Welcome Back

Welcome back to a new season. I hope everyone had a good and productive break. Last year was a very good year with CPS doing well in competitions, with some successes at MIDPHOT, the PAGB PDI at Warwick and the PAGB print at Connah’s Quay and also the MCPF at Leicester The practical groups seem to have worked quite well and even if things didn’t quite go to plan I am sure that we are all grateful for the shared expertise of those giving the talks. It looks like a good year to look forward to with what appear to be some more interesting lectures.

********************************************************************

As always I’m looking for interesting articles about YOUR photo-

graphic experiences, but I regret to say that I seem to get excuses of ‘ I can’t write an article’ — ‘I’ve done nothing interesting’ —

All it takes is a half A4 or full A4 (250-500 words ) and three or four

photos.

Paul’s articles in this newsletter was only 500 words. What can you offer. Cannock has some great photographers who explore a vari-ety of techniques 0. So spill the beans! Without the articles there

is no newsletter and that would be a great shame.

I have always had a passing interest in photography. I can remember receiving a Kodak Brownie 127 as a birthday present when I was about nine years old. It was not until another 27 years elapsed that I really started taking it more seriously when I enrolled on a short course at Cannock Technical College. The lecturer, a chap called John Cartlidge, showed us the rudiments of cameras, developing, printing etc. I currently use a Nikon D7000. Whilst there is a lot of fun banter between the Canon brigade and the Nikon supporters both brands are equally good. I used to have a Nikon FM2, all manual and a dream to work with and I subsequently remained loyal to the manufacturer because, whilst the cameras advance, they remain somewhat familiar.

Photography is largely an extension of my love of the outdoors and so the majority of my images are landscapes, taken on walks in Wales, Derbyshire, the Lake District etc. Some favourite haunts of mine are the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains just north of Abergavenny which are wonderful locations. They are wild, desolate areas and have some daunting black skies but, unlike Snowdonia, they are largely void of tourists, just the odd SAS recruit here and there.

The Inside Picture Stuart Balance.

I have recently had relative success at club level with a number of candid shots, taken in Paris. I would love to be able to have a stock of natural history images but I do not have the time or the patience to be successful in this field.

I use Photoshop to exaggerate or accentuate certain areas of my photographs. I have been known to replace skies on occasions and to remove various superfluous items but, in general, I don't make major changes on the computer. However, whilst enjoying my time as Programme Secretary I started studying other photographers work in more detail and experimented a little with the techniques of Diane Owen, Patricia Jones and others. My advice to beginners would be to dedicate time to photography to obtain the best images. You will not get award winning photos by just taking a camera with you on family outings. Plan your project in advance and carry out research. Do as I say, not do as I do! Get to know your camera, get to know the settings and read the manual. Practice by taking lots of shots and understand the results of various settings. Once you have purchased the camera the shots are free! Above all, enjoy your photography. There are not really any particular areas of photography that I specifi-cally wish to develop in future, although I may well persevere in the di-rection of fine art (doesn't that sound pretentious?). Even though my success is limited, I enjoy viewing and creating this type of image. Otherwise, I shall continue taking my walks in the hills, camera bag on back and hope for the best. Stuart.

Whilst surfing the ‘Google photography world’ I came across this little article which Id like to share. Although I’m not quite sure how it fits with more serious photography I can see the fun side of its use since so often I seem to take the holiday snaps but am not really part of them unless my family take a photo of me taking a photo of them, or something like that.

Chin –Wei Liao is a designer studying for an MA/MSc Dual Degree in Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art in London. Liao has designed a camera that enables the photographer to be seen when they are capturing pictures.

The DUO’ is a separable camera. It consists of detachable cameras with synchronised triggers to capture the moment, which allows two people to take different pictures at the same time. It’s design was inspired by the fact that some people feel uncomfortable being photographed or don’t like seeing images of themselves. When browsing through old photos, we have stronger memory connections and emotions while seeing photos with ourselves inside. However, documenting the presence of self is not an easy task, and there is usually one person who is excluded from photos taken in social events. The project explores the meaningful impact of self-image and ways of encouraging people to enjoy taking photos. It invites people to engage in the photo-taking process. By being both photographer and subject at the same time, it enables people to have fun documenting and being documented.

