Photography Talks

Presentations for camera clubs and events

Remote Photography Talks

If you're looking for a speaker for your camera club or photography event, please contact me for availability and pricing.

Zoom presentations

Zoom camera club talks and presentations can be delivered with the wonders of the internet directly to your camera club or event. Due to recent events more and more camera clubs have been using these remote meeting services such as Zoom; GoToMeeting and Skype in order for presenters to deliver talks and it also avoids the need for travel expenses.

A great remote meeting service, Zoom is used by many companies across the world to host meetings and speakers so why shouldn’t camera clubs use this great service to deliver a talk or presentation from a speaker who isn’t even in their country! It adds an extra flavour to the club’s meetings. Zoom allows meetings of up to 100 people and you can participate in your lounge on your PC, tablet or smart phone. If you add in a microphone you can also ask questions of the speaker and converse with other members too.

The talk doesn’t have to be delivered during your normal scheduled hours and can be arranged at a mutually convenient time for all involved.

How it works

  • The club organiser or myself send a Zoom link. This link is then sent to interested club members.
  • At the mutually agreed time, we all log on and the lecture is delivered.
  • You will see my Keynote presentation on your screens and hear my voice.
  • Time is made during the break and at the end for a Q&A session.

Of course, you don’t have to use Zoom. Some of the camera clubs and societies that I have presented to have also used the aforementioned GoToMeeting and Skype software. So I’m more than happy to fit in with whichever you feel comfortable using.

Vietnam - Beautiful-Woman Ao Dai - Julian Elliott - Vietnam photo tour.

In person Photography Talks and Presentations

A Kazak Mongolian eagle hunter and his eagle in the Altai near to Bayan Olgii, Mongolia.

Live talks also available

Of course, my camera club talks and presentations don’t have to be delivered remotely. You may also request a photography talk to your club in person. I am regularly on the road and can easily fit in an evening at a camera club to come and present my work. The best thing to do if you want me to be there in person is to send me an enquiry via my contact form.

Please Choose a topic

Available talks either in person or remote

A monk turns a prayer wheel

Breathless in Nepal

In April 2022, I made the journey into Nepal taking in some of the festivities around the New Year. But the main purpose of my trip was to go to Upper Mustang. An autonomous region up at the Chinese border, going to Upper Mustang is like stepping back in time. It also comes with complexities too which just adds to the experience. This talk will talk you through the ins and outs of this epic journey into a little visited area of Nepal.

St Johann, Val di Funes, Dolomites.

Bella Italia

The beautiful country that is Italy. Having visited over 30 times I’ve come to see certain areas as favourites. The country is, of course, beautiful all over but for landscape photographers, certain areas shine such as the Dolomites and Tuscany. This talk will show you how I have photographed these two stunning areas of Italy as well as what goes into the planning of my images.

Registan Square at night in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Circumnavigating Uzbekistan – Journey with me through Uzbekistan as I show you how I photographed the people and architecture of this stunning Central Asian country. In August 2021 I was lucky enough to be invited to photograph the country over three and a half weeks. The trip was sponsored by various people including the Ministry of Tourism for Uzbekistan.

Autumn color in Daigo-ji temple Kyoto, Japan. Founded in the early Heian period, Daigo-ji temple was founded by Rigen-daishi. It has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as well as being part of the National Treasures of Japan.

Japan in Autumn

A Japanese Autumn – A talk centred around my first trip to Japan in the autumn of 2018 to capture the fall colours. The talk will explain how I captured the images as well as the planning etc that went into it.

Modern high rise buidings at night in Osaka, Japan.

Japanese cityscapes

From Buddha to Blade Runner – Explore the old architecture of Japan to the newest. Starting in Himeji with its famous castle, going to Kyoto with its beautiful temples the talk ends in Tokyo with Blade Runner’esque architecture.

Mongolia

From the landscape to eagle hunters – take a journey across Mongolia from the famous Steppe landscape to the eagle hunters of the Altai region in western Mongolia.

