26th March - Truth & Lies - David Phillips

Dave Phillips is a member of Saltburn Photographic Society and travelled from Hartlepool to deliver his talk, Truth & Lies, to our members. Dave is a judge of Open Exhibition and International Salon competitions. He told us that when he started taking an interest in photography in the early 1980s he produced analogue slides. These images could not be changed from the instant when he had taken the shot. This changed when digital photography was invented in the early 2000s. Digital images can be, and normally are, processed using specialist software and may be changed significantly from the shot which is originally captured. At first, Dave considered the altered images to be "Lies". Although he has certainly come to terms with digital photography over the last quarter of a century, Dave still has some misgivings about the changed images and tends to make relatively few changes to his submissions to competitions.

Dave showed us many digital images from his vast catalogue and demonstrated that he is a passionate and highly versatile photographer. The first images he exhibited were landscapes from the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. He went on to show PDIs which involved a range of water sports, motor sports, horse riding, greyhound racing and football (including a number of shots of his 2 grandsons who have both been on the books of a number of local football clubs, including Hartlepool), landscapes in England and Scotland and a selection of wildlife photographs, particularly involving some stunning images of birds of prey. 

Dave's passion for photography, and the lengths to which he is prepared to go to capture the "right" image, are considerable. He collects his own "props" which he thinks may attract certain forms of wildlife for him to photograph and often spends 13 hours in the field (he said that some photographers "only" spend 6 or 7 hours in the field) to benefit the best possible light for a wildlife shot. He wasn't, for example, going to be put off by the possibility of being cut off by heavy snowfall in Scotland. He is highly skilled, but he also demonstrated that success requires consistently hard work and commitment and a preparedness to "go the extra mile". 

Members were fully engaged and very appreciative of Dave's lengthy presentation, which was embellished by his knowledge, skill, passion, enthusiasm and commitment to his hobby.

Ray Barnes
CCC Programme Secretary