Two guest photographers this month from the Sheffield Photography Society, Jenny Owen and Eddie Sherwood.
Jennie was the first presenter and had chosen photographs of the “Camargue” as her topic.
Jenny is a fluent French speaker and has been to the Camargue twice in recent years.
As many will know the Camargue is famous for it Flamingos and its horses but perhaps be unaware of a localised breed of cattle which you can see being herded in the picture above. Jenny explained that the horses are tamed and then used by the local farmers to manage the bulls as well as being a feature in festivities.
The horses are semi wild and as you can see in the photo the riders have to be highly skilled to herd them. These skills are much prized by the locals and hence they have become part of the festivities when sometimes the bulls are also part of the demonstration.
The photo Jenny captured of the event called La Ferrade originates from the way that bulls have been traditionally selected from the herd and brought under control. For hundreds of years this method has just involved the skill of the gardians and the use of a long pole called a Trident. The bull is held by a man or men once it is somewhat subdued and then branded before being released back to the herd.
The area that Jenny was exploring also had a festival for three saints and this involved the gardians and their horses. However, the church where the event started was jam packed and very difficult to photograph. Jenny did notice many locals using their phones to record parts of the event and captured one such moment in the photo below.
This event saw the statue carried from the church and down to the water on a platform between the horses, unfortunately the only way to get a good image would have been to enter some fairly deep water which Jenny was not equipped to do!
Fortunately there was a lot more photo opportunities that she was able to capture and the audience were kept well entertained until the presentation came to an end and it was time for a Q&A followed by refreshments.
Eddie was presenting after the drinks break and had “Going Wild at Home” as his chosen theme. He told us that the images he was going to show, represented a learning journey of skill acquisition and experience. They were for the most part, taken on walks around home in the local countryside.
This page is awaiting further images