April News

April has seen us come to the end of our winter programme.

After the Easter break we had a member evening where we heard the story behind the image from various members. It is always difficult to get the photographers thinking and mood portrayed in an image as many of us have found out when external judges comment on our work.

The official end of the season was the AGM where some new members were voted onto the committee bringing a new approach to running the club.

Our summer competition is now up and running. This is run as a team against team competition. Each team is made up of mixed experience members with the aim of everyone learning from each other as they meet on location around the county to take photographs.

An evening is set aside in next years programme to show the results.

There is an open invitation to all members to meet at the Carnon Inn on the first Monday of the month for an informal get together.

The next winter season starts on September 3^rd in the main hall at Carnon Downs Village Hall.

New members are always welcome. Why not look us up at one of the meetings at Carnon Inn.

 

March News

Our March meetings began with a visit to the past with a film slide show by member Elvin. He took us on a journey through Corsica and Sardinia with stunning vistas and scenes. It was great to see the quality and depth of colour that slide film gave us.

Ten members travelled to Camborne-Redruth for our annual competition. Truro had 4 more marks than C-R for the prints but C-R came back with better scores for DPI’s and beat us by 3 points overall. The judge was Bryan Crick from St Ives camera club.

For our next meeting Mark Walker gave us a lesson about high speed sync using specialised flash heads and fast speed photography. He brought along Danielle as a model to demonstrate various ways of isolating a subject on a well-lit day using hss techniques. There was an opportunity for all members to try out these methods after the break discovering if their cameras were suitable for this type of photography. All members agreed that we all learnt a great deal about another area of photography and our own equipment.

We were treated to a visit to Scandinavia by Chris and John Bailey at our next meeting. The first half was an illustrated talk about their trip with details of camera settings for taking pictures of the aurora borealis and snow-covered land. We were shown husky sledging and using snowmobiles. The second half was a slide show set to music of their favourite images of the holiday.

Our last meeting of the month was a showing of the 15 prints and 15 PDI’s selected for the club’s entry into the CPA annual competition. Only three entries per member per section of fifteen.

February News

Our first February meeting was a trip back to sail ship days and the many shipwrecks around the Cornish coast. John Strike brought along a collection of glass slides which he projected using a modified old type magic lantern. The detail in the slides was amazing considering how old they were.

Helston CC and St Austell CC joined us for our annual three way battle the following week. Each club takes it in turn to organise but it is always held at Truro CC because we are half way between Helston and St Austell. Janet Downs from Liskeard CC was the judge and treated us all to a very detailed analysis of all images. Truro were the outright winners this year with 253 points, St Austell 233 points and Helston 216 points.

We then visited the USA with a slide show from Adrian Rowlands of a visit to Georgia and Tennessee. Based on Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga the Choo Choo and station (now a hotel) was shown together with pictures from Rock City and a visit to the Tennessee Valley Rail Road. Pictures from the civil war were also show with Chattanooga being a very important area in the outcome of the conflict.

Our Print Of The Year competition was judged by Kim Pilkington from Fowey River CC. Congratulations to Barry Thompson for his colour print Macleays Spectre Stick Insect and John Yarrow for his Subway Strings.

All results and images can be seen on the website.

 

January News

We started 2018 with a varied January programme with images of Cornwall from the air to seascapes from around the world.

Roy McBryde began the new year with a look at Cornwall from the air travelling along the north coast from Newquay to Lands End and back up the spine of the county to Truro with historical facts along the way.

Crantock based Chris Simmons took us around the world with his stunning seascapes reminding us about the time and planning required to take these images and also the health and safety aspects of photography along the coastlines.

We also enjoyed our subject competition (from above or below) judged by John Downes of Liskeard camera club and our digital image of the year judged by Pam Robertson from Falmouth camera club.

John Bailey (up and away), Angela Thompson (around the coffee) and Lynn Duffney (the shopping arcade) took top honours in our subject competition while Paul Nash (Bassets Cove) won the Inga Howse cup for digital image of the year followed by Angela Thompson (winters coat).

December News

Our December programme opened with an excellent presentation from David Chapman the well-known wildlife and landscape photographer. This was a new presentation showing a snapshot (no pun intended) of where he visited and what he had photographed in 2017. From the Cairngorms in Scotland to his small holding in Cornwall the variety and quality of the images was outstanding. Our members interacted with David who described some of his dedicated set ups on his small holding and how he attracted the birds and how he set up the camera to take the shot.

During the summer members took part in a ‘’Hunt and Shoot’’ organised by Margaret. Those taking part were given 10 subjects to photograph and had three hours in which to do it. Each member had to start with an empty memory card and at the end of the three hours return to the start point with a maximum of 20 images on the card. These were then copied onto a laptop. All images would be judged ‘’as taken’’ with no manipulation. Members later sent Margaret their choice of one image for each subject. These were then judged on our second meeting by Richard Thomas from Helston CC with first, second and third chosen for each subject and one an overall winner.

