The Accidental Talk!

I really enjoy giving talks to camera clubs and other organisations. Whereas on social media people will look at a low-resolution image for a few seconds, and then maybe give it a like or a comment, at my talks they spend an evening or even a day looking at A3 and A2-sized prints and also get to hear the how and why I produced a particular image. It’s a really social and interesting experience.

Some people plan new talks in advance, working out what will be in each section of a talk, and even going out to produce new images as required. It probably won’t surprise anybody to hear that the production of my talks is rather more disorganised and organic!

I was the same with some of my distinctions. With my MPAGB I applied in July 2012, with an assessment date of April 2013, not having the required images but knowing that by applying I would be committed to producing them. Also with my MFIAP I asked the FIAP liaison officer about applying on 16th October 2018 and was told I would have to have the panel ready by December 15th of that year. I obviously had no time to create any new images, but in that 2 months I managed to select and edit images, get advice from people, and produce a coherent and balanced successful panel of which I am very proud.

And so it was with my latest print lecture. My first lecture “Have I Got Nudes For You” follows my journey from when I began digital photography to some of my latest distinctions. Then a club asked me back a second time so I created a talk “Nudes Night” with some later images. I was then on Balmedie Beach with the lovely Fawnya Model when I received a phone call asking me back to a club a third time, I didn’t have any new talk planned but came up with the title “Simply Nudes” on the spot and produced around 150 new prints in time for the talk.

I can blame nobody but myself for my latest talk. I was filling in the MCPF form giving details of my talks to go in a handbook for clubs, and on the spur of a moment came up with a new talk “Lulu – A Modern Muse” as I have worked with the lovely Lulu Lockhart so much, and if I can produce a Fellowship and MFIAP panel with our images how hard can it be to produce a full talk!

Of course I now have 3 bookings for this talk, so am busily working on producing new images for it and coming up with a structure. People don’t seem to get bored looking at a whole evening of nudes, so I need to make sure they don’t get bored looking at a whole evening of images of Lulu by creating a diverse range of images :)

Here’s a few from a trip to Ireland a few years ago, I love the super poses Lulu produces.

Some interesting places we found in Corsica.

We always love rocks, as they provide a posing playground for Lulu.

And we quite like indoor locations as well.

And we don’t just visit exotic locations, there’s plenty of great location in the UK

And we even sometimes use a frock!

And you can’t have too many Lulus!

Many thanks to Lulu for all the creativity and hard work she puts into producing these images with me, as well as all the discomfort she endures. I think there’ll be plenty of variety of images when I first give the talk in May in Derby.