Stephen Davis, a member with a great deal of experience of wildlife through working for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, will be talking about Woodland Photography. Member Sue Power will be talking about the lives and output of two photographers from the past - Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott.
Our last meeting took us to Africa and France. Pete Shaw showed excellent images from a photographic trip last year to the Masai Mara and a nearby conservation area in Kenya. He related how the guides manage to get visitors to the 'right place at the right time' to take memorable images and how the vehicles are equipped to make life with a heavy lens as comfortable as possible. Although excursions were generally pre-dawn and towards sunset, there was no rush once animals had been located. Stays of two hours photographing and observing particular animals - leopards, cheetahs, giraffe, elephants, lions, wildebeest, warthog, zebra - were the norm.
By contrast, Bob Bray took us on a journey to Oradour-sur-Glane, a village near Limoges where 642 men. women and children were killed by a Nazi Waffen-SS company and bulldings blown up on 10 June 1944. Bob chose to show largely monotone images to indicate the atmosphere in the village, now preserved as a memorial. The remains of sewing machines, cars and bicycles are scattered amongst the ruins and serve as a reminder of lives destroyed.
A small group of members risked their bank balances by going to the Photography Show at the NEC recently. Half the group looked and started saving; the other half just couldn't resist some of the many goodies on display!!
