Speaker – Tony North – Wednesday 24th November 2021

Our president Emily welcomed this weeks guest speaker Tony North who hails from Manchester and specialises in Landscape and in particular Macro photography.

His talk entitled “ The Art of Macro” was in fact an absorbing and entertaining tutorial on the subject. After introductory remarks he went on to describe in detail his seven Challenges of Macro Photography which he described as 1, Finding and getting close to the subject 2, Depth of field 3, Camera movement 4, Subject movement 5, Light/shutter speed 6, Composition 7, Post processing.

As well as this Tony also passed on snippets of his expert knowledge to help our members improve their Macro skills. He has used a Nikon D500 camera with 105mm 2.8 Macro lens for the last four years and usually uses a tripod. To obtain quality photographs of wildlife he suggested that you find a local location with lots of biodiversity such as wild flower meadows/open woodland or a pond , stream or riverbank. You should walk slowly when you reach your preferred location. When taking your shot you should get down low if possible, be mindful of the time of day, early or late, be aware of where and when your subjects are most active and the air temperature all of which can impact on their movements.

The absolutely stunning closeup photographs that he showed were of insects in particular dragonflies, butterflies and moths. Some of his photographs were backlit to enhance the detail, some were in pin sharp focus with blurred backgrounds and some had more than one subject showing greater colour and texture. As all good things must come to an end the appreciative audience warmly thanked Tony for his time and his insights into Macro photography. For more of Tony’s work see his excellent website Macro photography workshops | Manchester | Art of Macro

Joe Peterson