Talks, interactive presentations and club workshops.

For camera clubs, art groups, schools, colleges, universities, conferences and festivals.

 

Rob offers a broad range of talks, presentations and club based workshops for audiences of all sizes from less than fifty to conference and festival size audiences in the thousands. Rob has been presenting talks both on photography and education for over fifteen years and is highly versed in giving engaging and interactive talks to promote audience participation. Having presented to hundreds of camera clubs / photographic societies, arts festivals such as the Patchings Festival, The Photography Show at the NEC, The Royal Photographic Society and huge conferences at the Excel in London Rob is comfortable working with a group of any size and focuses on bringing the audience into the presentation.

Below is a high level list of talks, or if you had something more specific in mind I can happily create a new talk for the group. All talks are illustrated by work from various projects and across my portfolio. 

‘The Experiential Landscape’ My most popular talk to date, exploring how as artists / photographers we all bring with us an array of experiences, skills, talents and perceptions that shape the way we see the world and how we respond to it and create from it. This talk tracks and focuses on my 7 year project ‘Dark Visions’ which culminated in a number of acclaimed and successful exhibitions including at the Joe Cornish Gallery. Dark CurrentsDark Currents
'Ardnamurchan Spirit' A journey through Scotland's very own land of fire and ice with a focus on visual story telling across photography, sound and video. DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0122.JPG
‘Sheffield: Psychogeography, photography, projects, creative walking and embracing local’ An interactive talk focused on how we can all develop a local approach to our photography to explore creativity, development, personal connections and associations of space and place as a means to develop our own unique personal vision and reflect on our creative journey. Dark Graffiti IDark Graffiti I
'Why you need to Unlearn photography to further your personal development' A talk exploring how we learn as photographers the technical aspects of the camera and composition but for deeper creative development we need to loose these shackles and unlearn the 'rules' or principles to explore who we are as a creative and where our own passion and personal vision lie.

 

'If you don't like what you see here....... get the funk out!'
Exploring how as photographers we need to focus on following and developing our own creative vision and not be swayed by social media and magazines to only shoot the current trends.
'The value of project based photography for personal photographic and creative development' Exploring how we can embrace a longer form project based approach to our photography to develop ideas and focus deeper beyond the single image. This is a brand new talk specifically designed for the Photography Show at the NEC this year. This talk features a section focusing on my project work with the Drone in my ‘Land Art’ project.
'Drone Photography: new perspectives and creative opportunities' An exploration of my journey back into aerial photography and how I have used it for creative development.
‘What! you don't print?’ Exploring the notion of the photograph as the score but the final print as the performance. Why printing your photography is both hugely rewarding and the best way to learn and develop from your work. Includes a live print element bringing the images to life as the final realised print. We will also explore and demonstrate a range of Fotospeed papers as an ambassador and can offer some discounts on paper on the night or for online order.
'Collaboration across the arts and genres' Exploring how as photographers we can work with other artists to inform our work or develop collaborative projects. Also how we can use and be inspired by other creative outputs to shape and inform our photography.
'Exhibit, exhibit, exhibit!' Exploring why we should be brave and stop our work becoming digital history to bring it to life as an exhibition. Looking at the concepts of solo and collaborative group exhibitions and some of the benefits and pitfalls to be aware of. Thinking about working with traditional and non-traditional art venues and also how we can use our work to support great causes and give something back. But importantly why we shouldn't shy away from getting our work out there.
'Lightroom Live' A live interactive teaching session to explore Lightroom from DAM, through edit to print and digital output. Lead by me (Rob) an accredited Adobe Education Trainer. Adobe_Education_Trainer_badgeAdobe_Education_Trainer_badge
'Journeys in monochrome’ Learning to see and work for black and white both for photographers who aren't as confident in monochrome and also to develop and strengthen visual awareness and compositional skills which can be used by both experienced monochrome workers or traversed across to improve your colour photography. Dark VoyageDark VoyageThe next episode of the 'Dark' series. Image made on the rock shelves of Saltwick Bay with the Admiral Von Tromp lying in it's watery grave.
‘Getting your work published’ A talk exploring strategies, avenues and opportunities to get both your photography and associated writing about your work published.
‘Painting with light and the camera’ A talk exploring alternative techniques and ways of creating using the camera as a paint brush and the landscape as our pallet. Colours IIIColours IIIwww.rkphotographic.com

 

 I also offer some interactive group based sessions of similar length to the talks but focused around working in groups and working towards a goal or target and to develop members thought processes around either their own work, collaborative working, exhibiting as a group and more. Here I will facilitate as opposed to talk for the whole session and it's about bringing each groups ideas and findings to the rest of the group Think of it in terms of a facilitated group brainstorm or 'toolkit in a session' scenario where we can take a theme or subject the group wish to focus on or discuss and break it down and find some methodologies for group creative problem solving. We have used these successfully with many clubs and groups sometimes a few weeks after the 'project based' or 'exhibiting' talks to help the clubs or groups move on to the next step or achieve a target aim they may have. These have also been superbly well received by arts groups in the NHS and education sectors. These are great to get the whole group working together towards common goals or to develop some really vibrant discussion.

 I am also now in the process of defining some more talks / workshop sessions to add to this list but I think there's plenty to choose from for now. All talks are interactive and inclusive by design and all illustrated with work from my archive as well as recent and developing series'.

 As well as the above Lightroom Live session I can also offer a ‘Photoshop Live’, ‘Premier Pro Live’ (video for photographers), ‘Capture One Live’ and even the open source and free software focused ‘DarkTable Live’ amongst other software I am accredited and proficient in teaching.

My fee is £150 plus standard PAGB / RPS mileage at 45p per mile.

All of the above talks can be delivered as live interactive online talks using online meeting technologies both during the period of the COVID-19 restrictions but also anytime if your club is a little further away and travel expenses may be prohibitive. Once the travel and social restrictions are lifted again I will be back to travel all over the UK for talks, no location is an issue for us.

 

For online delivered talks we can either use your technology solution, I know many groups like to use services like Zoom or we can deal with all the technological setup for you and host it on our private Office 365 server via Microsoft Teams or our private YouTube Channel.

There is no additional cost for us to host the talk via our technology and we can stream to a guest list or, after the current social distancing restrictions have been lifted to your usual meeting room via your own laptop / projector and an internet linkup. 

 

Click the book now button below to e-mail us about your requirements for a talk or bespoke workshop for your group or event.