Home News Our Club Programme Events Competitions Gallery Links Contact Us Members

Meeting Reports 2023-24 Season

20th March 2024

The final competition of the season for Alnwick and District Camera Club was held on the 20th March – it was an Open Mono Print competition and, although there was a small number of entries, the standard was again extremely high. The judge was George Ledger who has judged at the club on several occasions.

Two images received Commended awards - “Tunnel Vision” by Gerry Simpson and “Derwent Water” by Val Atkinson.

Highly Commended went to “Night Light” by John Thompson, “Crummock Water Boat” by David Burn and “Ramsey Lane” by John Thompson again.

4th place went to Carol McKay for her image “Treescape” - a lovely vignette of trees and foliage.

David Burn was awarded 3rd place with “North Wind Doth Blow” - a very simple image of a white wind turbine standing out against an almost black sea and sky.

2nd place was also given to David Burn for “Low Newton” - a long, winding road leading down to the beach without a single person in view!

Geoffrey Bradford won the overall competition with his atmospheric image “Nightfall at Wallington” - an unusual view of the inside of one of the dolls’ houses at Wallington.

Well done to everyone!

Report by Jackie Stent


6th March 2024

the 6th March 2024, Alnwick and District Camera Club held the final PDI competition of the season. The judge was Rob Butler who had not been to the Club before and he was given a warm welcome by members. Rob said he was very impressed by the standard of the images and had found it difficult to decide which ones were placed.

Three images achieved Commended – “Sea Smoke Island” by Celia Watson, “Woolly Drone” by John Thompson and “Waiting, Regent Centre” by Dave Dixon.

A further three images were given Highly Commended - “Bark” by Alastair Cochrane, “Vase” by Micheal Mundy and “Beechy Island” by Ian Atkinson.

4th place was awarded to Margaret Whittaker - “Combine Harvester Rust” was a close up of a very old rusty combine but the colours and texture brought out in the image were stunning!

Karen Broom was in 3rd place with her image “Arch of Hercules” - ancient pillars under an atmospheric brooding sky!

2nd place went to Dave Dixon with a different view of Canary Wharf - “Looking Up, Canary Wharf” showed us what we can see if we just look upwards!

“Mary and a Rock” by David Burn was awarded 1st place - a seascape of St Mary’s Island and lighthouse in the distance with a rock protruding from the sea. The colours of the image were beautiful – a well caught moment in time!

Congratulations to everyone!

Report by Jackie Stent


28th February 2024

Members of Alnwick and District Camera Club held their annual Print Set Subject competition last week – the theme this year was “Blue”. The judge was Alan Porrett, a regular judge at the Club, who was celebrating a milestone himself as this was his 1,000 judging event. In recognition of this, he was presented with a bottle of Prosecco and some chocolates by club members.

Three images were awarded Commended – “My New Garage Door” by John Thompson, “Catapult Factory, Blyth” by Richard Stent and “Rover P2” by John Strong. Three were awarded Highly Commended - “Blue Ice” by Stanley Trafford, “Kelpies at Night” by David Burn and “Blue Sky Day, Amble” also by David Burn.

Alan admitted it was difficult to choose his final 4 as the standard of entries was very high but he eventually settled on the following images -

4th place was “Trust Chubb” by John Thompson – an intriguing image of patterns on a blue door with the word Chubb hidden amongst the design.

3rd place was “Feeling Blue” by Carol McKay – the only image which showed Blue as an emotion in the form of a girl looking very sad and clutching a mug.

2nd place went to Stanley Trafford for “Ice Cold” - a beautiful image of an iceberg rising from the sea, shimmering blue.

1st place was awarded to David Burn for “”Blue Hour at Bamburgh Castle” - an image which not only showed the blue sky and blue sea but a shaft of golden light catching the top of the castle itself.

Congratulations to those who were successful but also to everyone who entered the competition as the standard was very high.

Alan was thanked for the time he had spent looking at the images and the comments he made whilst judging – we look forward to his next visit to Alnwick as judge!

Report by Jackie Stent


15th November 2023

'Tabletop Photography' was the theme of Alnwick and District Camera Club’s practical night so members came armed with their cameras, lenses and tripods ready to get involved in taking photos of a range of props set up on tables around the room.

Light boxes and light tents were set up with a range of different light sources and members visited the various set ups to try their hand at close up and macro photography. Props included tiny little figures, flowers, shells, paint tubes, prisms, twigs, fruit, jewellery even a toy battleship!

The evening proved very successful and members are looking forward to repeating the experience again in the future.

