Hello to all readers. Unbelievably, here we are in September. The last time I looked at the calendar I’m sure it was February ! The club has continued to flourish throughout the summer with members regular meetings, slightly less informal than our usual ones. We have used the boundaries of Garstang to get out shooting and keep up and even practice new skills, very enjoyable and thanks to the members who took part in the organizing.

Here is a list of our programme up to early October. If you wish to see further afield just look at our website given at the end of this letter.

Wednesday Sept.7^th.    Welcome meeting to both old and new members. This will involve varied presentations.

                  Sept 14^th    Adrian Almond    A Live session……..A photographer in Transition.

                  Sept. 21^st   Alan and Julie  Walker    Live……..Bulgaria….and beyond.

                  Sept.28^th   Member’s Evening………….Various Activities.

                  Oct. 5^th.     Jane Lazenby….ZOOM….Working with Textures.      ALL MEETINGS BEGIN AT 7.30PM PROMPT.  COFFEE BREAK AROUND 8.30.

Our outings this year have been blessed with good weather  ( too hot ? ) and so we should look forward to some good competition  entries.  Let’s hope that we get an Indian Summer.

MAURICE  BARKER.

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Hello to everyone, club members and general readers as well.  As I write this we are in the middle of the type of summer I well remember as a child ( or is it a wishful memory ? ) long, sunny ,dry periods of late night sunsets giving superb opportunities for camera folk.

Even though we are in the Club’s closed season, we have held a number of members nights over the past two months. We have used Garstang as our focal point. The River Wyre gave us our first hour’s outing following a Canoe Club session from the weir down to the car park even practicing eskimo rolls. Our second gave us old pictures of Garstang and we had to first, find the feature and then try to replicate it in 2022. Finally, Stan ley Pearson showed us the art of panning ( not for gold nuggets) but on moving objects, which would be projected at the next meeting. These “members evenings “ are proving very interesting indeed………….so, when other organisations grind to a halt between May to September,  we beaver on!

Our first meeting of our new season, will be on Wed. Sept 7^th at 7.30 in the Arts Centre. and so if you have a modicum of interest in cameras and taking photographs, come and give us a “coat of looking at“. We are a most friendly group and there is no need to commit yourself to membership . A £5 fee per visit(s) is required which will be deducted from the annual fee should you wish to join us OR, come along and visit our stall at the Garstang Show on August 6^th.

May I wish you good shooting and a good rest of the summer.

Maurice  Barker

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

We are now well into our summer “recess” although not completely shut down ! Members having full access to our Summer Events Cup outings , two of which have already taken place, one to Skippool Creek and a visit through Brock Bottoms. To come on July 17th is a day out to Holker Hall.

In May, we held a very successful Annual Presentation Evening to end off a successful ’21-’22 season thanks to our Chairmen, the Committee and all members for their input. The presentations were made by the outgoing Mayor of Garstang,  Councillor Alec Allan who told us that this was his last official duty……what a way to end his year !  It was an excellent evening with a superb buffet along with a well put together quiz. The award of Photographer of the Year 2021-2022, went to John Moxham, taking with him quite an amount of silverware. More power to his elbow, especially when he is using the metal polish. Congratulations John.

As photographers, living in this area gives us many opportunities to use our “craft skills”. We have the surrounding countryside and within a good hour or so, can be in the Lakes or the Yorkshire dales. Events come thick and fast with local Church/Children’s Festivals, Agricultural Shows in Gt. Eccleston and Garstang,  Steam Rallies and Cycle Racing…………the list goes on.

Enjoy the summer and,  good shooting.

MAURICE BARKER

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Hello to everyone. By the time you read this , our ’21-’22 season will have come to an end and on reflection , it has been quite successful. Although we lost a few members, their spaces have been filled with new members and to those , we bid a warm welcome and hope that they have enjoyed their time with us. We have had two well attended coffee mornings along with the first of our two exhibitions, the next one will be in September. We will also have had our Annual Presentation Evening when the awards , which are still under wraps as I write this, will have been given out.

I will give a reminder of two of our Summer Outings yet to come. The first one is on Tuesday June 14^th. and is to Lunt Meadows. July’s outing is on Sunday 17^th. when we visit Holker Hall so mark these down in your diary.

My apologies for such a brief report but we are now into the closed season but I will continue to write each month with information regarding progress on the Summer Outings.

Maurice  Barker.

