Club Meeting, 'Flower Power' - Tuesday 28th February 2023

  
  
  
  

On Tuesday 28th February 2023, Morpeth Camera Clubs meeting took the form of a members evening entitled
‘Flower Power.’ Club Co-Chair Sue Dawson hosted the event and several members who enjoy photographing flowers,
shared their images whilst talking about or demonstrating the technique's used to achieve their results.

First up was Pat Wood, who has a particular interest in Orchids, explained the ideal growing conditions, provided their
Latin botanical names and illustrated her talk with a variety of beautiful, white, cream, bronze and mottled varieties
which were presented mostly with a black background to highlight the detail. Karin Jackson, regarded by the club as
a photographer/botanist, gave the audience examples of plants and stated their preferred habitat for thriving which
included Herb Paris, the Bee Orchid found in our coastal regions, the wall growing Toothwort, Hong Kong’s’ Shell Ginger,
and the exotic Sarapus Tongue Orchid. David Moore followed with flowers taken in his garden, with images of many
varieties of clematis and of beautiful examples of roses some accentuated with sparkling raindrops.

John Thompsons followed with a before and after presentation featuring an array of his garden flowers which included
water lilies, roses, vibrant poppies, patterned foliage, honeysuckle, flowering cacti and wisteria. We saw how he had
set aside some of his lawn with long grasses and accentuated these with a short Audio Visual clip of grasses swaying
in the breeze. Keith Pratt’s images, taken with his iphone followed with him saying that he doesn’t have a set agenda,
he photographs what he likes, and we saw examples of blue and purple irises and golden lilies taken when out for
walks and when on holiday on the Isle of Skye.

Taking on an artistic theme of flowers, Dave Bisset showed the audience how he created multi image photographs of
majestic cactus flowers using filters, distortion radial curves, with glowing edges, inverted colours and atmospheric
blurring. Peter Downs, notorious in the club for the use of abstraction, presented Acer leaves, Allium, Grape Hyacinth,
daffodils using blending modes, multiple exposures, lens blur, and throughout described to the audience his complicated
methods of creating ethereal alternatives to usual flower photography.

Davy Bolam came next, explaining his techniques for photographing frozen flowers. He gave a step by step explanation
of how it is achieved and also the experimental learning curve situations of what can go awry. He illustrated his talk with
striking images of crocus, dandelions, snowdrops and daisies frozen in ice. Photo stacking and Macro shots was the theme
of Glyn Truman’s talk where he explained his methods of obtaining depth and detail in photography. Meticulous images
of pixie cup lichen, delicate fungi and insects, detailed macro shots of snowdrops and poppy seed heads were included
in his presentation.

Andrew Flounders followed by saying that his approach to photography is to use monochrome as his chosen medium
in order to focus on fine detail, its texture and where he can reveal the structure of the plant. We saw a back lit puffball,
beads of ice on foliage and sunflower images to represent Earth, Wind and Fire. Light box photography was Sue Dawson’s
theme, which was illustrated with the equipment she used. She explained her methods of using multi exposures, painting
with colour, adding backgrounds and monochrome conversion. We saw lovely examples of her work which included some
translucent poppies and Columbine resembling a Victorian botanical print.

To conclude the evening John Barnes gave us a guided tour of Belsay Gardens, where the gardeners are recreating them
as they were originally planted in Victorian Days. We saw images of gardeners, advisers from Kew, the Quarry Gardens,
which has a microclimate for exotic flowers, and swathes of multi coloured Rhododendrons. Twelve members took up the
'Flower Power' challenge, and responded with different techniques, styles and ideas which made for another very interesting
evening at the club. Co Chair Sue Dawson thanked everyone who took part after which refreshments were enjoyed.

Steph.