www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Congratulations to Pete Eeles, Mike Young, Roger Buchanan, Maurice Pugh, Adrian Riley and Lynn Fomison for putting on a really memorable Photographic Workshop today. We were treated to some excellent and knowledgeable presentations in a superb venue and had some entertaining interplay between presenters and audience. I'm sure every one who attended learnt something. It was a fantastic day only slightly spoilt by the weather.

Well done everyone. I can't wait for the next one!!

Robin

Yes, it was such a great day. I learnt a lot, had a laugh or two and didn't fidget in my chair (well, we were sitting down a long time). It passed by too quickly but I guess that is a sign of concentration and enjoyment.

Many thanks to all concerned in organising such a wonderful day. You might like to consider charging more next time; I would happily have paid double!!!

Polly

Congratulations to Pete Eeles, Mike Young, Roger Buchanan, Maurice Pugh, Adrian Riley and Lynn Fomison for putting on a really memorable Photographic Workshop today. We were treated to some excellent and knowledgeable presentations in a superb venue and had some entertaining interplay between presenters and audience. I'm sure every one who attended learnt something. It was a fantastic day only slightly spoilt by the weather.

Well done everyone. I can't wait for the next one!!

Ditto to the above, a brilliant day, and a lot of hard work put in by the presenters.
I also thought Adrian Riley was a great character and was kind enough to do a bit of book signing.

Cheers Mike for letting me play with your camera gear.

Yes to all of that! A most enjoyable day, Pete and Mike!

I enjoyed all of the presentations, with their own slant and experience to offer, and from each I have taken away something to use or think about (or spend money on!) in the coming season, and I can't wait for it to begin.

If I weren't so damned shy, I'd have spoken to more of you!

Thanks again to you both and all your contributors!

Bryan

Robin[/quote]

Gwenhwyfar wrote:

Congratulations to Pete Eeles, Mike Young, Roger Buchanan, Maurice Pugh, Adrian Riley and Lynn Fomison for putting on a really memorable Photographic Workshop today. We were treated to some excellent and knowledgeable presentations in a superb venue and had some entertaining interplay between presenters and audience. I'm sure every one who attended learnt something. It was a fantastic day only slightly spoilt by the weather.

Well done everyone. I can't wait for the next one!!

Ditto to the above, a brilliant day, and a lot of hard work put in by the presenters.
I also thought Adrian Riley was a great character and was kind enough to do a bit of book signing.

I totally agree. Great day, good company and I learnt a lot. I would just like to also say thanks to Gary and Lisa for the lifts to and from Salisbury, very much appreciated.

I can't wait for the season to start so that I can put my new skills (I hope) into practice. I hope to run into a few of you in the field in the coming months.

Cheers
Denise

A truly magnificent day where we were all treated to a photographic master class.
All concerned are to be congratulated and thanked for providing us with such proffesionalism regarding the art of photography.
It wasn't the weather that depressed me,more the thought of the "good" photographs that will now be assigned to the recycle bin.
Roll on the good weather when hopefully some of the vast knowledge provided can be applied.
A great day in great company.

Cheers

Colin

Agree with all the above. I made the 520 mile round trip and thought it was thoroughly worth it!

This is a request for all the northerners to get together and arrange something similar!

Thanks Pete, Mike, Adrian, Maurice, Lynn and Roger!

Chris

A really good day, nice to see some old friends and to meet a few new people from this forum, shame that I didn't bump in to shy Brian H. My favourite part was when Pete and Co were praising up a picture thinking it was Lisa's, only for that praise to turn too collective groans, when they found out it was mine.

Gruditch

Oh, Gruditch you are that Gary !!!!!!!!! I wish I had realised as I would have said hullo.
Maybe we should have had our user names on the labels

Polly (user name Polly )

Thanks for the kind comments all. I can tell you that the organisers were also very pleased that the workshop seemed to go so well (despite the weather) and I think we all learned a lot from each other - which was the whole point of arranging this.

I hope you all had a safe journey home and look forward to bumping into you "in the field" sometime this year!

Cheers,

- Pete

Chris wrote:Agree with all the above. I made the 520 mile round trip and thought it was thoroughly worth it!

This is a request for all the northerners to get together and arrange something similar!

Thanks Pete, Mike, Adrian, Maurice, Lynn and Roger!

