A great evening at the camera club

[Horus]

I have been a little busy lately with remodelling my kitchen, but last night was camera club night so not to be missed, especially as we had as a guest speaker a very famous wildlife photographer Dr Mike Leach a truly inspiring and interesting man. Mike (as I shall now call him ) shoots wildlife photography for the BBC, National Geographic and many other august organisations and has written many books, he was highly amusing and kept us all enthralled for a couple of hours with his insights and techniques. There was nothing technical about it just an enjoyable evening with an interesting and very knowledgeable man who did not mind telling us a few secrets and he was very up front about the huge amount of money that some of his images made him in his chosen profession, but I should add it was all without any attempt to appear smug, just a guy being very honest and friendly. He told us a few anecdotes that had us all laughing and confided with us that his first commission for the BBC was for just an eight seconds shot of ‘Blue Tits’. He told us about working with Sir David Attenborough who without appearing to be a name dropper he would refer to as ‘Dave’ a mode of address that all his colleagues use and apparently one that ‘Dave’ himself prefers. What I did like was when he told us that even though most people like and admire Sir David, that he was even nicer to know and work with than you could ever imagine, which endeared me to him all the more.

He can be seen here amongst some of his images, grey haired, wearing a blue shirt and standing in front of a microphone. His speciality is large mammals such as Polar Bears, Tigers and Whales, although he has developed an extremely fast technical system for photographing birds in flight such as owls and is credited with producing some almost unobtainable shots that have featured in programmes, advertisements, newspapers and books world wide.

http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/searc ... otographer

[Ruby Slippers]

Sounds as though you had a great time, Horus! Maybe it's time I started looking for a camera club for 'im indoors!

[Kiya]

I would like to see your remodelled kitchen whatever that means? is it new units or were you shifting things around any ways photos please.

Its always enjoyable to meet someone that's made their career in photography & sharing his photos etc with you, thanks for the link, some amazing photos he has

[Horus]

@ RS, well if he is interested in photography then just so long as you can find a friendly one that is not full of know all's full of their own self importance then I say go for it. My first impression was that some of our lot were a bit stick in the mud and a good laugh would crack their faces, but after the naughty boys who always sit at the back (my mate Mick and I ) started dropping in a few comments and put downs they seemed to lighten up quite a lot, I reckoned that when my mate complained to the club secretary that he had been duped into joining the 'Camera Club' and said he thought that I had invited him to accompany me "to the local 'C.A.M.R.A. Pub" he realised he had a problem on his hands and the look of surprise on his face was worth it. The following week when we were invited to take our own cameras and get help and advice from the more experienced members, I stood at the bar and with a perfectly straight face took out a £4.50 disposable camera and started to ask him what his advice was regarding getting better results from it, his face was a picture as he stuttered out something like "er, er, well, I have seen some really nice pictures taken with one of these," my mate nearly choked on his pint. Still I must have made some impression as I have been asked to be on the judges selection panel to choose the images to be entered into the next inter club competition.

@ Kiya, not a full refurb, I am having to replace the Combi boiler so have taken the opportunity to replace the cabinet under the sink as it had some water damage from a tiny leak. So I decided that it would be easier to fit the boiler while the sink and worktop were out of the way, then I decided that if they were already out of the way then it would be a good opportunity to re-tile the floor. That also meant I had to remove all the lower units and the worktops, oh and the washing machine and the fridge and the cooker and the dryer. So now the place looks like a dump and I can't find anything and am living on Aunt Bessie's frozen mash potatoes and tinnned vegetables all of which can be microwaved, I just add some meat to it such as sausages or chops which I can cook with my plumbers blowlamp.

[Kiya]

Awe you poor thing living out o' tins I still have to see the before & after, we've got to check your handy work about the hoose you know

[LovelyLadyLux]

That would have been fantastic to hear Mike Leach especially when he wasn't a pompous you know what and turned out to be a real down to earth guy. Love those type of speakers who just talk vs speak.

Did he do a slide presentation of any of this photos and talk about specific difficulties with taking the photo? i.e. how did he stop his camera stuff from freezing up when he was taking polar bears? and how did he cope with getting totally cramped up waiting for hours for the mouse or frog to jump/bird to land or fly away??