The DUO Rob Albutt

My interest in the genre (what a posh word that is) started two or three years ago when I began working in Birmingham. Going out to stretch my legs during the lunch hour, I began to realise the photographic potential in a big city. In an environment where there are lots of people rushing around, particularly during lunchtime (in the case of office workers), and there are also tourists taking snaps, it can be very easy to blend in and merge into the background. I very rarely use a long lens; probably 90mm would be the very maximum. I think it was Robert Capa who coined the phrase - if it’s not good enough you aren’t close enough. To me if you are using anything more than 100-150mm you are going to loose any affinity with your subject and have less chance of incorporating a good background into the shot. For me anything from 35 to 70mm focal length is about right.

On the Street with Paul Reynolds

There a couple of things you are going to have to accept when doing street photography: 1. There are times when you will go out and get nothing – you will be

in the wrong place at the wrong time, or you will notice something when it’s too late, or you will get the shot of a lifetimeF.. and it will be out of focus. All these things are sent to try us - me more than anyone else.

2. It’s inevitable that sooner or later you will be challenged. Having

said that it’s only happened to me two or three times in a couple of years, and if all else fails offering to delete the shot usually works! If it’s that good you can always retrieve it later.

What do you look for? It might be an interesting character, someone’s face/body language/clothes, the background, or a combination of those things. The beauty of it to me is that sometimes a good composition will just open out in front of you, or sometimes you can just anticipate it - if it tells a story, all the better.

There are some areas which are simply “no go”. Anywhere where there are too few people (outside of any city centre) is probably inadvisable as is photographing anyone who is a little worse for drink. All pretty much common sense really.

I tend to use autofocus all of the time – modern cameras usually manage to focus on what you want them to. I have used face recognition in the past but have had instances where the focal point has ended up on the face of someone on a poster in the background rather than the subject itself. Generally I don’t try to be creative with depth of field – my trusty Canon S90 which shoots in Raw will get everything sharp at around f5.6 in aperture priority mode. Anything up to 400ASA works fine for me – grain (sorry noise) can add to the ambience of the shot, to a degree. There are all sorts of tips, tutorials and advice on the interweb, particu-larly You Tube – look there for further inspiration together with: http://www.vivianmaier.com/ http://www.blog.magnumphotos.com/bruce_gilden.html http://www.robertdoisneau.com/robert_doisneau_hotelkiss.htm and of course: http://www.henricartierbresson.org/hcb/home_en.htm

At the end of August we travelled to Holland for a two week holiday, crossing from Harwich to the Hook of Holland on the ferry. From there we drove to our accommodation on a small farm in the village of Nieuveen which is about Fifteen miles from Amsterdam.

Nieuveen is a pretty village situated in an area known as ‘The Green Heart’ of Holland and this has many canals and dykes running through it, and also several lakes. Many houses are separated from the road by a canal and these have their own drawbridge, because as most have a boat of some description bridges would be impractical. On the first Sunday we were there we travelled to a small town called Zundert to see the annual ‘Corso’. This is a big parade consisting of twenty or thirty floats constructed with flowers, although to describe them as floats is to do them an injustice as they are huge, towering over the spectators and the amount of work that is put into them has to be seen to be believed. The whole town has a carnival atmosphere and is attended by thousands of people, many of whom arrive by bicycle, the favoured Dutch mode of transport.

Going Dutch with Roy & Margaret

The following day we motored into Amsterdam, a city we had long wished to see. It is a large city, a fact that is not conveyed when you see film of it on T.V. as this tends to concentrate on the touristy city centre. Amsterdam is not a place to drive through if you don’t know it, so we used one of the ‘Parking Garages’ which are very secure and provide a subsi-dised park and ride service. A lot of attractions and places of interest are centred around Dam Square, from where you can walk to see the old part of the city and the canals which are serve by water busses and also sight seeing boats.

The ‘Red Light District’ is an education (well you have to see it don’t you? Didn’t learn much!) We then went to Gouda where the cheese comes from, another very old town and very easy to get around. The weighing house where the cheese was traditionally weighed is still used though not for its original purpose as it now sells the cheese and houses the tourist information office though the old scales can still be seen.

