Nice to see such a great turn out for David Chapman's talk on his 2016 wildlife and landscape images!
Christmas Competition
Well, what a fantastic way to end the year, plenty of food and drink and plenty of banter when trying to earn a few extra points!
Even though it was a very close call, with 4 teams all coming within 3 points of each other, in the end their can be only one winner and it was Peter's team who edged ahead to take victory... well done to everyone who took part and well done to Richard and Andy for putting the quiz together... here's to next year!
Portait Lighting
Another cracking evening at the club, Richard bought in his lighting set up to show us how he approaches lighting for shooting portraits and while he has some good equipment the same logic can still be applied when using simpler gear.
We used two lighting set up during the evening, starting with a high-key configuration using all four flashes, and then switching to a simpler two flash setup for low-key portraits.
Members Presentation
Wow, what a full evening of photographic goodness!
Peter started off the evening with some of his shots that he sells via local shops and his website, for more of his excellent work have a look at his site! http://www.capturedcornwall.co.uk/
Next up was Ted with a talk on his passion, Primulas. He showed us through the different varieties including how he won a Chelsea Gold Medal, a most impressive achievement!
Janet and John showed us the results of their day-trip to see the "Just Jane" Lancaster Bomber with http://timelineevents.org/, the events are set up specifically for photographers and include people in period dress who perform re-enactments through the day.
Finally, we finished off the evening with a tutorial of macro focus stacking from James and Richard, where they managed to achieve some stunning results like this... phew!
Freathy Photo-walk
Another quiet photo-walk, the weather seems to be the main reason for staying away and it was probably a wise idea with no sunset on offer, the moody sea-mist clearing far to quickly and even the tide was too far out to get shots of the waves crashing over the rocks... and to top it all off I'd left my 10-stop filter at home!
Killmar Tor photo-walk
Well, good news! It appears that the small car-park to the north-east of Killmar Tor is accessible via a very narrow lane from Berriowbridge and allows much easier access to the Tor than parking near to Sharp Tor and walking from there. What would have been a 30 minutes walk is cut down to about 15 minutes, although the terrain is pretty steep so be warned!
We arrived at the Tor and were presented with a fantastic view over Bodmin Moor with clear skies towards Launceston but big brooding clouds amassing from Bolventor, and it was these that cut the evening short. After an hour or so exploring the rocks we could see the rain getting closer and closer until eventually rain stopped play and we beat a hasty retreat back down the hill to the cars.
Still, it did present us with the opportunity to get some shots of the fantastic Crepuscular Rays that were dotted over the landscape!
Here's looking forward to the next walk!
Wistman's Wood Photo-walk
I'm not sure if it was the drive to the location or the anticipation of the walk but something put everybody off this week and I had a lonely photo-walk!
Still, got to look at the positives and that did mean that I had the splendor of Wistman's Wood to enjoy all by myself allowing for a free-roam over all the compositional opportunities on offer, and I think it's only fair for me to post something that will hopefully make you a little jealous of what you missed! :)
News flash! As it turns out I'd just missed Andy by mere minutes, and while he didn't make it as far as the woods he did take some great shots of the moors on the way!
Davidstow Airfield photo-walk
Davidstow Airfield is always an interesting place to visit, lots of old abandoned buildings with plenty of rusty old metal... it's photographic gold!
But the weather had the best surprise for us... wow! What a stunning end to the day! Here's Richard and Shaun setting up for their shots of the old control tower with that glorious sky:
Colliford Lake photo-walk
Well, what a difference! The good weather bought with it loads of club members to a bright and cheery evening at Colliford Lake.
The nice weather brings with it its own set of challenges; the sun was reflecting fiercely off the lake making it difficult to get a nice exposure and even having the sun out of frame still made one side of the image brighter than the other side. The cloudless sky meant that sweeping vista’s were off the menu so the trees that eek out their lives on the shore became a focus for many.
Our brave and fearless chairman Richard even spent half-an-hour wading through the lake trying to get an image of one of the lake’s fishes jumping out of the water, but they kept tormenting him by jump just out of frame!
Still, it was interesting to see how different people interpreted the same location at the same time!
Minions photo-walk
I think the weather put most people off, and I can’t say I blame them!
It was a a dreary, wet and foggy evening on Thursday when we met at Minions and decided to head for the quarry near the Caradon Hill Transmitter, from there we carried on towards the disused mine-stacks that litter the landscape.
It really does give the area an eerie feeling when you can hardly see anything in-front of you and photographically speaking can be seen as both a pro and a con, the con being that you can’t take in any grand vistas, but the pro being that you can isolate subjects and remove distractions from the frame.
At least we managed to find our way off the moorland with the only casualty being an umbrella which caught a full gust of wind and was ripped inside-out!
