Annual Competition Judge’s Feedback – Erica Oram CPAGB AFIAP BPE3 17/04/24

This was the first round of judge’s feedback on our entries for this year and the evening was conducted wholly through the Zoom application. We were pleased to have such an experienced judge commenting on all the digital images presented. Four categories were reviewed: Open Mono; Open Colour; Scapes; and Beginners which is an open section. In each case Erica gave her considered views about the merits of the work on display and where appropriate pointed out possible improvements which could be made. A small number of images in each section were chosen for special commendation but we will have to wait until the end of June before our ‘Oscars’ night reveals who has won the trophy and certificates in each category.

The club wishes to record its thanks to  Erica for the time and careful consideration given to each image as well as the helpful feedback.

Speaker – Polina Plotnikova FRPS EFIAP ‘Starting from a blank canvas’ 13/12/23

Our Programme Secretary, Sue, with assistance from Zoom served us up another treat this evening with a beautifully illustrated talk by Russian-born UK-based Polina Plotnikova. This very accomplished photographer showcased her various projects centred around ‘Flower Portraits’ and her take on Still Life. In each case Polina started by showing examples of painters who had influenced her work followed by a wide range of her own images and technical advice on studio set-ups. Included within this were examples from her FRPS panel of flowers which were past their best.

She explained how she started from her pre-visualisation of the finished image. Then, by carefully setting up the subject or subjects against a chosen background with a variety of lighting methods she was able to achieve the desired effect as nearly as possible in camera. A few of the more surrealistic ones involved props which were cloned out in Photoshop but post-processing was kept to a minimum. Polina is a Lensbaby ambassador and gave some good examples of how to create images with selective focal points.

Even if you had limited interest in the main subject matter this talk provided a wonderful evening’s entertainment and some good tips to help everyone’s photography.

Speaker – Christine Hodgson CPAGB ARPS ‘Simply being me’ 30/11/23

It’s always a pleasure to see a presentation by one of our own members. In this case the title belied the incredible creativity of Chris’s work. Personally I always like to see mounted prints displayed and Chris showed us three of her recent projects, each with a different approach to capturing and displaying images.

The first was a series of images taken at Yorkshire Sculpture Park during visits using an annual visitor pass. Eschewing the usual approach to capturing the whole of an artwork, Chris photographed portions of works and converted them to monochrome to create a consistent style throughout. Intriguingly each print was a small square format and mounted in a window off centre to the left of a portrait-oriented mount thus avoiding a central presentation.

The second project reminded our members of the recent workshop on Immiscibility. Circular petri dishes had been dosed with various solutions and dyes to create incredible swirling patterns in stunning colours. Chris had had to work quickly to capture the desired effect as movement occurred in the dish. Each dish had been photographed by placing it on a flat-bed scanner with light shining up through the glass. The finished set of 20 prints were circular and mounted in circular windows, another departure from convention.

The third and final project was based on captures taken in her house using light painting techniques. They were all presented as mounted A4 prints and Chris gave us advice on how each had been taken.

Thanks Chris for sharing you work with us and inspiring members to think outside the box and also develop project-based series of images.