A street vendor walks through Hoi An's old town, Vietnam.

Stuck in Vietnam

A talk about my very first trip to Vietnam. What happened when an “incident” forced an extended stay in the country and how I overcame the challenges.

Pia Glacier in the Fjords of Patagonia

Patagonia

Journey to the end of the World – The Fjords of Patagonia

Hathersage Moor from Over Owler Tor. An upland area in the North West of England, the Peak District national park includes parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. It is known for its breathtaking views and geology.

UK Across the Seasons

Created for clubs outside of the UK as a journey through Britain’s landscape.

Upcoming photography talks and presentations

Here is a list of all the upcoming talks I have scheduled, so you can get an idea of my availability should you wish to book a talk for your camera club or event. If I don’t have a talk on the date you are thinking about, then please use the contact form to enquire.

Photography Talk Enquiries

Please use this form to get in touch if you would like to book one of my talks, or use the contact information below.

Feedback on my Photography Talks

Julian gave our club a most interesting talk on his experience creating a portfolio of photographs for use as publicity material for an Antarctic cruise line.  Not only was the subject fascinating, but the images themselves, sometimes taken in extremely challenging conditions, were of a very high quality

On Monday April 27th we welcomed Julian Elliott to the Wrexham and District Photographic Society to give a presentation on his travels through Mongolia.

Julian lives in France so would not normally have been in a position to give his presentation at our club. Due to the Covid 19 virus our club sessions had to be cancelled so we arranged with Julian to do his presentation using the ZOOM app. This went extremely well with 20 of our members on line watching his presentation.

Julian is a very accomplished photographer with a keen eye for detail and being a confident warm and friendly speaker, the evening was a great success.

His images gave a true reflection of how vast and diverse Mongolia is and his images of the landscape and Mongolian horseback people were amazing.

If the situation changes and Julian is residing in the UK we would definitely call on him again.

 

I am the programme organiser for my local camera club in Blackburn. Obviously the current situation poses many challenges for us all but as a club we were determined to continue holding meetings and decided to use Zoom for that purpose. We received a very timely email from Julian offering his services for such meetings. I emailed him and his response was quick, efficient and very helpful. Julian presented his talk on the Patagonian Fjords to us just 3 days after my initial contact. None of us knew Julians work from before apart from what we saw on his web site. His talk ended up being a real treat!  He gave very interesting insight into the challenges of being a professional photographer and the problems of taking photos in challenging circumstances. His images were stunning both in terms of the subject (amazing sea and landscape) and quality. Julian himself was great – interesting to listen to, friendly, confident with the technology and receptive to questions. He is really keen to get involved in camera clubs and we are all looking forward to seeing Julian and more of his images in the future – either in the real world or the virtual one!

Just a quick note to say that I thoroughly enjoyed your talk to our camera club on Monday the 4th May 2020 on the fjords of Patagonia at Blackburn CC.

Your presenting skills were relaxed, information and friendly, not forgetting your superb photographs which gave an insight into the area and the difficulties that you encountered weather wise during your commission.

I would recommend your talks to other clubs without doubt, I look forward to seeing you in the ‘flesh” so to speak for another of your talks, as this talk was given remotely due to, as we all know, world circumstances.

 

Julian – I am  a member of the Hutt Camera Club, Wellington  New Zealand and listened to your fabulous talk last evening.  Thank you so much for your presentation of the Patagonia adventure.  Very professional – liked the natural photographs – the blue of the glacier ice – the people – the drone photography and the geography of that part of the world.  I learnt so much from the thoroughly enjoyable talk.  Thank you again.

We were so grateful that Julian reached out to us as it was a fantastic option to introduce an overseas speaker we normally wouldn’t have had access to and with the lockdown restrictions it has been challenging keeping club nights going.