The central square is ringed with restaurants with tables outside and in it’s centre stands the fifteenth century ‘Staat Huise) or town hall which is now a museum and restaurant. Delft is another place that we particularly liked as the old town is very beautiful with its streets running down each side of the canals. At one end of the ‘Markt’ or market place stands the ‘Nieuw Kerk’, for centuries the final resting place of members of the Dutch royal family. Around the square are restaurants and shops selling the famous blue Delft china-ware. On the coast there are three resorts within easy reach of where we were staying, Katwijk, Noordwijk, and Zandvoort, the latter famous for its motor racing circuit. All of these are equally attractive with sand dunes, wide promenades and beautiful beaches which have lovely light fine sand. On our second Saturday we drove to Leiden another city not far away, and home to the oldest university in Holland. As you might expect, a feature of Leiden is its canals and a walk down one of these took us to the ‘Hortus Botanicus’, the university botanic gardens which you can walk around, and which were founded in 1590. They are the oldest in Holland and one of the oldest in the world. We then walked back into the town centre and discovered the biggest market either of us had ever seen. It stretched for nearly a mile down both sides of the canal and sold almost everything you could possibly wish for. All the produce was fresh, reasonably priced, and beautifully presented, a feature we noticed in all of the shops wherever we went.

The following day, Sunday, we went to Utrecht, and again used the park and ride, as Utrecht is a very busy place and although there is ample multi-story town centre parking there is so much redevelopment going on it would have been difficult to get to the parking places. Once again we found the if you walked a couple of streets you soon found yourself in the older parts of the town and along the canals with lots of little shops and cafes, quaint streets and quiet squares. The Domplein or cathedral square houses the Pandhof, the monastery garden which is very beautiful and surrounded by the cloisters of St. Martins Cathedral. On the other side of the square stands the Dom Tower, built between 1321 and 1382, 112mtrs and 455 steps high! Haarlem is another town we visited, again with many medieval buildings, its market square dominated by Gothic St. Bavos Cathedral. The square is a great place to sit, enjoy a coffee and watch the world go by. Another place to see is the Art Nouveau railway station, rebuilt in 1906 it has much stained glass, wrought iron and wood carving, a real blast from the past. All too soon our holiday came to an end and we had to say goodbye to Holland and make our way back to the ferry for the crossing back to the U.K. Holland is an easy place to get around, it has a good road system which is well signed and interconnects well. The Dutch people we met all spoke English wherever we went, and were some of the nicest we have met. We long to go back again. If you want to take a look at the Corso Zundert website the link is www.corsozundert.nl/home-EN/ Roy & Margaret

Hi Everyone, We have booked our

Christmas Meal for the club on Saturday

night December 14th.

The price is reasonable, 3 courses for

£14.99 same as last year.

See Menu

We usually have a pleasant evening

with fellow club members. Please inform

us as soon as possible as we need to know the numbers.

On Saturday 2nd November we are going on a trip to Quarry Bank

Mill National Trust in Cheshire, It is a cotton mill with working machines

and steam engines. You can also have a guided tour of the Apprentice

House where the pauper children lived and worked. There is a Garden

with ancient woods along the river Bollin where you can walk. Look for

the prices on the website, just put Quarry Bank Mill in the search bar. A

few weeks ago there was a series on TV called The Mill and this is where

it was filmed. We have been to this Mill in the past and have found it very

interesting, you can photograph there. Please let us know if you would

like a visit to this Mill. — Regards Roy and Margaret.

In Memoriam Ron Whittle Ron was 67 and had been a member of the club since 1991. He and I joined on the same evening after attending a short photography course at Cannock College, conducted by John Cartlidge. Ron served as Equipment Officer of our society for many years and also as our MCPF representative. He was a keen photographer and entered many monthly competitions in the early years, mainly concentrating on landscapes and Motorsport. He became less competitive in recent years but was always a regular attendee at our weekly meetings and at many social events. Ron's main interest was the great outdoors and had been a regular at any walking events held by club members. Many will recall weekends in the Lakes, Yorkshire and Devon, together with sporadic trips to Wales and Derbyshire. Ron was in his element when donning walking boots and Kagool, anticipating a trek up Skiddaw or Catbells. Essentially a quiet man, Ron was a good friend to many of us at the club and also to photographers from other local clubs. This was evident at his funeral when so many turned up to pay tribute to a pal who, despite his physical decline in the last few years, retained a tremendous zest for life. Stuart Balance