Retrospective

Stephen is a freelance photographer, a member of both Marlow Camera Club and Amersham Photographic Society, a CACC judge (since 2017), and speaker.  He is also the Social Media Coordinator and a committee member of the Digital Imaging Group, the Visual Art Group, and the Thames Valley Region of the RPS.  Similarly, he is also the Social Media Coordinator and a committee member of the CACC.

With an IT industry background, Stephen is interested in bringing art, photography, and computing together.  More specifically, his many and various interests include the neuroscience of photography, portraiture, creative art, action, macro, underwater, natural history, focus stacking, landscapes and seascapes, triptychs and panels, and HDR!  He currently uses a Nikon Z8 (a pro-level, full-frame, 45.7MP, mirrorless), a Nikon Z6iii (a full-frame, 24.5MP, mirrorless), and his mobile phone.

His photographic aim is to create his own unique style of attractive, impactful, and compelling images.  But, in all his photographic endeavours, he is also keen to inspire other photographers to go out there and take more and better photos

Steven has visited us on numerous occasions both as a speaker and a judge.

A “retrospective” is a compilation showing the development of an artist’s work over a period of time.  So this “excuse to go through my old photos” was a fascinating and enjoyable journey through Steven’s best images to date.

He told us about his influences.  These included his father (a prolific photographer), television programmes (of the 1960s, such as “Daktari”), films, art in general (but particularly the National Portrait Gallery), and posters.  Not surprisingly, therefore, our photographic wander through his back catalogue encompassed an eclectic mix.

There was:

• Humour (eg, interesting juxtapositions);
• Sport (all sorts including football, rugby, sumo, motorsport, skiing, water sports, and ploughing!);
• Portraiture (including retro, steampunk, fashion, and burlesque);
• Street;
• Travel (all over the place including Thailand, Australia, Singapore, and Finland);
• Architecture (in the UK and abroad and taking both horizontal and vertical panoramas both with his cameras and with his mobile phone);
• Aerospace (including the Kennedy Space Center, gliders, biplanes, Spitfires, Lancasters, and hot air ballooning);
• Natural history (all sorts, large and small, including botany, pets, underwater, bugs, birds, mammals, reptiles);
• Music (especially his local festivals Pub in the Park and Rock Bottom in Marlow and Rewind in Henley); and
• Visual art (using all sorts of in-camera and post-processing techniques to create interesting effects).

Indeed, along the way Steven amply demonstrated his many camera and post-processing skills.  These included multiple exposures, panning, panoramas, composites, photo stacking, focus stacking, HDR, and macro.

Steven’s entertaining presentation covered many aspects of photography and was lavishly illustrated with a multitude of projected images (many with camara settings etc shown) as well as a display of many prints.  And Steven packed a huge amount into the time available with lots of information and stories.  There was much to stimulate our own creativity.

More of Steven’s work can be found on his website https://stevengalvin.photography/

And Steven is also on Facebook, Flickr and Instagram.