11th May 2011

Margaret Morgan & Graham Duff:Two Thousand and Ten
Rhodri Llewellyn: Macro Photography
Roy Williams: Roy's Rambles

These particularly varied talks brought the year’s activities to a very fitting end.

11th November 2009

Roy and Ann Bailey Wood: Round the Iceland Ring Road
Margaret and John Samuel: Croatia - Islands and Plitvicka Waterfalls

 

29th October 2009

Members' Workshop

27th May 2009

Members' Workshop

8th April 2009

Philip Mugridge: Wildlife Photography- my approach and techniques

 

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11th May 2011
Report by Eirian Edwards

Margaret Morgan and Graham Duff: Two thousand and ten
In the first part of the evening we were delighted by the photographic synopsis of their year introduced jointly by Graham and Margaret. We wandered with them through the Dare Valley Country Park, represented by its green woodpecker, song thrush, nuthatch and dragonfly laying its eggs. Then on to Maerdy and Cwm Rhondda Fach, a reclaimed colliery site with two reservoirs, where they had photographed a variety of beetles including mint leaf beetles, heath spotted orchids, various butterflies, Carline thistles, round-leaved sundew and a burnished brass moth. We then soared with the red kites at the feeding station at Talsarn, near Lampeter, having a particularly good view from a garden shed adapted for the purpose. The birds seen from the Stuart Line Cruise up the River Exe included a fantastic photograph of an European shag devouring a grey mullet. We admired a whole range of redshanks, godwits, mergansers, oystercatchers, little egrets, and a big flock of Eurasian wigeon. We then flew on to Lesvos, a favourite haunt, and saw some of Graham’s best pictures from the last two visits. These included a variety of orchids, dolphins, white storks with young, flocks of rose-coloured starlings, a short-toed eagle, Eleanora’s falcon and Cretzshmar's Bunting. We admired the technique which produced photographs of the short-toed tree creeper feeding five young chicks - a rare privilege.

Rhodri Llewellyn: Macrophotography
Rhodri started his talk by showing us some of his equipment adapted to suit his particular interests. We were then treated to photographs showing the hairy eyes of bees, close-ups of the eyes of dragonflies, yellow and white crab spiders, a hoverfly on a buttercup, a newly-emerged damselfly, a leaf hopper and vine weevils. These amazing images showed what can be achieved by getting really close and personal!

Roy Williamsn: Roy's Rambles
In total contrast to the other two presentations, Roy Williams showed what the ordinary rambler can produce with a less sophisticated camera, but a good eye for composition, particularly of landscapes, and wildlife to be seen in walking from home to a favourite watering hole. We wandered from the Brecon Beacons to Dinas Mawddwy and Llyn Brianne, from Bracelet Bay to Langland, from Llanrhidian marsh to Newport, Pembs and along the Heritage Coast. Further afield we viewed the Wharfe River near Bolton Abbey. We also viewed swans at Ogmore, gulls at Sker, false oxlip, flax, honeysuckle, mistletoe on a rowan tree in Usk, caterpillars, and mating butterflies. We were particularly amused by his mid-field composition of a bullock and feeding units.

Judging by their talk this evening it would seem that Rob and Linda Nottage had managed to see it all during their visit in October 2009. We were captivated by their impressive photographic record of all they had experienced during their stay - exotic plants and fungi, brillantly coloured toucans and humming birds, magnificent moths and butterflies, mysterious iguanas, slumberous sloths and armies of ants moving relentlessly over the forest floor (and the bedroom floor).

Adrian Hopkins:The Kruger National Park in South Africa
In the second part of the evening Adrian Hopkins presented another photographic tapestry, this time of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. I had visited this Park myself a few years ago, but I never achieved such an excellent photographic record. The rules dictate that visitors have to stay within their vehicles. This seemingly did not pose an obstacle for Adrian, and from his driver’s seat he managed to secure a splendid overview of this Reserve. His pictures included not only its famous birdlife and big game, but also many of its smaller creatures, such as tortoises, snakes and butterflies. Even more significantly, all of Adrian’s images were presented “as taken”, without recourse to Photoshop. It is reassuring to know that wildlife photography does not necessarily mean that the rest of one’s life has to be spent in front of the computer.

