Club Meeting, 'Trying to be a Little Different' - Tuesday 21st February 2023.

       

On Tuesday 21st February 2023, Morpeth Camera Club welcomed guest speaker Ian Glendenning BSc (Hons) FRAS
MBNS, who gave a presentation entitled ‘Trying to be a Little Different, My Approach to Photography’. Ian, from Upper
Coquetdale, has been involved with photography for many years with wildlife, landscape and astrophotography being
his main interests. He is an administrator of the Hidden Northumberland Facebook Group with over 95,000 members,
Chairman of the Coquetdale Squirrel Group and has other interests which include the environment, archaeology and
climate.

He opened the evening by saying that his approach to photography is that he bears in mind that all photography is
subjective; you can please yourself what you take, as long as your are happy with the result. He had inherited his
grandfathers’ camera equipment and negatives which gave him the inspiration to take photographs over the last 50
years. His grandfather had taught him everything on his manual camera and advised him to look at others’ work,
not to copy, but as a starting point for creating his own version of the subject.

We saw shots of Bamburgh lighthouse under the Aurora Borealis which led on to his alternative images taken in
Iceland. Living in the dark skies area of the Coquet Valley he created an observatory in his garden so that he could
study the night skies in more detail. He is not happy to take a standard shot of a comet for instance; we saw a great
example of a comet beside rare Noctilucent clouds which are composed of ice crystals and dust from meteor smoke.
He went on to explain how he captured an image of the moons craters using a stacking system application and using
long exposures to produce spectacular images of the Galaxy of Andromeda, the Whirlpool Galaxy, the Witches Broom
Nebula, Horses Head and Saw Nebula. He went on to say that as we cannot see colour at night, he uses colour filters
and explained their use.

On a completely different subject he said that during lockdown he explored close up photography of garden birds. He
started with his mobile phone tied to a fence using a remote control. This turned into a practical exercise as he could
recognise and log the ring numbers on some birds and pass on the information to the British Trust for Ornithology for
their research projects. He then progressed to photographing squirrels using a cameral trap which he said was fine but
he wanted to go further and capture images of them in action. Using a hide, often in dark woodland, came with it more
problem solving.

He had the same approach with wildlife in Namibia, this time with a sunken concrete hide at ground level which was
fraught with danger, he added. We saw close ups of the Secretary Bird, elephant, reptiles and cheetah in great detail.
Also in Namibia we enjoyed seeing it’s famous sunsets and Ian was particularly proud of the ‘green flash’ image one
can achieve very rarely when the sun is about to set.

A demonstration of his home made camera trap, sensors and laser beam was followed by a Q & A where he explained
the complicated aspects of astrophotography; taking into consideration the rotation and angle of the earth, thermally
induced noise, exposure times, types of filters, the Hubble colour palette and processing. He added that most Super
Novas had been discovered by amateurs. He had photographed most nebulas but it was his quest to concentrate on
clusters of galaxies, and knowing what they are, gives him the greatest buzz. Throughout the evening Ian provided
the audience with very interesting information on the galaxies including the almost incomprehensible facts regarding
light years. It is a long learning curve but very satisfying, he concluded.

Co-Chair Roseanne Robinson, thanked Ian for outlining how, over the years, he has endeavoured to capture many
outstanding images. More conversation and refreshments rounded off another interesting evening at the club.

Steph.