Thursday 30th November

And now for something entirely different! We were entertained last night by Geoffrey Lee, who with over 30 years in the profession, is a world renown aerospace and defence photographer.  He began his career as a photographic apprentice with British Aerospace and the story he told of his development from then was quite fascinating.  It really was a plane spotters dream (who knew so many of our members could tell one jet from another?) but the arrangements necessary to undertake one of Geoffrey’s sorties to secure air to air photographs knocked any landscape photographers ideas about planning into the very deep shade.

We might worry about windy conditions creating camera shake on our tripods but Geoffrey has to think about how flight speeds generating forces more than 4G will mean he can’t even lift his camera.  The next time the Red Arrows go over (and being close to Goodwood that is a regular occurrence) we will now understand the formations and the manoeuvres – and be even more amazed at simply how close they fly to each other! 

His planning is absolutely meticulous, covering which planes, the formations, the manoeuvres, background, position of the sun, right down to carefully prepared maps of the routes.  A real eye opener with some simply outstanding images and a illuminating video. A quite extraordinary way to earn a living.

A reminder of our alternative Christmas Card on behalf of the Snowdrop Trust where instead of sending each other cards we sign one card and make a donation for the charity instead.  The collection box was beginning to feel a little heavier last night and it will be at the Club for both the two remaining sessions before we break for Christmas.

And don’t forget – the deadline for the next Advance Print Competition is Thursday 4th January the day we reconvene.