2nd Open Print Competition
Tonight (9th Jan) saw the results of the seasons 2nd Open Print Competition judged by Nigel Bradley, from Ryton Camera Club.
 
Nigel explained that when judging prints he placed them all out in his front room and viewed them over a number of days at different times and lighting conditions. He also asks the opinions of other members of the family before coming to a final judgement.
For today’s competition Nigel said that the standard of prints were very close making his job of judging difficult but that there could only be one winner.
Firstly Nigel provided his comments on the mono prints followed by the colour prints providing his suggestions where the prints could be improved and the areas of the prints which he liked.
Tonight’s congratulations go to Adam Burness for Alex (mono) and to Jim Meikle for Harvest Mouse (colour).

At the end of the evening Nigel was thanked for judging the competition and received a round of applause from the members.
 
A full list of the prints 'placed' and' highly commended' are shown below. To view the images, both colour and mono click ...(HERE)
 
Paul Dunn 
(Print Competition Secretary)


MONO

1st    ‘Alex’                                            Adam Burnes
2nd   ‘The Aliens are Here’                 Alec Cowley
3rd    ‘On the Dark Side’                      Pauline Wison
4th    ‘Looking for the Sun’                 Jim Meikle
5th    ‘Unseen’                                      Paul Dunn


HC   ‘Rich Boys Toy and the Sage’    Alec Cowley
HC   ‘Dahlia’                                          Pauline Wilson
HC   ‘Setting Sail’                                 Bill Leadbitter


COLOUR

1st   ‘Harvest Mouse’                          Jim Meikle
2nd  ‘Bush Cricket on Kingfisher’       Derek Parker
3rd   ‘Flying Scotsman’                       Alec Cowley
4th   ‘Frog on Spadix’                         Jim Meikle
5th   ‘Contemplating’                          Pauline Wison


HC  ‘Mountain Stream’                      Jim Meikle
HC  ‘Upstairs & Downstairs’              Tom Wilson
HC  ‘Halong Bay’                                 Paul Dunn
HC  ‘Grey Backed Camaroptera’       Derek Parker
HC  ‘Old Shed’                                     Paul Dunn

Just a reminder to all that Meetings resume this coming Thursday 2nd Jan 2020, when our first guest of the New Year will be Catherine Ball who will be giving a presentation entitled 'Fine Art Photography'

Sue Hingley

This evening (5th December) we were delighted to welcome as our guest speaker, Sue Hingley ARPS from Whickham Photographic Club.

Sue, ably assisted by her ‘roadie’, otherwise known as husband Steve was at Cramlington CC to talk about her trip with Steve to Vietnam.

Sue & Steve, both self proclaimed to be not the most confident of independent travellers, made the journey to Vietnam in Feb/March of 2016. There they were to embark on a guided railway journey from Hanoi to Saigon using the Unification Railway.

Sue started by explaining how she wanted her photography to capture the essence & reality of the country. How she often ‘grabbed’ quick photographs through train and bus windows when perhaps people were unaware of her presence. 

Sue continued with a short history  of the Unification Railway, how after the war ended in 1975 it only took the Hanoi government until 1976 to get the line operational once more, Replacing the damaged lines and destroyed bridges that were laid waste after some 40 years of conflict.

Sue’s first images showed the bustling city of Hanoi with its ‘old quarter’ where all of life could be seen acted out on its narrow streets.  Every type of business could be found from barbers to butchers to potters, all working on the street in the open air, including domestic chores and washing and eating. Motor cycles, mopeds and scooters in their thousands clogged the streets spewing pollutants while the spaghetti like power cables were evident everywhere.

Sue has a passion for travel photography and likes nothing better than to capture the local people in their everyday lives, and showed us some lovely portraits, some candid some posed of local children often with their proud mothers and grandmothers.

From Hanoi to Halong Bay with its spectacular rock formations where Sue and Steve spent time on one of the many tourist boats that ply the waters between its some 3000 islands.

Stops at Hue, a beautiful and colourful city on the Perfume River, not so aptly named, with its riverside shacks where the poorest inhabitants live. We were shown impressive images of the Citadel at Hue and The Temple and Pagoda of the Celestial Lady.

On we travelled through Danang, once the home of a large US Airbase to Nha Trang now a prosperous upmarket holiday resort but still with the poorest of society living in riverside shacks.

Sue & Steve’s journey ended at Saigon. Once a city devastated by war that has since been rebuilt into a modern metropolis with stunning office blocks and 5 star hotels.

Sue explained how the gap between rich and poor was at its greatest here and how the war and  the use of defoliants like ‘agent orange’ had devastated the surrounding land turning much of it into a wasteland where crops failed and livestock starved.

Sue told how sadly the effects of the defoliants used during the war were still evident in the genetic defects seen in some of the children, causing deformities in limbs and other health problems.

Sue gave a wonderful presentation and narrative of their trip to Vietnam with both beautiful digital imagery and a selection of mono prints for the audience to enjoy.

At the end of her presentation Sue stayed to answer questions from the members and received their thanks by way of a well earned round of applause.

Bob Finlay (President)

​

2019 NCPF Awards

The 2019 NCPF Awards were held at Clara Vale on Sunday (24th Nov).  Both Colin Livingstone and I were lucky enough to be awarded trophies for photographs we submitted to the NCPF for judging.

Colin carried off the ‘World Cup Trophy’ for the best sports themed print for ‘No3’, while I was awarded the ‘Eagle Trophy’ for the best sports themed PDI for ‘No1’.

