Alnwick, Camera Club

View of Alnwick near the War Memorial by Jane Coltman

Dave first talked about some of his favourite locations, including such places as the Duddo Stones, Blawearie, Harbottle Castle, Craster and other coastal spots.

He then went on to favoured areas of the Cheviots, where he has sought out some impressive waterfalls. He illustrated all of these locations with some fine photographs, including a number of excellent monochrome images.

Dave is finding that a monochrome approach to landscapes often pays dividends and continues to experiment with them.

He visits many of the places mentioned on a number of occasions to try out different approaches to picture taking, making good use of different weather conditions.

New Northumberland locations that Dave has photographed recently include Norham Castle and the folly known as Twizel Castle, while a visit to Brinkburn resulted in some interesting images of musicians rehearsing in the abbey.

Dave is always willing to take on new challenges and decided to produce Instagram images to promote his guitar business.

He has tried to make good use of the square format, with imaginative use of close ups and unusual angles, all taken on a phone camera, and plans to extend this project using more sophisticated cameras and software in the future.

Dave has also taken himself out of his comfort zone by attempting street photography. Despite his misgivings, he has already produced some good results, but admits that he is much happier when processing the images on his computer.

He has now started to concentrate on urban landscapes, adopting a creative approach that captures the mood of a location, rather than simply recording the architecture. His images taken in and around Newcastle are already impressive, but he constantly revisits locations striving to produce even better results.

Dave completed his talk with an audio visual presentation of a recent club members’ walk around lesser known parts of Newcastle. He even recorded his own accompanying soundtrack – a fitting end to an entertaining and inspirational evening.