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Our meeting on September 11^th was a presentation by the Hertfordshire based photographer, Simon Turnbull. He specialises in intimate landscape, nature and travel photography and has won numerous awards including Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Although now living and working in the south of England he was brought up in Keswick and still visits regularly. As a consequence we were able to see several images of locations well known to us but from a new perspective. These included some beautifully evocative woodland photographs taken in Borrowdale.

Simon described what the term “intimate landscapes” means to him. This involves photographing only a portion of a landscape scene in a particular way, often to try and create a feeling of narrative. The subject may be a single leaf or rock or tree. Simon showed us several panels of these images each of which were carefully curated, often to help enhance a narrative.

We were given valuable practical advice and tips which would apply to all forms of photography. Planning ahead, having a check list of equipment (Simon recalled an instance which must have happened to all of us at some time, of arriving at a shoot having left the camera battery charging at home!), preparing your equipment in advance, making notes of ideas and suggestions.

More importantly perhaps, he described his thought processes and working methods when out on a shoot. These included working slowly with careful attention to the composition of his images, “dawdling” to allow time to see what actually may be in a location, trying to adopt a child like view of the surroundings, trying to create a sense of mindfulness.  He showed many beautiful, ethereal, intriguing images which I am sure inspired all those present to look at their own photography in a new light.

Richard Jakobson

At our first meeting of the new season, held on Wednesday 4^th September, one of our long-standing members, Alan Walker, gave a talk on his 50 or so years pursuing photography as a hobby. Alan explained that his interest first developed in his early twenties when he focused mainly on candid and street photography. In the 1960’s, together with a friend, he put together an exhibition of monochrome prints titled “London Faces” which was commissioned by the Greater London Council. The exhibition detailed many aspects of life in London that today no longer exist. In those days there were no digital cameras and Alan had to carry out all his own processing in a dark room.

Whilst Alan was still in full time employment frequent trips to the Lake District led to a developing interest in landscape photography resulting in a desire to travel further afield to visit other stunning landscapes such as those found in New Zealand, Chile and Argentina and Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Yellowstone in the USA

On his retirement in 2006 Alan moved to the Lake District and he was able to spend far more time on his hobby. A trip to Cuba in 2008 allowed him to focus once again on street and candid photography. Subsequent trips in pursuit of people images have included Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia. These have provided a valuable opportunity to experience and learn about other cultures.

In 2010 a long weekend spent in Scotland photographing wildlife kindled his enthusiasm for what was to become his main photographic interest. He recalls spending half an hour in a hide waiting for a red squirrel to appear and being bored to tears. However once the squirrel turned up he was fascinated and permanently hooked. Since then he has returned to Scotland on many occasions and travelled to all seven continents in pursuit of wildlife images. Africa is a particular favourite.

His first trip was to Namibia when he and his wife spent a month exploring the country unaccompanied. Trips to South Africa, Botswana and Kenya have followed.

Alan also has an interest in portraiture using both studio set ups and outdoor locations. Recently he was to be found underground in a disused Victorian reservoir near Nottingham photographing models dressed as gangsters from the 1930’s. On another occasion he spent a day in a theatre in Lancaster photographing ballet dancers.

Alan enjoys photographing a wide variety of subjects and he illustrated his entertaining talk with examples from each genre, many of which have won awards in national and international competitions.

Julie Walker