An amateur photographer from Portsmouth, Barry Day started out working in colour slides, becoming an ARPS in 1987. Establishing a darkroom over 15 years ago, he began making monochrome prints for club competitions and exhibitions, gaining a Credit distinction with the PAGB in 2001. At this time he switched to digital monochrome, and adding colour in 2009. His main interest is “Faces and Places”. We were privileged to see many of those faces, he knew the name of every one of them, and each image came with a story.
The first part of the evening covered how to find a model. We started with his fellow magistrates, and progressed to the daughter of one of them. At 18, she was just about to go off to university, and her parents wanted a more formal portrait of her. We then heard the stories of several other young adult women, from daughters of friends, to the daughter of a photoshoot organiser, who Barry preferred to the models.
We then looked at a monochrome image of Barry's granddaughter dressed as Alice, looking at a doorway into a large tree-trunk, with her dress colour-popped. When she saw the final print she was mystified as to where the door had come from! (Old Portsmouth).
Barry also recommended the 35-40 female model, saying don't neglect this age group. He had a recent triptych of Rachel, who he had photographed originally back in 1999, as well as other triptychs which had done well at Havant Camera Club.
Moving onto older men, he commented that men make good pictures given the opportunity.
We the moved rapidly on to musicians, who he described as a very rich vein of people to photograph. My favourite image of the evening was in this group, taken of a cellist at Covent Garden. She was apparently looking quite bored as she played a not very demanding part, saw Barry and his camera, and started swaying lyrically as if she was Jacqueline du Pre! Whatever, he managed to create a beautiful image, although he had needed to work hard on the background as it was very overexposed.
Commenting that thespians make good pictures, Barry moved on again, this time to the Southsea Shakespeare Actors. We saw a lovely image of the props manager wearing a crown “in the style of Lord Snowdon”. I can't remember whether it was the same image, or another where the subject had used an old piece of sisal rope to create a moustache and beard, luckily it matched his hair perfectly!
Re-enactments at Fort Cumberland provided some interesting images, then we saw dancers and a gymnast. Apparently, despite a 3 hour photoshoot, the gymnast outlasted the photographers, and managed to do anything they asked her to do.
In the second half, we were shown how to take the images we'd already seen. Sometime working with available light in the great outdoors, Barry had also been on various photography courses, but also reminded us not to neglect pictures close to home. He had several images using reflected light coming in the window from buildings across the road.
A diagram of Barry's daylight studio showed a simple set up, with light coming through french doors, a reflector and a background behind the model, who was turned at about 45º to the camera and tripod. We then saw an image alongside the diagram, which really helped me to understand how this would work. Finally we were afforded a glimpse of Barry's home studio lighting set up, with a softbox, reflector and possible positions for another flash to provide backlighting on the hair, or reflected light off the backdrop. (Ask if you want to see my scribbled versions of these diagrams).
Barry brought portrait photography to life for me, and has made me feel I could try some daylight studio work, if only I can persuade my husband to put french doors in! I particularly enjoyed the tales each image prompted. Several times, Barry had obviously seen a character he liked, and taken their details so he could make their portrait on another day. Definitely food for thought in my own photography.