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February 17th saw an excellent presentation from Tom Langlands on street photography. Tom is an award-winning photojournalist based in Annan, Scotland who is known for his wildlife and landscape photography as well as street photography.

Tom described how he went about taking images of people on the street and he gave some helpful tips on how to take photographs discreetly. These included blending in to the scene by wearing neutral colours and not pointing the camera in one direction for too long. He illustrated his talk with a wide range of photographs including ones of street musicians and other performers, shoppers, stall holders and produce in indoor and outdoor markets, participants in parades and demonstrations, and people at work.

 

These were taken in a variety of locations ranging from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee to cities further afield including Berlin, Florence and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In the latter the pilgrims provided a seemingly endless supply of subjects for Tom’s camera.

He explained that the story telling quality of an image is very important and he uses the juxtaposition of people and other elements, such as signs and posters, to achieve this. Light, water and shadows are also considerations when deciding on his compositions and he will often employ unusual techniques such as taking reflections in mirrors, sunglasses and, on one occasion, in a crystal ball.

 

Patience was frequently required, for example he sometimes finds an interesting setting and then waits for a suitable person to walk in to the scene. It is also important to be observant and to look for the unusual.

Towards the end of the evening Tom talked about two projects that he had recently undertaken. The first concerned homeless people. This section contained many powerful and emotive images in which he contrasted the desperate circumstances of the homeless people he photographed with the evidence of wealth all around them such as banks, restaurants and cafes.

 

The second was undertaken in the last twelve months and documented the impact of Covid19 and the associated restrictions on the people and streets of his home town. The images of empty streets and people wearing masks provide an important historical record of Annan during this period.

 

This was a memorable evening with many superb images and an equally entertaining narrative.

Julie Walker

The main topic for the evening was the Society’s third Set Subject competition. Members had been invited to enter three digital images according to the theme ‘Man-made or Woman-made’. The judge was Society member and former Chairman Dr Keith Snell LRPS EFIAP EPSA. Seventeen members entered giving a total of fifty-one images. A wide range of photographic genres was represented, including architecture, landscape, cityscape, travel, still life and food with about one-quarter being presented as black and white images.

At the start of his judging, Keith stated that he marked the images according to how apposite they were to the theme of the Set Subject and how photographically commendable they were. He stressed that the human made element should be the main subject in the image and that the image should tell us something as well. Keith gave a critique of each image often suggesting photographic improvements that could be made. He did not give any scores but he did pick out those images he considered deserving of a top score and also those worthy of Highly Commended and Commended status. He pointed out that his choices were very subjective impressions within the vast excellence of images submitted. Three images merited a top score and two of these, ‘New York Cityscape’ and ‘Man’s Pollution’, were by Alan Walker. Keith described the superbly composed image ‘New York Cityscape’ as conveying a real feeling of claustrophobia with a human figure overshadowed by towering skyscrapers but also featuring at ground level a colourful street scene so typical of New York.

 

In Alan’s second top scoring image, titled ‘Man’s Pollution’, a plastic bottle is shown floating in a bright green patterned liquid, the whole image illustrating the destructiveness of mankind.

 

The third image to be awarded a top score was Richard Jakobson’s perfectly-lit ‘Hand Made’ image, a magnificent study of the hands and braceleted wrists of a Namibian Himba lady making an ochre skin paste known as Otjize. Keith pointed out that this image featured both the made element and the maker. At the end of the judging Keith chose ‘Hand Made’ as his overall winning image of the evening.

 

Four images were awarded Highly Commended and these were: ‘Hand Finishing’ by Sue Rugg,

 

‘Lloyds Building’ by Richard Jakobson,

 

‘Manmade Bowls’ by David Woodthorpe

 

and ‘Mysore Palace India’ by Tom Stenhouse.

 

In addition six images were Commended and these were: ‘Tanfield Train Sheds’ by Alan Walker, ‘Green Door, What’s That Secret….’ by David Rayment, ‘Memorial in Blenheim Palace Chapel’ by Sue Rugg, ‘1 Poultry’ by Richard Jakobson, ‘Man to Man’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe and ‘Mosaics, Monreale Cathedral, Sicily’ by Tony Marsh. Keith finished his comments by stating that he had enjoyed looking at the splendid set of images and that for the most part members had really addressed the brief. David Woodthorpe thanked Keith for his comprehensive analysis and assessment of all the images.

Tricia Rayment

All the entered images can be seen on our gallery page: 2021 Galleries