Steven Galvin, LRPS gave us a fascinating talk about one of his favourite photographic genres, natural history. As a member of Marlow Camera Club, he regularly judges competitions but focused on his photography and how he tries to enhance his composition to give a less formulaic image of the creatures he shoots. We saw flora and butterflies but very few birds, except an owl manipulated with software into a more pleasing background, a lovely misty morning landscape. By passing on his techniques Steven gave us ideas to improve our own images.
Steven uses focus stacking to ensure pin sharp images from front to back and some of the technical data showed as many as 100 images stacked into one. He also recommended any negative space in an image be composed on the left rather than the right as we tend to track left to right when looking at an image.
Tips on underwater photography, especially diving in the Red Sea, also were interesting for members. Steven saved the best shots until the end, a safari to Southern Africa, where shots of elephants were captured from a sunken hide by a waterhole. Stunning. Steven’s work can be viewed on his website www.stevengalvin.photography.
If you would like to join us our next meeting will be on Wednesday 3rd August at 7.30pm at The Adderbury Institute. Our speaker will be Andrew Marker about ‘The Journey to FRPS Panels and Beyond’. Do check out our website for further details.
Anne Hunsley
www.addphoto.co.uk