Tynemouth Photographic Society
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Posted 7/9/18
Our Record Group exhibited on the Sunday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday weekend. This was a success, with over 130 visitors. Stan Bewick was greatly assisted by Rachael Sewell in selecting prints and Howard Wilson also helped to set the exhibition up.
Guests invited included Dr Tom Littlefield and his wife Ruth. Tom is the son of Dr Littlefield who was a president of this society in the 1950s (see history/officers page).
Howard took some photos during the exhibition:
Posted 17/8/18
We have installed our travelling exhibition in the Quadrant North Tyneside Council at Cobalt Business Park until the 7th September. This is a new venue for us.
Information and photos from Arthur Smith
Posted 9/8/18
8 club members had an enjoyable afternoon in the engine sheds and yard and some took the train (not the one shown here).
Posted 12/5/18
Trophy winners are listed on the Results - Prints and Results - PDI pages.
A gallery of some of the exhibition prints can be found here.
Posted 7/5/18
Trevor Ermel writes:
The Video Film-Making Group held its annual Presentation Night in the club rooms on 30th April, at the end of another interesting and entertaining season.
Nine members enjoyed an informal meal of fish & chips and watched a selection of our latest films (including 'The Critic' - a one minute comedy written by Group Chairman David Peffer, which gained a very creditable four-star rating in a recent International Film Competition), as well as seeing the presentation of trophies and certificates to the four film-makers who had been successful in the various competitions. With two keen new members and the expected influx of one or two more from another nearby video club which is having to close at the end of May, we hope the competitions will attract a larger number of entries next season.
The trophies were shared by John Burton (winner of the Bucas Cup for the Holiday Competition), Reg Checkley (joint winner of the Nichol Cup for the most films entered in competitions) and Trevor Ermel (winner of the Richardson Cup for the Open Competition, the Christy Cup for the Holiday Competition, the George Draper Shield for the Annual Competition, the Dawson Rose Bowl for the highest aggregate of marks awarded for overall results, the Kip Halsey Memorial Cup for the film having the best nature content and also joint winner of the Nichol Cup), with Steven Wears also awarded a placings certificate.
The picture (taken by John Cook) shows Reg Checkley, John Burton, Steven Wears and Trevor Ermel together with Chairman Dave Peffer (in the centre) who presented the trophies.
Posted 17/4/18
Howard Wilson writes:
The results of the NCPF Annual Competitions have just been released.
In the club competitions, suffice to say we did not do very well.
Individually though, we have some successes. Here are the highlights. Apologies if I have missed anything.
Dorothy Wilson achieved 3rd place and 15 with her PDI 'Bluebell Girl' in the Jane Black (Beginners) trophy.
Beginners Prints
Advantage Point, Fort William (Diana Hilton) 12
Adv Mono Prints
Tawny Owl and Prey (Keith Hildreth) 14 HC
Adv Colour Prints
Tawny Owl with Prey (John McGuinness) 15 HC, Alliance Selection
Last Building at the Pit (John McGuinness) 14 HC
No Escape (Keith Hildreth) 14, HC, Alliance Selection
Trees at Rannoch Moor (John McGuinness) 12 Portfolio
Adv PDIs
No Escape (Keith Hildreth) 13, Alliance selection
Panorama, Loch Etive (John McGuinness) 12, HC, Portfolio
Waterfall at Loweswater (Brian Hardy) 11, Portfolio
French Window (Howard Wilson) 12, Portfolio
Cheetah at Waterhole (Keith Hildreth) 13
Posted 8/4/18
Howard writes:
A few quickly taken pictures of Rachael arriving for her wedding at the Grand Hotel - in style - this lunch time [7th]. It was really wet and dreary weather and she was in a hurry to get in but for a few seconds her usual smile lit up the whole of the seafront. I just loved her transport.
We wish her and husband Morgan all the very best for the future.
Posted 29/3/18
Howard writes:
The North Tyne Area Projected Image competition was held tonight [27th March], hosted by North Shields Club
I am pleased to tell you that we came out joint winners with North Shields, with 208 points for our 8 entries.
Eight of our members attended and I am pleased to say that Diana Hilton had a camera with her. See the attached picture of the judge (Jim Welsh), Bill Fell of North Shields - and me.
This was an extremely tight competition and it came down to the last picture shown to decide the outcome. There were only 4 points dividing the top 6 clubs, with Wallsend 10 behind 6th.
Our scores:
I can see you - Robin Sinton 25
Panorama Loch Etive - John McGuinness 27
Harvest Mice - Keith Hildreth 25
Out Of Season - Arthur Smith 24
Arctic terns in Flight - Paul Myers 28
Working Hands - Howard Wilson 26
Portrait of a Lioness - Keith Hildreth 27
Derwentwater Blues - Arthur Smith - 26
The top picture was Bucking Bronco by Richard Narcross of Whitley Bay Society. Well done to him also.
