Tony Marsh, our chairman, took the stage on Wednesday 25th September for his talk “A Naturalist with a Camera”, and gave an individual & thoughtful talk illustrated with images taken this year locally as well as on his travels around the UK and on a specialist photography trip to Bulgaria.
Since being introduced to the possibility of seeing the magical contents of the Observer’s Book of Birds in real life as a child, Tony is a life-long nature-lover. He reaches for his binoculars first, and photography is a “bonus” rather than the sole purpose of the trips, but with modern technology it has now moved on from being a technical challenge to not only enabling a record of sightings, but also freezing and magnifying details of the natural world’s beauty which would otherwise not be seen.
He pointed out a variety of these in an entertaining and self-deprecatory style which belied the excellence of the images, many of which, although not taken to impress competition judges, are winners. He showed some unique action including a spectacular sequence of a rabbit chasing a stoat.
His slight dissatisfaction with the outstanding images (although still of wild animals) which he has taken at commercial set-ups with a staged environment and sometimes lighting resonated with the society’s members, often preferring the more natural results showing “how it really is”, with a hard-won but sometimes also half-seen glimpse of an animal shaded by distracting foliage.
Simon Roberts