Our Chairman chooses how to entertain us on the first night of the new season.

Keen to showcase our own club members, Geoff Killer invited Jean Bartlett to share her wonderful images from her visits to Africa, followed by Colin Cross whose presentation was ‘My Favourite 60 Images’.

Jean started with a video taken by the her travel companions, showing the diversity of wildlife and the environment, and we understood why she has since visited so many times.  This was followed by a selection images of Jean’s own experiences, from a swanky hotel on the first night to an unprotected, canvas tent for the rest of the trip!

The images showed much wildlife from the ferocious, (big cats, crocodiles, hippo’s) to the delightful (cubs and baby elephants) and also the somewhat less savoury reality of Africa (various carnivores feasting).  Not content with just the wildlife, Jean shared images of the variety of landscapes and sunrises she witness plus some great portraits of people she encountered in the local communities.

Colin then entertained us with the stories behind the images, as he went through, why and how his favourite 60 images were achieved.  As an aside he did mention that these are not necessarily his most successful, but the ones that mean the most to him.

It is apparent there is a reason Colin is particularly successful and it is tenacity.  4 years to achieve the Puffin shot, 3 years to perfect the Kingfisher, years of learning wildlife habits to enable him to anticipate the next great shot.  This is underpinned by his understanding of light and how the camera will interpret the scene and subject.

Colin also sets himself a ‘project’ to challenge himself.  Last year it was ‘Macro’ and his image Head of a Wasp, was done with focus stacking numerous images to show every minutiae detail.

What a great start to the season, fabulous and inspiring images from both.