Cirencester Camera Club Talk

Last night I visited Cirencester Camera club for the first time to present a talk to their members.  What a lovely group!

They made me feel very welcome and I had some very appreciative comments from several of the attendees. They’ve already asked if I’d go back and do another talk for them in the future, which I’d be very happy to do so I think we can call that a success :-)

Yesterday’s talk was based on my somewhat ‘maverick’ approach to photography, bucking the trend and deliberately not succumbing to the ‘typical camera club’ mentality. I spoke about the common excuses I hear all the time from students and how to get past them, how I go about shooting on location and dispelling the rumour that no, I really don’t just shoot naked ladies.

They have a raffle on their club nights and I offered a prize in the form of a half-day training session with me which was won by Katrina Ellor. Well done Katrina, I’m looking forward to it!

Here’s a little snap from their Facebook group.  Please excuse the goon at the front, I didn’t realise they were going to post the pic, I just thought the chap was taking a snap!

More Than Human (Tim Flach)

I’m rather looking forward to the first Royal Photographic Society meeting of the year tomorrow as we have a guest speaker who’s work I really admire.

Tim Flach is a great wildlife photographer with a rather unique style

The one thing I will say, is that his website is rather out of date, relying rather heavily on outdated technology such as Flash, and the news hasn’t actually been updated since 2012, but don’t let that put you off. I Highly recommend his latest book ‘More Than Human’ (The image on the right is a link to buy it from Amazon)

Strobe vs Constant Lighting Event

Had an interesting day of networking, experimenting and generally nerding around with expensive lighting tech in Bristol yesterday with the multi-talented Dave Kai-Piper and the lovely Ms Chloe-Jasmine Whichello.  The even was hosted by our good friend James Madelin of Enlight Photo, inventor of the amazing Orbis Ring Flash.

Dave Kai-Piper demonstrates the Westcott ICE Light

Dave Kai-Piper demonstrates the Westcott ICE Light

We spent most of the morning discussing the various merits of different types of lighting, from the obvious natural light opportunities, through small speedlights, portable strobes, constant lighting etc.  Along the way we touched on some of the more recent innovations such as small daylight balanced video lights and some of the higher end solutions such as the amazing Westcott ICE Light.  Here’s Dave demonstrating the Westcott ICE light to add a little daylight-balanced fill –>



Here’s an image I shot of the lovely Ms Whichello:

Chloe-Jasmine Whichello

Chloe-Jasmine Whichello

In the paper this week

Gloucestershire Gazette 7th March

Ooh, crikey, yes, this!

Oops – I’ve been a very naughty boy and neglected my blog haven’t I?

Sorry about that folks! No excuses, I’ve just been super-busy with projects and rather got carried away! It’s all good stuff though and rest assured I’ll blog about some of it very soon!

One quick update though for now. This week I’ve been helping out with hosting an exhibition for the Royal Photographic Society as part of the Bristol Festival of Photography.  It’s been great to meet so many people and to have the opportunity to help promote the society too. It was especially nice this morning to spend a few hours with Pete McClosky, who is one of the panel members that assess the RPS Distinctions and also this afternoon to spend some time chatting with Dr Michael Pritchard who is the Director General of the RPS.  It’s a real privilege to be able to spend some time with people of this calibre and has helped encourage me to start thinking in earnest now about working towards my next level distinction in the society.

Bristol Harbour Festival

Had a great day yesterday down at the Bristol Harbour Festival. I met up with some of my friends from Bristol and watched the excellent Pete Josef in Queens Square, then a little later I met up with one of my forum chums Mark Knight as he was playing with the excellent K-Passa who were headlining over on the Cascade stage. I think the last time I saw them must’ve been at least 10 years ago and they didn’t disappoint. Cracking good show, the only downside is trying to whittle down some 750 shots to a slightly more manageable number!

Anyway, here’s a few pics as a taster:
[flickr flickr_id =”83021873@N00″ set=”72157627329799300″ items=”30″]

And the main set is up on flickr. I’ll pick a few choice favourites and make a proper music gallery soon.

Making an exhibition of myself

Richard Olpin pictured at the Broadwalk Arts Exhibition

For the next couple of weeks myself and some photographic chums from Bristol have taken over the space in Broadwalk Arts to exhibit some of our photos.

In addition to myself there are a fantastic selection of photos from the magic picture boxes of Maureen Arnaiz, Tanya Hazell, Tash Jones, Christine Lewis, Goncalo Martins, and Richard Williams.

It’s been quite an interesting experience so far, proper comedy setting up on sunday which mainly involved me faffing around for about three hours and then sorting everything out in about 10 minutes flat right at the end of the day.  Having popped back on monday morning to tidy up I had a sudden realisation of how I *should* have done things first time round. Suffice to say next time it’ll be a lot easier.

About half of the photos I’ve got on display were from my LRPS panel, the rest are a few I thought might be of interest to the locals including a few of my severn bridge shots etc.
When I got my confirmation letter from the Royal Society they sent a press release to send out to the local press so I asked my friend Gonzo (Goncalo Martins Photography) to take a few pics at the exhibition to send along with the release. Probably won’t be quite as pretentious as the one on the right here, but it’s fun all the same :)

Gadgets Galore…

Cracking day out today. I went up to the Gadget Show Live at the NEC. Five halls chock full of big boys toys. Everything from high-end audio kit, computing, robots, mobile tech through to quad bikes and video games.

Having blagged a trade day ticket was a real bonus as it was *really* quiet. No queuing for anything and we could just amble around and take a look at everything at a leisurely pace.  I feel sorry for all the poor sods who have to go on saturday when there will be 40,000 other people all fighting for a glimpse of the latest shiny stuff though.

Had a chance to meet up with Gavin Hoey for a quick chat and to watch his Adobe Elements presentation which was very interesting. It’s amazing how much they’re squeezing into Photoshop Elements now and at the absolute bargain price it’s selling for I wouldn’t hesistate to recommend that everyone buys it, even if they already own the full version as I do!

Quick summary:

  • Go on a trade day, it’s lovely
  • Photoshop Elements 9 is awesome
  • Lots and lots of new Android tablets on the market, all trying hard to be an iPad. Massive recurring theme throughout. They’re not an iPad!
  • Loads of 3D Tellies. Every one of them utterly failed to impress me. Really can’t see the point at all.
  • Loads of 3D racing setups, those were cool.
  • Colin can’t drive!
  • Duke Nukem Forever!
  • Gears of War 3 is ace.
  • Batmobile!
  • Oh, and did I mention, go on a trade-only day, it’s lovely.