The last get together was our Christmas dinner at the Punch Bowl and Ladle. All attending members had a great time. It was also an opportunity for members’ partners to meet the happy crowd who meet every Monday night.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all members, partners and prospective members. See you all in 2018.

 

October & November News

The successful start to our winter season has continued through October and November.

The three-way competition with Falmouth camera club and Penryn camera club resulted in a clear win for Truro camera club with 220 points. Falmouth and Penryn drew with 210 points each.

In October the club ran a portrait evening with the help of Richard Thomas from Helston camera club. We used two rooms with a different set up in each.

This was followed by a photoshop workshop by Victor Tullin from Penryn camera club. As usual with presentations by Victor it was instructional and entertaing.

Our second in house competition was judged by Mark Walker from Falmouth camera club. The results can be see in our results page. Well done to Margaret Hocking, Angela Thompson and John Bailey for their first placed images.

The annual critique with St Austell camera club was held at Truro this year. Many different comments from both clubs were made about the 20 images viewed.

During the summer club members were invited to join in with a team competition. Over 30 members took part divided into 5 teams choosing 3 images for 8 set subjects. The results night was enjoyed by all with comments on all images by team leaders.

Madagascar was the destination of Steve Bulford from St Austell camera club for a nature expedition taking photographs of rare and endangered animals. The standard of the images was very impressive considering the conditions Steve and his partner encountered.

In house competition number three was judged by Kevin Lear. All images were commented on in a very informative and entertaining evening. The full results can be seen in our results page. Congratulations to Barry Thompson, Angela Thompson and Jo Howell for their top placed images.

 

News Update: September – October

The 2017/18 season has begun well for Truro Camera Club.

The first three weeks were part instructional with club members showing their skills and results on various subjects and manipulation programmes.

Our first guest speaker Rupert Kirkwood took us around the south west on a kayak venturing out as far out to sea and also paddling back from the Scilly’s.

The first in house competition attracted 55 digital images, 26 colour prints and 22 monochrome prints.

Wendy Allard from Camborne/Redruth camera club was the judge and commented on every image.

First mono print was ‘’Holiday Retreat’’ by Angela Thompson. Second place was ‘’Putting Our Memories To Sleep’’ by Barry Thompson. Third place was ‘’He Lied To Me’’ by Rob Eschle.

First colour print was ‘’Macleays Female Spectre Stick Insect’’ by Barry Thompson. Second place was ‘’Goat Herders Returning Home’’ by Angela Thompson. Third place was ‘’Crantock Beach’’ by Lynn Duffney.

First digital image was ‘’Leading Role’’ by Angela Thompson. Second Place was ‘’Overloaded by Barry Thompson. Third place was ‘’Whippet In Flight’’ by Margaret Hocking.

 

Print of the Year Competition

On 13^th March Truro Camera Club held its annual print of the year competition. With a stunning selection of monochrome and colour prints the judge Adrian Rowlands selected Narun from Angela Thompson as the top colour print and a clean sweep from Angela saw her portrait of Madam Jezebel win the top monochrome print. Highly commended were Giant Rainforest Mantis from Barry Thompson and Sibling Rivalry from Angela Thompson, River Thames from Chris Bailey and Dune Spine also from Angela Thompson. On 20^th March we have a member led evening with Paul Nash and Nicholas Richards demonstrating various photographic skills. Please visit trurocameraclub.btck.co.uk for more information.

 

Norway with Elvin Kingsley

Adrian Rowlands was pleased to introduce Elvin Kingsley – particularly with his high-quality photographic slides. The subject was ‘Another part of Norway’.The trip had taken place in May last year – starting in Trondheim. Elvin and Cora then headed inland to stay in log cabin, in the snow-covered hills. Frozen lakes and rough ground-conditions limited their walks. Nevertheless, the scenery was impressive – views of distant mountains within the national park. It was difficult to reach some of the glaciers.  

A second week was spent in the Grand Fjord Hotel in Geiranger Fjord. Because of its landscape, the fjord is visited by many cruise ships. Elvin had taken many views looking down to the fjord.

The holiday ended with a return to Trondheim – seeing the coloured timber-warehouses, lining the river.

After the interval, Elvin treated the Club to some views of Exmoor. Valley of the Rocks; Lanacre Bridge; Withypool; and, Exmoor ponies were featured.

Peter Bragg expressed his thanks for such a splendid evening. Next week will be the Print of the Year competition (Roy Thomas Cup) to be judged by Adrian Rowlands.

Panoramas with Ian Smith

On 13^th February we welcomed Ian Smith from Launceston CC for a presentation ‘’working with panoramas’’. Ian showed how he was able to take a series of pictures working around a 360 degree circle making sure there was an overlap to each image and when put into his dedicated computer software how it was stitched together to give a flat 360 degree picture. Some images had in excess of 80 images before being processed. Members were most impressed with the clarity in each finished image and the ability to zoom in an any part of the image without loss of any detail. Ian showed some images that had gone wrong and explained his thought process to produce the series of stunning printed pictures he brought along to show us.

On 27^th February we welcome Victor Tullin for a demonstration of Photoshop.