​Our third Open Print competition took place on Thursday 6th March judged by Stephen Fowler and in the judges' words it was a high standard of prints he had to decide on.  In total there were 27 prints in the competition, a mix of colour and monochrome despite the relatively low number of entries it was a successful evening with some outstanding work on display. 
Congratulations to all the highly commended and to the eventual top 5 prints also to all the others that entered their work.
​
1st Place Colin Livingstone with Jules in Blue
2nd Place Bob Finlay with Little Red Enjoying a Nibble  
3rd Place Ray Barnes with Across The River Douro
4th Place Paul Dunn with Falls of Falloch
5th Place Peter Moody with Iris

Highly Commended
Paul Dull with Foothills
Paul Dunn with Darnell
Bob Finlay with Roughting Linn
Colin Livingstone with Robin             

Chris Houghton
President

On 3rd March Colin Livingstone and myself travelled to Ponteland Photographic Society who hosted the North Tyne Area PDI Competition. Cramlington one this competition in 2024 and we knew it would be a tough competition this year. The judge Bill Broadley explained the level of images was very high and there seemed to be a theme of images with water reflections this year. The best image in the competition and awarded 30 points was 'Taxi' by Shauna Hogg from Whitley bay. Out of the 10 images Cramlington entered Colin Livingstone was our top scorer with 28pts with Jules Attacks. 

There were 6 clubs in the competition and the results are as follows:
!st North Shields with 213pts
2nd Gosforth with 212pts
3rd Tynemouth with 211pts
4th Whitley Bay with 207pts
4th Ponteland with 207pts
6th Cramlington 196pts

After the results there was a raffle followed by a lovely buffet with tea and coffee.

Colin Byrne
​PDI Competition Secretary

​Peter Downs, the Programme Secretary of Morpeth Camera Club, presented his talk about abstract photography to CCC members on 27th February. He explained that he has had a lifelong love for and background in art, and this appeared to inform and inspire his approach to creating abstract images from the photographs he takes. Peter explained that he captures photographs using the Automatic setting on his camera and then spends time manipulating them in a variety of computer software programmes, including Photoshop 25, Nik and a range of Topaz programmes. Sometimes Peter spends many hours creating a single abstract image from a either a single original photograph or from a composite of multiple photographs.
 
Peter explained that he does not use a single process to create his abstract shots and that it is at varying stages of the processes that he decides the theme which he will adopt to produce his final creation. This is a freewheeling approach in which he finds himself totally engrossed!
 
It was acknowledged by Peter that his abstract creations do not appeal to everybody, including all photography judges. Some photographers tell Peter that they would struggle to find the courage to manipulate and display the images he produces. However, Peter told us that he produces images, first and foremost, for himself and so this empowers him to not be overly concerned about how others view them.  
 
Our members enjoyed Peter's talk and his images as he challenged and informed our views of photography. Some of his concepts, shapes and colours were striking. Inevitably, as individuals our members liked some of Peter's images more than others, but we all felt that his talk was really interesting, and it was well appreciated.
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary 

​Following an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the future direction of the club, one of our long-standing members, Bob Finlay, gave us a presentation which he had titled An Eclectic Mix. Bob explained that he had used a range of cameras during the course of his photographic journey and had moved between Pentax, Nikon, Fuji and an Olympus camera. He explained that he had owned cameras with cropped and full frame sensors and, most recently, had bought an Olympus four thirds camera. The four thirds system is a standard created by Olympus and Eastman Kodak for DSLR camera design and development. Four thirds refer to both the size of the image sensor as well as the aspect ratio. Bob said he was very pleased with this recent acquisition which produced great images, was light to use and carry on photographic trips and could be hand-held for an impressive 2 seconds when shooting.
 
With some amusing diversions about the cars he and his friends had owned and driven in the past, Bob presented a range of his photographs in sections such as Landscape, Sport and Portraits. Bob has a relaxed but clear and amusing presentational style and this, together with his high-quality photographs, provided a very enjoyable and informative meeting. 
 
Including Bob, about three-quarters of those in attendance then headed for the pub to continue our discussion about photography in general, the club, next year's programme and a wide range of subjects and anecdotes which came to mind, and which were suitably lubricated by the beer.
 
