THURSDAY 5th NOVEMBER
SIMON CAPLAN LRPS – Extraordinary Ordinary
It is the first time that Simon Caplan LRPS has ‘visited’ us and I say visited very loosely as he, like the previous speakers, gave his presentation and talk “Extraordinary Ordinary” over a Zoom meeting.
Simon, who is based in Bristol, has over time, built an amazing portfolio of urban abstract, light-sculpted still life and unusual landscape images. In his talk he explained his thinking behind and the techniques he used to achieve the very different images he shared with us. He seems to find hidden beauty in the urban environment which most of us would just pass by. His images of sections or parts of buildings pick up the strong combination of colours, textures and tonal contrasts we often take no notice of, but Simon seems to have the ability to spot them and capture them in a very imaginative way.
He explained how it is most important to isolate your subject against a good background which means taking your own paper/cloth or even lying on the pavement getting strange looks from passers by.
Most of Simon’s images are actually creative art – air-conditioning fans, street lights, lightbulbs and even shoes come to life in the most fanciful way. He says when you wander around you will often stumble across something that will, with a little post processing, give you a good image. By using his creative eye he is able to reveal unusual details in otherwise workaday objects to create stunning works of art.
Throughout the evening Simon gave the members present many tips and advice on how to create similar images to his own and said we should use our cameras as a creative tool.
When he gives a talk Simon usually brings along prints for the audience to view and discuss, of course this couldn’t happen but hopefully in the not too distant future we will be able to invite Simon back to the club where we will be able to participate more fully in his interesting approach to photography.