Martin Returns! Meeting 20 Mar 2009

It was almost exactly 2 years ago that the speaker at last Friday's meeting , Martin Russell ARPS, last visited the club and appropriately enough his talk was entitled "Martin Returns" on this latest occasion.

Martin began by explaining how he had started out like many photographers using black and white film which he still loves. He used Ilford's FP4 in his Zenith E camera and his very first shot was of a rally car in the Forest of Dean which was "airborne" at the moment of shooting. He was so thrilled by the image when he got the photos back that he decided there and then to build his own darkroom from scratch which he promptly did. Like the majority of today's photographers though he moved to digital cameras and printers 6 to 7 years ago and has never looked back. He has struggled he admitted to get the same quality of B+W images that he formerly got with film and only recently, with a new printer, has he achieved this.

He said he enjoys candid photography and always works at at least 320 ISO rating on his Canon brand camera. With another of his passions, jazz photography, he used ISO ratings as high as 3000 in order to acheive flashless shots of musicians in concert both at Brecon and at a Brussels Jazz Marathon in 2007 where flash was strictly forbidden. He showed a huge variety of prints during the evening , many of which were taken in Venice at festival time. Ohers were beautiful wildlife images like a puffin with a beak full of fish. Although he found landscapes less to his taste he then showed some wonderful images taken in his home area around Monmouth and at Snow's Hill Lavender Farm near Bourton-on-the-Water. He tries to avoid a lot of manipulation in Photoshop software but advised members that there were even free downloads available now on the Google website which he thoroughly recommended. Undoubtedly his most impressive images were those printed on canvas at a recent "Focus" photography exhibition at the NEC where he was lucky enough to get images of Venice and puffins printed onto huge canvases absolutely free.

Club chairwoman Barbra Archdale-Smith thanked Martin for showing his superb range of images and making such an interesting evening for members.

Next week's meeting is the last monthly competition of the season at which the judge will be Hywel Harries FRPS. All entries for the forthcoming Annual Competition and Exhibition are required by Friday 3rd April at which time member Marc Delaney will give a talk entitled "Tabletop Photography". The annual dinner this year will be held on 24th April.

Full details of the club's location and programme are on the club website at www.barrycameraclub.org.uk and new members of all levels of skill are welcomed. The final event of this season will be the Annual General Meeting on 8th May 2009 and all members are encouraged to attend.