28th October 2023

Our 1st open colour print competition was held on Wednesday evening 24th October and we were lucky to have David Hall to judge our 30 entries. David is a very experienced photographer who shoots film, processes in his dark room and is passionate about prints. We know we’re in for a good night when his name is on the programme and there was a good turnout of members to hear what he thought of our work. David had spent a lot of time considering our prints and commented on technical skills, choice of paper and mount size, the white gloves even came out at one point to handle a beautifully presented print on matte paper.

Commended went to: Bursting Forth by Val Atkinson, Interior by Geoffrey Bradford, Saturn by Celia Watson.

Highly Commended went to: Belsay Hall rooms 1-4 by Geoffrey Bradford, Red Squirrel by Richard Stent

4th was Centenary Stones by David Burn, a calm landscape with the dark centenary stones contrasting with the beautiful pastel lake and mountains.

3rd was Bamburgh Dawn by David Burn, a beautiful shot of a misty Bamburgh castle from the sea

2nd was Grab & Out by Margaret Whittaker, a great action shot of a squirrel leaping from the water

1st was On Bamburgh Beach by David Burn, another great seascape of Bamburgh castle, the judge loved the texture on the rocks, the perfect slow shutter speed and the great lead in.

Well done to David Burn, for almost sweeping the board!

Report by Val Atkinson


11th October 2023

"Show Me How" was the theme of a practical evening for members of Alnwick & District Camera Club last week.

Five Club members had volunteered to run “mini workshops” on different aspects of photography. John Thompson offered advice about Infrared Photography; Geoffrey Bradford showed how to create good mounts for images; Dawn Robertson demonstrated how Photo Stacking can create interesting images; Jane Coltman shared her skills with Photoshop; and Richard Stent explained how to prepare digital images for competitions.

Members could dip in and out of the workshops as they wished and the room was buzzing with conversations! The practical evening was declared successful by all involved and it is hoped to run more similar evenings later in the season.

Report by Jackie Stent


4th October 2023

Alnwick camera club held their First Open Projected Image Competition this week. It was judged by a regular visitor to the club, Jim Welsh of Blyth Photographic Society, who has judged our competitions over many years. There was an entry of 48 images covering a wide variety of subject matter including landscape, portrait, street photography, table top and abstract. Jim gave a very detailed assessment of each of the images and offered some useful advice in an informative and often humous way.

The three commended images were "Stormy Monday" by Dave Dixon, a very atmospheric image of a field of gold under a dark, moody, cloudy sky. Also commended was "A pair of Fulmars" by George Nasmyth an image of the two birds nesting on the side of a cliff and Stanely Trafford’s abstract image called "Soap Bubble", something which the judge puzzled over how it was created.

Highly Commended went to Dave Dixon’s "Busy Bee", a close up of a honey bee on covered in pollen on a purple flower head, and another of his images called "Tunnel Vision, Old Street Station", the type of image of uban image which Dave excels at. The third Highly Commended went to Tony Broom’s "Ready to Fly" a close up of a spider approaching a fly caught in its web.

Margaret Whittaker had entered three very successful images and came 4th with "Fungi at Night", a beautifully lit image of woodland fungi, 3rd with "Quick Jump Over" showing a very athletic red squirrel almost in flight and 2nd with "Under the Umbrella" an image of a very colourfully dressed oriental lady smiling under a bright red umbrella.

First place went to Andrew Mackie’s stunning image called "Spool the Owl". Every detail of the owl was crystal clear as it was caught in flight in front of a subdued forest background.

Report by Richard Stent


27th September 2023

"A simple photographer, using simple gear to produce simple pictures" is how Tony Broom described himself in a talk at Alnwick Camera Club on 27th September 2023.

Tony talked us through his work using medium format cameras and film to produce some stunning mono and infrared images all developed in his darkroom at home. Although darkroom work is in the distant past for many of us the principles are the same and everyone in the audience picked up something we can take back to our own photography. Tony talked about composition and the handling of light and shade areas as well as offering advice on techniques used.

His keen eye for a photograph combined with a high level of technical skill resulted in a gallery wall of exceptional quality - anything but ’simple pictures’!

Report by Dawn Robertson


20th September 2023

On 20th September we held our print knock out evening. There were some tough decisions as members chose between two images until we got down to the winner.

4th place went to George Nasmyth for a shot of trawlers at North Shields.

3rd place was Carol McKay with abstract reflections in the windows of a building.

George Nasmyth had a very successful evening and came 2nd with a beautiful shot of a painted lady butterfly.

Our worthy winner this evening was David Burn with a stunning, technically perfect long exposure seascape. Well done everyone!

Report by Dawn Robertson


Archive of previous reports


Website © 2007-2024 Alnwick & District Camera Club
Copyright on photographs belongs to the photographer