What I like when I've gone to listen to different speakers over the years is how they inspire me. I'd LOVE to have heard Mike Leach speak cause am sure I'd of been out there next day taking photos or birds or - well NOT polar bears (too cold), NOT mice (too afraid) - but maybe a frog if I could unearth one in this cold grey place!

Next week I'm trekking to the US and will get the replacement lens for my camera I broke a while back. Really looking forward to it. I haven't taken hardly any photos and don't particularly like the lens I've been using.

Love looking at some of the wildlife professional photographers photos. The shots some of those guys capture are phenomenal and it isn't just the picture it is how they deal with cold, wet, long hours, blinds and hiding away from dangerous animals whilst trying to get a picture. They're really committed to great photography!

[Horus]

LLL, according to Mike they stop their cameras from freezing up by having them ‘Arctic-ised’ by having all the oil removed by specialised camera people at some great cost apparently. (He is off to film Penguins soon) The longest time he had to sit completely still was for over 120 hours in a hide and he says that a colleague of his has been sitting for something like 3 months waiting to get a shot of a Snow Leopard and he hasn’t even seen one yet! I did find out that when trying to attract Pine Martens that they love Raspberry Jam (Jello) and most mammals love Toblerone chocolate.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Definitely couldn't sit for that long. I'd be getting ancey after about 30 minutes. Guess my style of photography should be described as grabbing a snap on the fly! Honest I'm ok with taking my time but 'my time' means probably 5 minutes tops although I have no problem walking about to get a better angle and fritzing 'n farting 'n fooling about for a bit of time but to sit in a blind for months with no sight of anything - well ??? Not for me.

I think I might have seen a clip on TV about the fellow sitting waiting for the Snow Leopard. Was he Tibetan? or Asian? and has been sitting for an extremely prolonged time waiting to see these animals to get a photo. He's strung motion sensor cameras all over the area and goes out to check them periodically ???

Never knew they winterized their cameras but did wonder how they keep them from freezing up. Brrrrrr........is all I'd have to say. I'm not going anywhere that I'd have to winterize a camera cause that means I'd have to winterize ME and I much prefer WARM WARM WARM

If I had to camp out waiting for a bird or animal am sure I could do it in the sun, on a lawn chair, with my Kindle handy and somebody close by to bring food/drinks while I wait - MY style photography!

[LovelyLadyLux]

Hows the Camera Club going H? Has your club set any projects for Spring? Field trips?

[Horus]

Yes I still go , but there is a bit of a hiatus at the moment as quite a few inter-club competitions take place at this time of the year and so we are not meeting at our local venue for several weeks in a row. I do not bother going to the away club competitions as I am not really that interested in that side of things although I was asked to sit on a selection committee for the last inter-club competition, which I did and our club actually won that night. We have several more speakers due to visit, I did miss one who talked about photography in Tibet, but I was particularly busy so did not go to that one. We have a couple of ‘picture shares’ in the next months when we can take some of our images on a memory stick and they get projected onto a screen via a laptop for other members to see and comment on, I usually put a few in myself on these occasions. Then we have another ‘project’ night in which we have a theme and can enter our images in a competitive way with all the other members and they get rated by an invited judge, the subject for this next one is ‘emotion’. Finally we have what is known as an ‘AV’ night which stands for ‘audio visual’ and the general idea is that throughout the year you can work on a project that puts your images together with some sort of sound, so it may be images with an accompanying musical soundtrack or a voiceover, or even some text to accompany the images. I did find that particularly interesting as a project and although I started it quite late I have already come up with a rough draft for one of my own and guess what? It has an Egyptian theme. I showed it my mate the other night and he was quite impressed with it, but it still needs a bit of polishing and a few image changes to get it better.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Sounds like a really interesting group your Camera Club. I've yet to join the one here but I think this summer I'll stop by and see what this local group is up to and check out how they're going.

AND - OF COURSE - you're going to share your project with us too?????

[Grandad]

There seems to be a lot going on at the club H. Is Annie OK to leave alone now for a few hours? Have to think of the little lady.

