Martin Cooper LRPS giving his talk; Mono Memories

Here is Martin describing his approach to photography from his website.

“I first took up photography as a child when my Dad bought me my first camera, a Kodak Brownie 127, which I used to snap all sorts of things from my pet Guinea Pigs to school trips. That was replaced by an Ilford Sportsman, my first 35mm camera. I still have it today although it hasn’t been used in decades.

It wasn’t until I joined my first camera club in the ‘80s that I first realised that this could be a serious hobby and so it has developed from there into something of a passion.

I now have a particular interest in landscapes which, from my base in Stroud in the Cotswolds – at the heart of the Five Valleys – seems quite appropriate somehow.

Let’s get one thing clear: I’m not the sort of photographer who gets up in the early hours to get to some distant location at the crack of dawn to catch the first rays of sunlight creeping over yonder hill. Nice though that is, it’s too simplistic for my liking. The most important factor in any image is the content or subject matter before you. So, first and foremost, I choose my subjects very carefully and then make the most of the conditions prevalent at the time – or wait until they are right. That requires patience but it works in the end.

The most important factor in producing any photographic image is does it truly represent not just what you saw at the time but what you felt and experienced? And, of course, do you like it ………?

Many years of effort have paid off over the last couple of years which have seen my first published images in Amateur Photographer and the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year along with a few awards including medals in the 123rd Toronto International Salon and Midphot and various ribbons.

For the record, I have been a member and Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society for many years now and, whilst I value that privilege highly, the most important thing is to get out and take photographs at every opportunity.”

More information on his website here