Natalie Wright, who has been a member of CCC for a number of years, gave us a talk on 17th October about Mountain Photography. However, her talk included so much more! She explained how her interest in photography, her means of transport and the photographic equipment she uses, has progressed in the 25 years since she bought her first digital camera which had only 1.5 megapixels.
Natalie showed us mountain photographs she had taken in Banff (Alberta in Western Canada), the Scottish islands of Aran and Skye, and various places in the Lake District National Park which she has visited many times. She explained how she combines her interest in photography with her other interests such as her love of nature, travel, hiking and motor bikes. Despite becoming very ill with Covid in 2021, Natalie has now recovered sufficiently to again experience her joy of hiking up mountains and taking great images on the way. As bonuses with her talk, Natalie showed us the photographic equipment she carries in her camera bag when she is on a hike. She also showed us some time lapse photography which she deployed to capture the Northern Lights from Cramlington only a week earlier. Members enjoyed hearing more about the interests of one of our own members and insights into how other interests and hobbies can be combined with photography. Natalie received a good round of applause before many of us headed off to the pub. Ray Barnes CCC Programme Secretary
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Due to the number of entries tonight’s print competition, judged by Peter Downs from Morpeth Camera Club, was a combination of both colour and mono prints. Before giving his views on each print Peter stated that the standard of prints was very high making his job of choosing the best prints difficult, with a number prints moving in and out of the top 5 positions. Congratulations go to Colin Livingstone taking 1st place with Jules which Peter said was an immediate winner when he first took it from the box. A full list of the prints 'placed' and' highly commended' are shown below.
Highly Commended:
Red with Nuts Bob Finlay The Farrier Bob Finlay Living the Dream Colin Byrne Vacant Possession Peter Moody In the Light Colin Livingstone Paul Dunn (Print Competition Secretary) Imagine trying to produce quality photographic images in a very dark environment which is so crowded it's difficult to secure a spot from which to achieve an acceptable composition. It's very noisy and the crowd is by no means calm and peaceful; this makes it difficult to concentrate and somebody may well bump into you and spill their drinks on your camera. Multi-coloured lights are flashing, and your various subjects are often moving unpredictably and at great speed. Just to add to the mix, smoke machines are sometimes deployed. Welcome to Paul Dunn's world of Gig Photography! On Thursday 3rd October Paul, one of our long-standing members, presented many of his excellent images to us and explained the challenges of gig photography. He outlined the equipment you need to take a good shot under these conditions and the equipment he uses at the gigs he attends for bands and artists who are not normally household names. It is important to secure images where something special is happening on stage, such as the striking expressions and poses of the singers, guitarists and drummers. It is essential to find the optimum spot for a good composition, to choose an appropriate lens and to select the appropriate aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance etc. You don't want to interfere with the views of other paying members of the audience but, at the same time, you want to avoid the many mobile phones which they are pointing at the stage. The gig photographer wants to produce a sharp image in circumstances where minimising image "noise" is a real challenge. Composition is key and this means determining how far you want to be from the stage, using an appropriate lens, positioning yourself to the side of the stage (Paul tends to go to the left of the stage as right-handed guitarists tend to turn to the right towards Paul's position) and learning and anticipating the likely movements of the different artists. It's not easy! Paul's talk and images were very much appreciated by our members, and we gained a greater understanding and respect for Paul's photographs and the work of other high-quality gig photographers.
Ray Barnes CCC Programme Secretary Our speaker on 26th September was George Ledger. Geoge had travelled from Consett from where he works as a Freelance Sports Photographer. He covers major sporting events and was previously the Wildlife Trust "Wildlife Photographer of the Year" as well as "International Sports Photographer, Corporate and People Photographer". His photographs have been published in numerous publications including The Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, BBC Wildlife Magazine and BBC online. George's sports interests and photographs range from the Olympic Games to Premier League Football to local rugby and cricket events in Durham and Consett. George had an engaging, relaxed and amusing style of presentation. In addition to viewing his excellent images and learning about his photography techniques, we also enjoyed questioning him about the role of the professional sports photographer. We learned that it is a highly pressurised and competitive profession. The sports photographer, with his or her competing photographers nearby, has to marshal a range of photographic equipment and a laptop in all types of weather and environments, capture the useable images which are most in demand (involving famous sports people and particular actions) in a split second and to quickly send them, together with a range of required information such as the names of everybody whose faces feature in the photographs, to the central agencies who decide whether they want to use them. As we discussed, it is not a relaxed or fun environment, but the top sports photographers do get a "real buzz" from their work.
