The Isle of Man Photographic Society enjoyed an excellent evening hearing all about the inside story of professional photography from local well-known commercial, wedding, portrait and press photographer Andrew Barton.
Andrew has qualifications from both the British Institute of Professional Photography and the Master Photographers' Association, and has worked in the Island for many years. Any child in your family, will probably have had a school photo taken by him. Or you may have an Andrew Barton photo of yourself, at your wedding or at work. Often weddings will take all day, following the couple to a location for a sunset shoot for example.
He started his career with a Press agency, but soon began to take work for individual clients. He made our members chuckle with his anecdotes of taking photos of lavishly decorated very fragile cakes, white ice-cream on a white background - a race against time before the product melted, windows for a double-glazing firm, who insisted on there being no reflections showing, food for a hotel, tiny parts of a very expensive disassembled watch, views from house windows or beach shots for estate agents. Street views without recognisable people and scenes from events like firework displays, where the client needed the location to be recognisable or photographing a private plane at the airport and as he has a pilot's licence the owner said he could take it 'anywhere', after the shoot so Andrew suggested somewhere in the UK, but no, he was allowed to taxi it around the airfield, not fly it!
Andrew has photographed many well-known figures, the Bee Gee's, the late Sir Norman Wisdom, Dame Kelly Holmes, Rick Wakeman to name just a few along with various Governors and many of our local politicians. Sadly he says, there is never time to take 'his own' photos, unlike we ordinary club members.
The next meeting of the IOM Photographic Society will be on Wednesday 2nd March when Andrew Cairns will present his images from Japan. All meetings are held at the St John Ambulance HQ on Glencrutchery Road in Douglas, the meetings starting at 7:00pm. Full details of our programme may be found on our Facebook page or on our website. Meetings are open to the public with a modest entry fee for non-members and all will be given a very warm welcome.
Ruth Nicholls
