A club visit to the Orange Lane Studios in Norwood enabled participants (about 15) to meet Mike Connell (founding partner) and share his enthusiasm and extensive knowlodge of photography.
I particularly enjoyed Mike's openness to discuss various aspects of photography from shooting fine art photographs on film to the latest trends in digital manipulation. Mike shared with us the some of the aspects of commercial photography including meeting customer expectations within the limits of technology and cost restraints.
The later part of the evening was eye opening as Mike shared with us the practical shooting of motor vehicles in the studio and the "construction" of the image in photoshop to the realization of the image we viewed on screen.
We were treated to a slide show of various photographs of "Living Design" - architectural interiors etc. Mike explained how he "engineered" the light to lead the viewer through the images of the various rooms within the homes he shoots.
A demo on the computer explained how Mike uses aspects of lighting and composition in his photography. A breif explaination of a couple of photoshop techniques rounded off the evining nicely and left a few of us rather reluctant to leave.
Thanks Mike for your enthusiasim and inspiration.
Cheers
Andy Smylie
ps: images courtesy of Mike Tapping
