Every Spring and Winter Programme, one of the sessions is devoted to members who talk about one of their interests. The Nov 27th session included poetry, photography, geology, the problem of plastics in the se, and marine animal strandings – quite an eclectic range.
Under the title of "Photography" in the natural world, Robert Down covered for beginners the benefits of high ISO settings for fast action photos, and of use of the RAW image to allow adjustment of light levels, shadow and shade, and colour cast, taking in Exe Estuary birds, Baggy Point mesolithic life and geological dicontinuities on the way…..
As a complete change of topic, Marion Elmes introduced members to some of her pictures, and read two poems which beautifully spoke of the predicament of marine animals living with the detritus of mankind.
A change of pace again, with Dr Stan Coates, who, as a professional geologist, gave members a very authoritative overview of the forces (R Centre) over the last 300M-odd years which have shaped the current N Devon coastline. He outlined the range of geological ages represented along our coast, and the effects of faulting and orogenic crumpling which have left us with the distinctive coastscape of upturned strata. He illustrated this with illustrations of the lateral displacement visible at Westward Ho! (R bottom).
On the subject of human debris again, Nicola Mello outlined her researches into the marine plastics problem, and to finish, Dave Jenkins showed members the pictures covering his attendance at many maine strandings over the last year. Dave is in contact with the Zoological Society for each stranding, which decides whether an autopsy is necessary for its research.
Members always appreciate the range of topics, which reflect also the wide range of interests of members.