News – Page 22 – Macclesfield Camera Club

Jul 19

Photography day with the Vintage Racing Cars

By Conor motor sport, News

A small group of Camera Club car enthusiasts headed out to the Vintage Car Racing at the Oulton Park circuit yesterday. Lucky again with the weather and light, giving almost perfect photography conditions, helped by the fact that these cars are good pace slower than the modern F1 variety.

Oulton Park is a great circuit for photography, lots of different vantage points without having to shoot through wire fencing. We left Macc at 8.15am to drive the 30 miles or so to the circuit and arrived in time for the morning practice session, we also met up with Matt Eagles an ex-camera club member who now lives near to the circuit. We used this morning session to walk the circuit and see where the best points were to photograph the actual racing which started after lunch at 12.45pm. We were also able to walk the paddock and get close up photos of the cars , their engines being work on and chat to the owners, all very friendly stuff. There were 10 races which gave ample opportunity to get some shots and to practice with slower shutter speeds, panning and varying angles. It needed around 125th second to get good panning shots whilst handholding lenses up to 400mm. We got plenty of single car shots but the best are the actual racing shots with four or five cars battling it out for position.

Steve Gresty, David Tolliday, Conor Molloy and Matt Eagles.

Vintage racing cars in the heat of battle

Vintage Racing cars at Oulton Park

Jul 07

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Camera Club ladies experimenting at Biddulph Grange

By Conor News, outings

Four of our Camera Club ladies have recently visited Biddulph Grange, a delightful high Victorian garden organised by the National Trust. It is an amazing garden created by James Bateman for his collection of plants from around the world. We had a lovely day relaxing in the gardens and despite it being busy and very bright we all captured some lovely images. As you can see we were also experimenting with our technique.

Alison Lomax, Chris Aggersbury, Pamela Carr, Val Lear

Jul 04

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Camera club trio head to Gannetfest !

By Conor News

Shortly before 6am we left Macc to drive the three hours to sunny Bridlington Harbour to meet up with Steve Race the days organiser (he recently featured on BBC Countryfile) and seven other keen photographers. We had booked on an ‘Above and Below’ photography experience of Bempton cliffs – below the cliffs on a boat in the morning then on the top of the cliffs in the afternoon.We caught our boat out into the North Sea in good time with the aim being to try and get images of the Gannets diving for fish. We only went about half a mile off the coast stocked with five large buckets of fish. Along the way to our spot we are able to catch images of Fulmars, Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots and various Gulls riding on the waves. As soon as the boat captain began dispensing the fish into the sea the Gannets started circling and then diving at speeds up to 60mph like arrows splashing into the sea. As Gannets do, they would then argue and fight over fish ownership.

It was really tough to get actual diving pictures as the birds moved so fast. A higher success rate was achieved by focusing on the fish and waiting for the Gannets to emerge and be pounced on by their fellows. We must have had around 200 – 300 birds circling our boat and over 40 minutes or so we were able to get many images of the feeding frenzy. It was such an incredible experience to see these birds diving so close to the boat at such amazing speeds. They were so close that long lenses were not really needed. After lunch we headed by car to Bempton Cliffs for some top down images of Kittiwakes and their chicks, mating Razorbills and lots more Gannet activity from the different viewpoint.

Steve and his Yorkshire Coast Nature team run these trips about 10 times a year in the summer months so if you are in any way interested look them up.

David Tolliday, Steve Gresty, Conor Molloy.

Jun 26

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Picfair interview with club President

By Conor Members Successes, News

We all have different approaches to selling our images, some have to do it for a living, others aren’t particularly keen, and even if you want to engage, how do you go about it ? Well, until recently I was in the ‘not particularly interested’ camp having heard friends stories of getting only 25p from big agencies like Shutterstock or Getty for a picture when they make hundreds of pounds for it !!- I couldn’t be bothered if its only 25p to see them cream off all the main profit from your hard work, even though Mark Helliwell tried to persuade me that its the number of 25p’s you get that all add up.

It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I heard of Picfair which is different type of agency that simply turn things on its head – you the photographer name your price (mine are all £20) and the agency add a relatively small percentage on to that price. It seems fairer that the photographer gets the main slice rather than the agency. In two months I have only sold two pictures but thankfully I’m not relying on it to put bread on the table !!

The people at Picfair seemed to like my images and asked me to be this months featured photographer in their interview blog…….here is the link….. Conor’s Picfair Interview

Jun 24

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Macclesfield Heritage Trust photography project

By Conor Local Heritage, News

I was approached by the Macclesfield Heritage Trust to help them with a project to renew the video in the museum, to bring it up to date with images of old and new features of the town, including street images, historical buildings and some of the more modern things around the town. I thought I would do it in order to help a local project but also as a relative newcomer to Macclesfield it would help me get to know the town I am living in much better. We were a team of six with just a couple of us taking images and others providing historical context and guidance under the direction of David Heke the producer from Chester.

Interior of St Michaels church

So far it has probably taken me three full days and some of you have seen me walking around town with my camera and tripod. Its been a hugely enjoyable project taking me to the inside of local churches – some well hidden – and the to some of the historic streets…the 108 steps and buildings of the town…..do you know why the Hovis Mill is so called ?

I expect the new video to be up and running in September in the Heritage Centre in town so go have a look at it – there is much more to see in that place than I ever thought.