THURSDAY 18th FEBRUARY
CHRIS UPTON ARPS – THE WAY I SEE IT
Chris Upton is a speaker, who without Zoom, we would probably never have been able to invite to our club as he is a professional photographer based in Nottinghamshire. Chris specialises in travel, landscape and social documentary photography, is a member of his local camera club and really enjoys speaking to, and sharing information with, members of other camera clubs.
Before he began his talk, he explained that there were going to be no secrets – he would be giving hints and tips throughout the evening and was more than happy to answer any questions we might want to ‘throw’ at him. He explained that to create an image, you needed much more than just composition and that the talk he was about to give would guide us through the process to improve our photography and achieve a better photograph rather than an acceptable photograph.
His first ‘image’ of the evening was a list of the seven steps he feels you need to master to improve you photographic skills. He then explained each step in great detail at a level even the less advanced of us would understand. From knowing the fundamentals of photography, both the technical and creative, to knowing your equipment and getting out there to take ‘the shot’ Chris talked us through every aspect we should consider in order to improve our skills and our photography.
Planning plays a major role with Chris and his photography, he uses several phone apps to advise him on weather conditions for those misty morning shots and for knowing the times of sunrise and sunset, making it possible to get those ‘blue hour’ and ‘golden hour’ shots.
Chris concluded his talk by saying we should always review, refine and even reshoot our images – you can’t always get that ‘perfect’ shot at the first attempt. But the only way to improve is to get out there and ‘shoot more’.
To accompany all the advice, Chris shared with us stunning images from as far as India and New York to local landscapes in the Peak District. He explained where each shot was taken, how he had planned the location and why he had composed the image as he had, which I am sure we all benefited from greatly.
There is a saying that goes ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ and the silver lining for us regarding covid-19 and lockdown is that Chris was able to ‘visit’ Tyndale and keep us all enthralled for the whole evening.