CHRISTINE WIDDALL
Christine is no stranger to North Cheshire, and is always a welcome and enjoyable speaker. She is a Permajet speaker and brought along some samples of their various papers, with some of her printed images + some discount cards. Although she is known, as she admits, more for her people images, her real enjoyment comes from taking landscape and urban images, and that photography isn’t just about competitions. Her advice is to find what you like to do, in her case landscapes, and repeatedly going to the same place, such as the Lake District and go in different weather conditions. Don’t stay at home if it’s pouring down, there could be a break of light, so go out and wait for the light.
Another favourite is architecture especially modern. She was taught photography by her late father, and was advised by him to always keep the sun behind her, but she sometimes feels that shooting into the sun can actually create some dramatic images. With dramatic lighting even ugly buildings can look good.
She’s not a fan of tripods, as prefers to hand hold even when bracketing for hdr effect, but will use them occasionally especially after dark.
She admits to not being a nature photographer, but does enjoy taking nature images especially of birds, either in the garden where she now has her own hide, but now needs a new log for the birds to land on! But has also spent some time at Pikelow Farm in Macclesfield, and her local nature reserve which is great for insects. For competitions she recommends one of the 3 f’s for nature images – feeding, flying or frolicking.
Her people images she bases more on realism rather than being wacky, and finds that her Saddleworth landscapes come in handy for her backgrounds. Christine ended the evening with images from home, especially local scenes in the snow.
Yet again Christine didn’t fail to deliver, but it was nice to see a different side to her that we wouldn’t normally see.