He made it very easy to liaise with and put together.  We had around 20 members tune in to the talk who all found it very interesting and there was lots of chat at the end of the presentation as well.  Julian was very friendly and approachable and welcomed queries and discussion.  We all learnt a lot and enjoyed images of a place we haven’t visited before.  Highly recommended to all camera clubs.

 

Julian enthralled us all at the Marlow Camera Club with his talk on Mongolia. It is one of the remote places that few people from the Western world visit but his knowledge of the country truly brought the talk to life. Julian’s images of the landscape were stunning and the vastness of the country really came across. Equally impressive were his portraits of the people and their lives. It was one of the most memorable talks I have heard in a long time.

I enjoyed the talk as we learned about a little known, almost mysterious part of the world as well as some of the stories behind both the images and the people in them. The photography was pretty special too.

Really enjoyed Julian’s presentation last night. Another excellent speaker I love to see at the club. For Julian’s website: As I haven’t travelled much over the years, it was lovely to see photographs of somewhere I had heard of but knew very little about. A great way to hear about their culture and their everyday life first hand through the beautiful photographs

 

I loved the way Mongolia was introduced to the viewer. A nice introduction to the landscape and the people before delving into the Eagle Hunters. I also loved the back story about the accommodation etc. and the connection with the people. Well done Julian on a top class presentation.

Cork Camera Club

Thank you again, Julian, for bringing your program to the Merrimack Valley Camera Club (and friends). It was fabulous!

Merrimack Valley Camera Club, USA

Aperture Woolwich PS hosted a talk by Julian Elliott last night entitled Journey to the end of the World – The fjords of Patagonia.

Julian is based in France so it is only through our current situation we are able to embrace Zoom and reach out to speakers we could never normally afford.

Julian was commissioned by a cruise company for the trip to capture the ship, the crew passengers and of course the amazing scenery. The talk is a really interesting insight to how to shoot to a brief. Julian is a really engaging speaker and the images are of really high standard. He also showed a few images from a trip to Mongolia and I’ve already had members emailing me to book him again !

I’m happy to recommend to all programme secretaries.

On behalf of Sale photographic society many thanks for an enthralling presentation, our members enjoyed very much an interesting and well presented presentation of Mongolia.

You highlighted many facts of the vastness, a sparsely populated destination not so visited by many of us and a great insight into the culture and people of that kingdom,

Your images told us a great story!

Julian’s Mongolia talk delighted our frequently-jaded camera club here in the Washington DC area. He has succeeded in the ultimate goal of travel photography: not just bringing the place to the viewer, but bringing the viewer to the place, instilling a sense of presence and immediacy that brings that distant land to life. His talk drew lots of interested questions from a very engaged audience; he talked about equipment, composition, lighting, exposure, and all the technical aspects of his craft, against a background of history and cultural awareness. We look forward to having him back for a future talk on a similarly thrilling topic.

Julian’s talk went down very well with our camera club members.  They especially enjoyed the action shots of the Mongolian hunters, and we had a lively Q&A session

We are the Queensland Camera Group, a small photography club which has operated out of Brisbane, Australia since 1956.  When COVID19 hit in early 2020 we thought the club would have to close its doors for the first time in almost 65 years.  However as the result of some visionary thinking, tenacity and a little help from some IT technical guru members we were able to be up and running in a virtual capacity, utilising the Zoom online platform, in no time at all.

Operating in this virtual environment opened doors to opportunities we could not have dreamed of previously, including offering access to guest speaker photographers from around the world.  The first international photographer to reach out to us was Julian Elliott, an English freelance travel and landscape photographer who lives in France.  Having an opening in our program and following an incredibly positive reference from a New Zealand club, we took the plunge and engaged Julian, and we were not disappointed.

Julian was extremely engaging and held our interest for 90 minutes with his talk on his recent trips to Mongolia.  He took us on a photographic journey for the city to the remote backblocks of this fascinating country.  His talk was littered with great tips and advice on travel photography to remote and harsh locations and was reinforced the whole time with breathtaking images.  He also stayed online with us for another half and hour after his talk to answer questions to give us ever more great tips.

