Camborne & Redruth Camera Club

On Tuesday (20/11/07) Kay Cook acting chairperson of Hayle Camera Club (HCC) welcomed members of the Camborne/Redruth Camera Club to an evening of comment about each Club’s portfolio of prints and projected images. A considerable amount of compositional and technical information was exchanged. Sue Lowry thanked C/RCC for showing its interesting set of images and in reply Reg Poad C/RCC Chairman) thanked HCC for its hospitality and invited HCC to Treleigh for a return evening to feature in next year’s winter programme.

Reg and Mary Poad have two pictures featuring in the permanent exhibition at Duchy College (Rosewarne). The exhibition was arranged by David Chapman of the Cornwall Wild Life Trust’s Photo-Group.

Last Thursday evening at the Treleigh Church Hall, Reg Poad welcomed Jean and Neil Souch to the C/RCC who gave an interesting talk on monochrome landscape photography. Jean showed her RPS Licentiate awarding panel of ten pictures and explained how the final selection was made from 20 or more pictures so that a balance was attained, as the work presented would not only be judged by the individual pictures but the panel as a whole.

Neil Souch said that he specialises in landscape and seascape photography with the majority of his images taken in North Devon and Cornwall. It became apparent as he developed his talk that his work was not just straightforward recording of scenes but a deep and careful look at the scene itself and what could be found within that scene. He gave a lot of technical information about his methods and though he still worked using film, much of his remarks could easily be applied to the digital world. He said that he was a prolific taker of pictures adding that film/memory cards were cheap in relation to the equipment being used and to the expense of travelling to a location. He showed examples of infrared, lithographs and tinted pictures. He used a wide selection of different papers which individually had characteristics of their own, though some of his favoured papers were no longer being manufactured.

Malcolm Jenkin (President) gave a vote of thanks to Neil and Jean thanking them for a very interesting and stimulating evening.

Tonight at the Treleigh Church Hall starting at 07.30 pm C/RCC meets Wadebridge CC and St Ives CC in a three cornered print battle with the judge being Ken Hambly of Truro.

Next Thursday Bryan Crick of St Ives will be judging the Annual Memorial Trophy Competition.

In Cornwall Wild Life Trust Photo-Group’s Annual Competition held at the Trust’s Headquarters, Five Acres, Allet on Monday 12 November members from the Camborne/Redruth Camera Club carried off first place in three of the six classes. The judge was wildlife photographer David Chapman.

C-RCC Results

Prints
Flora 3^rd David Johnson - Common Bird’s Foot Trefoil
Composition & Form 1^st - Jenny Leathes – Water & Ice (Dartmoor)

H/C Reg Poad – Geyser, Iceland

Projected Images
Flora 1^st David Johnson – Teasel

3^rd Mary Poad – Bindweed

Fauna 3^rd Carol Weyman – Turtle

Composition & Form 1^st Mary Poad – Icebergs

3^rd Clive Kingsley – Roughtor

Last Thursday (15-11-07) members from the C-RCC were guests of the St Austell Camera Club at its headquarters Ceddra Hall, Holmbush. Both Clubs presented a panel of 15 prints and 15 projected images for friendly discussion, with the Clubs commenting on each others work and giving opinions how the images might be improved. There was an impressive range of excellent work on display which prompted many ideas for future images.

Reg Poad (Chairman) gave a vote of thanks to the St Austell Club for an interesting and informative evening, not forgetting the ladies who prepared a mouth watering buffet consumed at the interval. Reg concluded his remarks by inviting the St Austell Club to visit C-RCC at Treleigh during the 2008 Winter Programme. This invitation was accepted.

Tonight C-RCC meets at the Treleigh Church Hall starting at 07.30 pm where there will be a talk by Neil Souch on Monochrome Landscape Photography.

For the members of Camborne/Redruth Camera Club (C-RCC) last week was a really busy one. On Sunday week(04-11-07) eleven members went on a fungi foray in the woods at Lanhydrock. Generally it has not been a good year for fungi but in the woods they found much to photograph - not only fungi but the woods themselves, resplendent in autumn colours.  

On Tuesday (06-11-07) C-RCC held its inaugural meeting of the Audio/Visual Group at Treleigh Church Hall. Reg Poad (Chairman) welcomed thirteen members and was encouraged by the support shown. Both Reg and Mary Poad are experienced exponents of A/V and in the last twelve months have moved over from slide to digital productions. Reg showed and explained the equipment that formed the Digital A/V package which comprised of a digital projector, lap-top computer, an amplifier and speakers. Mary said that to run a programme it was necessary to have suitable software, there were several on the market and over a wide range of prices. Using the popular programme ‘PicturestoExe’ she demonstrated, using only basic techniques, the ease with which one could put together an acceptable sequence of images with backing music. She said that there were many factors to consider when photographing - one must think in terms of the sequence rather than the individual picture. One must also consider what the sequence is going to be used for, home use, public showings or competitions. The choice of music is equally as important as the pictures. Mary made it clear to members that an IAC licence was necessary for using copyright material but copyright free music was available. It was a full evening and prompted many questions which only left enough time to show one member’s sequence which was by Clive Kingsley who covered a Ramblers’ walk from Trevaunance along the coastal path to Portreath. Ross Williams gave a vote of thanks to Reg and Mary for a very interesting and instructive evening. The next meeting will be early in the New Year.  

