David Noton

Cheltenham Camera Club attracted a large number of us - both members and (like me) non-members - to Pittville this evening, for a slick presentation by landscape photographer David Noton. My effort at a photograph to record the occasion shows Chairman Michael Krier introducing David before his talk.

David's portfolio records beautiful places all round the world, and he cleverly brought Google Earth to bear in order to show us where he was off to next. So rapid and distant were his various moves across the planet that I couldn't help wondering what his carbon footprint must amount to.

The point he rammed home was that good landscape photography comes first from careful selection of the location, and then hanging around early and long enough to catch the moment. It also helps to have state of the art kit, no doubt. And the knack of communicating your enthusiasm to a large audience - in return for your £700 fee.

For me, David's landscape images looked a touch unnatural: I like mine somehow more spare, more abstract. The real thrill came when he showed us his portraits.

"Puy paysage"

As I mentioned earlier in the month, I felt another photobook coming on: it's now put to bed, and a copy reached me yesterday. (The speed at which modern technology enables these things to happen never ceases to amaze me.)

There are numerous glossy (and far cheaper to buy) books out there already with excellent photographs of the landscape of the Le Puy pilgrimage route. Mine is not intended to compete with them: it's primarily a personal record of what I saw, in the particular seasons when I walked. The countryside would look quite different in other weather of course.

Some of the images come across as a bit dark in the printed version: perhaps this needs adjustment at my end, but you could say it adds mystery.

Here's a link to the book's free online preview.

Guy Edwardes

Cheltenham Camera Club put on a special event this evening, a lecture by the photographer Guy Edwardes. I didn't bother to book a ticket in advance, and when I arrived ahead of time at the Town Hall the room was virtually full, all seats sold. Happily they squeezed me into a hot corner at the back.

I'm glad I went, as Edwardes' work is thrilling, if rather more artificial-looking than the effect I strive for. One of the 300-odd landscape/nature pictures he put up must have been taken from a similar vantage point to the one above. (His result is very considerably better!) My photograph dates from April 1999, and I was standing by the Belvedere at La Foce, Iris Origo's former home in Tuscany.

Hits and misses - 2

Still to do is the sorting of photographs taken during our fortnight away - and the deletion of many of them. Some of the "hits" include this early morning scene from just outside our lofty Castillian B&B, where we spent the night we arrived in Spain. Wind turbines were everywhere to be seen in both Spain and Portugal. How do they get them up to some of those high places!

And we admired the engineering of all the many tunnels and viaducts on what is an astonishing motorway network: especially below the Picos de Europa, the views of both coastline and mountains are breathtaking, but no photographs alas! I was sorry also to miss the chance of trying to snap the pod of dolphins that accompanied us as our ferry made its way through the rather uncomfortable swell of the Bay of Biscay on Monday evening: my mind was on other things.

Free Range Photography

It's been a while since I looked at my website. So, after many hours of trial and error, it's now had a revamp. Web design is not something I have any expertise in, so I'm not particularly proud of the result, but it will have to do for the time being.

Here's a photograph I found on one of the old versions of my homepage - me plus dog, shown in silhouette at Pinkham, where I go on one of my favourite walks. Not our current dog, I rather think.

Pacemakers

This is about two men setting a good pace for someone recently retired. Joe Cornish, the landscape photographer, attracted a large audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival last evening. He travels arduously in search of the perfect picture - a lesson to me that not much comes without a lot of effort. Richard Zhao is less well-known: my dear daughter treated me (as her birthday present) to one of his full body therapeutic Cai-Qiao massages. Little did I know this involved having my head pulled off my shoulders; and then lying prostrate whilst Dr. Richard jumped up and down on my lower back. All of course in the interests of mens sana in corpore sano.