Around a dozen of us made the trip to Blackpool in four shared cars, most leaving Macc between 2pm and 3pm although a few had driven up the night before. We had around two hours of daylight photography before the night came and the lights were turned on at 6.45pm. Despite the length of the prom we all managed to bump into each other sometime during the night. The weather was extremely kind to us, no wind and no rain and it really wasn’t terribly busy either. The lights are a terrific show with the lit up trams, water reflections from the beach and multiple viewing angles from varying distances of the Tower to help get some good nighttime landscapes. I think everyone managed to get some good and very different shots. We will plan to show the best of these at some future camera club evening. Below is Kevin Blake’s creative slow shutter work of the passing tram.
An excellent night in Holmes Chapel saw our Camera Club lift the Robertshaw trophy for the first time in 15 years. Five clubs complete for this trophy and the overall scores on the night were : Macclesfield 180 points, Crewe 172, Leek 171, Blythe Bridge 159 and Holmes Chapel 159. The event was well attended by all clubs with Macc being represented by Paul Scott, Anthony Gosling, Keith Parker, Kevin Blake, Peter Thomasson and Conor Molloy. Thank you to our new External Competition secretary Chris Aggersbury for co-ordinating the submission and selection of our 10 images. Our individual image scores were :
Kissing Beeeaters by Conor Molloy (19 points) , Focus by Steve Gresty (18 points) , Quarter inch Jack by Antony Gosling (19 points), Mia by Paul Scott (20 points)
Battle of the Hurdles by Alison Lomax (16 points), Nature Red in Tooth and claw by Leonie Sellars (16 points), Polo player by David Tolliday (18 points), One Angel Square, Manchester by Anthony Gosling (16 points)
Arctic Tern Feeding Time by David Tolliday (18 points), Hunting Great Grey Owl by Conor Molloy (20 points).
All of the images can be viewed under the Competitions tab on the website. The judge was Robert Millin from Stockport. Well done to everyone.
Longstanding Macclesfield Camera Club member, David Tolliday, has won The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 competition organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The results were announced on 17th September. David’s image had already been included in a book of winning and shortlisted images.
The image was taken during David’s first serious attempt at astrophotography from a dark sky site in mid-Wales in November 2014.
Chris Bramley, one of the judges, commented ‘To capture such a delicate image of this region in Orion is impressive, but to do it on a first night imaging under the stars is remarkable! A worthy winner’.
More details of the image and award can be found here.
During last week’s talk by John Smith on AV, John mentioned that the Great Northern Festival is approaching. This is a weekend of Entertainment, Competition and Learning for all Audio Visual enthusiasts. It takes place in Chorlton from 4th to 6th December.
For anyone interested, more details can be found at www.gnfestival.org.uk.
Those of you at the Library last night will already be aware that our first competition is taking place on Monday 5th October. Consequently, your entries are required by next Monday, 21st September.
This is an Open, digital-entry only competition. Most of you already know the sizing rules etc. but if you need a reminder then all the info is available under the Competition Info tab on this website. The entry form is also there for you to download.
Please check the News page regularly for future competition updates as email reminders will no longer be sent. We will, of course, continue to remind you at the club meetings.
Looking forward to receiving your entries.