We also congratulate North Shields as joint winners.
Posted 23/2/18
Spotted by Keith McWhirter
The intrepid photographer knows no boundaries in search of the perfect winning photograph as he struggles against strong currents, severe cold water, the unknown threats of poisonous fish and curations.
Posted 25/9/17
Howard writes:
Dorothy and I attended the unveiling of the Fiddler's Green fisherman statue at the Fish Quay today.
This is based on a photograph taken in 1959, by an ex member - and President - of TPS, Harry Hann. Harry was in attendance and I just took this one picture of him with the statue in the background.
Posted 22/9/17
The main Photo Group's new season has started. It was good to see several new people who we hope will be sufficiently interested in our activities to become regular members.
Our first meeting gave members a chance to describe their summer, in 10 minutes or less.
Graham Relf was scheduled first with two AVs (audio-visual sequences). The first was a narrated documentary about a week spent in West Cumbria. The second was a musical sequence using flower photos from his garden (a copy of this may be seen here).
Arthur Smith then gave an amusing talk about his pinhole photography and continued use of a Kodak Brownie. He still processes his own black and white film. He showed some very atmospheric pinhole photography, mainly taken at Beamish. A highlight was a very Dali-esque colour photo of Betty (his mannequin) on a beach.
Diana Hilton was next. She started with a bold monochrome photo of a Virgin train crossing the castle bridge in front of All Saints Church in Newcastle. Losing the bright red of the train made a good composition. She then took us to various locations in Scotland and showed some wild life: birds and a rat!
Stan Bewick had prepared another narrated AV documenting his visit to the Hermitage in St Petersburg. It brought out the lavish decoration of the building, with sumptuous reds and gold.
John McGuinness took us first to the Farnes and to Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire, showing wonderful photos of birds in various kinds of activity. A most unusual sight which he said had taken an hour to get, was of a dragonfly in flight! After some photos of his son's recent wedding John then showed some very impressive (scary!) pictures from a climbing trip to the Dolomites.
Keith McWhirter ended the show in style with photos from a trip to Oban and a boat trip from there to the islands of Staffa, Iona and Mull.
After all of this Rachael Sewell gave a brief description of a new public Facebook page that has been created for the club. A link to this can be found on our links page. There was some discussion of members' concerns about getting involved with Facebook.
Posted 25/7/17
Wendy Pratt writes: We can't get there until 7pm but we hurry down to find Diana who knows we are coming, and soon we meet up on the Newcastle side. We walk under the Tyne Bridge and David stops to take a group photo in the sunshine. We carry on along the bank until round a bend we realise we can see Dunstan Staithes across the river. This is a good opportunity for admiring the view and using our cameras. We are having so much fun that we don't notice the time until David points it out and we turn back to be at the Millennium Bridge in time for sunset, but we get delayed again when a Heron flies in and starts fishing. That makes us notice we are starting to feel hungry, but we have no time for fishing ourselves as the Bridges call. We set up our tripods by the Baltic, then on the Millenium Bridge, and finally on the Newcastle bank, taking shots, talking and laughing as we work. Finally we call it a day and head back to David's car, with me tiring and lagging behind - in fact David turns back laughing and asks me if I will be requiring a fireman's lift! We say goodnight to Diana at her Metro stop, and David opens my front door and leaves as he heads home. It's past 11pm, it's been a fantastic evening, but I'm straight off to bed in no time.
Posted 20/7/17
The group has had successful outings this summer to Washington Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, the Farne Islands and Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire. Some results can be seen on the Nature Group's page.
Posted 25/5/17
A selection of prints from our annual exhibition is here until June 4th
Photos by Arthur Smith
Posted 11/5/17
Posted 28/4/17
There was an unusually large turn-out for the meeting which we would like to think was due to this web site urging members to attend.
Some outcomes to note:
* In more detail, the annual subscription is now
Here "concessions" are available to members receiving the state pension and "joint" means two members living at the same postal address.
NB: Subscriptions for the coming year are now due.
Posted 27/4/17
Eight members were in attendance for a social evening with fish & chips and for the presentation of awards to the winners of this season's competitions.
Pictured (left to right) are Competition Secretary Trevor Ermel, winner of the Christy Cup (Holiday Competition), the Bucas Cup (One Minute Competition), the George Draper Shield (Annual Competition) and the Dawson Rose Bowl (highest aggregate of marks for placings in all competitions); retiring Chairman Doug Tweddle; and Secretary John Burton, winner of the Richardson Cup (Open Competition), the Kip Halsey Memorial Trophy (best nature content in any competition) and the Nichol Cup (highest number of new films entered this season).
