Dave started taking photographs after being impressed by his cousin’s photographic efforts and went on to become a self taught award winning photographer which included becoming DVLA Bike Vista photographer of the year 2009.
Dave would avoid using flash and only use natural light to take photographs as he felt he didn’t understand the concept of flash photography, but after taking a picture of a motorbike and using the flash to fill in a darkened area a bulb went on in Dave’s head and the rest is history.
Initially starting out with one flash Dave found he was needing to take multiple photographs to fill out all the darkened areas and then merging the end results into a single picture with some amazing but time consuming results. Dave explained how he has moved onto three flashes and has modified a monopod to accept a flash that can be held above head height and cast light down onto the subject.
We were shown portraits, landscapes, urban, Whitby Goths, classic cars, motorbikes, rotting boats on the Isle of Mull and numerous other types of photographs taken using the strobist process which impressed the members and we found the room starting to buzz with discussions on buying more flashes etc.
Dave finished the evening by showing some of his photographs including strobist images, grizzly bears taken in Alaska, Wolves in Aviemore and a beautiful time lapse video of the sky from Roker.
The club would like to thank Dave for taking the time out to talk to us and inspire a new type of photography.
Visit Dave’s site at www.dave-fletcher.co.uk
A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!” The tense man sitting in the pilot’s seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.
“Fly over the north side of the fire, ” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.”
“Why?” asked the nervous pilot.
“Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I’m a photographer, and photographers take pictures!”
The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?”