Review by Mal Holmes
Following on from last weeks ‘ truly amazing’ presentation… Tonight’s Society meeting (18.09.14), saw an even more memorable showing, but this time from Nature Photographer… Steward Ellett.
Steward and his partner, travel the world, photographing nature, for their own personal satisfaction, however they do enter the odd competition or two, and Steward has had some success with many of his images, which have been selected for books, awards and nature organisations.
Although Steward admitted that he was impeded by his personal choice of using Canon Camera’s (I’m sure that’s what he said…. lol, but I may have misheard it) , the lenses he has chosen are of course made to a superb quality and this really showed in the presentation images he decided to show the Society. Steward and his partner both take images on their travels, and they both ‘sport’ Canon APS-C models for reducing the travelling weight, one has a Canon f2:8 70-200mm, whilst the other carries a Canon f2:8 300mm coupled with a 1.4x converter making a 35mm equivalent after the 1.6 crop factor is taken into consideration… to a 672mm lens
Steward began by stating that if members of the Society wanted to make in-roads into nature photography, then they should start by taking photographs of pet’s, animals in zoo’s and country parks etc, this will give photographers a good understanding of how animals react. Many of Steward’s images are taken from vehicles, as he has found the moment you turn the engine off or leave the vehicle animals, especially in the U.K. have a habit of either running away or hiding out of sight, so knowing your subject by researching the species is paramount to a good image…. this was consistent to what our own ‘Nature’ specialist… Society Secretary…. Mike Lawson, has told us in the past when showing his own work.
Steward explained the many ‘tips and tricks’ he uses to get that Stunning nature image, but of course the main one is to have a ‘guide’ with good local and nature knowledge. The sharpness of the images did them both proud, and Steward showed the Society images from U.K. Hungary, California, Arctic, India and Africa to name a few…
The presentation was as varied, as it was informative, and the evening went well over, its usual closing time of 10:00.pm, with no members leaving before the end, which just enforced how popular a showing, tonight’s presentation was… I’m sure Steward will be re-booked by the committee, to show more of his work in the future.
