Following the Fujifilm Raffle draw after lunch, Simon Woolf was the next featured speaker. He spoke first on “Images of Hope and Dignity” – a journey where he had documented life in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, highlighting the impacts of HIV-Aids, women, children and poverty. Following that was a very personal, and very moving, story of going to Europe and visiting sites where family members had been killed in the Holocaust.
The third part of his presentation was a fascinating insight into his role, protocols, and how he handled photography for the recent Royal Tour. He showed many photographs which had not otherwise been seen, and discussed and handed around “that photograph” which had gone viral around the world, reputedly been viewed more than a billion times and a framed copy of which had been presented to the Royals when they departed NZ.
After seeing the top Wiltshire AV sets, we all went in different directions for Workshops. I managed to find out more about the onONe Perfect Suite in a group led by Tony Bridge, while other workshops covered subjects such as Canon Custom functions, advanced Photoshop triptychs for dummies, and a panel providing tips on Natural History photography.
At an optional evening session in Blenheim’s Millennium Gallery many of us socialised and viewed the impressive large prints in the ND5 Exhibition “At the Edge of Light”. Jenny Dey seemed to be especially enjoying herself, and says hi to everyone. 🙂
Simon Woolf then introduced Peter Eastway to give a talk about ND5 and their work to produce exhibitions such as this.
Peter’s talk was a real treat — not your normal five minutes once over lightly. He started off showing a hilarious video about how the five friends do their work, including Bonus Tips such as “Tip #4 – Don’t Steal Your Mate’s Shot”. Then he showed and talked about many other images and how they travelled and photographed from planes and vehicles.
The final optional event for the evening was a dinner at Wither Hills Winery. Question: What could go wrong with a dinner in a winery. Answer: Nothing. The food and wine was fantastic. A great evening was had by all there, as was I’m sure the case with all the other groups that would have got together elsewhere last night to share their experiences of the day.
