Rivercities Garden Club

Meeting 2/7/10

Program - Gardening Photography

Most people when taking a photograph look but do not see.  Digital photography makes it easy to take hundreds of pictures and the picture taker hopes that maybe one will turn out if they are looked at all.

Mr. Fletcher Thorne-Thomsen tells a story of how someone commented that he was lucky taking a particular picture but this person didn't know that he had been on his knees over 15 minutes trying to get the specific shot that he had wanted.

Take a picture after  you look.  Take more time to see your subject to get a good photograph. 

Take a good picture and crop it in various ways.   In every picture there are more sub-pictures.  Consider how the new picture might be better or worse than the original. 

He strongly suggests taking time to take a picture.  Go into a gallery and look at pictures of the old masters.  Ask yourself how the artist composed the structure of his pictures.  Notice that the subject is generally not in the center of the picture.  Does the picture allow your eyes to travel about the picture to see the entire picture?

Pay attention to the foreground and background of the picture.  Does reducing the focus of the background accentuate the subject or detract from it?

The Speaker -  Mr. Fletcher Thorne-Thompsen

We are absolutely delighted to have him with us to speak about garden photography.

Mr. Thorne-Thomsen, a  Shreveport resident since 1956, was raised in Gary Indiana, and was educated as a mechanical engineer at Perdue University and had received additional education at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago.

He had a very early start in photography winning an international photo contest at age 14.  Mr. Thorne-Thompsen presented numerous one-man shows around the country including those in Chicago, Dallas Houston, New York City, New Orleans, the Carolinas, Argentina, the Carribean,  and Florida. Is dedicated to the idea of photographic art in hospitals where his photographs have been shown to provide both psychological value and stress relief.

Beginning in 1944 he served for three years in the armored Field artillery in Europe in the third Army of Gen. George S. Patton as a forward observer. and was one of the first Americans present at the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. Active even then in photography he set up laboratories around Germany to process film for the soldiers.

Mr. Thorne-Tomsen has interests extend way beyond photography. Following his education he served in management positions with a number of companies and petroleum and petrochemical industry and was a previous owner of Fab Steel.

He has served as co-chairman of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, a member of the Louisiana Poverty Steering Committee and a board member of the Southern Institute of Education and Research. He is a member of the Centenary Board of Trustees and the Centenary Executive Committee,and worked as as a board member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the American Civil Liberties Union.

The March 10, 2009 Gov. Bobby Jindal awarded him with the Louisiana veterans honor medal as one of the veterans in recognition of their service in the Armed Forces of the United States.

[Home][Rivercities Garden Club]