Posted 31/3/17
Last night we won the North Tyne Area projected images competition and came away with another trophy.
We beat Whitley Bay by 1 point, 211 to 210. Our top picture was John McGuiness' "Tyne Swing Bridge" with 28. Whitley Bay's Andrew Nicoll won the best picture with 30 for "Tynemouth Spray"., a huge wave over the pier.
Details of our results can be seen here.
Posted 7/3/17
Our Video Film-making Group has won the NECA competition. More details and photo on their group page.
Posted 30/11/16
Last night we won the North Tyne Area print competition and came away with this trophy.
Details of the results can be seen here.
Posted 21/10/16
Keith McWhirter has submitted some amusing photos on a topical theme. Where were they taken?
Thanks Keith!
Posted 26/9/16
Report by Graham
The new fortnightly Afternoon Group started well today, with 6 non-members and 8 members attending.
Introductions confirmed our thoughts that some people are put off coming to evening meetings during the winter by the prospect of travelling in the dark.
We did an informal re-run of last week's "Judge for Yourself". After running through the photos a couple of times we discussed each one and got an interesting range of views on them. We plan to do more of this kind of thing by giving a theme at each meeting, for people to go away and photograph. We can then show the results and discuss them, non-competitively.
The next meeting will be at 2pm on Monday 10th October. The photo theme for then is "RED" and we hope for a variety of interpretations of that.
Existing members of the Society are welcome to attend. Please try to encourage others to come too.
Posted 16/9/16
Report by Graham
Those who attended last night's meeting were entertained by 6 very diverse presentations, kept strictly on time by Keith Hildreth.
John McGuinness went first with an AV (Audio-Visual program) accompanied by soothing music. He started on the Amalfi coast with some spectacular photos and ended, equally dramatically, mountaineering in Austria. Among various other sights along the way we saw a cuddly dog playing with a ball and some marvellous bird images.
Dan Turner continued the bird theme (of course), with his passionate interest in the fate of wild birds in our region. Young kittiwakes were superbly photographed and his enthusiasm was infectious as always. I also learnt a bit about buildings on the Fish Quay.
Arthur Smith began with images of dinosaur statues, pointing out that he had much in common with them owing to his continuing use of film. He showed some excellent photos taken with pinhole cameras (on film, then scanned). Many of them were taken at Beamish and processed to look old (sepia and other techniques).
Keith McWhirter entertained us with a very colourful slide show of a Spanish street festival (Fuerteventura, I think he said). This was accompanied by very appropriate Spanish music while the slideshow ran automatically. Particularly memorable were the large inflated black bulls with sneakers rather than hooves.
Graham Relf's offering was much less exotic, an AV with music which only travelled around Northumberland and Cumbria. It included some of the Club's summer outings but got a bit carried away with creative ideas prompted by photos taken at Seaton Delaval Hall.
John Burton concluded with an inspired video, "Where's Arnold?". This purported to be a documentary about the sights of Morpeth but it was cleverly diverted by the absence of a fictitious collaborator named Arnold. In various ways the narrator (John) seemd to ask passers-by whether they had seen Arnold. The result was very amusing.
All told, it was a very varied and interesting evening. It was also pleasing to welcome two newcomers and a former member back.
Posted 27/8/16
The annual exhibitions of our Art and Record Groups are now on, at the club rooms, 10 - 4 today and tomorrow (Sunday). Some of the Art Group's work is for sale. Here are some views.
In the last of those scenes visitors were invited to vote for the best picture.
Note added later: the competition was won by Benny Tasker with painting number 7 (in the middle of the top row above). He chooses the theme of the next competition at Christmas, which will be "a winter scene".
(Photos by Graham)
Posted 18/8/16
Five of us had a stroll along the river bank in Morpeth this evening. After a good sunny day the clouds were gathering, so the light was not conducive to great photography.
Posted 14/7/16
Six of us made it to Seaham Harbour this afternoon. Here are some of us hearing about the Seaham Lifeboat Disaster of 1962. Behind us is the boat involved, restored after having been discovered for sale on eBay!
(Photo by Graham)
Posted 30/6/16
By Howard Wilson
If you have read the Film Pack you will be aware that we told you that Ted was very poorly.
I am sorry to tell you that Ted passed away at 6.00pm tonight (Wed 29th), in the Freeman Hospital. Ted had been a member for many years and had been President twice as well as being slides comp sec many years ago.
