The falling leaves carpet the open spaces with a colourful mosaic. Flora and fauna are preparing for winter months. The damp air is full of the smell of burning logs and newly laid tarmac. For Ashbourne Camera Club Photographers it is another chance to capture these fleeting times. Deer are rutting and hedgehogs are storing up energy for the winter hibernation. The sunrise and sunset come at more respectable hours not the ungodly hours of the summer. A time to let the season stimulate creativity.
So, October has seen, the regular feast of meetings to build on our skills and practice. Starting with a technical session called Camera Craft by Simon Watkinson, a subject which took us deeper into the menus and buttons of our cameras and showed us some new ideas to practice on these longer darker nights. The talk this monthwas given by Vince Scothern which he called A Sporting Chance. Vince is a regular visitor to Camera Club and works a postman. He especially showed us his sporting images and gave us insight into how to take these images successfully which do not appear very often in Club Competitions.
The competition this month is our first one with a trophy. The Mono (black & White) category. The two winners, Print and Projected images. A new member, Phil Staff, in only his second month, won the print competition with an image of Saltwick Nab in Whitby and regular winner David Slade won the projected image with an image of a Jacobite Soldier with a very handsome beard! The competition was judged by a very experienced photographer, Dave Hollingsworth, the long serving Chairman of Arnold Camera Club. A very competent photographer, he showed a good understanding of the images shown and offered valuable suggestions as to how they might be improved. Just what was needed. He pointed out at the end of judging how impressed he was by the standard of our images and how difficult he had found it to make his selections. He said that the club should be proud of the images we had presented and testimony to how the images have improved.
We have been helping a group called Grain Photography. Nicola Shipley attended a meeting and explained what the group does and why they were particularly interested in Ashbourne. The organisation promotes photography in the Midlands and works with community groups and photographers to share experiences. They are interested in the heritage of Shrovetide. In fact the title is Shrovetide: Past Present and Place and hope to explore the whole Shrovetide heritage in photographs. For more information look up www. grainphotographyhub.co.uk We will add more to our reports as the project progresses.
We are very proud to have discovered that Ashbourne Camera Club is 120 years old. It was founded on 20th October 1905 by a group of local enthusiasts and our own photographers. Over the next month a piece will be prepared for the Telegraph to give insight and more detail of how it all began.
So readers, more to come about our Anniversary and our involvement with Grain Photography Shrovetide Heritage project. You may, we hope, be able to help us with both.
