On the back of last week's talk from our very own Hugh and Ray on the subject of infrared photography, we had Hugh Rooney back this week, to talk about his black and white FRPS Panel which he achieved in December 2022. FRPS stands for Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. This fellowship distinction requires applicants to submit a body of work consisting of 21 images accompanied by a written statement of intent to describe what your panel is about and include a layout of how the candidate wants the images to be shown.
Hugh told us that it took him about three years to get his fellowship from start to finish with the Covid pandemic being a bit of a hurdle. He has been a member the club for 30 years and has been taking photographs for more than 40 years. He started off taking photos on film working with black and white negs and color slides. Hugh found he didn’t really have the time needed to work in the darkroom. When digital photography came along in the early 2000s it suited him better and, having worked in the tech industry, he took to it like a duck to water. His passion for photography took him on a journey, leaning strongly towards black and white combined with architecture or landscapes. Therefore, it was the combination of black and white and architecture that Hugh decided to build his panel around.
He explained in detail about the process of how to put a panel of images together. The central images were completely symmetrical and he had to get the images on either side all to match up, taking into account the materials and the shape and form of the buildings. After selecting the images that he felt were right Hugh then asked a few individuals, whose opinion he valued, for feedback.
Hughs panel consisted of 21 different images taken in 10 countries from around the world including Japan, America, Berlin, Spain and Scotland to name but a few. It was interesting listening to Hugh talk about the post processing and how much work he actually put into each individual image in his panel.
After his talk about his panel Hugh gave a concise talk on his other black and white images too which have done well in competitions and some even being printed in books. Black and white photography is very clever as it removes the distraction of colour and makes you focus more on the subject and you notice more of the image such as shape, texture and light.
Bangor and North Down camera club would like to thank Hugh on his talk and to congratulate him again on his achievement which was totally deserved.
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