THURSDAY 12th NOVEMBER
GEORGE ROBERTSON DPAGB – Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods
The speaker who was originally booked to talk to us was, as he was experiencing broadband problems, unable to Zoom. So a plea was put out via Facebook for a speaker; George Robertson DPAGB replied and volunteered to stand in at short notice. We were really lucky to be able to welcome George because as he is based in Kilmarnock an actual visit would have been almost impossible. Before he began his talk, he introduced himself as a mountain and landscape photographer, he has won Landscape Photographer of the Year and has had images printed in several publications. With the title of his talk being ‘Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods’ we waited with anticipation as to what the presentation was going to unveil.
His talk was actually about a mountaineering trek that he led through the Karakoram mountains of Northern Pakistan, a remote and scarcely visited region with a unique landscape. He explained that the photographic equipment he was able to take was bare minimum, just one camera body, one lens and six batteries, which, as a by the way, he had to sleep with in order to keep them warm!
With the introductions over, George then got down to talking us through his adventure from Islamabad to K2 and back again. The images accompanying his talk were varied in the fact that to begin with, whilst in towns, he was able to capture street life and portrait photographs of the people who live in these remote and probably never heard of places. As the journey progressed, we were able to see the differing terrain and conditions that he and his group travelled in and the wonderful scenery they were able to enjoy. George explained that all his images were ‘grab shots’, because of time restrictions he was not able to wait for the right light and so he considered himself really lucky when there was good or dappled light, moody clouds over the mountains and gentle sunsets.
His images were absolutely stunning and took us to a spot in the world that many would never be able to get to. From a mosque in Islamabad, to his street photography in Skardu, from the ‘road’ and camp conditions on his journey to the scale of the Baltoro glacier and K2 mountain, George certainly kept us entertained.
If there is one thing we can thank lockdown for, it’s the fact George was able to visit us!