Louth Photographic Society
We were all deeply saddened to learn that our friend, and colleague Paul Gray passed away on Saturday after a short illness. Paul was a quiet, humble, unassuming man who approached any task in a professional, diligent manner, and was not afraid to quietly speak up when something was incorrect. I was privileged to accompany Paul on several photographic shoots. Working together backstage at the Louth Riverside theatre photographing a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, where we obtained some excellent photos, firstly from the orchestral pit, and then from the wings as the band performed. Climbing Mam Tor, with Dave Turner, Paul, and myself in the pre-dawn dark to try and capture that iconic sunrise photo, unfortunately the sunrise didn’t appear, just a lightening misty greyness in the east. Disappointed, we moved on to Stanage Edge, Winnats Pass, and Padley Gorge as the sun broke through the mist, to take some great landscape images. On another occasion we set off for Whitby, at “silly o’clock” in the morning, for another sunrise shoot, this time being much more successful. Our reward for the early start was a glorious red sky as the sun rose over the seaward horizon. We ate bacon baps, and downed huge mugs of tea for an early breakfast in a “greasy spoon” café, before going on to take more photos around the picturesque Whitby quayside, and harbour. In July this year I accompanied Paul to Bridlington for a four-hour boat excursion along the coast to anchor offshore RSPB Bempton Cliffs to watch diving gannets catching fish thrown from the boat, the scene, and noise from those gannets was an incredible experience. Wonderful memories of Paul, he will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and the Society.
Good morning All Firstly my computer is not working at the moment, I am hoping to get it sorted just to retrieve the files on it. Hopefully will be sorted for next week. Last week at the club member Dave Turner gave a pdi presentation featuring Englands East coast from Northumberland to Norfolk. We were treated to some excellent photography from many places that were familiar to many of us but from maybe different angles to what we are used to seeing. The NEMPF exhibition results have been sent to me, as a club we had 7 accepted. This week, Wednesday 20th, we are holding our PDI of the year competition judged by LPA president Gail Wrigg. Regards Graham
One of our members, Dave Turner, an accomplished landscape photographer, took us on a pictorial journey down the east coast of England, from Northumberland, through Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and finally Norfolk. I was especially taken with some of the images shot from different viewpoints, Lindisfarne castle viewed from the seaward side, Dunstanburgh Castle viewed across some vicious large beach boulders, and the Longstone Lighthouse viewed from the rocky foreshore. Of course, on the east coast of England some of the sunrises can be spectacular, as several of the displayed images showed. Small fishing communities such as Runswick Bay, and Staithes demonstrated how characterful the Yorkshire coast can be. In Lincolnshire, we viewed seal pups at Donna Nook, motorcycle sand racing at Mablethorpe, and the promenade at Cleethorpes. Our pictorial journey ended in Cromer with views of the pier. A big thank you to Dave for presenting a stunning collection of images, and it was interesting to learn some of his techniques in capturing these scenes. Thanks also to Dave Mann for the refreshments.
Arriving at Lincoln for our direct LNER Azuma service to London Kings Cross, I was surprised to find a Network Rail leaf treatment train, topped, and tailed by a pair of very dirty Class 66 locomotives, idling with it’s typical Class 66 rhythmic whistling sound, at the usual departure platform for our LNER service. The leaf clearing train consists of 5 tank wagons, and a compressor mounted on a flat bed wagon, this train travels along the track pressure washing the leaves, and leaf residue from the rails ensuring better grip for all rail traffic during the winter months. The following morning in London, my partner and family took me on a surprise visit to Battersea Power station, we had boarded the Underground Northern Line to Battersea Power Station Station on the recently opened Northern Line extension, not knowing where I was being led, I dutifully followed the family into the refurbished power station, this cavernous space has now been converted into a shopping centre. I was last here in 1968 to visit the working power station as a part of my electricians training course, and it’s very definitely changed since then. Led to the upper level of the shopping centre, I found that my birthday treat was a ride up a lift installed in one of the iconic power station chimneys. From the queue 20 people are moved forward to an exhibit area, then through a slowly opening door into an audio-visual show detailing some of the history of the power station, apparently the power station wasn’t bombed during the Second World War, as the chimneys were used as a navigation point by the Luftwaffe. After the audio-visual show, the group climbed 39 steps to the circular lift which elevated the group to the top of the chimney, the lift rises above the rim of the chimney, and glazed windows offer a 360 degree panoramic view over the London skyline. The windows had some raindrops on slightly obscuring the view, but that enabled me to capture this Monét style image. We completed the day with a lunchtime meal and travelled back to our base in Stratford using a fast Uber Boat catamaran down the river Thames to North Greenwich Pier for the Jubilee Line to Stratford.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we had a fascinating evening with Alan Harniess coming along to the club whilst visiting family in Louth. Alan showed us his two projects that he had completed photographing strangers he met in the street or pubs around the Birmingham area. There is a blog on our website explaining more. This week, Wednesday 13th, one of our members Dave Turner will be showing photographs from along England's East Coast. Don't forget to enter the PDI of the year if you have not already, the deadline is 6pm this Wednesday. Regards Graham
Our speaker last night was Alan Harniess, he spoke about his Flickr project “100 Strangers”, the intention was to photograph 100 Strangers around his home town of Birmingham. He often found it daunting to walk up to complete strangers in the street, and ask to take a photograph of them, often he retreated to a local public house for refreshment, and sometimes found subjects in there. Alan's collection of images that he showed represented a complete cross section of British society, young, old, beautiful, care worn, characterful, and ethnically diverse. Alan’s work was inspired by the eminent portrait photographer, Jane Bown, and he had one of her photographic books on display. After the break Alan showed images from his next project, “One Family”, he spoke about his dismay about negative media commentary on ethnicity, when his experience of talking, and watching people living their lives painted a completely different picture, people just living life, and making friends whilst being indifferent to colour, race, or religion. Alan’s collection of images with mixed race couples, or friends demonstrated the diversity of current British society. Thanks Alan for a fascinating talk, with some amazing imagery, perhaps his talk will inspire members to begin a project of their own.
