Hi everyone. I'm really sorry and upset to say I've just been informed by work that the guy who does my call outs is on the sick all this week, so as a result I have to cover my call outs. So unfortunately it means I'll have to postpone this course until I'm back of hols in June. I'll then get in touch to rearrange with you all.
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Hope you all understand as it's out of my control.
Thank you.
(Paul Kidd)
 
As Paul says his tutorials will be rescheduled for later so please do not turn up to the club on Thursday.

Tonight, (19th April), the penultimate night in the clubs season, we joined together at the ‘Bennie’ to socialise and present awards & certificates to those members who were successful in club competitions and to announce our club  champions in both PDI & Print along with our overall  champion and winner of ‘Photographer of the Year’

The ‘Chris Crane Cup’ award was presented to Lauren Clayton for her winning image ’Winterland’. Lauren was also awarded ‘PDI Photographer of the Year’

Jim Meikle was awarded ‘Colour Print Photographer of the Year’ as well as ‘Mono Print Photographer of the year’ and had the accolade of being announced as ‘Overall Photographer of the Year’. Very well done to both Lauren & Jim and well done to all those members who received certificates for either winning or being placed in club competitions.

The evening was well attended with a nice buffet and a picture quiz provided by Colin Livingstone.
A raffle with donated prizes from members raised £90. Many thanks to all who contributed. 

A special thanks to Kathleen Hodgson for very kindly donating a tripod & reflector for the raffle, belonging to he late husband Ted, a sadly missed club member who was a stalwart of the club for many years and good friend to many members. I’m sure Ted would be pleased that these items found a good home and stayed within the club.

Below are some images taken of prizes & certificates being awarded.​

Bob Finlay (President)

 Jim Meikle being presented with 'Photographer of the Year'

  Lauren Clayton receiving her award

  Julia Robson receiving her award

  Jamie Welsh receiving his award.

  John Ridley receiving his award

  Peter Moody receiving his award

Presentation Night

Don't forget this Thursday (19th April) is our Presentation Night, this year being held at the Benedictine Social Club. Glenluce Drive, Cramlington. NE23 6YA.
AS usual a buffet is provided along with a raffle. Any and all contributions for raffle prizes gratefully accepted. Just bring along on the night.

I look forward to seeing you all there.
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Bob Finlay (President)

John McGuinness  ‘An Evening With’

This evening (12th April) our guest speaker was John McGuinness who arrived at the club straight from a weeks holiday in Malta. A flight delay due to a security issue had John and ourselves unsure as to whether he would make it in time, or indeed, at all. Our fears were allayed when John’s suntanned face appeared at the door.

John, originally from Wallsend but now Tynemouth has been involved in photography for over 25 years and had, at one time along with some friends, a fully equipped studio for portraiture and model photography.

As a photographer john has interests in most genre’s as well as the portraiture and models mentioned, weddings, wildlife & sport feature high on John’s list of ‘been there, done that’. John admits his real passion however is landscape photography, and this is where John’s presentation began.

The first images John showed us were some absolutely stunning images from trips made to the Isle of Skye. Images of Neist Point, The Storr & The Quiraing showed the rugged beauty of Skye and how Skye has become a landscape photographers paradise, bad weather not withstanding of course. Images of the Scottish Highlands followed with the obligatory Blackrock Cottage ‘shot’ and some equally fine shots of Glencoe. Images of Red Deer Stags from this area highlighted John’s love of wildlife photography, backed up with some Birds of Prey shots, some gruesomely devouring their prey.

Images from trips made to The Alps showed this mountainous region with massive glaciers in all its glory.

Closer to home images taken at Beamish Open Air Museum gave John the opportunity to explain how, when conditions dictate, he is not afraid to use HDR to capture an image. John takes a total of 6 images for this technique, blending them later in Photoshop. John showed using 2 images just how much detail could be recovered in an image using this method.  Some images from ‘Pickering War Weekend’ followed, some posed, some candid and as John’s presentation neared its end some ‘glamour’ and ‘boudoir’ photography brought an excellent and highly entertaining evening to a close.

Once again many thanks to John for keeping us all entertained with stunning images, anecdotes and thoughts on judges comments on his competition entries. We look forward to welcoming John back in the future.​

Bob Finlay (President)

Summer Walks (2018)

Although we don't have a pre-planned list of summer walks for this summer, it is still our intention to meet on Thursday evenings, weather permitting, to enjoy a wander and perhaps grab an image or two before, no doubt ending up at a local hostelry for refreshment and a 'chat'.

These walks will undoubtedly be arranged at short notice and locations are open to suggestions.
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Information regarding these walks will be posted to the 'News' section of this website as well as our facebook & Twitter pages, so keep 'checking' in.

3rd Open PDI Competition,

This evening ( 5th April ) the results of the final club competition of the season were revealed.  The 3rd Open PDI Competition with a somewhat ‘modest’ entry of some 39 images was judged by Jim Welsh of Blyth Photographic Society.  Jim is a long standing NCPF accredited judge with years of experience in judging club competitions. 

As always Jim gave his assessment of each image commenting on how, in his opinion, it could be improved upon and what he found pleasing or perhaps distracting.  Jim also likes images that ‘tell a story’ making it more interesting & pleasing to the viewer.
Jim was asked to select 5 Highly Commended images plus a top 5 and at the end of his judging he revealed that his selection for winner of the competition was......’Robin’ by Peter Moody.

Very well done to Peter and many thanks to Jim Welsh for agreeing to judge this competition. Thanks also to all members who entered images, without whom these competitions couldn’t be held.

Follow the link below to view the top 5 images.
 'Top 5 Images'

Bob Finlay (President)
Places

1st   'Robin'                             Peter Moody
2nd  'Eggs'                              John Ridley
3rd   'Kingfisher in Reeds'       Jim Meikle
4th   'The Marker Post'           Jim Meikle
5th   'Buttons & Blooms'         Peter Moody
Highly Commended​

'All at Sea'                                 Jim Meikle
'Hydrangeas & Apples'             John Ridley
'Morning Colours'                     Lauren Clayton
'Pink'                                         John Ridley
'Woolly Jumper'                        Lauren Clayton

This evening (29th March) was our final knockout challenge competition of the season.  At this stage of the season entries for competitions tend to be on the low side as we wind down towards the summer break  but for this competition the entries held up remarkably well with some 60 images entered on the subject of 'People'.

These knockout challenges are just for fun with no points awarded or prizes given, so the winner has to be satisfied with the congratulations and a round of applause from the members.

As usual we proceeded round after round gradually 'knocking out' images by voting  by way of a raised hand reducing the number until only 2 images remained.  With a final show of hands our winner was revealed. The victory goes to Tom Wilson with his image 'Who is Frightening Who', an image taken at the Edinburgh Festival.

Very well done to Tom for his winning entry and many thanks to all those who entered and made the competition entertaining & successful.
Tom's winning image can be seen below.
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Bob Finlay. (President)