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

I have to announce the sad news that one of our long standing members, Ken Harrison has passed away. Ken was a life member of our club with a long service record of working on the committee, acting as treasurer and club chairman. Ken was a keen wildlife photographer who travelled extensively to follow his area of interest. He was a regular volunteer at Leighton Moss Reserve and always willing to advise others, and pass on his wide knowledge base. He will be sadly missed. RIP Ken.

We are now at the end of our ’21-’22 session. Our last club meeting will be on May 4^th when  George Franks will present Flash Photography. The following week ,we hold our AGM hoping that as many as possible of the membership will attend.  The week following this is our Annual Presentation Evening in which our Guest of Honour, the Mayor of Garstang, Cllr. Alec Allan will present the awards. The deadline for applications for this event is/was May 1^st. and so …….!  It should be a splendid evening and I hope it will be well supported.

I can now list the destinations and dates of our Events Cup Details for “22-’23. These are outings from which images taken on the days (midnight to midnight ) can be entered into our competitions next year. It is not necessary to attend every outing.

The list is as follows :  Sat.  April 23^rd.   SKIPPOOL CREEK

                                   Thurs. May 19^th   BROCK BOTTOMS

                                   Tue.   June 14^th   LUNT MEADOWS

                                   Sun.   July  17^th   HOLKER HALL

                                   Sat. or Sun. Aug 13^th /14^th  THREE SISTERS RACE CIRCUIT

                                   Sat. Sept 10^th     KENDAL

                                   Sun  Sept 25^th    BLACKPOOL ZOO

A good and varied selection of venues; let’s hope the weather is kind to us.  These reports will continue throughout the “closed season” although there will not be as much to report.

We wish you all a good summer and hope that the bug— covid reads this .

Maurice Barker

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Hello to all our readers. We have now only two months remaining of our 2021/2022 programme, where has the time gone ?  Our last competition of the session, Anything Goes, was judged on March 2nd, and so we now have a list of all winners for the year, these can be found on our website, along with the their images.

Since my last report, we were subjected to some horrendous weather with winds and incessant rain, certainly not the best conditions to be out with your brownie !

Our first meeting in April is on the 6^th when we will have a presentation (s) by Stan Pearson/Mike Jenner/Lewis Thompson (who are club members) either one or all. We will surprise you !

This is followed on April 13^th. with a presentation by Peter Smith on  Wildlife- Sea shore to Mountain top. Our last one of the month is Talk to me  by Steve Proctor on April 20^th.  Advance notice of May 7^th. when we explore Flash Photography with George Franks.

Our first Exhibition of 2022 opens on April 9^th.  in the Arts Centre and runs through May 7^th. It consists of member’s prints which did not gain a 1^st/2nd/3^rd. in this year’s competitions. When you view these you will be left champing at the bit, so to speak, to see this year’s winners at our next Exhibition in September ! Do take the opportunity of visiting the Arts Centre whilst it’s on and avail yourselves of a coffee and light refreshments.

As I write this, the venues for our next Events 2022 season are being chosen and I might add, a varied selection which should suit everyone. I will publish the complete list of venues and dates in the next issue.

Also, the harbingers of Spring are becoming more and more evident, with the local A6 giving us it’s usual lovely show of daffodils.  I hope this augurs well for a good summer.

Maurice Barker

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

After a somewhat dry start to the year, the weather is now balancing it’s books. Many rainy days of recent have not been conducive to getting out with our cameras, however…….the old adage of “no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing “ holds good.

We began the month with Jim Cunningham judging our entries in the Humanity Cup.  These judges put an inordinate amount of time in preparing for these nights and do it with our grateful thanks in spite of our differences of opinion with our personal entries ! As you read this and wonder just what the judge has picked out of many, many entries, go onto the Club’s comprehensive website, click onto the Competitions link, you may be surprised ! All results from this year ,to date are there, thanks to our dedicated team who deal with such things.

Our first meeting on March 2nd is the judging of our final Competition of this year’s programme the title of which is  ANYTHING GOES ( as previously mentioned in February’s Mag ) . March 9^th is a workshop evening  7 Images in 7 days and on March16th  David Bibby presents My Way with Audio Visual.

Now , a date (s) for your diary. Our first exhibition for 2022 takes place from April 9^th through May 7^th. Do come along and take the weight off your feet and possibly have a drink and a light snack, you will be most welcome. The opening times are on the Arts Centre website. The prints and images on display are submitted by members on an anything you want to show  basis.  Our exhibition in September will display prints and images which have been awarded a place ie. 1^st/2cnd /3^rd  ..Highly Commended/Commended.