13th October 2010
Report by Beth Barker

Richard Smith and Ilija Vukomanowic: Sweden to the Arctic Circle

Richard Smith and Ilija Vukomanowic showed slides of their trip though Sweden to the Tundra in search of butterflies. This was an epic journey of 7000 miles from Oswestry and back in a motor caravan. It took a month from mid-June 2009 They have been photographing butterflies around the world for fifteen years and they arranged this trip to give themselves a chance to see some butterflies that they had not yet seen. They outlined the logistics of the trip and showed photos of the terrain they covered. They had beautiful shots of some the butterflies they found, clearly showing the top and underside so they could point out out the identifying features. They found specimens of many of the butterflies that they had come to see though the weather defeated them in the search for the species of the tundra. They had also recorded sightings other than butterflies from sloths to saprophytic organisms.

Linda Morris and Phill Blanning: Costa Rica
Linda Morris and Phill Blanning reported on their trip to Costa Rica. They had lovely images, carefully presented, that gave a striking impression of the richness and variety of the natural world of Costa Rica from the Caribbean to the Pacific and from mountains to sea level. Linda’s new bridge camera had proved its worth by getting shots that were no longer available when Phill’s full gear was ready or in rain forests where he wasn’t prepared to risk it in the dampness.

29th September 2010

Report by Roy Bailey-Wood

Members' Workshop

On 29th September 17 members of the club got together for the first Workshop of the year.
Graham Duff gave an update on the progress that has been made on the Website.  Certainly entering images and technical details is now much easier in the new format.Perhaps the biggest improvement is that it is now possible to inputimages in portrait or landscape without the need to use the square format. Second part of the workshop was a hands-on exercise with members using their own laptops to manipulate their images with Beth Barker and other members making suggestions or giving advice for improvements or perhaps suggestions for doing things differently.  It was also an excellent way to exchange ideas which is good for all of us as we can all become fixed in the way we do things.
It was so successful that it is something we plan to repeat it.

10th March 2010
Report by Beth Barker

Paul Bowden: Birds of the Orient
Paul gave a carefully organized show of edited videos of some of the birds he had seen in Japan and China in 2008. He visited 2 locations in Japan and 7 in Hong Kong. He showed us the places on maps and brought details of reference books and contacts. He used backdrops of the locations in layouts introducing the contents of his presentation. Using videos meant we could enjoy seeing and hearing the birds move and call. He identified some of the differences between exotic sightings and more familiar species - for example the intermediate egret and the great and little egrets. Paul had appreciated the support of other birdwatchers in Hong Kong but had not found this in Japan.

Jayne Jones: Breaktime
Jayne’s images were taken using a Nikon D40X camera with a Sigma 55-200 lens in the grounds of the Ty Hafan children’s Hospice. She takes photographs during her half hour break in her nursing shift. The images included impressive shots of a range of garden birds. Some of her pictures drew individual applause - one of these showed a redpoll. A picture of a robin feeding a grub to another was said to be an unusual sighting. She gave an amusing and touching presentation including accounts of how her child patients benefited from her interests.

Phil Hardwick: Flora and Fauna of India
Phil presented Sandy’s pictures of a holiday in India. Their presentation was varied and amusing. The images included pictures of birds, dragonflies and butterflies, amphibians, mammals from elephants, tigers to monkeys to 5-striped squirrel and fungi and flowers. There were also evocative scenes of the habitats across the North of India and in Kerala. Sandy used a new acquired Panasonic with a 16 Zoom lens. Phil pointed out that she had achieved better macro shots with this than he would expect with his Canon.

25th November 2009
Report by Roy Bailey-Wood

Terry Hoy  and Graham Duff: Sizing images for the Website
The Website is now being put together and Graham has asked all members to submit their images.  It is essential that images are sent to Graham in the right size and format and some members are not familiar how to do this. Terry used his own laptop to show how this could be done in Photoshop Elements, which is the software that most people use.  He explained that using the Images mode this could be done simply in Elements giving images that had the necessary 680 pixels dimensions.  This necessitated some markedly reduced.  He pointed out that this did not matter for the Website images, in fact it was an advantage as it prevented images from being usefully downloaded.
There were many questions from members and we were left with the feeling that perhaps the exercise was not difficult.

