Velo 29 Cycle Races in Bishop Auckland

On the 6th of August, we went to the velo29 cycle races in Bishop Auckland.

There were a number of classes, from junior (primary school age) to adult

Peter 3 — The Race is OnThis was a very difficult route in the centre of Bishop Auckland

There were several very tight bends with only short straight sections and a very narrow race track hemmed in by barriers.

It made for some good action shots.

We found that the best place to take these shots was on the bends .

To make sure there were no mishaps, there were outriders ahead of and behind the races.

Peter 4 — Cooling Down after a Hard Fought Race

The organisers had kindly given us a press pass which allowed access to all areas, including the pit lane.

While the races and action shots were the main focus, there were also opportunites for other subjects such as candid shots…

Peter 5 — The Law – caught you in the act!

..and the awards.

1st and 2nd only because there were so few girls racing

Between races, Matt Hemmings, a champion ‘flatland’ BMX stunt rider, gave a short demonstration of his skills.

July 13, 2014September 4, 2018

July Exhibition – with images

July Exhibition

For the month of July, the club is holding it’s first photographic exhibition. The exhibition can be found in the Butterfly Cafe in Commercial Street, Willington. Why not try to pop along and see what our members have been up to. There are a variety of topics and skill levels represented.

All the images you see are for sale at the size they are (either 15 x 10 or 14 x 11 inches). The cost is £12 per print, which is supplied unmounted allowing you to select the best way to display it for yourself.

If there is an image you would like to order, then please use the “Please Leave a Reply” box at the bottom of the page (it will not appear on the site) and we will get back to you to arrange payment and delivery. If you would like a different size for the image please give us some idea of the size and we will give you a price (NB: not all images will go much larger, while some will go considerably larger).

The images you will see are shown below (NB: the numbers here may not equate with the numbers in the cafe).

(Click on an image to see it larger in the gallery.)

June 23, 2014September 4, 2018

June Meeting

We welcomed another new member this month and after a chat, had a belated look at our ‘Spring’ photos.

When ewes birth triplets, the third is brought in to a 'nursery' — When ewes birth triplets, the third is brought in to a ‘nursery’

Most of us had taken this in the expected context,

Coots were raising their chicks at Hardwick Park

but this one raised a laugh all round.

Our photo theme for the next meeting – September 2^nd – is ‘Dynamic Landscape’. First we talked briefly about how people might choose to capture some movement in their photos. Some ideas were trees blowing in the wind, people/traffic moving through the scene or fast moving water. We spent the rest of the meeting looking at the various camera settings and controls we could use for these. This being my first time leading the practical session, we possibly looked at too many!

As we have no meetings planned for the holiday season, we will be arranging some walks and photo shoots as a group. If you’re not a member, you’d still be welcome to bring your camera along on the walks.

Phone Sue on 746036

June 23, 2014September 4, 2018

March Riverside Walk

Looking for strong shapes on the riverbank

Because several of us couldn’t make the regular meeting date, we decided instead to take our cameras for a walk along the riverbank on the following Saturday morning. We met at 10am at Jubilee Meadows and walked along to the bridge at Sunnybrow.

Colours and shapes show well on a grey day

As it was a dull day, we looked for strong shapes and colours in our shots rather than landscapes or river reflections.

You can see from the grasses that the day was windy as well as grey

This photo captures the light during a brighter spell

Sadly, we found that a favourite tree – a leaning post for some of us, and a feature in photos for others – had been lost to the floods.

May 5, 2014

April Meeting

This month we welcomed two new members to the group. Our meeting started with an introduction to the club and a brief discussion about possible locations photo shoots and the forthcoming exhibition. We also arranged an extra meeting for detailed planning of the exhibition, which our new members generously hosted.