Other awards were as follows.

NCPF Portfolio Selection for Annual PDI Competition

‘Lying Lion’.                     Paul Dunn
‘Staithes Mooring’.        Paul Dunn
‘Arcot Sunrise’.               Bob Finlay


Bob Finlay (President)

​

 Colin and I after receiving our trophies.
​

Tonight (21st Nov) we had two knockout competitions a PDI battle based loosely on a theme of “steel” and a smart phone challenge which had had to be postponed from two weeks previously due to computer problems.

There were 41 entries for the PDI battle with a very wide range of subjects. The final four images were, Locked, Looking up to an angel, Train wheels and Drive shaft. The winner was Drive shaft by Bill Stephens, second place was Locked by John Ridley. Third equal were Train wheels by Peter Moody and Looking up to an angel by tom Wilson.

For the smart phone challenge there were 30 entries, slightly less than the PDI battle perhaps showing that members are more likely to use their cameras rather than their smartphones to capture images. The final four images were Bridge of sighs, Quayside sunset, Smallholme Tower and  Yellow Rose. The winner was Quayside sunset by Lauren Dunn, second place Yellow rose also by Lauren Dunn. Third equal were Bridge of Sighs by John Ridley and Smallholme Tower by Bill Meikle.

Many of the choices in rounds of both competitions were very close indeed and there were some excellent images to see. Thank you to all the members who contributed to an enjoyable night. 

Iain Chambers ( PDI Secretary )

​

 Winner PDI Battle  "Drive Shaft".  Bill Stephens
​

 Winner Smartphone Challenge. "Quayside Sunset" Lauren Dunn

Thursday 7th November saw the results of the First Open PDI competition.
Our judge for this event was Keith Archer (CPAGB) from Ryton and District Camera Club.  Keith is a past President of Ryton CC and is in his first year of judging club competitions.

There was the largest entry for some considerable time with 57 images submitted with a wide range of subjects and themes. Keith was able to clearly critique the images and explain his opinion of each one, often making constructive observations & suggestions on how the image could be improved.
​
Many thanks to Keith for his judging skills. Thanks to all who entered images and well done to all who were placed or received highly commended.

The top 5 images can be viewed.....(HERE)


Iain Chambers (PDI Secretary)
 
The results (five placed images and five highly commended) were are follows

1st    Well read                            Bill Stephens
2nd    Taking a breather            Liz Lockey
3rd     Splash                               Colin Livingston
4th     Stepping out                    Alex Cowley
5th     Lifelines                            Lauren Dunn       
 
Highly Commended
Paper and Petals                       Julia Robson
Snow Storm Approaching        Lauren Dunn
Dream Machine                         Jim Meikle
Starburst                                     Alec Cowley
Disneyworld Montage               Brian Vandemast

​

Gerald Chamberlin

This week (24th Oct) we were delighted to welcome as our guest speaker Gerald Chamberlin EFIAP, DPAGB.

Gerald lives in Cumbria and is Chairman of Morton Photographic Society. Gerald is passionate about black and white photography and lately infrared photography.

Gerald had entitled his talk ‘My World in Black and White’ and it would include both print and digital media.

Although Gerald describes himself as ‘not a landscape photographer’ he has a passion, through his love of fell walking and bike riding of everything to do with the outdoors, especially the Lake District.

As the title of his talk would suggest all the photographs, both print and digital would be monochrome with perhaps just a hint of colour in the odd one.

Gerald likes his pictures to tell a story and he likes to spend time ‘building’ these stories, often returning to the same image many times over using Photoshop to edit, often meticulously  replacing the backgrounds and backdrops to an image where he felt the original didn’t work.

This evening we were treated to some stunning black & white images, both print and digital were topnotch.  The prints beautifully printed, mounted and presented.

From images of the Lake District and Tanfield Railway to trips to Nantwich and Aberdeen following the actors from ‘The Sealed Knot’, an historical association dedicated to reenactment of English civil war battles that provided some stunning images. Locations such as Blist Hill and our own Beamish provided inspiration for more quality images.  One in particular taken at the Edinburgh Fringe of a couple of black ‘slaves’ was, in addition to the quality of the image, quite thought provoking. 

The second part of Gerald’s presentation entitled ‘Something Different’ concerned infrared photography. Gerald explained how he had an old Nikon D200 converted to infrared at a cost of around £200 and how he found infrared to be a steep learning curve and a learning curve he is still on.

Unlike some of the traditional infrared images many of us have seen where only white, black and greys are visible, Gerald’s images contained subtle almost sepia tones and in some cases hints of blues and yellows.

A trip to Sweden, where Gerald has friends who have an equestrian farm in the forrest provided an opportunity to experiment with infrared on the many interesting, unusual and beautiful locations and subjects available. Old wrecked cars hidden amongst the trees in the forrest, a sculpture park with some huge exhibits. An old house in the woods, the ‘Badger House’, abandoned and left almost as a time capsule.  Gerald also related how some of his infrared images when entered into competitions often fooled the judges who would comment on how well the snow and ice had been captured on the trees and grass oblivious to the fact that it was probably taken mid summer.

Gerald finished the evening with a brief explanation on his editing workflow for infrared using Photoshop.

Gerald stayed to answer questions from the members who then were able to view the prints he had brought to display.

We thank Gerald first for making a none to inconsiderable journey to be with us this evening and for delivering an excellent presentation backed up with beautiful images and prints.​

Bob Finlay (President)