26th October 2021
We had great pleasure in welcoming Huw to our camera club for the first time. Huw is predominantly a landscape photographer who is based in North Dorset. His first photographic subject was Formula 1, living only 10 minutes from the Silverstone racing circuit. During 1998/99 he had a photography contract with a Formula 1 team for 2 years, after which he went back to landscape photography. Huw is a member of Warminster Camera Club and provides talks and presentations to many clubs around the country.
The talk included a presentation of some beautiful images evoking creativity, emotion, mood, composition, etc. and Huw described his philosophy and mindset behind his photography; to outline the principles that shape and influence what and how he approaches his photography and style, and why mood and emotion is such a key component in his process and approach.
Huw described how, for the last 15 years, he has been on a creative journey, which resulted in him making some key decisions, for instance a desire to create images that make the viewer stop, pause, and look a little closer. He wants the viewer to be reminded of something eventful in their life, and why do they feel the way they do when they look at one of his images. He also discussed the use of filters and post processing techniques to achieve the exact mood and emotion of his photographs, and slow shutter speeds to help to capture the atmosphere.
Huw explained the techniques and methods of black and white photography as a means of communicating mood and emotion, and has found in recent years being more drawn to black and white photography. It removes the distraction of colour, which can get in the way sometimes, and allows the message to be clearer in the photographic image. Throughout the presentation Huw described the techniques he used for each photograph, and how the final processed image communicates to him as strongly as what the original scene did.
Grateful thanks go to Huw for a very informative and thought provoking evening, which certainly gave us a different perspective of embracing our surroundings before taking our own landscape photographs.
Also, many thanks to Kathie our programme secretary for inviting Huw to our club, as well as Rob for organising the zoom meeting, and all our members for continuing to support our lovely camera club.
The Committee