Camborne & Redruth Camera Club

Last Thursday evening (27/09/07) at the Treleigh Church Hall, Camborne/Redruth Camera Club (C/RCC) held its first Open Print and Projected Images Competition for the winter season with twenty four members attending.

Reg Sweet (Treasurer) reported that in the away leg of the Annual Competition with the Blandford Camera Club, C/RCC came out winners but by only the merest margin of four points. Reg Poad (Chairman) thanked Reg for the work he had put in ensuring the safe delivery of the Club’s portfolio. He also welcomed three new members to the Club and also Dorothy Davey who was returning after a serious illness. He said that the small exhibition at the Camborne Library of work by C/RCC members had created a lot of interest and a new set of prints had been hung during the week. The exhibition has another two weeks to run.

The Chairman introduced Adrian Rowlands of Truro, the judge for the evening. Adrian Rowlands said that he had been presented with a difficult task as there were so many good pictures that he had difficulty picking the winners from the eighty one images presented and in the end it came down to personal preference.

Intermediate - Monochrome Prints

The Bridge at Ironbridge - Charles Charlton

Advanced - Monochrome Prints

1. Tulip - David Johnson
2. Reeds - David Johnson
3. Pathway to the Tree - Jenny Leathes

Intermediate - Colour Prints

1. Orchid - Carol Weyman
2. Back to Back - Charles Charlton
3. Monument to Redruth - Nigel Rashleigh

Highly Commended - Sea Horse - Alec Weyman

Advanced - Colour Prints

1. Magnolia Bud - David Johnson
2. Fly Past - Reg Poad
3. Heligan Rabbit - David Johnson

Highly Commended - Echinops - Jenny Goodman
Highly Commended - High Speed - Bob Morgan

Projected Images - Intermediate

1. Perranporth - Paul Davis
2. Lost in Thought - Paul Davis
3. The Boatman - Paul Davis

Projected Images - Advanced

1. Bluebells and Stream, Tehidy - Clive Kingsley
2. Floral Magic - Reg Poad
3. Red Shutters - Peter Keverne

Highly Commended - Pheasant Call - Bob Morgan
Highly Commended - Pied Kingfisher - Jenny Leathes

During his judgement Adrian Rowlands gave useful remarks on how one could improve the pictures further, particularly for the intermediate members.

David Johnson gave a vote of thanks.

Tonight (04/10/07) at Treleigh Church Hall, starting at 07.30pm Mary and Reg Poad will be giving an evening entitled ‘Icelandic Adventure’ detailing their experiences on a recent holiday.

Last Thursday evening (20-09-07) at the Treleigh Church Hall eighteen members of the Camborne/Redruth Camera Club (C/RCC) met for an evening of ‘Hints and Tips’ in relation to digital photography. 

Mary Poad demonstrated the basic technique of ‘downsizing’ landscape and portrait picture files suitable for projecting images on the Club’s digital projector. It was stressed that members should get familiar with this method as the same principles would apply in ‘downsizing’ for any other projector having a different resolution as well as preparing files of different sizes as requested in the rules for external competition.  

Clive Kingsley opened his demonstration by saying that dust is one thing that can plague today’s photographer using a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera. The changing of lenses and even zooming can allow dust to enter the camera body and above all fall on the camera’s sensor (in fact on the sensor’s protective glass screen) and one becomes aware of this when little specks appear particularly on viewing a picture having any large area of light colour. Most modern DSLR cameras have a built in cleaner usually in some form of a vibrating sensor system. He went on to say that there comes a time when this maybe is not enough and additional methods have to be applied. The first and cheapest way would be to use a pneumatic blower which emits a powerful blast of air when squeezed and should shift any major debris from the camera body and its sensor. Wet and dry swabs were also shown. One of the members brought in a more sophisticated brush for demonstration. This had extremely fine filaments which are permanently charged and when gently wiped over the sensor the charged molecules attract any dust on the screen. When the brush is clear of the camera, using its built in electric motor, the filaments are rotated at high speed to disperse the dust. This sophistication comes at a price however.  

The final demonstration of the evening was by David Johnson who showed his method of photographing flowers. Having spent his working life in the horticultural industry he said that his approach would be different to the subject than most photographers as he would be always trying to seek, first the perfect bloom and secondly taking the perfect picture. He had a preference for working in a studio in natural light and showed various methods how he would highlight the flower by using reflectors or even supplementary lighting. The choice of background colour was also important and that it should be complementary to the colour of the flower. In taking the picture as well as a camera, film or digital, he would always use a tripod and this was set at eyelevel to the bloom. In addition he would use a cable release and an angle view finder for accurate focussing. He revealed that some of his sessions could take two to three hours to complete. Of course this attention to detail is reflected in the success he has achieved in local, county and regional photographic circles. 

