Click here to see the complete photograph ‘Curly Backends’ by John Prentice
In June, member Randall Miles ARPS gave a second presentation entitled ‘Tales of future excursions in the wilds’, in which he explored wildlife and portrait photography at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and the bordering Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Now retired, Randall had responsibility for television lighting in his previous career, and, in a series of prints, he demonstrated his creativity and mastery of various photographic techniques. The presentation comprised three parts. First, he dealt with photographing sunrises, capturing the extraordinary early morning colours on the plains of the Reserve. Then Randall moved on to the difficulties of photographing wild animals from the relative safety of a Land Rover, showing a series of images of lions, wildebeest, elephants, waterbuck, zebras, giraffes, gazelles and impala in their natural habitat. His preference is to enhance the impact of the image by taking portraits of the animals’ heads, with particular emphasis on the eyes, cropping what he sees in the camera to remove any distracting background.
Randall then concluded by showing portraits of the Maasai people in the Serengeti. In order to put his subject at ease, his normal technique is to photograph from a distance of around 25-30 feet, using a telephoto lens, and again cropping severely in the camera to show the face. Randall explained photographing dark skin sometimes fails to bring out the facial features as it is hard to see the shadows. So his normal preference is to move his models to catch the ambient light and to use flash in order to light the eyes. These were two of many tips given in a most interesting and interactive presentation, accompanied by excellent prints, that was much appreciated by his audience.
The next meetings of the Society are on 6 July, when professional photographer Dan Evans will present ‘Lens lore: using the lens for best creative effect’, which will be followed on 3 August by a presentation from the Society’s own ‘Team Namibia’ entitled ‘Tropic of Capricorn and beyond’. Looking further ahead to 7 September, member Andreas Klatt ARPS will be giving an interactive presentation on the subject of ‘Perception’. There are also two Outdoor Workshops on 20 July and 17 August (see web site for details) and an Indoor Workshop on 21st September, led by John Cavana and Dave Govier, on ‘High speed photography: photographing water droplets and water crowns’. All meetings are held at 7.30pm in the Cartwright Hotel, Aynho, apart from the two Outdoor Workshops. Everyone is welcome to attend, just come along, you can be assured of a warm welcome.
John Branton
www.addphoto.co.uk