Graham Harrison, Dave Turner and I attended the LPA PDI Inter club Competition yesterday, 3rd November. It was well attended by the 12 LPA clubs that entered the competition. The judge was Steffan Nicholson from Newark, who apparently stepped in at the last minute as the original judge had Covid. Steffan though very critical, was very fair in his comments. However, he did make many assumptions concerning some of the images. There were some very good images from the clubs and the standard was high. The judge held 15 images back from the 108 entrants and of those he gave three 20’s. Dave Turner was one of the 15 and scored 18 points for his image, Louth’s highest scorer. Well done, Dave. The eventual outcome was Grimsby taking the honours with Axholme 2nd and Cleethorpes 3rd. We came 7th which unfortunately was not as high as last year. Diane Seddon from Cleethorpes took the individual trophy with a stunning image called The Travelling Man, it depicted a man on a bench in the pouring rain. Well, that’s it for another year, let’s hope next year we can again be in the top four, illustrated here is one of Dave Turners earlier images, Kings Cross - Going Down
Good Morning All Last week at the club we had members giving 15-minute mini lectures on club outings as well as other subjects. There is a report on our website, but it was a very good evening ending in Richard Hildred showing Bromoil prints. This week, Wednesday 6th November Alan Harness will be speaking and showing PDI's, Alan is travelling quite a way to speak to us so hopefully as many members as possible will be there on the night. If you have not entered the PDI of the year, send your entry to Harry as soon as you can please. Today at 1pm we are as a club taking part in the LPA club PDI competition at Nettleham, hopefully we will have a few members attend the competition. Regards Graham
At our meeting last night, members of the Society gave a series of “mini lectures”. The topic for the evening was intended to showcase images from the summer Society outings to the nature reserves at Donna Nook, Chambers Wood, and Kirkby Gravel Pits. Unfortunately, owing to the paucity of wildlife this year at the various nature reserves the wildlife images were short on the ground, members stepped up and produced some exceptional images from over this summer. Dave Turner produced some beautiful monochrome images of grasses, and thistles from Chambers Wood. Tony Gaskins stunned with one of his trademark long exposure seascape images, followed up by atmospheric images of his trip to the isle of Harris, and a beautiful image of a Gannet inflight at Bempton Cliffs. Paul Twomey produced some excellent considered images from a visit to the National Trust properties at Quarry Bank, and Lyme Park in Cheshire. Graham Harrison as the Society President had attended all three outings found the greatest concentration of wildlife at Kirkby Gravel Pits, and this stunning image of mating damsel flies is testament to that. Chris Birchmore treated members to a selection of his images of local churches from the Open Church week, as well as photos from the Heckington Show, and steam road engines at the Driffield Showground. Last, but not least, Richard Hildred passed around some of the prints from the Bromoil Circle box, this heritage photographic print technique creates some exquisite artistic prints. It was fascinating to see the diverse skills of members of the Society, a big thanks to members who participated in the lectures making for a wonderful evening. Thanks also to Dave Mann who tirelessly provides refreshments for our evening meetings.
One of the many things that life has taught me, is to be very wary of Politician's promises; alongside this is a growing skepticism in the ability of Weather Forecasters. Knowing October, I was expecting a cool, perhaps damp day but no indication of the fog at the Coast (according to our esteemed TV forecaster). Heading south over the Wolds and then past Alford the mist was bad, turning into nasty fog patches. Chapel St Leonards, as my destination, was pretty much a white-out in parts. Yet again, I do what most photographers do and adapt as best as possible to the situation. I had committed myself to a walk along the sea front, but in setting off, with the muted colours and absence of people, I thought a moody Black & White set may present itself. I enjoy attempting to visualise a B&W scene, then trying to produce my thought on the monitor with the software. I'm nowhere near as proficient as some, but the fun is in the trying. Armed with the Canon EOS 5D iv and the 24-105 f4 L IS series lens, I shot in Manual mode, setting1/250sec and using the aperture range of f8-f10, letting the camera traverse the ISO scale in Auto ISO. I find Auto ISO a real bonus as I can establish both the depth of field I want, and the time the shutter stays open (despite the light level), to let me hand hold, having confidence that the exposure is maintained as I want, through the Auto ISO. Another clever feature (useful when mist and fog are involved) is the Canon's functionality to alter the EV in Manual mode by reassigning a Fn button, rather than compromising a change in set aperture or shutter speed. I spent about an hour walking round, hardly any people around other than a few hardy walkers taking the air and a lovely lady with a Greyhound. Any day with a camera in hand is a good day, it was also pretty much free until we called in at the Garden Centre on the way home, but that's another story... Don't be put off by the weather, where possible embrace it, there's an image out there somewhere. The visit in the mist showed me low contrast levels, muted colours and how it's nice not to be trapped by people in every scene.
