ACCRINGTON CAMERA CLUB

MEMBERS braved wet and windy weather to see a selection of prints by two seasoned photographers who have been members of the club for many years.

John Barton and Alf Hoole stepped in at short notice when our advertised visiting lecturer was unable to attend, and each treated us to a feast of prints that were strikingly different to each other’s – despite them being mainly of similar subjects and often taken on a joint outing.

First up was John, who took us through a talk that he has given to a number of other clubs featuring church interiors and landscapes in monochrome.

He started off with prints from Lincoln and Wells cathedrals, and explained how he bracketed exposures and then used HDR to cope with the contrast range while creating a natural result.

Other interiors showed Norwich cathedral and the Italian chapel on Orkney but the rest of the show was landscape, much, but not exclusively, in Scotland – South Uist, Skye, Loch Etive, Pettico Wick and the stones of Callanish on the isle of Lewis.

One series of pictures showed the same view in 1979, 1990, 2000 and 2005 and how things had changed over time.

Via Dunstanburgh castle on the Northumberland coast we then came closer to home – Long Meg stone circle near Penrith, Back Tor in the Peak District, and a striking shot of Ribblehead viaduct with only the underneath of the arches lit by sunlight.

All his prints were digital, although some had started life as film and the negatives scanned.

After a short tea break it was then the turn of Alf, who brought along a mixed bag of recently produced prints he had ‘found lying around’ at home.

But as you would expect from Alf they were far from rejects – taking in the coastline of Swanage in Dorset, Elgol on Skye, Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland and three ‘people pictures’ at reenactment events and country shows. These were all monochrome.

He also showed a few printed in both colour and mono, for the audience to compare.

These included the lady chapel at Liverpool Anglican cathedral and the canal at Hebden Bridge.

He then finished with some prints on a theme and these were darkroom monochrome prints, taken before he went totally digital.

One was a series of four pictures of a gnarled old tree, another a set of eight monochromes picking out details of the Fleetwood wrecks.

A third, this time digital, showed sections of the outside of Liverpool’s Catholic cathedral, taken on a club trip last year.

Vice president Harry Emmett thanked them both for the entertaining evening and for agreeing to step in at short notice.

Tonight’s meeting (Friday) is a print appraisal, with members invited to bring along their work for discussion and constructive comment.

We meet at the Primetime Centre, Stourton Street, Rishton, starting at 7.45pm. Visitors and new members most welcome.

See accrington cameraclub.org.uk for more information.