This week’s meeting was the second of the new season. Our speaker was David Garthwaite, a fine art photographer from Leeds. His speciality is architecture but he photographs landscapes and does some portraiture work as well. The talk was given via Zoom and most members watched from the comfort of their own homes, but some chose to attend our normal venue, the Friends Meeting House, where we watched via a laptop linked to the television screen.
David began by showing a short video of some of his monochrome images. These included several of the stunning City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia designed by Santiago Calatrava.
Some, taken closer to home, were of the Roker Pier and Berwick Lighthouse. There were images too from London, including an image of The Shard.
There were also images from the Netherlands.
David researches his locations thoroughly before travelling. Once on site he spends time viewing his subject from every angle and then he decides on the best composition. All this before even taking his camera out of the bag.
Unlike many photographers he prefers to shoot on dull, overcast days as this does not create strong shadows and provides a flat image that he can add his own shading too as he sees fit. On bright days he waits until the sun disappears behind a cloud. Sometimes he also uses long exposures to eliminate distractions such as people or vehicles moving through the scene.
David’s distinctive style is largely due to his meticulous approach to processing his images using Photoshop and other software and most of his talk comprised a master class in this.
He can spend hours processing one image and he employs such techniques as replacing skies and selectively lightening and darkening parts of the image. While many other photographers also employ such techniques David goes to great lengths to ensure that these changes are employed gradually to ensure they look natural.
It was a very informative and enjoyable evening although many of us will need to watch the recording of this meeting several times before mastering his approach.
Keswick Photographic Society’s welcome both beginners and expert photographers, either as new members, or as guests, to their meetings. Due to the COVID pandemic live meetings are restricted to members only for the time being. However, meetings are also being broadcast via Zoom and guests may join these. For information about how to join Keswick Photographic Society or to participate in one of our Zoom meetings as a guest please e-mail: contactkeswickPS@gmail.com.