We would definitely recommend Julian to any photography club or similar wanting to engage a stimulating and engaging guest speaker.

 

Thank you so much for a fantastic presentation and being so patient answering all our questions, not all on photography techniques!!  It was nice to get away from the usual must “go to” locations and see a completely different landscape and way of life.

Thank you for the superb lecture last evening, I do believe this was one of the best set of images I have seen for some while and the story’s behind them was just great. My best wishes for the future.

 

On behalf of Galashiels Camera Club I would like to thank you for inspiring talk ‘Journey to the End of the World’. We really appreciated the time you gave us and I think it probably has to go down as one of our longest meetings ever due to all the members questions and discussion at the end. I think that showed how much we enjoyed it. Alistair has been sharing some of your YouTube recordings to the club Facebook page and we are also enjoying those.

The current situation has allowed us to have speakers from far and wide this season and I suspect when things return to normal we will probably incorporate a few ‘Zoom’ sessions, with speakers from further afield, in our programme each season. It was also great to ‘see’ some members from other local clubs and they have said how much they enjoyed the evening.

Thanks again for joining us and hopefully we can have you back in the future.

First, may I say a big thank you on behalf of everyone who saw your presentation yesterday evening. I have had really positive feedback about how everyone really enjoyed your talk. Your images and your storytelling were superb. You gave us a wonderful insight into a country that is completely off our radar. And what a diverse country it is. As you were probably aware, the eagle hunters were my favourite!! What I wouldn’t give to have images like that.

Many thanks for your talk on Vietnam. I would think it must be one of the most outstanding we have had at our club for a long time as well as great photography and information on how to get about to find great shots.

But for me, and I am sure I speak for other members at the club, I now feel that I must go to Vietnam no matter what.

 

Thanks for the inspiration and insights you gave us tonight. Many of us here in Hot Springs Village do travel a good bit.

I wanted to give an official ‘thank you’ for an excellent talk last night.  You drew the highest attendance of this season! Brilliant photography, interesting and informative.

Very many thanks for giving us so much of your time on Thursday evening.  It was a very relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable presentation, which combined great photographs with a real insight into travelling in such a remote area.

First thank you very much for your presentation it met my expectations and went beyond. Very well put together some very useful information and most importantly for me great images that show your passion for such an amazing place. So once again thank you very much from my self and on behalf of St Austell Camera Club.

The club members and myself, I would like to thank you for your excellent presentation and talk on Thursday evening.

Like a few other members I love northern Italy, and the inspiring images in your presentation made us all want to go out next day and book the first Ryanair flight out there.

 

I, and everyone I have spoken to, really enjoyed your talk – the eagle hunter images were fantastic, of course, but so were your panoramas. And it was fascinating to hear about your journey and a bit about a very different culture.

Thank you also for being so generous with your answers to questions

 

We had a fascinating evening following your travels. It was so interesting to see pictures of a lifestyle and a region new to us all. It was a really enjoyable evening and you kept us all entertained with your stories and photos

H Julian. I just wanted to thank you for an entertaining and interesting presentation on Thursday – I know that members enjoyed it and its created quite a lot of discussion!  We do appreciate you taking the time to be up at 1am in the morning.

Thank you again for your most interesting presentation. You brought to life the landscape of the UK in a more visual way than we had seen before.

Many thanks indeed for a most interesting and stimulating talk and for sharing your wonderful images with us. You also gave us many useful hints and tips to help with photographing people and places.

Thank you for such an inspirational talk. I’m still getting messages from folk saying how much they enjoyed it, and how much they appreciated your generosity and honesty, as well as the phenominal photographs. Unless you’ve actually been to Nepal I don’t think you can have any true idea of the sheer scale of it but you gave us some sense of it tonight and it was awe-inspiring and humbling. Thank you.