| News from the Secretary
May 2006 Digital & Optical Show at Marwell Zoo
Sunday 28th May we will be participating in the Digital and Optical Show at Marwell this comming Bank Holiday Sunday. This will be an ideal opportunity for you to get hands on demonstrations of all the latest digital and optical products from most of the leading manufacturers. We will have an exhibition of work, and a chance to talk with members and get advice on a range of subjects. We hope to have a "Digital Surgery", bring you digital prints and get advice on how to improve them or solve problems you may be having. News Flash!....New lifeline for Film!  Well almost, that was the surprise revelation that we had from our talk by leading photographer Kim Taylor at our first meeting of March.
Kim's talk, entitled "The Moving Image" showcased his outstanding work in producing images of moving subjects, especially insects and birds using very high speed flash techniques. This requires the use of specialist equipment, which Kim has made himself, that can achive incredibly short flash durations sufficient to freeze the motion of a bees' wings in flight. Of course, that's only half the story. You then have to get the equipment positioned exactly, persuade the subject to arrive precisely at the right spot, trigger the flash and shutter with millisecond accuracy and no shutter lag, and of course compose the picture as you hope it will come out.....then hope it works. The talk was well attended by 50 of our members, and we all enjoyed the pictures, the explanations and seeing the equipment demonstrated.
 So why the title "News Flash!....New lifeline for Film!"?. Well, Kim pointed out that you cannot do this kind of Photography with digital cameras, as the sensor will pick up a lot of noise whilst the shutter is kept open. The only solution, use a film camera, with a specialised high speed shutter....like Kims!.
The two photos shown here are Copyright of Kim Taylor, and used with permission. If you would like to see more of his work (or you missed our talk and now regret it!!) you can find his website at www.warrenphotographic.co.uk.
Members with a mission... Can you help by taking Photographs at Marwell at short notice, or would you be prepared to help with digital print preparation or restoration?. We aim to set up a register of local members able to respond at short notice to requests from the Zoo staff. Interested?, then contact the secretary. Hot of the press......  Following from the successful Photographic show held at Marwell in 2005 in association with London Camera Exchange. It looks like a repeat event will be staged in 2006. The provisional date is Sunday 28th May.
As before, we look to play a prominent role in this, with members supporting the event on the day, and providing an exhibition of work More details will be announced as soon as we have them, and members wishing to help should contact the Chairman or Secretary. Digital or Film...... We are often asked if the club caters for Digital and/or Film users, and if so at what levels. We welcome both fraternities into the club, and have a range of members using basic compacts up to professional cameras in both digital and film. Which is better? - well that's a difficult question, but it really depends on what you want to do, how quickly and how big!. If you have just acquired a camera, Film or Digital and want to learn more about it, then consider joining a club . It can be a lot more helpful than a pile of books or a formal course. If you have an idea or suggestion for a talk or speaker, event or tutorial for our next season, please let the Secretary know. About this website... This website is exclusively concerned with the photography of the members of Marwell Photographic Group. Wildlife and animal photography is a popular pastime. Most members of our group enjoy this aspect of Photography as their principal photographic subject, so if you are looking for great animal pictures...this is the place to look! Of course we do take other pictures, but as we are based at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, it does tend to dominate our thoughts. | 
