Are you looking for a presenter for your camera club? I currently offer two lectures, which are both suitable for an in-person or online presentation. Contact me with your requirements.
Lecture 1
Feel the land - photography & emotion
Photography and emotion go hand in hand.
When I started out in photography years ago, I did not think much about what I felt when seeing something I wanted to photograph: I just picked up the camera and pressed the shutter button to capture what I saw.
In 2010, I held my first exhibition, jointly with fellow photographer Huw Alban. The strongest memory I have of that event is of a visitor, who told me that she was going through difficult times with her family. But looking at my photographs made her feel much better, they conveyed a sense of harmony, beauty and calm, she said. She returned twice over the following two weeks, each time silently taking in the work.
I realised then that being able to convey an emotion with my photographs is very important to me. So I started to try and be more aware of what I feel when exploring a scene, and determine what influence my state of mind has on the resulting photograph. Over time, this process has helped me to change the way I make my photographs, and, hopefully, to produce photographs that convey feelings and thoughts and thus evoke an emotional response in the viewer.
In this lecture, I will explain how I try to capture my emotions of the moment in a photograph. I will be showing a selection of my images to illustrate the various techniques that I have found helpful.
The lecture, which will begin with a short introduction of myself and how I got into photography, will take you on a light-hearted journey through my creative process, and should appeal to all levels of photographers, irrespective of their preference of subject matter.
The lecture is structured to fit in with the standard camera club format of 1.5 hours, with a break in the middle and time at the end for questions and round up.
“Thank you for last night’s very enjoyable, fascinating and thought-provoking talk. You have us the inspiration and emotion, while also explaining some tips and techniques.... Your images were variously beautiful, mysterious, unexpected and abstract. An excellent evening.”
“We were treated to a wonderful evening of photography - thank you! The way you presented your work - covering your life through photography and showing the different techniques you use to capture not only the image you want, but the emotion within the image, together with the inclusion of music, poetry and even other people’s statements, made for not only a very interesting evening, but a truly inspiring and refreshing one.”
“I just would like to say a big ‘Thank You’ for your talk last week. It was certainly very different to our ‘usual’ talks and was very much appreciated by our members. Several people said, either verbally or via email, that it was the best presentation for a long time.... and I would agree with them! - certainly thought provoking! So thank you once again!”
Lecture 2
Publishing a book: a mystery?
No, it isn’t a mystery. But practical advice is not that easy to come by.
When I was told that I should publish my own book, as one way to progress my photographic development, I was scared. Nevertheless, I started reading up on the process, on websites of photographers and publishers, in blogs, in photographic magazines and any other material I could lay my hands on. But despite a lot of helpful hints and tips, these resources lacked the specifics. Only after repeated assurances by the photographer, who gave me the idea for the book, that he would help me through the process, I decided to go ahead.
The journey was exciting, yet at times frustrating; it was rewarding, yet sometimes outright depressing. The help of my fellow photographer, who has many books to his name, was invaluable, but the most important aspect of it was that from day one he made me believe that I can do it, that my book project will be successful.
Looking back, I have learned some valuable lessons along the way. This lecture will take you on a journey through the whole process, from the conception of an idea, making and collating the photographs, to selling the first copy of the book. It is illustrated with images and other material from my book “The Elmbridge Hundred – A Visual Journey”.
The lecture should appeal to all levels of photographers, irrespective of the preference of subject matter and whether or not they actually dream of publishing their own book or just want to get some insights into what is involved in producing one.
"Publishing" for the purpose of this lecture does not include the process via blurb or similar setups, which effectively fill the role of the traditional publisher for many aspects of making a book.
The lecture is structured to fit in with the standard camera club format of 1.5 hours, with a break in the middle and time at the end for questions and round up.
“Thank you for visiting last night and giving us your excellent talk... The presentation was really well received by our members and made for a very enjoyable evening. You explained some really good techniques you had successfully tried and nicely linked photography with emotion, even including some emotive music. Overall a very inspiring presentation.”
“I appreciated your lecture for the Rockbridge Camera Club tonight. The music piece was so ‘visual’ and provoked emotion/feeling..... Your examples of textures, multiple exposures, ICM’s were beautiful and inspirational. So, again, thank you and we hope one day you’ll get to our Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.”
“I just wanted to thank you for your excellent presentation last night - everybody enjoyed it very much and it was a different and fascinating perspective. I was particularly interested in your comment about remembering images rather than technique - I had not thought about that before but it makes absolute sense.”