Ray Barnes 
Programme Secretary

On Tuesday 18th February the second round of the 4-Way Print Competition was Hosted by Morpeth Camera Club. A number of Cramlington members represented us on the night and the results follow.
4th Place was Cramlington with 408 points
3rd Place was Gateshead with 449 points
2nd Place was Morpeth with 483 points
1st Place was Gosforth with 502 points 

Colin Byrne
​PDI Competition Secretary

Tonight we held our 2nd PDI Competition and was Judged by Veronica Congleton. Veronica remarked on the quality of all the images and was difficult to select the top 5 and highly commended.
The Top 5 were as followed:
1st - Tom - Adam Burness
2nd - A moderate Hike - Malcolm Booth
3rd - Angry Bird - Ray Barnes
4th - Grey Squirrel - Bob Finlay
5th - The Hunt - Colin Byrne

Highly Commended:
High Level Darth - Colin Livingstone
The View - Paul Dunn
Mysterious Anna - Paul Kidd
Cathedral Walk - Ray Barnes
Merry Monk - Ray Barnes

Colin Byrne
​PDI Competition Secretary

The 4 Way Interclub PDI Competition between Blyth, Cambois, Cramlington and Whitley Bay was held on Tuesday 11th February 2025. The host club was Whitley Bay PS and the judge was Tony Broom.
After a very tight competition, Blyth PS won with an overall score of 264. In 2nd place was Whitley Bay PS with 255, 3rd place was Cambois CC with 250 and Cramlington CC came 4th with 241 points. The image scoring 30 points was ‘Madonna Lily’ by Richard Young of Blyth PS.

​Jim Welsh received the trophy on behalf of Blyth PS. This is the 4th year in a row Blyth has won this trophy, sharing it with Whitley Bay PS in 2023.
Tony Broom was thanked for his constructive comments throughout the competition and the event was well attended by all clubs. The host club provided an excellent buffet after the competition.

On Thursday 6th Ray Barnes started off with a Presentation of the club, how it's going and the future running of the club which gave a few members thinking about the way forward. 
Afterwards we had a few displays set up for members to take a few photo's and discuss how and the best way to shoot them using their own camera's. 

Colin Byrne
​PDI Competition Secretary

PDI Battles are a regular feature of our annual programme. They involve PDIs submitted by members being drawn against each other at random, using a computer programme, and members' voting (without knowing the identity of the photographer) for the winner of each 1:1 competition. In each case, the loser is eliminated from the competition. The competition then progresses to Quarter Final, Semi-Final and Final stages until a winner is eventually declared. We consider this to be a bit of fun rather than a more serious competition. The difference on this occasion, however, was that the images were all taken with mobile phones and not our usual cameras. 
 
The competition progressed, with images eliminated until the final was reached. The PDIs in the Final were 'The Platters' by Colin Livingstone, a serial winner of CCC competitions, and Ray Thompson. The members present voted for the winning image by Ray Thompson which was titled 'Colour Run'.

​The view after the competition was that the images, despite being taken by mobile phones, were of a good quality and that it had been an enjoyable Battle. 
 
Following the Battle, members were shown a twelve-and-a-half-minute Audio Visual presentation entitled "Australian Journey" which had been produced by a collaboration between Ray Barnes and Peter Moody. The plan is to show the AV when we visit Morpeth on 11th March on the second leg of an arrangement for exchange visits this season with Morpeth Camera Club. Positive feedback was received about the AV, particularly the music which had been chosen for it.  
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary

​A luthier is a person who builds or repairs stringed instruments such as guitars or violins. Our speaker on the evening of 23rd January, Dave Best (LRPS), gave us a very interesting and enjoyable talk entitled The Luthier's Tale. Dave's style was very relaxed, engaging, clear and reassuringly positive and confident. His talk was in two parts. 
 
In the first section, Dave exhibited a range of his photographs, often in black and white to minimise the inevitable "busyness" of such images, of rock and folk guitarists, violinists etc on stage. There was even a photograph of an artist playing a hurdy gurdy, an instrument which many of us had never seen before. Dave has attended many rock and folk concerts over the years and some of the photographs were of well-known artists such as Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Harley, Louden Wainwright 111 (father of Rufus and Martha), Richard Thompson and Steeleye Span. We all appreciated the quality of Dave's photographs - particularly our own resident gig photographer, Paul Dunn.
 
The second section of Dave's talk was about a project he had undertaken between 2008 and 2010 with a Newcastle-based luthier called Nigel Forster (Nigel now lives on the Gold Coast in Australia). Nigel was originally from Hexham and learned his trade from Stephan Sobel, a luthier from Whitley Chapel. Nigel had contacted Dave regarding a book he wanted to produce about how he went about his work, and he wanted Dave, whose work he had seen on Dave's website, to take the photographs for the book. Dave showed us many of his photographs, and showed us the book resulting from the project, which high-lighted the quality and painstaking nature of Nigel's work as a luthier.
 
Nigel produced a range of guitar types, mandolins, bouzouki's etc to order and spent weeks building and perfecting them. He used maple for his sound boards and spent an inordinate amount of time and patience perfecting the instruments, so that they met the exact requirements of the customers. Dave believed that Mark Knopfler owned a couple of guitars which he had ordered from Nigel. It was fascinating to see, through Dave's excellent photographs, the detailed work which goes into making top quality, bespoke instruments.
 
Dave received an enthusiastic round of applause, and we all agreed that it had been an enjoyable and entertaining evening.
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary