CCC Forum

All,

Please note the following notice received from Jeff Royce – Acting Secretary of the South London Federation (SLF):-

Dear Club Secretaries,

The following notice has been passed to me about this very interesting event. Please pass on to your members. I am confident that they would welcome club photographers from outside the SPA as well.

Regards,

Jeff Royce

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Dorking Camera club is pleased to announce that Heather Angel MSc, DSc, FBIPP, FRPS (http://www.heatherangel.co.uk/) will be presenting ‘The Magic of Macro’ on Monday 26th November 2012, aimed at both beginners and advanced photography workers or anybody interested in how to do macro work. Composition, critical focusing and lighting are key to the success of a macro shot. Heather reveals her secrets for shooting winning macro images many of which have appeared in two books she has written on close-up and macro photography. "The great thing about macro subjects is that you have complete control of the lighting. Selective use of reflectors, diffusers, fill flash or prime flash in the field ensures you can select the optimum lighting – without making blaming the weather for lack lustre results!" Heather also works indoors using window light in a large sunroom or in her studio using state of the art lighting – including fibre optics. This presentation includes some innovative and stunning lighting to reveal hidden wonders in the macro world.

Members of SPA clubs and their guests are welcome to attend. Tickets for the evening are limited and are available at £5 each.

Please email tickets@dorkingcameraclub.co.uk in the first instance to reserve your ticket and payment details will be provided by return

Heather Angel is a British award-winning wildlife photographer who constantly traverses the globe in search of pictures. Nine trips to China specifically to take pandas, paid off with many rare shots in the snow that have become best-selling pictures. In addition to managing her own stock library, she is a prolific writer with 59 books (her latest, Digital Outdoor Photography:101 Top Tips) and countless articles to her name. Always an enthusiastic communicator, Heather tutors workshops all over the world.

-Heather's work has been recognised by many awards both in Britain and overseas.
-Among them: an honorary Doctorate of Science from Bath University (1986);
-a Visiting Professorship from Nottingham University (1994); and,
-the 1998 Louis Schmidt Laureate from the BioCommunications Association of USA.

Heather Angel was President of the Royal Photographic Society from 1984-86. Among her many clients are WWF (UK and USA), IUCN, London Zoo and worldwide publishers of magazines and books. The British Council in Delhi commissioned her to document the biodiversity of the Himalayas – in one month! Major solo exhibitions have been on show in China and at the Science and Natural History Museums in London.

Her exhibition, Natural Visions, which toured Britain from 2000 - 2004, was also on show in Kuala Lumpur, Cairo and Beijing. She is currently working in a huge 5 year project with Kew Gardens.

Best Regards
David Lloyd LRPS
Programme@dorkingcameraclub.co.uk
http://www.dorkingcameraclub.co.uk/
07793469040

This seems to be the same presenation that Heather Angel gace at Amateur Photographer's offices in August this year. It's a useful introduction for anyone who is interested in macro and the ticket price is a lot more reasonable than AP was asking!

I went to the same lecture with Mike and had mixed feelings about it. The first was that it was overpriced at Amateur Photographer; even factoring in the "free" copies of the magazine and some minor gifts, for me personally it was slightly disappointing.

On the one hand, she did have some tips about photographing insects/bees etc. that I wasn't aware of and a couple of cases of unusual macro photography ideas beyond the traditional flower shots. However, the majority of the talk was Heather discussing her holidays and showing off her pictures - lovely pictures, don't get me wrong, but you can get lovely macro pictures off the internet for free.

I went to this lecture having already learned the basics behind macro photography techniques, basic lighting concepts etc. and was looking for greater detail on some of the newer techniques such as focus stacking. She touched on this, but at so high a level as to not offer anything new.

So if you have already started down the macro route and are looking for more technical guidance or some truly unique inspiration this lecture will likely leave you feeling disappointed. However, as confirmed by my friend who also attended, if macro isn't something you've tried before and if you want to see what's possible at a beginner level then this left him wanting to go and buy a macro lens!

I would certainly concur with David's assessment that anyone who knows the basics of macro photography would get less from the talk, assuming that it is identical to the one delivered in August. It is possible that there will be some extra material as Heather Angel spoke for about an hour at AP, whereas the normal length for a camera club lecture is around 90 minutes. If anyone is thinking of going, it would be worthwhile liaising with Dorking CC to find out exactly what will be included.

I found out one or two things at the AP talk, but it was not the more advanced session I had been hoping for. Nevertheless, on the basis of what I learned I would be more confident of tackling a macro shoot and experimenting with different techniques to find out what works best. Aside from the goody bag, AP did provide notes from the lecture which are useful. There was also a draw for a couple of Nikon point and shoot cameras and some light refreshments afterwards, so overall I felt that AP had provided reasonable, though not stunning value. Of course, I might feel differently if I had won of those two cameras.

Then again you'd have won a Nikon so would have to pay someone to take it off your hands

Did you know that Heather Angel gave the very first lecture in the Croydon Camera's Club Wratten Lecture series?
This was on 14 November 1984 and at that time she was the President of the Royal Photographic Society.
I was there.