New Committee

Following Yesterday evenings AGM the makeup of the new committee is as follows.

President                                   Chris Houghton
Secretary                                    Paul Dunn
Treasurer                                    Lauren Clayton
Prog Sec                                     Paul Kidd
PDI Sec                                       Iain Chambers
Print Sec                                     Paul Dunn
Ex Comp Sec                             Colin Livingstone
IT/Web Admin                           Natalie Wright
Member                                      Bob Finlay
Member                                      Brian Vandamast

Pete Robinson

Our guest this evening (8th April) was Pete Robinson. Pete is a North East based professional photographer who after learning and honing his photographic skills in the RAF has on leaving the armed forces become a successful award winning wedding and commercial photographer.

His presentation to the members first took us back to March 2000 when Pete enlisted into the RAF with the intention to become an RAF photographer. Like all new recruits Pete had to ‘suffer’ 7 weeks of basic military training before moving on to the Defence School of Photography based at RAF Cosford.

Six months of intensive training on his chosen profession followed covering all aspects of photography including dark room work. During this time Pete was able to photograph the Edinburgh Tattoo and a visit to the base by Lord Lichfield with  a group of professional photographers certainly put the pressure on Pete to get the ‘shot right’.

Pete told how three days after 9/11, now a qualified RAF photographer, he was sent to the Gulf to photograph the military build up there. The temperature and dust proving a challenge for both Pete and his equipment. A fantastic shot of a flaming Rapier ground to air Missile leaving its mobile launcher at mach 3 made the front page of the Daily Express and is an image Pete is rightly proud of.

On leaving the RAF Pete decided to continue his profession in ‘civvy street’.  In 2012 Pete embarked on a 6 month project called ‘Ghosts of Tyneside Past’, combining old pictures of Tyneside morphed with modern images taken at the same locations. These images of iconic buildings and locations around Tyneside, such as the quayside, the Tyne Bridge, Paramount Cinema and Central Station culminated in a successful exhibition at the Castle Keep lasting some 3 months.

The majority of work Pete now undertakes is wedding photography and he showed some of his award winning images.  Pete likes to think a little ‘outside the box’ when it comes to wedding photoshoots persuading in some cases both bride and groom to jump, in full wedding attire, into freezing pools at the bottom of waterfalls, wade in streams or jump into the cold waters of the North Sea from a pier at 5am.

Getting a bit of a reputation Pete now gets requests from clients wishing for their wedding images to be a little more ‘challenging’, including a couple from London who who after a 10am wedding invited all their guests to a photoshoot on the top of The Old Man of Coniston. Pete was happy to oblige returning absolutely shattered at 5.30pm to photograph the reception.

Other locations used to great effect were Sycamore Gap, Blast Beach and Jesmond Dene, again with bride & groom paddling in the stream with a background of smoke grenades.

A thoroughly interesting and entertaining evening which was much appreciated by the members and for which we offer our thanks to Pete Robinson.

Bob Finlay (President)

This Thursday (8th April) our guest is Peter Robinson ex RAF Photographer.

Presentation is entitled;- From RAF Photographer to Eye of the Tyne Photography 
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Description: Photographer Pete Robinson talks about his time as a photographer in the Royal Air Force, including getting his images on the front of National Newspapers. Right up to running his own award winning photography company ‘Eye of the Tyne Photography’ 

Phil Punton (1st April 2021)

Our guest last evening was Phil Punton. Phil is a North East based professional photographer who although covering most genres specialises in weddings, portraiture and corporate photography along with family and children. He also offers photographic training.

Phil is happy to support local charities such as the Bubble Foundation based at Newcastle RVI to whom Phil offers his services for free.

This evening Phil was to deliver to the members what can only be described as a ‘master class’ in how to use off camera lighting.

The example Phil used was how he lit his photoshoot ‘Vikings Invade Tynemouth’ in which local actors, many who have appeared in such dramas as Vera & Beowulf, dressed as authentic Vikings including fake but realistic blood and posed for action shots on Tynemouth Beach.  

Phil went into detail describing the equipment he used for this shoot. The type of flashes, soft boxes, modifiers and reflectors etc.

Phil then showed some of the startlingly realistic images from the shoot, some taken by him and some by friend John Brown. Some great images taken at Moorforge Viking Centre in Cumbria followed.

Phil then went into the finer intricacies of how his camera, a Nikon D4, and the lights, both off camera strobes, led’s and speed lights were setup to achieve the desired lighting effect. Among other things Phil suggested that setting the camera flash to rear curtain was best and explained how rather than changing camera or flash settings, sometimes just moving a light a small distance away from the subject succeeded in getting the correct lighting balance.

Although there was some technical and scientific content in Phil’s tutorial this was nicely balanced by his explanations and his interesting and informative delivery.  One important point we can all take from Phil’s tutorial is that there is no substitute for knowing how to use your photographic equipment. And the best way to learn is practice, practice.

This was an excellent tutorial delivered by Phil which was greatly enjoyed by the members and we look forward to Phil joining us in person later in the year at the club, restrictions permitting.

Many thanks to Phil and thank you to the members for their participation.

Bob Finlay (President)