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
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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 On a chilly and windy evening on Thursday 6th June, a group of hardy members (other than one who turned up in his customary T-shirt!) met at Low Lights Car Park to spend time photographing the scenes at and near the Tynemouth Fish Market. There were a variety of subjects to photograph including fishing boats and gear and Herd Groyne and the The Collingwood Monument in the distance. However, the highlight proved to be an RNLI boat and dinghy which sailed in while we were there. The crew soon spotted us, smiled and gave us something of a demonstration close to the shore. This provided us with plenty of photo opportunities and some laughs. As our AGM took place 7 weeks ago, it was good for our members in attendance to catch up with each other. At the end of a pleasant evening, some went home and some went to the pub. Our next summer meeting will be at Newbiggin Church Point on the evening of Thursday 20th June when we hope to spot and photograph dolphins. All are welcome to join us.
Ray Barnes, Programme Secretary Wednesday 15th saw the first field trip to May Island and it was one to remember. Five club members set off at 07:45 driving to Dunbar arriving at 09:00 giving time to get breakfast before we boarded a boat from Blue Wild. The sea was quite choppy but everyone held onto their breakfast. From Dunbar we set off for Bass Rock and Alan the skipper skillfully steered the boat around the Rock and managed to get close in. Bill the crew member from Blue Wild was an encyclopedia of information about the wildlife and the history of the area. After a while at Bass Rock we set off again for May Island located out in the North Sea at the outer entrance to the Firth of Fourth in total a trip of 12 miles from Dunbar. May Island is an absolute gem for bird life and a listed reserve fully protected. We were fortunate enough to see Terns, Puffins, Shags, Razor bills, Gannets and the list could go on and on. A great day out enjoyed by all and a must to visit again next season. The group picture is not a boy band if it was we would be the called The Puffin Crew. Chris Houghton - President
Thursday 9th May was the first event of the summer program where several members took a leisurely walk around Killingworth Lake taking shots of the local wildlife with guidance from Natalie to what we are hopefully looking to see. The weather was pretty good. Colin Byrne
PDI Competition Secretary & Webmaster ![]() On Thursday 18th April we held a session which we called Our Turn To Be A Judge. The idea was that our members were given the opportunity to critique images in the manner of a judge and to then award scores out of 20. This required us to put ourselves in the shoes of a competition judge and to understand how difficult it is for them to come up with insights (preferably in an entertaining and constructive manner) and decisions. We showed over 60 images which had been submitted to an inter-club competition in the East Midlands in 2019. We also had a record of the scores out of 20 which had been awarded by the actual competition judge, a professional and well qualified photographer, for each of the images. Individual members reviewed and commented upon individual images which were on general display to us all. Views were expressed about cropping, saturation, composition, exposure levels, focus etc. It was very interesting to find that the points awarded by our individual members were often quite different to those awarded by the judge back in 2019 and that the marks we gave were normally lower than those of the judge! The view at the end of the evening was that it had been an enjoyable and interesting session. Maybe - just maybe - we won't be quite as critical of the images of our competition judges in the future! Ray Barnes CCC Programme secretary On the evening of Thursday 11th April we held our final competition of the season The Chris Crane Cup The late Chris Crane was a keen and much-respected member of Cramlington Camera Club and this annual competition is held to commemorate Chris' contributions to the club. Chris was particularly interested in the genres of landscapes, engineering and nature photography and so we use these as the themes for the Chris Crane Cup. Glen Lawson was our entertaining and amusing judge for the evening. He had obviously spent a good deal of time studying our images which, as normal, had been supplied to him in advance of the meeting and had also given much consideration to his prepared comments. At the end of the meeting our President, Chris Houghton, thanked Glen and stated that his comments about our images were almost poetic! Glen's comments were positive and encouraging. He did not criticise any of our efforts although he did make many useful suggestions about how they could be improved. His suggestions included converting from colour to monochrome, cropping, removing unnecessary or distracting areas and reducing levels of exposure. The list of placings for this cup competition was as follows: 1. White Barn Owl - Adam Burness 2. Sunrise At Bamburgh - Ray Thompson 3. Mud Glorious Mud - Bob Finlay 4. Male great Spotted Woodpecker - Bob Finlay 5. Ground Hornbill - Colin Livingstone This was our penultimate meeting of the 2023/24 season before our AGM/Presentation Night on 25th April.
