We always know when Andy comes to the club that we will have an entertaining and informative evening and this was no exception. Andy split the evening into sections beginning with birds with some great images ranging from short eared owls in flight to curlews that have started to become an endangered species. This year was also the first for a while that waxwings have revisited the UK and there were some very nice images of them eating their favourite rowan berries.
Andy continued with a section on fungi. Last autumn had been a good one for fungi and Andy had many images that were taken very locally at Bricket Wood Common. There were some great images following the life cycle of a wrinkled peach fungus growing on a rotting elm trunk and several images of different mycena species.
The third section was on insects, a favourite area of Andy's. Quite clearly one of the best times to photograph insects is very early morning during summer when they haven't warmed up, are covered in dew and are static – perfect for insomniacs!
The final session was devoted to the fascinating subject of slime moulds. This has been an obsession of Andy's for the last few years and the quality of his images has been outstanding. This is a world that we would never normally see with a naked eye but with the help of his Olympus OM system and macro setup together with focus stacking the beauty of these organisms is apparent. By photographing over a period of just a few hours they can change dramatically in form and colour.
The club would like to thank Andy for another great talk.
Chris Gilbert