Our members thanked George and agreed that it had been an enjoyable, interesting and informative evening. Ray Barnes CCC Programme Secretary Members Night with Saviours Haven Sanctuary. Last night was the first Members evening with a mixture of Talk from Steve Lucock about his sanctuary and some practical photography, and of course a bit of a catch up. So we got the room set up with three “sets” for the creatures, Harpo the Green Winged Macaw, Sapphire the Barn Owl, Eugene the African Pygmy Hedgehog and of course Zante the Fox. Due to guidelines Zante was kept out of sight until we had an opportunity to photography the animals. Not forgetting the lovely Carla Roberts who turned up to model for us with Zante. The first hour was spent with Macaw, Barn owl and Hedgehog and I think all members got a chance to take a variety of images and get help (if needed) from other members. Then Steve put the animals away and brought out Zante to pose with members and Carla. Many thanks to Steve for his hard work and interesting information.
Colin Livingstone Chris (Our President) gave us a talk and presenting some stunning photo's from around the Austrian Alps.
We resumed our summer programme on Thursday evening 8th August with a trip to the Newbiggin RNLI station which, we discovered, is the oldest in the United Kingdom. It was formed shortly after 5 local fishermen attempted to save the lives of 4 fishing boat crews which capsized on 22nd March 1850. Two of ten lives were saved. A boathouse was established permanently soon after at Newbiggin and the following year the Duke of Northumberland paid for a boat and established the lifeboat station. Our genial host for the evening was RNLI volunteer and former policeman, Rory. Rory showed a dozen of us the station lifeboat (cost about £250,000) and tractor (cost about £100,000) and the various elements of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) used by the lifeboat crews. There are over 30 volunteers at Newbiggin and about 20 of these are trained, qualified and able to go out to see. It was clear to us all what a great and selfless job these volunteers do; they receive "shouts" at all times of the day and night and then immediately report to the station where a 4-person crew is selected by the Helm before they set sail. Rory's pride and enjoyment in what he does was clear for all to see and he said that joining the RNLI was one of the best things he had ever done. He was delighted to be able to make a contribution to the community. He answered all of our questions and explained the importance of communications, teamwork and working in coordination with other lifeboat crews along the Northumberland coast. The RNLI at Newbiggin is still looking for more volunteers, including more people to carry out shore-based roles. Those of us in attendance undertook to make a donation via of President, Chris Houghton, and of course, donations are always welcomed by the RNLI.
We were able to take photographs of the evening and some of us will return to take action shots when the volunteers train on Tuesday evenings and Sunday mornings. Despite being caught in heavy rain as we left the station, we all agreed that it had been an enjoyable and informative evening. Ray Barnes CCC Programme Secretary We had a chance to show off to the public what Cramlington Camera Club is all about. There was a lot of interest in the images shown and a number of people interested in possibly joining the club. All in all it it was a successful day. Colin Byrne
PDI Competition Secretary On 11th July some of the club members joined up for a walk along Cambois Beach ending up at the harbour where there are local small fishing boats. Even though the BBQ was cancelled as the weather didn't look too good we still had a pleasant walk and the rain held off for us. Colin Byrne
PDI Competition Secretary Timed to follow the (disappointing!) Euro 2024 match between England and Denmark, ten members of Cramlington Camera Club met at Church Point, Newbiggin on the evening of 20th June. It had been hoped to spot and photograph some dolphins but, unfortunately, they didn't accommodate us on this occasion. We managed to take some shots from a cool and breezy Church Point and then, having scrambled over the rocks, walked along the seaside path and in front of the RNLI station. We found some decent photography subjects, including Sean Henry's Couple sculpture, a lone fisherman, dogs being walked and views across the bay. The varying light, due to the sun peeping in and out behind the clouds, aided some interesting shots. After a very few drops of rain, we were treated to a rainbow across the bay. As always, it was good to catch up with our fellow members and after we had finished taking photographs some of us then headed to our usual pub in Cramlington. Our next summer outing will be on Thursday 11th July at Cambois Harbour, following which we will be setting up our own BBQ.
Ray Barnes Programme Secretary |
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