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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 |
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