North Shields PS Visit

North Shields PS Visit

This Thursday (3rd Oct) we were pleased to welcome a visit from North Shields Photographic Society.

David Waters (President) of NSPS and Bill Fell (Secretary) of same had agreed to each give a presentation to CCC members.

Bill Fell took to the floor first.  Bill’s presentation was entitled ‘Iceland’.  Bill has been to Iceland twice on organised photographic trips, once during the summer months and once during the winter months. Because of its northerly location this means long hours of daylight during the summer and long hours of darkness during the winter and whatever the season, lots of rain!

Bill showed some beautiful images of Geysers with apparently the strong smell of rotten eggs, spectacular waterfalls such as the huge Scogafoss and Gulfoss falls, followed by the well known and well photographed ‘Ice Beach’ explaining that the blue hue in the icebergs was caused by the freshwater trapped within.

Beautiful images of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) followed, and the strange fault plates in the National Parks that resembled long corridors of strata moving apart some 4cm per year. 

Bill finished his presentation with images of the capital Reykjavik showing brightly painted houses and a stunning church shaped almost rocket like.

Bill took questions from the floor on his presentation and received a rousing round of applause from the members.

David Waters was next to give a presentation, which couldn’t have been more different to Bill’s. Whilst Bill is a keen landscape photographer, David’s passion is ‘Portraiture’.  David has a keen eye for portraiture and enjoys the challenge this genre offers with regard to the critical factor of how best the light the subject.  Perhaps not a problem in a studio where David does a lot of his photography and lighting can be well controlled but much more of a challenge when out out on location where David also likes to shoot.

David took us through a series of his photographs starting with  images of Jeremy Corbyn taken at the Durham Miners Gala. This was followed by portraits taken at various locations such as Delaval Hall and Newcastle City Centre. A wedding shoot on a local beach taken when David was involved more in wedding photography than he is now. A ‘staged’ shot of a chip pan fire must have proved something of a challenge to light.

With each image shown David explained how he lit the subject, whether with single or multiple lights and their placement and whether any ‘modifiers’ such as umbrellas or diffusers had been used.

David had brought two lights and stands and a soft box that he uses for the CCC members to see.

David also took questions from the floor and also received a well earned round of applause from the members.

A big ‘thank you’ to both Bill & David for providing an entertaining and informative evening.

Bob Finlay (President)