Ray Barnes Programme Secretary 4th April we had the pleasure of Alan Wilson judging our 3rd PDI Competition. Alan is the Past President of the NCPF and is the current Northern Focus Editor and Competitions Secretary. Alan discussed each image in great detail describing how he suggested how the image was created as well as going into the history of many subjects so there was a mass of research from Alan gone into each image giving an extra dimension that everyone listened with enthusiasm. After running through all the images Alan presented 5th to 1st Place positions. Colin Byrne
PDI Competition Secretary & Webmaster Thursday, 28 March 2024. Cramlington Camera Club hosted the NorthTyne PDI interclub Competition. Judged by Jim Welsh LRPS, CPAGB, APAGB. Our President Chris Haughton opened the proceedings by giving a warm welcome to all our guests and members. He then introduced Jim to the audience, and gave a brief résumé of Jim’s achievements in the field of judging. Jim started by explaining his personal technique and style of judging. As with other judges his thoughts and opinions might differ from the authors of the images entered. He also commented “This was one of the best entry’s he had seen in many months”. So had made his job very difficult. His style was very interesting and he gave a very detailed resume of each image, talking and explaining the story of each image as “he” the viewer saw it. His praise for the photographer’s skill was very evident. He offered a lot of helpful information about each image, commenting on focus, depth of field and composition. Jim is a high scoring judge so it soon became a very tight competition. Scoring was high through the competition, Jim awarded six 30 point images, with;- Other 30’s,“Red Kite” by Brenda Jefferson of Gosforth,”199” by Colin Livingstone of Cramlington, “Derek” by Bob Finlay of Cramlington,”Berry Redwing” by Natalie Wright of Cramlington, “Jules in Motion” by Colin Livingstone of Cramlington, “Victorian Craftsmanship at St Georges” by Tim Watkinson of Gosforth. Chris then read out the final scores; Cramlington 1st with 223 points, Joint 2nd N Shields & Gosforth 221, 4th Whitley Bay 218, 5th Tynemouth 215,and 6th Pontelsnd 213 He then thanked everyone for their efforts, he then introduced Jim once more to hand out the trophies to the winners, Chris on behalf of Cramlington Camera Club and Doreen Hart on behalf of Graeme Crombie of North Shields Photographic Society. Everyone then moved on to the buffet for a chat and catch up along with some food and drink.
Colin Livingstone Interclub secretary One of our members, Natalie Wright, gave us a talk on 21st March about Bird Photography. Natalie explained that although having an interest for some years, she had taken a serious interest in this area of photography only in the last 18 months. However, she soon displayed enthusiasm and developing levels of skill and knowledge about the subject. Natalie spoke about the importance of understanding and studying the habitats and behaviours of different bird species. An understanding of where different species can be found locally, together with close observation of their behaviour, had helped her to take some excellent images. She also explained how other bird watchers shared information of where rare birds could be seen (often after they had been blown off course on their way to their destinations) and how they shared their knowledge when they congregated at a particular location. The difficulties of achieving good compositions of birds were explained by Natalie, particularly when they were taking off and landing. Patience, skill and good post processing skills are required - especially with smaller birds! She also spoke about the benefits of the photographer getting low when birds are low down or on the ground - this provides better compositions than photographing them from a standing position.
Long lenses are required for bird photography - a minimum of 400mm and preferably 600mm. Shutter speeds of 1-3000th of a second are often used. Natalie deploys automatic ISO but with a maximum setting of 6,400 on cropped cameras. She also shared with us some of her post processing techniques using Lightroom. Natalie's bird photographs included shots of Robins, Redwings, Waxwings, Red Footed Falcon, Great Crested Grebe and Greylag and Canada Geese. Natalie's talk was appreciated by the members present and was another example of our members taking a significant amount of time and effort to share with the group their knowledge, skills, experience and personal development . Ray Barnes Programme Secretary |
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