27-Nov-23: Martin Vaughan ~ Local Wildlife

On 27 November the Club meeting attendees were in for a real treat – Martin Vaughan came along to talk about photographing local wildlife, and we were in for entertainment and surprises.

The evening held our attention as Martin explained the hidden tricks and secrets behind his stunning wildlife shots, inspiring us all with how relatively straightforward the tricks were when you know them, but how masterfully and perfectly executed they were to achieve his award-winning images.

Martin is a local amateur photographer who has certainly mastered his craft; we heard about the projects in and around the National Forest to get not just a ‘Bird On A Stick’ but a stunning photograph of a beautifully captured bird doing something interesting; an inspiration to us all to up our bird photography.

The stories of the work, time, and effort Martin invested getting the perfect shot whether in the forest or in your garden kept us enthralled as we heard about the fails and near-misses along the way, the trials and tribulations, tweaks and adjustments which then culminated in us seeing the finished ‘Wow!’ photograph.

We heard about watching and learning bird behaviour to predict the right moment to press the shutter. We heard about hiding in the bushes to get the right angle for the perfect Great Crested Grebe shot and we sat spellbound hearing how to outsmart a Buzzard in the early morning to bag dynamic ‘bird with its prey’ shots.

The second half of the evening took us through the journey to create the amazing flower panel, explaining how ‘not quite right’ evolved into stunningly perfect flower images we can only dream of and aspire to; but which in essence when we heard the explanation and story behind the images, we all felt we could at least have a go at.

Martin’s talk was informative, entertaining and engaging which hit just the right level for all members and each of us in the audience finished the evening inspired and ready to try some of the ideas ourselves.