Here's my report on my first visit to a camera club....
The background to the invitation was simply that I got into conversation with the programme secretary when he and a number of other members came to the Foredown Tower to view the camera obscura (I'm one of the demonstrators). On discovering that I was interested in photography, and preferred to use a large format camera, he invited me to give a talk on large format photography. Which is why I was there.
The notes for the talk, the illustrations, and the projected images can all be viewed via this link.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvzjN1vsy206gsFiJsfWhCFNPk2PZA?e=83UxYW
The alternative to giving a link would be to copy in the text (easy) and then add 31 illustration and 16 further photographs, which would rather swamp this thread! So apologies for that.
On arrival, suitably early, I unpacked and the 20 or so A3 prints I'd brought were displayed in one of the room corners, where they could be viewed as people came in, or indeed during the break.
The title of the talk as I discovered when I was given a copy of this year's programme (the arrangement having been made the year before) was "The World of Large Format Cameras" which is why I started the talk with a reference to a Christmas quiz in Popular Photography magazine from the mid 1960s. "What's the difference between painters and photographers?". They thought for a few moments, and then I gave the answer: "Two painters can meet without talking about brushes". The relevance to the talk title was obvious.
The question "how many have used film" resulted in a near 100% raising of hands, which made life easier as I could at least assume that they knew what you could expect from film - at least in smaller sizes.
I followed the talk outline, with only a few small deviations - a few minor points left out, and a few things added, according to the interest shown. I managed to get through all the topics save the last on after exposure before the tea break. In the last few minutes I suggested that someone might like to try taking a portrait using a large format camera. The programme secretary volunteered, and after the break decided on as much of a group photo as could be fitted in with a standard lens on a 5x7 camera.
The tea break went well, in that I was expected to queue jump to get my tea first. The conversation mainly covered metering, and I think I may have disappointed (and certainly occasioned surprise) when I said that I didn't use the Zone System.
After the break, and the photo, there was just time to use the projector to show another 16 photos which hadn't been brought as prints before it was time to start packing away.
I found it interesting that in conversation with a lady with an American accent that she referred to a photographer who went round the American west with a large format camera, but she couldn't recall the name. I assumed she meant Carlton Watkins, and supplied the name and some details, adding that he's covered the same ground as Ansel Adams but rather earlier. At which point, she said that Ansel Adams was the name she couldn't recall. Edward Weston's name at least was familiar, so all in all a few surprises for me.
I did subsequently receive an email thanking me, and saying that there had been positive feedback on the evening - but I'm inclined to think "they would say that, wouldn't they".
If anyone has looked through the illustrations, they may have seen a large format TLR - a 10x8 Gowlandflex that stood 3 feet high, and could only be carried on a neckstrap by a very tall photographer
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