Lacock Positive

Lacock Positive 27th February 2025

This evening saw two talks from two members of our club. The first was given by Jeremy Fox, about his trip to Tanzania. Images to follow.

Our second talk was given by Danny Wootton, about the 24 hour Le Mans race which takes place every year and is now 102 years old. The race is held on a combination of race circuit and public roads (which are closed for the event). The resulting circuit is 8½ miles long and the big difference between Le Mans and Formula One is everything is open to the public. On the Friday before the event, spectators are allowed to walk the entire course, and the pit lane is open - although teams sometimes don't like the public looking in to see what they're doing.

In previous years, maximum speeds were 250mph, but in modern times these have been scaled back to around 220mph.

Celebrations before the start © Danny Wootton

There are a number of classes:

LMH (Hypercars)
LMGT3 formerly known as LMGTE-AM, based on production road car models
LMP1, LMP2 (Prototyptes)
Garage 56, intended to test new automotive technologies

The ferry across from the UK has a number of "interesting cars" which are also making the journey across to the event.

Le Mans itself is a pretty medieval town, with its own wall and cathedral. These are photographically interesting in themselves. The racing event has a concert stage with bands playing throughout the race, together with a funfair.

Funfair at sunset © Danny Wootton

As the race is about endurance, the start used to be somewhat "measured", with competitors running to their cars. These days there is no running, the whole race being a flat-out sprint. The hypercars even get a rolling start.

Race start © Danny Wootton

Each category gets its own winner. Whereas each car used to have a single driver who would drive for 24 hours straight, these days there is a team of 3 drivers, with strict time limits on how long each can drive.

Car getting lifted off after a crash © Danny Wootton

There is fencing around all of the track, so many shots have to be taken through the fence. However, there are a number of banks which allow fence-free photos to be taken. Danny used a 400mm lens with exposure times of 1/125 or 1/300th second to freeze motion. Slower shutter speeds are obviously needed at night, and considerable panning skills are needed.

Signs are in English, despite the event being held in France.

At the end of the race, it is customary for the marshals to walk onto the track and congratulate the winner.

We then reviewed our "One Month One Photo" for January.

Caroline's picture prompted a discussion on why rainbows were brighter on the "inside" than the "outside". According to Google's AI, this is because:

the area inside the rainbow is illuminated by light that has been refracted and reflected back towards the viewer, while the area outside receives less light due to the angles of reflection, creating a darker band called "Alexander's Dark Band" between the rainbow and the brighter sky beyond it

Woodborough Winter Sunrise © Craig Purvis

Kenfig Nature Reserve © Danny Wootton

Milford on Sea © Anne Horne

Julia used a combination of changed colour balance, and multiple exposures to achieve the following triptych:

Triptych © Julia Lloyd Parks

The View From Work © Lesley Cadger

Olympic Park © Pam Bamford

Pelican in Kerkini © Phil Selby

Pelican in Kerkini © Phil Male

Fun in Bath © Rose Porfirio

Parisian Nightlife © Sue Power

Bottle Photography © Tony Bamford

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 13th March.

Lacock Positive 13th February 2025

The external speaker who was booked for this evening had to cancel at the last minute. Our chair, Julia Lloyd-Parks stepped in and gave a presentation of images she'd taken on a recent trip to Bulgaria to photograph butterflies and other insects.

Robber Fly © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Bee Fly © Julia Lloyd-Parks

One of many species of Blue Butterfly © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Clouded Yellow Butterfly © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Spoonwing Butterfly © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Ornate Shield Bug © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Green Balkan Lizard © Julia Lloyd-Parks

View of Laki © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Hairy Legged Mining Bee © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Billowing Burnet Moth © Julia Lloyd-Parks

We were all grateful to Julia for filling in for our missing external speaker.

After a break for tea, coffee and biscuits, we discussed the upcoming annual club exhibition, to be held in Lacock Village Hall on Sunday May 4th and Monday May 5th 2025.

We discussed how to advertise the exhibition, and the possibility of getting it mentioned on local radio.

Danny pointed out that as far as club members were concerned, a more pressing date for our diaries is 18th April, by which time all image titles and details must be submitted to Lesley, our club secretary, in order to give her time to print out the labels.

Our next meeting will be on February 27th.

Lacock Positive 30th January 2025

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.

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.

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.

Our next meeting will be on 13th February.