This evening was given over entirely to a presentation by an external speaker, Austen O'Hanlon who has a YouTube channel.
He started off by introducing himself and briefly going over his career to date. He then discussed GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. He said:
- Keep it simple - "better" gear won't (necessarily) allow you to take better photos
- Buy (only) what you need
- Buy second-hand
- The best camera is the one you have in your hand
Photography gear is important. If you keep it to a minimum, there is less to carry. If there is less to carry, you can walk further and be less tired. If you are less tired when you get to taking a photo, you can put more effort into it and thus get a better result. To this end, his camera gear has been cut down to the bare minimum:
- (Shimoda) Backpack
- One mirrorless camera body
- One lens (24-120)
- GoPro (for blogging)
- Mini tripod, or
- Larger tripod, depending on the trip
- (Lee) Filters - 10 stop, 6 stop and 3 stop NDs, 3 stop ND grad, polariser
He said our cameras should be extensions of our bodies and no camera setting should take more than 20 seconds.
We then briefly discussed AI - a subject with which we are recently familiar given the Zoom call on 2nd January. He pointed out a recent landscape photography competition winner used an AI generated image - not admitted to until the awards had been given out.
He pointed out that any and all AI is banned at GCE and A level. He himself would never use AI on a photo and would even leave litter in a photograph if he had happened to include it. He said it is important to record what is there, even if you get up for a sunrise and it doesn't happen to be a "good" one.
Austen transitioned from street photography to landscape photography and found that many of the essential elements (consideration of light and shade, direction of light, etc.) were the same in both.
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Porlock Flood © Austen O'Hanlon |
He went on to talk about Porlock Marsh, where at high tide, the water can flood in over the course of a half hour. If you attempt to photograph here, you will have to be prepared to wait for at least an hour for the water to subside again making it possible to leave. There is only one place to stand that remains above water, without getting very wet.
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Black Church Rock © Austen O'Hanlon |
Austen gave a shout out to Black Church Rock, and, in fact practically anywhere on the coast of Devon - especially Hartland Point, which can be worthy of photography even in a storm. With Black Church Rock he stressed the importance of getting there at low tide, as the entire beach is covered otherwise.
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© Austen O'Hanlon |
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© Austen O'Hanlon |
Our next meeting will be on 13th February.