Chris

Thanks Chris - and you win the prize for travelling the furthest

If you do want to organise something further north then you're more than welcome to use the slides we've created (which I'll post up on the website soon). Depending on date and location, some of us "southerners" might be able to make it (and help out) too since, as Adrian Riley ably demonstrated, you have some very interesting species and subspecies up your way

Cheers,

- Pete

I have to echo all the sentiments above.
Fabulous day, great company - just a shame there was not more time as there were many there I would have liked to have chatted with.
Next time - Names and Nicknames and Avatars on Badges?
Maurice - I will start using a tripod - I promise! Your photos are the standard we must all strive ofr.
Pete - I really learnt a lot about digital worklflow etc. It was what I went for and it was what I got!! Excellent presentation.
Mike - Thanks for putting me up (or should that be putting up with me?) and a great presentation. That NIkon stuff is pretty good isn''t it!?
Roger - a natural Chair, great enthusiast, and good chap.
Next time -
More time and participation for the critique session at the end. Probably the most informative part of the day.
Better weather and some real butterflies?
A "My Gear" show and tell session?
Display of mounted photographs.
A competition on the day?
Make sure my name is on the list (even if it is oop 't nooorth).
Thanks again everyone.
Roger Harding

Thanks for all the nice comments folks, pleased you all enjoyed the day, I was chuffed at how well it all went, it great to meet old friends again, also to meet loads of new ones.
I really enjoyed the day (once I done my bit) and would like to congratulate all the other speakers on their terrific presentations. So thanks Pete , Adrian, Roger and Maurice.
Thanks also to Lynne, it was a great same the weather did the dirty on us for your planned trip down to Bentley meadow.
Last but not least I'd like to thank everyone who attended and made the whole thing such a resounding success.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the positive comments, it was nice to put faces to names. I enjoyed meeting with old friends, making new aquaintancies.

May I say a big thank you to Pete and Mike for the great organisation, to Roger for his presentation and to Lyn for putting up with the weather. The day went very well. I'm looking forward to the "next one" and I hope it will be just as successful.

Good luck for the coming butterfly season, get out there and take lots of beautiful photographs.

Cheers

Maurice

I would dearly have loved to be at the meeting but my mother-in-law's funeral was the day before and we had the whole family with us on the Saturday. I hope there will be a repeat workshop.
I cannot wait to use my new Sigma 150mm macro lens to see if I can get a few more votes in the monthly competitions.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful photos each month.

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate circumstances Ian.

For you, and everyone else that was unable to attend, I can pretty much guarantee that we'll be running something similar next year since the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, although maybe a little later in the year so that we have a better chance of good weather, and maybe some butterflies!

Cheers,

- Pete

Like Robin I enjoyed the Photographic Worksop immensely. One of the lectures at the photographic day did not instruct us in the intricacies of camera or computer settings or tempt us with an array of gear that we will now be saving up to buy or supply tips to achieve perfect photos (with use of a tripod of course.)

The lecture from Adrian Riley of "British and Irish Butterflies", and "Arrivals and Rivals; a Birding Oddity" fame was quite quite different. No high tech photography here as Adrian brandished his compact camera. He obviously enjoyed the usual response of “ You didn’t take those pictures with that” for indeed the photos in "British and Irish Butterflies" are excellent. Adrian sought to inspire us to approach our photography or indeed any project by describing his approach

With great humour he shared with us his personal recipe for success.

· Don’t choose to do something that is too easy. You will fail. You will get bored and the task will not be completed. Hence he did not go for the “easy” option of getting round all the British Butterflies – his target was all the sub species too.
· Set a deadline. Without a deadline things have a habit of not getting finished.
· Do not let anyone tell you something is impossible and go to extreme lengths to avoid it being impossible. Adrian described his experiences of nearly dying from hypothermia, of suffering a mild stroke and of almost preferring to remain in an Irish bog at the expense of getting to the airport on time – all to acquire a much-sought-after image of a sub-species!
· Increase your chances of success by planning thoroughly. So, prepare in advance by making sure you know exactly what your target species look like and by compiling a checklist of the species and shots you need to ensure that you do actually get them.
· Have a good awareness of the behaviour of species so that you can find them. Here Adrian described his lack of luck in finding a particular female butterfly. But by watching where the males were landing he then found the females walking along the ground!

I did not take any notes as he spoke but it was these points that were memorable and indeed inspirational.

Thanks Lynn.

One thing I forgot to mention - we raised £100 for BC (after expenses for hiring the hall etc. had been taken into account). So - well done all

Cheers,

- Pete

Can I belatedly offer my congratulations to Pete and Mike and the rest of the team for organising such an excellent workshop last week. Amongst the array of fine equipment was a Canon EOS30D with a MR-24EX twin flash fitted with dinky Sto-fen like diffusers. Unfortunately I was unable to identify the owner before they were packed away. I have used one of these macro flashes since they were first introduced but have not seen those diffusers before and have yet to identify a source. Could the owner tell me where I could obtain a set?

Thanks,
Terry Hotten

They are Stofen OM-24X Diffusers.
I got them from-
http://www.warehouseexpress.co.uk
About £23.00 IIRC.
HTH
Roger Harding