Reg Poad (Chairman) thanked all three members for a very interesting and stimulating evening. 

At present there is a small exhibition of C-RCC members’ work in the foyer of Camborne Library for the next four weeks and the exhibition prints will be changed on a weekly basis. 

Tonight the Club meets at Treleigh Church Hall starting at 07.30 pm and Adrian Rowlands of Truro will judge the first Open Competition of the season which includes monochrome and colour prints, 35mm transparencies and for the first time projected digital images. 

Last Thursday (13/09/07) evening the Camborne/Redruth Camera Club (C/RCC) met at the Treleigh Church Hall. Reg Poad (Chairman) opened the meeting and welcomed new member Marilyn Leslie. He informed members that the C/RCC had had an invitation to be guests of St Agnes Camera Club on October 7^th for a social evening when C/RCC would be showing and talking about prints and AV programmes of members’ work. As there was considerable interest within C/RCC in the production of Audio Visual programmes he promoted the idea of forming an AV group within the Club to meet frequently but on a different evening from the regular Thursday evening. 

The Club’s entry to the Western Counties Photographic Federation AV Competition was shown to members for the first time and was favourably received. 

The main body of the evenings’ programme was taken up with a Critique in which members’ prints and digital pictures were discussed by the members themselves and the introduction of this form proved to be very successful. 

Natural History (NH) subjects were shown by Delia Trathen, Clive Kingsley, Mary and Reg Poad. Ross Williams showed a mixture of subjects but included some experimental NH pictures as did Peter Keverne. From the Intermediate Group, Charles Charlton showed some very interesting monochrome prints of Project Work from a recent College Course, Nigel Rashleigh his interest in sport and local landscapes and Marilyn Leslie a range of work including table top, flora, abstracts and landscapes. 

The evening closed with Reg Sweet showing an interesting sequence of 35mm slides reminiscing about Continental holidays taken in the 60s and 70s.  

Reg Poad thanked members for their participation in the Critique. 

On the 20/09/07, C/RCC meets at Treleigh Church Hall starting at 07.30pm for an evening of Hints and Tips.

Last Thursday evening (06-09-07) at Treleigh Church Hall, Reg Poad (Chairman) welcomed members of Camborne/Redruth Camera Club (C/RCC) to the start of its Winter Programme. He informed the meeting that during the summer the Club had held fourteen field trips, several of which were held in indifferent weather. Jenny Goodman gave a vote of thanks to Mary and Reg Poad who, as organisers, attended each Field Trip.

The Chairman congratulated Bob Morgan on winning the recent Mineral Tramways ‘Sense of Place’ Competition.

He told members that plans were well in hand for the C/RCC’s exhibition of work to be held at the Kernow Centre, Alma Place, Redruth commencing on the 14 January 2008.

Reg Poad introduced the evening’s speaker, the Club’s treasurer, 90 year old Reg Sweet. Reg’s subject was his 70 years involvement in photography. He started by showing a DVD that had been copied from a Super 8 mm cine film taken 35 years ago of a journey through France by car to the Camargue and the Atlantic Coast at Biarritz. Again using the Club’s digital projector he showed a series of family album pictures with some dating before the 1860s that had been copied from daguerreotypes. Despite his years he displayed a remarkable memory in detailing names of relations on both sides of his family as well as school, college and work colleagues. He listed a range of cameras that had passed through his hands from a very basic Kodak box camera to a latest digital camera. He talked about darkroom techniques and how some of the nomenclature of old is now part of the digital processing jargon. Finally he finished his talk by displaying a selection of his pictures.

After the interval Bob Morgan took up the reins and spoke about and showed his fifty favourite images that included landscapes, seascapes, natural history, sport and photojournalism. He elaborated on the techniques he used, particularly in obtaining his natural history pictures and explained some of the methods he used in manipulating his digital images.

Reg Poad thanked both speakers for an interesting and enjoyable evening. He also thanked Paul Davis for redesigning the Club’s web site and Peter Keverne for reporting the events of the Club.

The Club meets again this evening at Treleigh when members are asked to bring pictures, either in print form or as digital files, for open discussion.