Last Thursday (08-11-07) it was the regular Club meeting with 18 members attending and this took the form of a ‘Members Entertain’ Evening. Richard McGee (Vice Chairman) started the ball rolling and showed a series of digital images including American landscapes, architecture, trains and sought comments about his work and from the floor there were plenty of helpful suggestions. 

David Johnson and Pam Pearce showed general and close-up images of their garden and the land adjacent that has been developed to encourage wildlife and wildflowers, their pictures showing how successful they have been. David also showed his creative side with his experimental pictures of leaves and flowers encased in ice. Finally there were pictures of several beautiful St Ives gardens that had been entered in this year’s garden competition of which plantsman David Johnson was one of the judges. 

New member of only two weeks, Andy Davies said that this was the first time he had exhibited any of his pictures and would welcome any comments. He showed a wide range of subjects including sport, landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. There were helpful comments about his work and it was generally agreed that he showed tremendous potential.  

Mary Poad gave a short demonstration of enhancing skies, foregrounds, straightening horizons and sharpening pictures. 

The Club’s Webmaster Paul Davis revealed the secrets of one of his prize winning pictures of a bluebell wood by showing how a technique named after Michael Orton and known as ‘The Orton Effect’ was achieved. This effect works well in a landscape and can produce a beautiful impressionistic image. 

Peter Keverne showed his A/V programme ‘Rust & Rodrigo’, a sequence of pictures taken during a summer field trip to Geevor Mine. 

Finally for benefit of the new members present Reg Poad showed the current practice of cutting a bevelled frame for the presentation of prints. 

The Chairman thanked everyone who had contributed to a very successful evening. 

There is no C/RCC meeting at Treleigh Church Hall tonight as there is a Print and Projected images critique away with the St Austell Camera Club. C- RCC meets again next week at  
Treleigh when Neil Souch ARPS will be talking about monochrome landscape photography. 

On Wednesday 31 October thirteen members of the Camborne/Redruth Camera Club met at the Mabe Community Hall for the first inter-club competition of the winter programme against Penryn Camera Club which C/RCC won by ten points.

Anne Glynn, Penryn’s secretary welcomed C/RCC members and also the judge for the evening, John Murray.

The images had been pre-judged by John who said in his opening remarks that he had viewed the prints and slides several times before making his final decision. In his commentary about the work presented, as far as he was concerned the sharpness of the image was of prime importance particularly with flowers and natural history subjects. Presentation and mounting of prints was another criterion that he felt was important. There was also comment about the colour casting in some of the monochrome prints presented. Similar comments were echoed when the 35mm slides were shown.

C/RCC members who featured in the leading positions were:-

Prints 1^st Mary Poad, 3^rd Bob Morgan, H/C Clive Kingsley and Ross Williams.

Slides 1^st Philip Williams, H/C Delia Trathen, Mary Poad and Peter Keverne.

Final scores were:-

Prints

Penryn Camera Club 83 pts                  C/RCC 87 pts

Slides

Penryn Camera Club 82 pts                   C/RCC 88 pts

Totals

Penryn Camera Club 165 pts                 C/RCC 175 pts

Last Thursday evening at Treleigh Church Hall, Reg Poad (Chairman) welcomed four new members and introduced press photographer Geoff Hitchens from St Ives.

Geoff, whose pictures feature regularly in the West Briton, gave a very interesting talk about his life as a professional photographer. He started by showing some of his first pictures taken at The Dell in 1967 and featuring action shots of Bobby Charlton. Photography was also a subject during his schooldays where he learned to develop his darkroom skills. He joined the Cheltenham Camera Club and said that he was very grateful for the help and encouragement he had received from its members. He made regular trips to Cornwall and based on his winning Cornish scenes he was encouraged to turn these into post cards which sold extremely well. This success made him decide that there was a living to be made as a professional photographer and with financial help from the Regional Development Agency he started initially taking travel pictures. His chance to take pictures for the West Briton came through Phil Monckton and initially he covered the Camborne and Redruth area and at present he covers the Carrick District.

He showed a series of what he called his work pictures and how he went about trying to find something different to make an eye-catching picture. He made his talk the more interesting by the numerous anecdotes around his pictures as well as being generous with his technical information. His subjects range from royalty, politicians, local celebrities and activities not forgetting sport and some studio work. He still retains his interest in travel and showed some beautiful images of trips to Burma, New Zealand and nearer to home Normandy and Brittany.

He also showed his working tools, the camera, three lenses and two flash guns.

His final part of the evening was to comment about one of C/RCC’s print portfolios.

Reg Poad thanked Geoff for a very interesting and helpful evening.

On Thursday at Treleigh Church Hall is ‘The Members Entertain’ evening with a 10/15 minute talk on a subject of their choice.