Exhibition Success – Geoff Robinson
On Tuesday 20th January 2009 Geoff Robinson showed us the great range of his images which have been successful in national and international competitions. The images varied widely in content, though some were well known to club members having been successful in our own club competitions. The Road Rage concept had done well (with Road Rage 1 and 2) Character Portraits had equally flourished. Geoff’s opening image was The Guardian, and Geoff explained how he had to persuade the man to stop smiling and look fierce. Other characters included the Boatman, and the Civil War Man (captured, I believe at Tatton Park!) He always asked the object of his attention if there was any objection to being photographed – though in many situations it was clear that they had dressed up with this purpose in mind.
Locations varied from Crich, Ironbridge, Rudyard Lake or Dudley in this country to Venice, Bruges , Barcelona, Rome and all the other places the NCPS has visited over the years. Many of the images were basically straight shots tweaked a little in Photoshop, though Geoff admitted to adding in the odd mannequin if he thought the image was lacking without one. And there were a variety of Montage pictures in which background Rust played an important role. He had found the Lakes Mining Museum a good place to capture Rust. One needed the right basic shape but the rust came in many glorious colours. In a sequence of old (but flying) planes Geoff liked the fact that one could see the pilot. Brian Bower, in the audience nodded approvingly! And the live Red Kite made its obligatory appearance. Some of his misty Rudyard boat images clearly emulated the artist Turner.
With all of his images Geoff was happy to explain his methods of obtaining the final result – the use of Gaussian blur to emphasize motion and the various blending modes to use in the Collage images. He has always been keen on Portraits and the various ways of getting a desired result.
In his vote of thanks President Roger Dye noted that we had seen some stunning images; that Geoff’s willingness to explain his methods had been rewarding; that no-one could be surprised at Geoff’s Competition successes; and that he hoped to persuade him to continue his theme next session.