He was always anxious about the good of the Society and in the last 18 months or so would frequently voice his concern at membership numbers and would speak from the heart about this at committee meetings.
He and Shirley were a couple who once you had met, you would not forget and we all know how Ted was affected by Shirley's sad passing. For the past 12 months or so he has been struggling with his health and his hospital visits were becoming more frequent. Nevertheless, he came to the TPS meetings whenever he could - getting a lift from Arthur, Keith or me.
We will miss Ted for many, many reasons but I think he should be remembered first and foremost as a staunch supporter of Tynemouth Photographic Society.
We offer our condolences to his family - brother, daughters and grandchildren.
Note added 9/7/16: The funeral will take place at 11am on Friday 22nd July at Holy Saviours Church, Tynemouth.
Posted 16/6/16
At least 7 of us made it to this event, ignoring the dull weather. Here are some of us in the café:
Despite the weather there were some photo opportunities to be had:
(Photos by Graham)
Posted 30/5/16
It has been mooted that we might start a new group within the society, with the main aim of recruiting new members. The following text was displayed for visitors at our recent exhibition.
Do you like taking photographs, but don't think that a traditional photographic society is for you?
Why not join our new daytime Photographic Group starting in September!
A chance to share images, improve technique and meet new people in an informal atmosphere.
If you would be interested in joining us, please leave your contact details with one of the stewards today and we will be in touch with you nearer the time.
This would be an afternoon group, probably meeting on Mondays from late September (weekly/fortnightly/monthly? - to be decided). The idea would be for people to bring their photos (or even go out and take some as part of the session) and we would then display them (use USB sticks, etc) and everyone talk about them. We could discuss both technical and creative aspects and try to help and encourage people to do more.
There would be a small charge for attending a session but we would hope to get people sufficiently motivated to become full members after a while.
Margaret and Graham are aiming to get this going, if the club agrees with the idea. Meanwhile your comments would be welcome (to any member of the committee).
Posted 12/5/16
Some photos:
Councillor Gary Bell (Chairman of North Tyneside Council), Sarah Timney (TPS President) & Alan Fowler (exhibition judge)
John McGuinness receiving the Dr Knox Trophy (best seasonal advanced colour prints)
Arthur Smith receiving the Agar Trophy (best seasonal advanced projected images)
Graham Relf receiving the John Furlong Trophy (best seasonal club monochrome prints)
More photos and the full list of awards may be found in the June Film Pack.
Posted 6/5/16
Report by Dorothy Wilson
Nine members and one visitor attended the annual social evening dinner at Shiremoor House Farm on Thursday evening, 5th May. Everyone was in a talkative mood which was just as well as there was quite a wait for food that evening. The Shiremoor Farm was very popular that night. Eventually everyone tucked into their ordered choices and enjoyed an end of season event. Another member turned up later in the evening just for a drink and chat.
Maybe those who missed our social evening this year can make it next time.
Photo provided by John Burton.
Posted 29/4/16
At the AGM last night we heard numerous reports and voted on some changes.
On the Treasurer's advice, fees which had been held fixed for 6 years were agreed to be increased, to the following.
Here "concessions" are available to members receiving the state pension and "joint" means two members living at the same postal address.
NB: Subscriptions for the coming year are now due.
The theme for next year is "texture".
The committee was re-elected except for two changes: Howard Wilson is the new Vice-President (Jennifer wished to step down) and Graham Relf is the new web site manager.
Posted 1/4/16
By Howard Wilson
Well it is a dull day here, but so far as Tynemouth PS members are concerned the sun is shining. We won the N Tyne Interclub last night and we won by quite a margin. Indeed, at the end I thought my adding up was wrong, to be 12 points ahead.
We were trailing early on but by the half way stage we were joint second, 6 points behind North Shields. Just after that we started pulling away, with a 27, 28, 29 and another 29. Thanks to John, Robin and Keith for those scores.
TPS 210, Cramlington (who took top picture) and Whitley Bay 198 each.
Sarah Timney (TPS President) accepts the trophy from Stephen Fowler (judge)
Posted 30/3/16
Big news for photographers in the last few days has been Google's surprise move of making the entire Nik software collection available completely free. It can be downloaded as a 430Mbyte executable file from https://www.google.com/nikcollection. When run, this seeks out any Lightroom and Photoshop versions you have installed and then installs itself as a set of plug-ins for those applications.
In the meeting of our Digital & Practical Group last night, Larry Bedigan demonstrated how to use these plug-ins in both Lightroom and Photoshop. He is likely to cover this further in next month's meeting of the group.
The meeting last night also voted to keep the Group running for the coming year with Larry in charge.
New 8/4/16: Some links to tutorials about Nik software have been added to our Links page.