Last Night – Member’s Night: Three Talks and a Practical

We had a great turnout upstairs in the Sandeman Room for three speakers from our ranks:

Graham Robb told of his experience setting up a pop-up shop in Aberfeldy with John BOyd, offering studio-style portraiture. From what he says, the photography is the easy bit, the tricky part is managing the oh-so-brief interactions with the client/ models.

Martin Samson spoke of the Scottish Tower House castle, of which there are several thousand, thanks to King David’s land distribution policy of old, and of which Martin has visitied a great many with his camera. A few weeks earlier, Graeme Youngson had spoken to us in praise of taking on a ‘Project’, and Martin’s work with the castles is a fine example of this approach.

Bamboo Print Stands 2023 v2

Leading into the tea break, Wol GIlbraith encouraged us all to get profiicient at building the bamboo print stands we’ll need for next week’s print competition. There’s a new ‘How To …’ video, here. It’s short, and the bit with the rubber bands comes at 00:45 or so.

No-one can follow the incomparable David Hay, this time sharing his images taken at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. His attention to compositional detail is exemplary, as was obvious when she showed his ‘tourist shot’ alongside his ‘composed shot’ of some of the finest modern architecture in Europe. Staying for a week in a hotel 5 minutes from the site gave him plenty of opportunity to explore before ever getting his camera out, by which time he had a good idea of what was available – including a few compositions that no-one else seems to have found. Wonderful!