Anderson McBain
Imagefingerprint was privileged to attend a Photography Workshop with renowned Nature Photographer, Mr. Roger Neckles. The workshop which was organized by Eastern Credit Union, was held at one of the islands Recreation Parks and gave participants hands on experience and both Armature and Professional Photographers benefited from Mr. Neckles knowledge and experience. Topics such as composition, particularly as it pertains to wild life, lighting and the most valuable, understanding the features of your camera, were covered.
The reasonably sized group also benefited from this fact, as this allowed the Facilitator to give individual attention as he honestly critiqued our work. Just when you thought you had gotten a really good shot you were told that you had cut off part of the subject, your bird’s eye was not visible or you had not captured the butterfly perpendicularly at all. These were all necessary for a great shot “what good is a butterfly without its antennae asked Mr. Neckles”?
Mr. Neckles (with the cap) can be seen giving tips and guidance to participants in the photos above.
The concept of “making a picture as opposed to taking a picture” was one of the philosophies we were introduced to by Mr. Neckles, who said “when you got accustomed to shooting this way it allows you the luxury of spending less time using photo editing software to crop and adjust your photographs”. Terms such as “shooting Raw” and Bulb Mode were explained and we were encouraged to try these methods, as we were assured that they would improve our photos.
We were divided into two (2) teams and sent off to explore the various trails. 
Our assignment, capture flora, fauna, scenery and even dead and alive things. For example, it is amazing how a dead leaf, can look when caught in the right light and composed properly. I am proud to say I was on the winning team, however, both groups had members who got some pretty good shots or “framers” as Mr. Neckles refereed to them.
Hear are some of the photographs I would have taken on the trail.
The grounds were lovely and so even before we started our assignment I could not resist taking some shots of the flora.
As a Photographer you are constantly learning and the workshop helped to sharpen my skills. The hours were well spent and I must say thank you to Mr. Neckles as the Facilitator, his Assistant and Eastern Credit Union for organizing the workshop. The information gathered was invaluable. Nature photography always screamed bugs and creepy crawlies to me, however, I now have a greater appreciation for Photographers in this sector of the photography world.