Click here to see the above photograph. Winter Garden in Aynho by Aynho resident Jim Muller.
In December, John Credland APAGB gave a presentation entitled ‘Salon des Refusés’, loosely interpreted as the ‘Gallery of Failures’. A professional photographer, John showed first his skill in both his professional and amateur work, including use of the High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique for commercial work in low light situations. He also depicted how HDR could enhance architectural images and street photography, showing a large number of photographs and demonstrating his use of the ultra-small Casio EX ZR 1200 compact camera for the latter – a personal favourite. Continuing, John then discussed his experience in seeking an Associate accreditation of the Royal Photographic Society. Submitting a panel of 15 HDR prints to the judges, two prints failed for various technical reasons, a result that John discussed with a great deal of humour and which also provided an intriguing overview of the judging process.
The second part of John’s presentation concerned his audio visual (AV) work, in which he showed three AV clips that had been put together using ‘Audacity’ AV software. This was followed by a fourth AV sequence called ‘The weather forecast’, that had been submitted for accreditation by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain but which too had been rejected by judges. Again, John discussed his failure with much humour, ascribing it mainly to the nature of the HDR image content and the rather frenetic accompanying ‘pop music’ soundtrack. Overall, this was an intriguing insight into both the commercial photographer’s world and the eccentricities of judging panels, recounted with humour and many anecdotes by an accomplished professional photographer, which was immensely enjoyable.
John Branton