​This week (17th Jan) we had an “It’s a Knockout” competition. The snow did reduce the audience somewhat but there were 43 images in the field with a wide range of subject matter covered.  

The winning image was “Poser” by Lauren Ashleigh who also achieved second place with “Steetley”. Not content with that Lauen also managed joint third place with “North Pier Sunrise” with “Just a Weed” by Pauline Wilson 

Congratulations to Lauren for such a successful entry and to Pauline for the other placed image.
 
  
Iain Chambers (PDI Secretary)
 
​CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO VIEW FULL SIZE

 First  'Poser'   Lauren Ashleigh

  Second  'Steetley Pier'   Lauren Ashleigh

 3rd (Joint)  'Just a Weed'   Pauline Wilson

 3rd (Joint)  'North Pier Sunrise'   Lauren Ashleigh

Today sadly, we have to report the passing of 3 of our colleagues from camera clubs in our region.

Washington CC have informed us of the death on Jan 15th of Ken Henderson, who had been Chairman & Life President for many years. Ken died in Sunderland Royal Hospital after a short illness.

We have also been informed of the death of Joe Grabham EFIAP/s, Hon Life Member of Durham PS. Joe sadly passed after a long illness courageously  borne.  Joe's funeral will be held on Wednesday 23rd January at St Cuthbert's Church, Old Elvet, Durham at 11.30am.

Sadly we also have to report the passing of Dianne Mckenna  of Amble PG who also died on 11th January. Joe had been a member of Amble PG for 8 years and held the post of Secretary from 2014 to 2018 when ill health forced her to cease those duties.  Dianne's funeral will be held on Friday 25th January at 11.45am at St Cuthbert's Church, Amble.

I'm sure all CCC members will join with me in passing on our sincere condolences  to the family, friends and fellow club members of Ken, Joe & Dianne.

Bob Finlay. (President) 

​PDI Battle - “Heads”, 29th November 2018
 
This week we had a PDI Battle with the subject of “Heads” which was the choice of Lauren Ashleigh who was the winner of the last PDI Battle.
 
There were 46 entries with a choice of subject matter from urinals to sculptures via flowers.
 
The winner on the night was “There’s a bird on my head” by Pauline Wilson. Congratulations to her for a splendid shot. Alan Carr was runner-up with “Metal Man” and in joint third place were “Cheetah” from Paul Dunn and another placed entry from Alan Carr with “Bike Ride”.
 
There were several image choices which were clearly hard to make and the members were split equally in their choice and the casting vote of the President was required to break the deadlock.
 
Congratulations to the winning images and to all the members who submitted images for the evening.
​
Click on each image to view full size.
 
Iain Chambers (PDI Secretary)  

 1st 'There's a Bird on my Head'   Pauline Wilson

 2nd 'Metal Man'   Alan Carr

 3rd 'Cheetah'   Paul Dunn

 4th 'Bike Ride'   Alan Carr

This evening (22nd Nov) we were delighted to welcome Jed Wee back to Cramlington CC.   Jed has been our guest on at least two previous occasions, including acting as a judge for our ‘Chris Crane Cup’ Competition.

For his talk this evening Jed took us on a landscape photography journey through several countries visited by Jed and a companion in recent years.

Sicily was the subject of the first set of images. Jed, with his companion who luckily spoke several languages made their trip to Sicily a few years ago, around February time.  Jed was eager to try and capture the beautiful landscape and see how the light changed the mood of an image when taken at different times of the day. Low evening light increasing the contrast and saturation of both the natural landscape and land turned over to agriculture.  As weather conditions were not always favourable or conducive to landscape photography a ‘plan B’ was required, and so focus changed to close up images of the textures on weathered & rotting wood & rust covered metalwork adorning the buildings and machinery so indicative of the harsh Sicilian climate.

Whilst in Sicily Jed was lucky enough to witness a large and sustained eruption from its active volcano, Etna. The summit of Etna, so often obscured by cloud, was clear and so the full power and beauty of the eruption was captured by Jed at sunset in stunning colour and infra red images.