After the discussion, we shared some photos on the theme of capturing movement. These mostly focused on the January meeting’s skill session of zooming while shooting. (They had been taken for the March meeting, but that meeting had been cancelled in favour of a photo shoot along the riverbank – blog and photos to come soon)

If anyone has others to add – if you missed the meeting – please email them to me.

IMG_1083 resized — Trees embrace the tower folly at Harwick Park

Taken on the wetland boardwalk at Hardwick Park

Moving Light — Early evening sun rippling through the trees.

In this one, I was playing with vertical movement of the camera. It has had an interestingly ghostly effect.

Our photo theme to share at the next meeting is ‘Spring’.

February 12, 2014

February Meeting

We shared our photos on the Still Life theme and chatted about them.

Most of the meeting was taken up with sharing our best photos and helping each other decide which two from each of us was best to put into our planned exhibition. We then discussed possible venues. The Community Partnership expressed their willingness to host a display in their windows if we could find suitable free-standing mounts. We all agreed to approach 2 or 3 other possible venues during this month so that we can decide on the most suitable venue and date at the next meeting.

Here’s one of the photos from our last session:-

Many thanks for helping us to practice the zoom technique, Stephen. Hopefully we’ll be able to put it to good use in this month’s challenge – capturing movement.

February 1, 2014

January

January Meeting

We met at the beginning of January, most of us still feeling the effects of the Christmas and New Year celebrations. We had our usual chat around images we had taken and seen. For a bit of fun, and to try out a new technique, we played around with ‘zooming’ – not the easiest of techniques to master, but one that can bring some interesting images. We had a sample image to look at and then set up the intrepid Lego men for each member to have a go at. Obviously, this relies on the fact that you have a camera that will allow good control of the zoom lens. Even had there been someone who didn’t have such a camera or was still using film, there was sufficient cameras with that capability for anyone to have a go. Hopefully we’ll get some of the images up soon.

: Zooming the Christmas tree

February 1, 2014

December Meeting

December Session

Our meeting began with showing some images we had taken to try to capture Autumn – that was our monthly challenge (you can see a couple on this page).

A brief discussion was had about the club holding an exhibition of images taken by the members, possibly in the summer. Watch this space.

We talked, in more detail, about using shutter speed and aperture settings creatively and how to steady oneself when taking images with slower shutter speeds, especially when a tripod was not to hand.

We decided that the monthly challenge would be for an image that says “Christmas” to us.

November 15, 2013September 4, 2018

November Get Together

The group met 5th November and started by looking at some images that we might use for the banner of this site. There were several good ideas and others were discussed. We hope that searching for shots to use as a banner and background will go on throughout the year so we can keep updating these every few months.

Members had asked if we could look at how to hold a camera securely while taking different types of shots. We started with the basic grip for normal shooting and moved onto ways in which we could hold the camera securely in different situations. Several members shared their experiences of how they had taken shots when using slow shutter speeds or windy conditions. We also discussed the use of a tripod and the sort of things to look for when considering a purchase. Also little tricks to help ensure sharp pictures while using a tripod were discussed.

There was also a brief discussion about how to weather proof a camera while photographing in inclement weather. This will probably be re-visited again in a future meeting.

The challenge for this month is to encapsulate autumn in a single image. Not as straightforward as it might seem.

November 5, 2013September 4, 2018

October Meeting

The meeting at the beginning of October saw another new member join our ranks. It was good to see another enthusiastic photographer in the group.

Our theme for images during September had been ‘patterns and textures’. The idea was for an image to exhibit one or the other – or both. Members brought along images which they felt demonstrated one or other of these categories. We duly had a show and tell session.

We decided that at each session we would have a short learning/experience session. During this session we explored the use of aperture in creative photography. We talked about depth of field and the impact on the focus within the image. To further demonstrate the effect we had about a dozen Lego people lined up at an angle. Members used their cameras to explore the changes of focus based on the aperture setting. The session was most enjoyable.

The challenge for October is to find images that can represent Willington on this blog.

(Click an image to see them in the gallery)