11 November 2009
Report by Jeff Curtis

Roy and Ann Bailey Wood: Round the Iceland Ring Road>
Roy gave the presentation, detailing a visit made in June 2009. The weather was good which helped In the taking of excellent photos. Roy described the spectacular scenary and showed us excellent pictures of some of the waterfalls, geothermal pools and glaciers. A surprise had been the Painted Lady, probably one of this year's invasion from the continent, showing how far north some went. Good photographic evidence.
He showed us some birds: Redwing, Eider and Bonxie, also some cows, but concentrated mostly on his main interest: Plants. Because of the northern latitudes many alpine plants such as Alpine Catchfly and Woolly Willow occur at low altitudes. Several orchid species were shown, including Northern Butterfly, Coralroot and Small White Orchids, also the tiny Lesser Twayblade. But perhaps the most noticeable  bcause of it's numbers was the Notka Lupin, grown to stabilise the soil. All these were shown in close up with sharp focus.
Roy left us with abiding memories of the flowers and scenery.

Members' Workshop
Report by Phill Blanning

Problems with White Balance and other matters by Roy Bailey-Wood

The evening began with news from Roy that he had today received written confirmation that our grant application for a new club projector and laptop had been successful.

The technical side of the evening then began with Roy demonstrating his new Metz ring flash. The unit, which was surprisingly lightweight, is very versatile having two lamps, which can be adjusted both by position and light intensity, independently of each other.
He then followed up the demonstration with a talk on White Balance and his experiences experimenting with it. His conclusion was that best results are obtained by using the Custom White Balance setting.

Graham then updated us on the on-going development of the club website.

After a break for Coffee and biscuits individual members then showed a small selection of images for comment.
This was kicked of by Rhodri who began by confessing to a recent obsession with Macro photography. This he illustrated with some superb shots of a Hover Fly.
Margaret Samuel then showed us an image of a leucistic Pheasant she’d photographed at Parc Slip. Also a shot of what I took to be a Dahlia but in fact was a double flowered Bramble!
This was followed by Roy with a few images from Iceland, including a lucky shot of what the birders concluded was a Gyr Falcon. An unusual sighting for Iceland was a Painted Lady butterfly, part of the great 2009 migration maybe?
Charis White showed us a lovely image of a Bumble Bee on Lavender and a New Zealand lake.
Finally in this section Phill showed a shot of an unusual crab found locally, some colourful Dog Whelk eggs and an infected Toadstool. This was followed by Linda Morris requesting the identity of the bird whose beautiful Blue feather she had found. Consensus was it was from a Jay.

The evening was rounded of by Paul showing some short video clips of two rare migrant birds, one of which should have been in Singapore but had turned up in South Shields, and was in fact the first recorded in the UK.

Report by Roy Bailey-Wood

This was the last of this year’s highly successful workshops.  Attendance was a bit low at thirteen members but we were competing with a warm summer evening and some football match or other involving a team from Manchester.

Use of a Web camera attached to a nest box, by Terry Hoy

Terry has installed an inexpensive webcam in the side of a nest box fixed to the garden shed, with the PC inside the shed.  Daily, he recorded the comings and goings of a family of Blue Tits by running the camera for varying lengths of time depending on the activity going on.  The nest, which seemed to largely lined with fur from next door’s dog, housed a brood of nine eggs all of which hatched successfully.  Food was obviously plentiful because all the chicks grew rapidly over eleven days and it soon became almost impossible to tell how many chicks were in the nest.  Interestingly, they all seemed to develop at about the same rate and when they got larger they were sitting on each other with no obvious ill-effects. This was a very entertaining talk and may stimulate others of us to try the same thing.