Jed’s second location was Morocco. The city of Marrakech, a vibrant city teaming with life much of it, apparently looking for hand outs, where visits to a tannery followed and a palace to photograph Storks nesting on the roof.  An 8 hour drive and overnight stop then brought Jed south to the Sahara Desert, a most inhospitable place but a place that has photo opportunities in abundance, shown by the stunning images of massive sand dunes where the low evening light cast wonderful shadows across this baron landscape. Jed also had the opportunity here, taking advantage of no light pollution to photograph the Milky Way.

Milford Sound and Queenstown areas, in the south west of New Zealand’s South Island were our next destination.  Queenstown sits on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, where Jed showed stunning images taken of The Remarkables and Coronet Peak, both in colour and again infra red. New Zealand gets its fair share of rainfall evident by the many beautiful waterfalls throughout the island. Recent heavy rainfall in the area around Milford Sound gave Jed the opportunity to capture images of no less than 7 waterfalls cascading down from the cliff tops, some with the their flow almost halted and turned to mist by the strong winds and up drafts.

A trip to Iceland followed.  This again baron landscape is devoid of trees but bursting with hot springs and of course, photo opportunities. Images of hardy Icelandic ponies huddled together in snow storms alongside those of the icebergs on the probably most photographed ‘Iceberg Beach‘ show the harshness of this cold but stunning location.  

The final set of images for the evening centred around a trip north of the Arctic Circle in Norway.  Here we saw some stunning landscape images and some beautiful images of the Aurora Borealis

As always, to accompany his images Jed provided an excellent descriptive dialogue on the locations, the challenges they gave, and the photography they provided.

To finish his presentation Jed ran a ‘time lapse’ video to music showing the stunning flickering green, mauve and red ribbons of the Aurora Borealis.

At the end of the evening Jed answered questions from the members before receiving a round of applause for an excellent evenings entertainment.​

Bob Finlay (President)
 

1st Knockout competition, 15th November 2018
 
This Thursday (15th Nov)  we had the first “It’s a Knockout Competition” of the season. There were 35 entries with a wide range of subjects from portraits to landscapes. 
 
Despite the best efforts of the technology to disrupt the evening, once it got going we managed to get through it without any further consternation. 
 
Congratulations to the three winning images. There was a tie for first place between “Remembering the Commandos” by Pauline Wilson and “Sunset over Windermere” by Ray Thompson. In third place was “Flying Scotsman” by Alan Lockey. 
 
Thanks to all the members who submitted images for the evening.
​  
Click on each image to view full size.
 
  Ian Chambers ( PDI Secretary)

 'Sunset over Windermere'

 'Remembering the Comandos'

 'Flying Scotsman'

This evening we were delighted to welcome 5 members of Gosforth CC to Cramlington.  Gosforth President David Cottrell brought fellow members Lesley, John, Peter & Harry to delight us with their presentations, ably assisted by David Brown and Prog Sec Kenny Hannard.

David started the proceedings with his presentation of 'Photographic Firsts', describing the early days of photography from 1826 to the Daguerreotype images first taken in 1839.  His presentation included images of the first colour photograph, the first digital image to the first photograph taken on the moon. a fascinating history lesson.
Lesley was next up with a stunning AV of beautiful flowers & butterflies that showed of her considerable skills in this field.

Ron Henry, who was unable to attend tonight, sent a 'vlog' showing how members of Gosforth CC acted as tour guides showing the sights of Northumberland to a married couple from the USA, themselves both keen photographers, who's cruise ship docked at Royal Quays for a matter of hours.

John followed with a presentation of 'Three's. A project showing how images of people, animals & transport often represented themselves in three's. Some with a spot of poetic license and Photoshop.

Peter's presentation featured macro photography and showed that this could also be represented as 'close up' photography and so long lenses could also be used to achieve excellent results.

Harry's safari trip to Namibia showed the beauty & diversity of both its wildlife and stunning desert vistas.

Lesley rounded of a thoroughly enjoyable evening with a 'Fun with Photoshop" AV, which included a humorous 'skit' on Star Wars, which all members found enthralling.

Many thanks to Gosforth CC for putting on an excellent & diverse set of presentations.
​
Bob Finlay (President)