Finally , as we break into spring,  keep those shutters pressed.

                                                                                                                                                                         MAURICE  BARKER

                                                                                                                                                                         www.garstangcameraclub.co.uk

First of all, I should like to apologise for parts of my report in the January edition. Two of the events turned out to be incorrect due to the report having to be sent in by Dec. 6^th and these events cancelled due to  the recent covid instruction. One presenter was covid positive but one of our Chairmen stood in at the last minute to present a very interesting evening on one of his travels to the Central Americas. Thank you Lewis.

On the first meeting of the new year, we were entertained by Lee Metcalf on  Photographing the North West for FotoVue . FotoVue is a company which publishes books on photography for photographers on different areas of the UK and other parts of the world. These are excellent books either for the beginner for ideas and the more advanced of us. I bought one , the latest edition of the Lake District, and wished it had been available years ago. Look them up online.

Following this, we had the 3^rd. of our competitions Creatures and Plants of the World . The judge for this was Harry Emmett via ZOOM and the places awarded were shared between some of our newer members as well as our regular competitors. The results will be put on our website alongside the winners of previous competitions from ’21-’22. Well worth a visit !

February brings us three meetings although the content of the third one is as yet to be decided. Feb. 2nd is the judging of our Humanity Comp. by Jim Cunningham and on Feb. 9^th  Scottish Wildlife will be presented by Jeremy Malley-Smith , this will be available via ZOOM.  I give advance notice of the judging of our final competition  Anything Goes ( and it usually does ), this is on March 2nd.

Finally, the weather as I write this has been quite mild in the daytime in recent weeks so this maybe augurs well for this new year…………so, to newcomers and the “old brigade” keep pressing that shutter button.

MAURICE BARKER

http://www.garstangcameraclub.co.uk

A warm welcome to everyone and can we wish you  A Happy (and better ) New Year.  Where has the time gone ?  Reading this, we will hopefully have had all our Christmas Festivities which we were allowed having written this on Dec. 5^th. I hope we all got what we deserved !

In December, we began with our competition which was Environment. The judge was Daryl Giles who gave us a good insight as to why the prints and images on display just failed to get into the prize section. We can learn from these critiques to benefit our future entries. On Dec. 8^th. we were treated to Lake District Moods by Carmen Norman. ( you can view the competition results by logging on to our website)

The Christmas Social was held on Dec. 14^th which took the form of a meal along with the usual quiz, Our thanks to all who were involved in the organizing, well done, it is always very much appreciated.

I give details of our programme for January.   Jan 5^th is  Photographing the North West by  Lee Metcalfe,    Jan 12^th  Our third competition  Creatures of the World  judged by  Harry Emmett.  Jan 19^th  the Junction 36 Battle  and workshop 7 photographs in 7 days.   I can also give advanced notice of the Humanity competition on Feb.2cnd.  which will be judged by Jim Cunningham.

I am hopeful that with the invasion of this new strain of the virus, we will still be able to continue with what has been an excellent start of our ‘21/’22 programme, unfortunately, I failed to find a crystal ball in my stocking ! 

Maurice  Barker.

garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Well, here we are at the end of yet another year of restrictions, but the main thing is that we ARE still here.

November’s meetings gave us an excellent presentation on Urban/Street Photography, our Events Competition, and an interesting night on Sport and Action.

In December, we have the second of our annual competitions entitled The Environment followed by Carmen Norman’s  Lake District Moods ( on ZOOM ). How fortunate we are to be so close to the Jewel in the Crown. We also look forward to our Christmas Social on Dec. 14^th.  An early prompt for Jan 5^th is Lee Metcalfe on  Photographing the North West for Fotovue.

Coming Hot off the Press is the news that our club is to “join up” with another in Rangiora, on the South Island in New Zealand. Rangiora is a large town just north of Christchurch. This venture is still at the foundation stage and is the result of some diligent work of our Chairmen and augurs well for the future of the two clubs even though we meet at diametrically opposite times of the day. Well done gentlemen. I can just see the name Garstang International Camera Club appearing at some stage……….well maybe!

Just because the nights have drawn in and the days shortened, don’t put the cameras away, there are  still plenty of opportunities for some good shots.

And a reminder not to forget to hang up your stockings on the 24^th. I measured up the boxed new Canon R3 and will have to substitute a pillow case in anticipation !

Finally, can I , on behalf of all our members wish everyone who reads this magazine  Season’s Greetings, everything in moderation !

Maurice  Barker.

garstangcameraclub.co.uk