Problems with White Balance when photographing flowers, by Roy Bailey-Wood

Roy explained the problems he had experienced getting an accurate white balance when making digital images of flowers, mainly orchids.  He showed images of the same subject taken in different conditions from sunny to deep woodland shade. In his experience Auto White Balance produced unpredictable and sometimes unacceptable results particularly of purple orchids. Using the other fixed settings, daylight, cloudy and shade a more accurate colour could be selected but this ran the risk of selecting the colour which becomes rather subjective when the aim is to reproduce the true colour of a flower. He concluded that he intended to try the custom setting procedure to get over the problem.  One member of the audience pointed out that this would clearly not be suitable for bird photography!!

Use of Photoshop Layers, by Beth Barker

In the past, Beth has amazed us with her artistic presentations and the way she has used her images and turned them into something special.  Using her own laptop and images, she showed how it was possible to use layers to manipulate different areas of the image, and then to combine them to produce an acceptable product.  She made the point that in this way each layer could be changed in any you wanted, by changing such parameters as white balance, exposure, contrast or colour.  The result was a rather large TIFF image but this was no problem because the final image could be condensed to a JPEG file. We were all left thinking that this was something we all should try but clearly, it takes some experience and skill to avoid images that as not too contrived.   At the end of the meeting the Chairman thanked the speakers for their contributions and looked forward to next year's workshops.

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8th April 2009

Philip Mugridge: Wildlife Photography- my approach and techniques

Report by Terry Hoy

This presentation was the second from our invited speakers in this session. Philip and Allen Lloyd (presenter of the first) both describe themselves as professional photographers and are based not far from each other in Lydney and Usk respectively.

Philip has been located there for ten years the last two having been his full time occupation, now an ARPS he hopes to become a FRPS in the near future.

To illustrate his approaches a number of trips were described.

The first venue was Churchill with a small group of photographers staying out on the Tundra observing Polar Bears waiting for the sea ice to form. Close encounters were possible from the Tundra Buggies not only of Polar Bears but also Arctic Foxes in pristine new winter coats and Artic Hares barely discernable in the snow their eyes giving their position away to the eagle eyed members of the party. Perhaps the most memorable shot was of a mother bear with two cubs standing vertical on their hind legs monitoring the presence of a nearby male, mimicking Meerkats as one member of the audience commented. The advantage of the trip was twofold: dedicated to photographers and being based on the tundra eliminated the need for travelling in and out every day, but, as Philip commented they were totally dependent on the weather for good photographic conditions.

Secondly we were taken on a voyage from Southern Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsular via The Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Again this trip was carefully researched selecting a medium sized vessel and a cruise dedicated for photography resulting in ample opportunity to‘sit with subjects waiting for the more unusual poses to occur. Extreme‘sitting consisted of laying prone in Penguin poo with his wife fending off over aggressive fur seals!

Again weather was crucial with a couple of landings in the Falklands having to be abandoned. Excellent shots of subjects encountered in all the landings impressed those of us who have visited those parts.

Following the break we were taken on a small exploratory trip to Iceland with a local guide illustrating the need for planning ahead for a more extensive trip to be taken this summer. Remarkable shots of red throated divers were the highlight of this section.

Then on to North Carolina where Philip was surprised how fruitful visiting an old friend could be - the presence of bears being previously unknown to him!

Finally we returned to the UK to a selection of sites: Cromford, Suffolk, Skomer and Cannop Lake which slowly took us closer and closer to the final destination, Philip’s own garden.

By this time we were acutely aware of the need for careful planning of not only the trip but also for selecting the best position for action shots. The acceptance of a large number of failures, especially when attempting those particular challenges, and the crucial factor of good lighting will be familiar to many of us

Following our previous workshop on artistic composure Philip’s comments on what he was attempting to achieve with some of his shots were very pertinent (without even mentioning strong horizontals and verticals or  sloping diagonals). Since that workshop the secret of a bird’s typical pose has been apparent to my un-artistic eye, whether standing or perching the diagonal line up from their tail to their head is inevitable and fully exploited in many of Philip’s shots.

In all, a most enjoyable evening from which most of us will have come away with some ideas for trips, composure and that quest for a perfect shot (or two!).

Many of the images shown during the evening can be viewed on Philip’s website www.willridgeimages.co.uk

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