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Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB EFIAP is a member of the Morton Photographic Society in Carlisle and is an experienced photographic judge and speaker.  Members of the society again attended either in person at the meeting room or on Zoom.

Gerald started by explaining the science of Infra-Red (IR) and how it fits into the light spectrum, as ‘Invisible Light’, the history of Infra-Red photography and how it began in the late 1800s. It was used in both the First World War, for identifying trenches and gun emplacements, and during the Second World War. He showed how it was also used in the 1960s and 70s to produce ‘psychedelic’ photographic effects on record covers, etc. Originally the process relied upon film but nowadays digital cameras, which are a lot easier to work with, achieve excellent results. Gerald used to use a DSLR but now uses digital mirrorless cameras.

He explained how there are two ways to achieve IR by the use of external IR filters for the camera, which makes the process very slow, or getting the camera professionally converted by changing the standard filter in the camera to an IR filter, and the choices of different wavelength filters.

He presented his excellent digital images of very varied subjects, including the Harbour at Galston, Little Langdale, Carlisle War Memorial, Ferrybridge, Eskdale, Lowther Castle, Edinburgh Jupiter Park, Longtown Car Show.

The sitting man as Silloth, Threlkeld Quarry including Sir Tom, Beamish Museum, including some panoramas.

He described the complex and quite technical processing of the images once taken, including the stages of Custom White balance, Red and Blue swapping, Desaturation of colours, Clarity and Dehaze, using software such as Photoshop and Nik Effects.  He also showed some excellent prints for members to examine.

 

Gerald then bravely demonstrated this workflow for post processing the images on his laptop, successfully detailing the various stages.  Finally, Gerald showed a short video showing the subtle processes he had used on those prints displayed in the room. Members enjoyed the very informative talk and the excellent images and prints.

Gordon Train

This was the Society’s first Open Competition of the season. It was also the first meeting where the judging of prints has been possible since the start of the Covid pandemic due to previous meetings taking place solely on Zoom.  Our judge, Simon Allen, who attended via Zoom, is a member of Dumfries Camera Club. He an experienced judge and gave his detailed critique of the images which was full of positive comments and helpful tips.

The evening was divided in to two halves;  prints and digital images. There were 28 prints for Simon to judge.  There was a wide range of subjects in the images, many taken locally but some from further afield.

The overall winner of the print section was Carol Minks with a beautiful image of a Whimbrel.

 

This image scored the maximum of 20 points and judged Best Nature print.    Ken Rennie also achieved the maximum score of 20 for his image of a seascape titled ‘Wild Horses’, this image was also judged the Best Creative print.

 

Three scores of 19 were awarded; one to Alan Walker for an image titled “It’s long way down Dad…be brave Son”, an adult and a young owl,

 

and another to Marilyn Woodthorpe for an image of an Indian woman feeding her goats titled “Feeding Time”.

 

The third was an image by Tom Stenhouse titled “Attempted Charge Down”, which also was judged Best People print. Simon also awarded a score of 18 to four prints. These were “Dawn on Bassenthwaite Lake” by Fred Bell, which was also judged Best Landscape print,

 

“In the Shifting Wind” by Sue Rugg,

 

 

“Three in One” by Ken Rennie

 

and “Made It” by David Price

 

Fifty Two images were submitted for judging in the digital section. Again a wide range of subjects in the images. The overall winner was Bob Given for his image titled “Lara Clears”, a monochrome image of a high jumper. This image scored 20 points, and judged Best People image.

 

A score of 20 was also awarded to Alan Walker for his image titled “ I see You”.

 

It was a good evening for Carole Minks who was also awarded 19 for her image titled “Wild Buzzard with Prey”, which was also judged Best Nature image.

 

All the entered images can be viewed in our gallery pages:

Gallery link