This week Keswick Photographic Society was treated to a fascinating presentation by a local amateur photographer and member of the Penrith and District Camera Club, Stuart Edgar CPAGB PPSA EFIAP LBPPA. Clearly, Stuart is a man with a low boredom threshold and a very creative mind which he exercised to a very productive extent during lockdown. His presentation was to describe in quite some detail, nine different photographic techniques, from each of which he produced unusual, colourful and really intriguing images. His aim was to create pleasing images without it costing the earth and so Stuart set about describing the various set-ups using everyday household items. On occasions he raided the pantry and set up arrangements on baked beans or soup cans!
His first project involved creating large bubbles and he did this by adding glycerine to soapy water. This enabled macro flash photography of the charming oily and colourful surface of bubbles.
The next project was just as effective but rather less glamourous as he collected crushed cans that had been discarded and created, and by careful colour separation and colour matching, produced tryptic images. The third process was very much a photoshop technique where images are completely distorted, duplicated, flipped and stretched to create fantasy twirls of bold colours. Once again the final product was impressive.
The fourth project involved macro photography of water droplets on minute objects. Here Stuart demonstrated the process on a dandelion seed clock, amongst other objects.
The next, was a simple process of setting up a number of different shaped glasses and filling them with varying amounts of clear water. He then placed them in front of colourful patterned card. The results showed the light refraction and the interesting images that, with practice over a number of different backgrounds, could be produced.
He managed to escape too much trouble from his wife when he filled a number of containers with water and froze them in the kitchen freezer. Incrementally adding water and a flower to each container to the extent that some florets were totally submerged whilst others remained partially above the water, Stuart photographed each and to some applied layers of texture in photoshop and others were more simply captured.
The seventh and most technical of all the processes involved the capturing of images of water droplets colliding with the splash of an earlier water droplet. Too complicated to explain here, suffice it to say that beautiful images are thus created. The eighth and ninth processes were very much simpler and involved either multiple exposures of an image taken from lots of different angles or the effect of oil on water.
What a busy bloke he had been during lockdown and how creative! Stuart was thanked for what had been a fascinating and inspirational presentation.
David Woodthorpe