Camborne & Redruth Camera Club

Last Thursday evening (25-09-08) Reg Poad Chairman of the Camborne-Redruth Camera Club (C-RCC) welcomed members old and new to its weekly meeting at the Treleigh Church Hall, Redruth. He informed members that there was a proposed after hours visit to Jessops of Truro where the staff would show and talk about the latest photographic equipment releases on the market.

During the evening members signed a ‘Get Well’ card to be sent to Pam Pearce who was taken ill during the past week and is now recovering in Treliske Hospital.

The business of the evening was to select five pictures to form a panel on the subject of ‘Time’ taken by five different photographers as the Club’s entry in the Western Counties Photographic Alliance’s Kingswood Salver Competition taking place in late October. With over sixty images to choose from submitted by both intermediate and advanced workers it appeared at first that this was going to be an easy task. There was a wide range of interpretations of the subject from Time Pieces to the Surreal. There were also, as one member said, ‘Some cracking individual pictures on the subject but it would be almost impossible to form a coherent panel with them’. After considerable juggling of the images four balanced pictures were chosen but a fifth proved to be elusive and the final decision was held over until this evening (02-10-08) and members were asked to trawl their archives to find a suitable fifth image. Mary Poad was the projectionist.

Also this evening at Treleigh is the first of the new season’s Open Competitions of Monochrome and Colour prints and Projected Images. The Judge is Adrian Rowlands of Truro.

Next Thursday (09-10-08) Malcolm Jenkin the Club’s President will take as his subject ‘What a photographic judge looks for’.

The Camborne-Redruth Camera Club (C-RCC) met last Thursday evening

(18-09-08) at the Treleigh Church Hall, Redruth. The Chairman Reg Poad, welcomed members to the Club’s first digital tutorial evening of the 2008/09 Winter Programme. He thanked Jenny Goodman, David Johnson and Richard McGee for looking after Club affairs during the recent holiday of himself and his wife.

Mary Poad devoted the evening to basic digital image manipulation, in particular for the benefit of new members, two methods of resizing image files for digital projection. Other areas covered were the use of blending modes, deleting unwanted objects using the clone and patch tools and the transform tool for the control of distortion and perspective.

Tonight (25-09-08) again at Treleigh starting at 07.30pm members will be showing their interpretation of the set subject ‘Time’ in order to select five pictures from five different members to form a coherent panel as the C-RCC’s entry in the WCPF’s Kingswood Salver competition.

Members have also been asked to bring in their entries for the First Open Club competition of the new season, which takes place next week (02-10-08). The judge is Adrian Rowlands of Truro. Members were reminded that there is a maximum of 6 entries with no more than three in any one section – projected images, colour and monochrome prints.

Last Thursday evening (11-09-08) at the Treleigh Church Hall, Redruth, members of the Camborne-Redruth Camera Club (C-RCC) enjoyed a feast of quality photography from artist/photographer and C-RCC member Jenny Leathes ARPS.

Jenny opened her illustrated talk by detailing her passion for photography. She likes to keep things as simple as possible and this philosophy is also reflected in the minimal equipment, albeit of high quality, she likes to carry on photographic forays. She holds a Masters Degree in Photography as well as her Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society. She is interested in art, crafts, walking and sailing. She has been battling with cancer since 1996 but thinks her healthy life style has helped her through the difficult times.

For the first part of the evening Jenny showed a set of prints of about the River Dart in the Dartmoor National Park. Jenny is passionate about Dartmoor. She has walked this landscape for many years. This is a current project about the changing river from source to park boundary. The natural changes it goes through: water, vegetation, rocks, weather and seasons. Also how man and land has been influenced through the centuries.  Other current working projects were shown: Cornish fishing industry, manmade boundaries, derelict buildings and man’s influence on a forest.

Behind Jenny’s print work, she is exploring her passion through image making and attempts to draw out ones inner feelings and responses about the place or subject she photographs.

Jenny Leathes devoted the second half of the evening to her 2007 trip to East Africa visiting Kenya and Tanzania. She gave a power point presentation following the journey through the two countries, photographing wildlife and landscapes.

Though photographic equipment is important to Jenny the eye is essential for seeing the image; developing ways of seeing have been essential to the development of her photography. Studying other artists and being part of contemporary groups in the South West has been very important for many years. Equipment is kept simple using medium format camera for her most serious work.

David Johnson chaired the meeting. He reminded members that the first set subject selection will take place on the 25 September and members are asked to bring in this evening (18-09-08) 10”x8” prints interpreting ‘Time’. The successful five prints chosen will form the C-RCC’s panel entry to the WCPF’s ‘Time’ competition.
Update: The images for ‘Time’ need only be in the digital format. If chosen, then they will be printed.

Also this evening, again at the Treleigh Church Hall starting at 07.30 pm is another of the Club’s Digital Tutorial evenings that proved so popular last season particularly with the new members.

Last Thursday evening (04-09-08) the Camborne-Redruth Camera Club held its first meeting of the 2008/09 winter programme at the Treleigh Church Hall, Redruth.

Vice-chairman Richard McGee first welcomed members back to the new season as well as giving a special welcome to five new members.

Richard introduced the Club’s President Malcolm Jenkin and his wife Barbara who together presented a full evening of photography based on their recent travels abroad.

Malcolm opened their presentation detailing the equipment they carried with them which was limited because of air travel weight restrictions. The careful selection included two cameras each with an 18/200mm zoom lens and Malcolm included a 20mm prime lens plus a small tripod, filters, battery charger and flash.

There followed a Power Point presentation on their trip to the Argentine, the Falklands Islands, South Antarctica, Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel and Chile. There was a wide range of pictures shown including penguins, shags, seals, llama like animals called guanacos, icebergs, snow, mist, and life on board the cruise ship the Ushuaia Argentina. On their land based trips Malcolm and Barbara usually split forces so as to be able to obtain as many different images as possible.

After a break, Barbara gave an audio/visual presentation on the Leaning Tower of Pisa and its immediate surroundings.

Finally using images from scanned transparencies they showed an A/V sequence of Venice in February, the month when the celebrated masks are displayed.

Richard McGee thanked Malcolm and Barbara for a very interesting and rewarding evening.

Members were made aware that the Western Counties Photographic Federation’s (WCPR) Print Exhibition will be on display on 10^th September at the Wadebridge Primary School organised by the Wadebridge and District Camera Club.

The C-RCC’s first set subject selection will take place on the 25 September when members are asked to bring in 10”x8” prints interpreting ‘Time’. The successful five prints chosen will form the C-RCC’s panel entry to the WCPF’s ‘Time’ competition.

Tonight at the Treleigh Church Hall commencing at 07.30pm Jenny Leathes will be giving a presentation on her African trip of 2007. 

There was a very good turnout last Sunday (31 August) for the final field trip of the Camborne-Redruth Camera Club’s summer programme. The destination was the Goonhilly Downs Nature Reserve. Unfortunately the weather in the morning was not conducive to natural history photography, being very overcast and windy. There was a quick re-think and the group headed to the nearby Rosuick Farm for coffee and to photograph the Cornish Camels and a woodcarver. After lunch the weather improved and the group returned to the Nature Reserve and were able to photograph dragonflies, lizards and flora. 

This year’s Summer Field Trip programme has been a tremendous success with most of the destinations being well attended.  Tonight (04-09-08) at the Treleigh Church Hall starting 07.30pm is the first meeting of the Club’s Winter Programme when it’s President Malcolm Jenkin will be giving an illustrated presentation. Next Thursday evening again at Treleigh the speaker is Jenny Leathes and she will be talking about a recent trip to Africa.