DR JULIAN CREMONA
TENBY CAMERA CLUB NEWS
The meeting of November 8th was well attended considering the awful weather that evening. The journey was so worth it though as we were entertained by the exceptionally good speaker Dr Julian Cremona. Julian is a naturalist and biologist, having lived and worked in Pembrokeshire for over 25 years he is now retired. He spends much of his time travelling around the world capturing with his photography all manner of wildlife from the microscopic to the large. He has written several books too. He explained how in his youth he collected an extensive collection of insects and miscellaneous wildlife artefacts. Eventually he decided to photograph his discoveries instead of killing them !
His knowledge and enthusiasm for wildlife and photography shone through in his talk.
In the first section we were transported around the world seeing all manner of wildlife from the natural world. Whistle stop tours of Costa Rica, Namibia, Madagascar, Canada, Australia , New Zealand, Botswana, Europe and of course Pembrokeshire to name a few. The wildlife was both common and rare . Not only were we educated in the beauty of the natural world but he talked about his photographic techniques and equipment. Starting out with film cameras , he has progressed with all the new technologies to a vast array of equipment. For his studio and local work he uses the bulkier Canon range but for his expeditions he has invested in the lighter weight of micro four thirds equipment of Olympus.
After a break, Julian explained more fully the photographic techniques of macro photography, focus stacking , lighting and lenses . Not always using new equipment, old lenses are useful, as is wallpaper paste to keep your insect still but alive ! Extension tubes, objective lenses, enlarger lenses, lens reversal were all discussed. Demonstrating photo stacking live with Helican Focus software, it was fascinating to see how totally blurred images come to sharp focus after stacking. Not an easy technique to do, Julian sometimes takes upwards of 200 images to photo stack. A winter project for members ! The images we were shown to illustrate the technique included a nettle stinging tubular hair and tiny water worms.
There was abundant praise and applause from members who are already asking when can he come again .
On Saturday 3rd November, several members travelled down to South Wales to support our entry in the Pixels Competition organised by Gwynfa Camera Club . It was a notably good day for Tenby who, with 77 points from a possible 80, were clear winners. They are the first club to win this competition 3 times in it’s 14 year history so can retain the trophy . The entrants representing Tenby were “Go” by Mike Cullis ( scoring 19) , “Loving Life” by Al Rees ( 20 points}, “Water Rail at Sunrise” by Charlie Kidd ( 18 points ) and “Newly emerged Four Spotted Chaser” by Gary Jenkins ( 20 points ) . The judges were Phil and Gwen Charnock who did a splendid job of assessing 164 entries. Gwynfa Camera Club were superb hosts and many thanks to them from Tenby Camera Club.
The meeting of November 8th was well attended considering the awful weather that evening. The journey was so worth it though as we were entertained by the exceptionally good speaker Dr Julian Cremona. Julian is a naturalist and biologist, having lived and worked in Pembrokeshire for over 25 years he is now retired. He spends much of his time travelling around the world capturing with his photography all manner of wildlife from the microscopic to the large. He has written several books too. He explained how in his youth he collected an extensive collection of insects and miscellaneous wildlife artefacts. Eventually he decided to photograph his discoveries instead of killing them !
His knowledge and enthusiasm for wildlife and photography shone through in his talk.
In the first section we were transported around the world seeing all manner of wildlife from the natural world. Whistle stop tours of Costa Rica, Namibia, Madagascar, Canada, Australia , New Zealand, Botswana, Europe and of course Pembrokeshire to name a few. The wildlife was both common and rare . Not only were we educated in the beauty of the natural world but he talked about his photographic techniques and equipment. Starting out with film cameras , he has progressed with all the new technologies to a vast array of equipment. For his studio and local work he uses the bulkier Canon range but for his expeditions he has invested in the lighter weight of micro four thirds equipment of Olympus.
After a break, Julian explained more fully the photographic techniques of macro photography, focus stacking , lighting and lenses . Not always using new equipment, old lenses are useful, as is wallpaper paste to keep your insect still but alive ! Extension tubes, objective lenses, enlarger lenses, lens reversal were all discussed. Demonstrating photo stacking live with Helican Focus software, it was fascinating to see how totally blurred images come to sharp focus after stacking. Not an easy technique to do, Julian sometimes takes upwards of 200 images to photo stack. A winter project for members ! The images we were shown to illustrate the technique included a nettle stinging tubular hair and tiny water worms.
There was abundant praise and applause from members who are already asking when can he come again .
On Saturday 3rd November, several members travelled down to South Wales to support our entry in the Pixels Competition organised by Gwynfa Camera Club . It was a notably good day for Tenby who, with 77 points from a possible 80, were clear winners. They are the first club to win this competition 3 times in it’s 14 year history so can retain the trophy . The entrants representing Tenby were “Go” by Mike Cullis ( scoring 19) , “Loving Life” by Al Rees ( 20 points}, “Water Rail at Sunrise” by Charlie Kidd ( 18 points ) and “Newly emerged Four Spotted Chaser” by Gary Jenkins ( 20 points ) . The judges were Phil and Gwen Charnock who did a splendid job of assessing 164 entries. Gwynfa Camera Club were superb hosts and many thanks to them from Tenby Camera Club.