As LLL has said, let us see some of your entries, we have been starved of piccies here for the last few months.....Big Up to Kiya for her excellent picture post.

[Horus]

If your local clubs are anything like ours they tend to stop over the Summer months and that is when most people get out with their cameras stocking up on more images for future use and of course it is the holiday season. As to the project I would gladly share it with you, but I don’t think that the site could display the .Avi file as it is quite large, I will have to see if it can or not.

Just seen that Grandad has made a new post, yes Little Annie is now quite well behaved and I can leave her to have the run of the house for several hours at a time and she is very good. I have instigated a routine where I ignore her when I am going out and just say in an even voice "no, you have to stay here, I shan't be long" then as I am going out I say "Who want's a chewy stick?" and that usually has her running to the cupboard and dancing about on her back legs in anticipation of her treat, then I just throw it on the carpet and close the door and lock up. I know from my neighbours that she is quiet and only barks if she hears noises, in fact she is a very good guard dog in that respect and her hearing is very keen, when I return she is leaping about all excited and wanting lots of fuss, but so far no little surprises and nothing damaged, I reckon she just lies down and goes to sleep. She is also very good in the car and goes straight into her travelling box which I keep permanently strapped to the front passenger seat as she goes most places with me where dogs are allowed.

[Kiya]

Looking forward to seeing some of your entries & how good is Annie, you've done really well with her training

I didn't know till recently that by law you are not to leave a dog the whole day by its self

[Horus]

To be honest Kiya, why would anyone want a dog and leave it alone all day? OK there may be occasions when you have to go out for extended periods, but just so long as the dog is exercised beforehand so it can do it's bussiness and then has free access to plenty of fresh water and is in in a comfortable environment, not too hot or cold, then it should be no real problem. Older dogs in particular can be left for long periods as they usually sleep for most of the day, but young dogs especially do need more exercise and attention.

Annie has turned out to be very affectionate and follows me everywhere, she is also very adept at annoying the cat by constantly chasing her around and wanting to play. Buffy (the cat) tries to ignore her and is really quite tolerant although on occasion the boot is on the other foot and it is Annie scampering out of the cats way if she retaliates, she still has not figured out that a cat does not like a cold nose poked in it's bum.

[Kiya]

I had Roy at me the other night again about getting a dog, he can as long as he is prepared to get up at 6.00 am every morning to let it out & all the rest of looking after a dog.

I don't think its going to happen

[LovelyLadyLux]

Never realized there was an actual 'law' against leaving a dog alone all day. I had dogs and was always had them up and out in the morning before work. They stayed in the house all day with food/water, lots of their toys and chewy toys. When the girls got home which was before me the dog was there to welcome but was also taken out for a few then back in to play with everybody. Have to add most of my dogs (really in my life time only a couple) were young adults when I got them so for the most part they ended up sleeping for most of the day about the house. They were always part of the family and came with us most everywhere we went. Even with the last dog I'd also sometimes break the daily routine by once a week bringing them with me to work. Granted they stayed in the car during the day but on my breaks and lunch we'd do long walks so in actuality they had more attention on those days than on days they stayed home.

I think however it is criminal when people get a dog and then end up tying it outside so that it ends up living its life in a bare cold yard alone. That is a horrible existence and like H says, "why" would anybody want a dog just to tie it up outside?

[Horus]

A dog could be very good company for you Kiya when Roy is away from home and it would get you out walking along that lovely beach of yours. Once a puppy has been trained (about 6 months) they are usually very little trouble and get themselves into a routine for going outside for a tiddles etc. so no need to be getting up at the crack of dawn to take them out.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Most dogs I've owned have easily adapted to my schedule and when I slept in late they happily slept in late too.

Is anybody at your Club proposing Pet Photos H?

[Horus]

You find out that some subjects seem to be frowned upon in most of these camera clubs and get put into little boxes, pet photos are one unless it has some additional merit. Beautiful scenic shots and lovely houses with roses around the door often get referred to as "chocolate box" images and things such as well known buildings or features get called "record shots". So generally speaking to get some attention a picture needs to have something different about it, everything else comes under the category of "seen that before", I have seen some fantastic bird images reffered to as "just another bird on a stick"