photo, ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP, BPE3*. Many will already have been familiar with Les from his previous talk at our club or his widely acclaimed work in domestic and international competition. His striking and unique style already had a few fans amongst us and last night doubtless added a few more.

A whirlwhind tour of the globe through his work covered locations as diverse as London, Liege, Lisbon, Hamburg, Berlin, Venice, Singapore and Hong Kong. However, the talk was not merely a travelogue, but an insight into the artistic vision behind the shots. In addition to a varied selection of work, the presentation was liberally sprinkled with words of wisdom from famous names. These all give clues to the philosophy and thought process that goes into the work we saw. One nugget in particular that stood out was offered by the eminently quotable Ansel Adams:

"Photograph not only what you see but also what you feel."

Those of us hoping to learn new techniques were not left disappointed either. Whilst Les shared details of the in-depth research he does to plan his visits to interesting architecutral locations - even down to taking a cloth with him to wipe finger marks off glass when shooting through it - the second half of the talk was heavily focussed on Les' post-procesing techniques. We were given a step-by-step 'deep dive' into the work behind 4 of the shots we'd seen in the first half; two colour shots from Hamburg and two mono pieces, one from Liege and one from Berlin. It will be interesting to see how many put what they've learnt into practice in the coming months.

To see more of Les' work for yourself you're strongly encouraged to visit his website and follow his social media feeds:

https://www.lesforrester.com/

HPIC Oscar Awards Night 26/08/20

A hand held mobile phone, positioned near a laptop’s embedded microphone enabled Alan Stopher to talk through the results of the 2020 photographic competition to 36 plus members of the club.

Many hours of effort, by the organisers of the annual competition, judges and those members who submitted work for assessment, enabled the club to mount its first ever digital Zoom based Oscars award night.

A different experience to the real thing: no nibbles, no white wine, chats and exchange of views, no live applause, no chance to linger by a particularly impressive print, no sense of theatre but still an entertaining evening and there were other bonuses: the winning authors could describe the when, where and how of their winning images and Alan gave the history of each of the trophies as they were awarded.

The evening was the culmination of creativity, team work and endeavour by all the contributing authors, organisers and judges. Judges, Andrew Rothery, Nigel Plant ARPS AFIAP DPAGB, Peter Wells ARPS CPAGB BPE3* EFIAP, Christine Hodgson BA(Photo) ARPS CPAGB, Erica Oram CPAGB AFIAP BPE3, and George Steele CPAGB LRPS BPE2, all deserve a special thank you for having persevered with their task despite the ever present Covid-19 restrictions.

A total of 20 trophies were awarded to 11 separate authors and in addition 30 members were awarded a total of 76 certificates.

A link to the recording of the award ceremony will be available shortly on the club’s website and that is really the best way to enjoy the event. To enjoy the images, both digital and in print, it is of course best to take time out and visit the exhibition itself. Open from 9th September in the Piazza Shopping Centre in Huddersfield, next door to Toyland in Princess Alexandra Walk.

Annual Exhibition 2020

Second 10 from 6 Evening 19/08/20

Tonight, we had another excellent evening, from 6 members showing their favourite 10 images, whether they be competition standard, images that they loved or told a story of trying something different over the recent months, covering a wide variety of genres, from portrait, landscape, nature, creative, sport, aircraft to name a few.

Sue Gibson

Sue explained in her introduction ‘As photographers we like to take photographs that mean something to us. To record an event, tell a story or record a specific memory’. Sue took us from various places, Amsterdam, Wales, The Camargue and Scotland.

Sheelagh Davidson

Sheelagh showed a selection of images that she particularly liked covering a variety of genres, landscape, nature, travel, ending with an excellent studio portrait shot, which Sheelagh explained was out of her comfort zone and that she was not afraid to try something new.

George Fewster

George showed us how he had progressed with his photography since joining the club. One project George was involved with ‘Volunteers in Kirklees’ took him to photograph refugees that had settled in Huddersfield. He shared their experiences and stories which was a sobering experience. Then for something different showed how he is learning new techniques like Intentional Camera Movement and the results he had achieved.

Helen Sansom

Helen showed her love of sport and her experience over the years from first taking images of her son playing football on a Sunday in the winter and then Cricket in the summer, expanding to horse racing, bowls, Golf and Tennis, ending up with tickets to Wimbledon for the Men’s Singles Final. A superb variety of images.

Tony Peckham

Tony called his 10 images a selection of ‘meanderings’ since he joined the club in 2015. His love of attending International Air Tattoos capturing various Aircraft in flight to panoramas and nature. From being inspired by one member of the club who captures infra-red images Tony had changed and upgraded his camera equipment and was now trying something different.

Alan Stopher

Alan took us on a journey starting with his analogue days from recording the last days of steam trains on a 35mm S/H Dacora Dignette, to using a Ricoh compact camera, to his last images before turning to digital in 2006. All of the images had a timeless feel to them portraying Alan’s love of Steam Trains, Travel and music.