Click here to see the complete photograph ‘Heavy Metal’ by Wendy Meagher
In March, member Jim Muller gave a presentation entitled ‘From hummingbirds to cake stands – the sublime to the ridiculous’. Describing himself as a hobby photographer who had more recently taken up commercial photography, Jim delivered his presentation in three parts: landscape, wildlife and commercial photography, noting that – for the first of these two subjects – his normal choice is to use a hand-held camera configured for aperture priority and auto-white balance. Jim’s opinion is that the countryside centred eight miles around Aynho is one of the most beautiful parts of England and he demonstrated this by showing a series of stunning images of sunrises over the local misty countryside, including water reflections and views of the canal at Aynho. He then finished his landscape photographs with images of the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Canadian waterfalls, Swiss mountain scenery, and sand dunes and shadows in Namibia.
In the second part of his presentation, Jim showed photographs of a variety of wildlife that is native to the UK and Africa, before returning again to Yellowstone with images of brown bears in their natural habitat, including one with four cubs taken from a dangerously close perspective. He then included some fascinating photographs of different types of hummingbirds, all taken while in flight, necessitating very high camera shutter speeds to capture the fast beating wings – typically 1/4,000 second, using shutter priority. Jim concluded his presentation by reviewing his commercial work to date. This included a discussion on the use of flash and continuous lighting, and embraced a wide spectrum of commercial activities ranging from photographs of house interiors for estate agents, to Christmas food hampers, light bulbs, furniture brochures, conference events (including speakers, dinners and candid images) and finishing with the challenge of shooting shiny metallic cake stands, and how to manage and control the reflections. Overall, this was an excellent presentation by a most accomplished photographer, accompanied by a wealth of technical detail that was much appreciated by his audience.
John Branton, www.addphoto.co.uk