Alan Squires on Macro Photogaphy

TENBY AND DISTRICT CAMERA CLUB The chairman, Roy Packer gave a warm welcome to Alan Squires AWPF a member of the Gwynfor camera club. This is Alan’s second visit to the club to talk about macro photography. He introduced the subject explaining to members that he mainly uses a Nikon D3S camera and a Sigma 105 lens, with various flash guns and other pieces of equipment, such as bellows, focus rail and extension tubes. Alan showed a number of digital images of insects, fungi, flowers and even a wrist watch face. He commented that most people do not look too closely at flowers, they view them as a whole, but a flower viewed through a macro lens is fascinating. Flowers, fungi, insects and spiders are incredible creations of nature and Alan portrayed this in his images even in imperfect and damaged flowers and insects. Following a coffee break members were encouraged to have a go at the work stations Alan had set up. As members moved around Alan was on hand to give advice and helpful tips such as to ask yourself what is the main attraction, Is it the colour, the texture, the shape? Does it look better portrayed alone or in a group? Once you have decided, you can concentrate on that particular element, experimenting with different angles and viewpoints. Alan shoots in manual mode and mostly the camera is hand held, with the occasional use of a tripod. While out in the field, he uses his camera bag to rest his camera on to ensure the sharpness and no camera shake, he advocates using reflectors to even out the light and get detail in shadowed areas. 24th October – Judging of Natural History Competition and hand in of black and white entries. 31st October – More than Mountains talk by Tom Dodd and hand in of panels competition.