On Wednesday 1st October our guest speaker was Christine Widdall who is an award-winning member of Oldham Photographic Society as well as a national and international judge. Her interest in photography commenced at the tender age of 5 when she was handed a camera to take a photograph of her dad.
The first half of Christine’s talk was dedicated largely to photographs that she takes purely for pleasure. These included landscapes taken in the Lake District and many more of the Saddleworth area where she lives.
She also presented images of insects and birds taken in her garden or within walking distance of her home. Many of the were taken during lockdown when she set up a range of perches in her garden.
After a break for refreshments Christine talked about her competition images. Many of these were taken at events such as Goth and Steam Punk festivals. She does not just attend these events as a bystander but goes along as a participant often in costumes that she has made herself. She also takes studio shots, sometimes in her garage or living room, of friends and relatives who are willing to model for her, also in costumes she has made herself or found in charity shops. Many of these images are used in composites with backgrounds she has taken in a wide range of places both in the UK and abroad.
Christine is extremely accomplished in producing these and she has won many awards for them. She attributes her success at least in part to taking care to match the perspective, mood, light, colours and shadows in her images as well as using a limited palette.
Christine injected much humour into her entertaining and informative talk. She showed a wide variety of images demonstrating how versatile a photographer she is and it was a great pleasure to view a portfolio of images of such high quality. Throughout her talk the joy that she takes in her photography was clear and it was refreshing to hear from an accomplished photographer who still takes images for their own sake rather than just for competition.
Julie Walker