This evening we had the very welcome return of Rosie Armes who has previously given us both an evening show and has judged a competition. Rosie has more distinctions than you can shake a stick at, but to me the most relevant are her FRPS and her MPAGB, of which there are only 115 in existence!! She is a member of the advanced photographers of Chichester CC, which is where we first met her.
The first half of the evening was a travelogue of a trip she took with her husband and others to Yellowstone Park USA in the winter. This was a deliberate choice (most people visit in the fall for the colours) in order to get the pictures that she wanted. Rosie told us later that she always pre-plans the pictures before her trips. She has an opening, a middle and the end, just as you would compiling a book, which is something else she does!
There was very deep snow everywhere and so her party had to be very well protected with the right clothing and they hired the right transport to get them around - a tracked snowmobile. You have to keep to the roads and tracks in Yellowstone, and these are largely kept free of snow.
Rosie mainly showed us landscape pictures, not surprisingly, but although not a wildlife photographer, she took some excellent pictures of the species around at that time. Amongst others there were Bison (which have very strong sculls to enable them to burrow tracks through the deep snow); Deer; Long horned Sheep; Kayote; Rabbits; Red Squirrels; Pine Martin and some very colourful birds including, Bald headed Eagles, Jays, Wild Turkey, Woodpeckers, Raven, and various Finches.
The Landscapes were breathtaking. Mostly they were Black and White because they were predominately the only colours present. There were spectacular Mountains and in quite a high proportion of the pictures there was wonderful white mist swirling around which occurred very early in the morning. The trees were bare and featured very often together with snow shapes sculpted by the wind. In other pictures there was deliberately no detail in the snow. Above all else Rosie is a very talented artist and therefore knows what to include in pictures and what to leave out. There were also pictures of the geysers with the fantastic colours which they generate.
At the interval we enjoyed looking at prints from the trip which were delightful.
In the second part of the evening Rosie showed how she learnt from the early B W images created by experts in the days of film, like Tim Rudman. Rosie never did wet darkroom work, always digital, but she showed us how her predecessors manipulated in the darkroom combining images and introducing other elements. So, she said, do not stand for Photoshop being labeled as cheating!
Then we were treated to other pictures that she had heavily edited, starting with flowers where she had taken a shot of a flowerbed and then isolated a single flower and then put a thin layer of colour on top creating the most beautiful pictures.
Then we saw some pictures of Venice, the Carmargue horses, the old slate mines with their abandoned houses and wealso saw places in London and elsewhere in the Uk. Rosie said she used to wait to take a scene without people; but now she waits to include them, quite often just as a blur, but always creating something original, memorable and interesting.
As Chairlady Anne said, as she thanked Rosie, the whole evening was just inspirational. But, the big shock came afterwards when Rosie revealed that she was giving up photography and moving to France to explore other avenues. What a loss to the photographic world of a true Diva! Whatever she chooses to do you can guarantee that she will excel.