Excellent Month

Beacon Photographic Club

Jul 24, 20225 min read

It's been an excellent month for Beacon Photographic Club, with trips to Liverpool & Southport, capturing some amazing shots of Sunsets & iconic buildings, reflections & street photography. We also had a 2 model nights, one on location (which was eventful) & the second was a studio night, with a Jujitsu fighting & yoga fitness young lady.

Our first trip to Southport, was for some street photography & to capture the sunset. When we first arrived, I set the members a small challenge. This is a new thing we're doing when out, to help members focus more on what they are photographing, instead of just walking round & clicking away. The 3 challenges for Southport were, reflections, a low angle & lead-in-lines. Asking members to look for reflections in windows, puddles, mirrors etc & to make it interesting. The low angle challenge, seemed to be more of a challenge, as most of the members could get down to get the shot, but had trouble to stand back up again haha old age I guess. Third challenge was using lead-in-lines, could be from the lines on a road, the cracks in the pavement or from a bench that people sit on. Walking round Southport town centre & making our way to the pier, the members got some brilliant & creative shots. The challenge really made the members slow down & think about the shots they were getting. Over all a great night.

The following week we were out on location with a model. One of our members suggested the Tawd at the back of the library, so we made our way down there. Eyeing up the location, is wasn't the greatest, but as always, we always try to make good of a bad situation. So, as some member started setting up the lighting, out model popped inside a popup tent, to get changed. While all this was going on, we seemed to draw the attention of the local teenagers, ranging from 10/11 through to 16/17. But we ignored them & carried on. Soon our model was ready & we were just waiting on the lighting set up & the position. Then we looked up & noticed about 30 kids, if not more, all looking down at us, wondering what was going on & a local police man heading our way. I started to walk up towards him & asked, laughing if he'd like to be our model, when the police man said "I'm not shouting this, it's serious". Panic set in, wondering what the heck could be wrong. When we approached each other, the officer said "I'm really sorry to ask & I hope I don't offend anyone, but I need to ask you a question", nodding & wondering what the question will be, I said "Go on". The officer the asked the question, that made me gasp......."Are you shooting a porno?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing & asked him to repeat the question, to which he did & apologies again & informed us, that it was the kids that had phoned the police to say there were some people shooting a porno. I had to explain to the officer, how the camera club was shooting a model & we had children & ladies there that evening & the club has a policy of no nudity of underwear at the club. He apologised & left, but of course, this made us all feel uncomfortable being there, so we decided to switch locations & head up to Dalton Church.

As we arrive at Dalton Church, the was a fire truck in the car & we couldn't believe how our luck was going this night. We parked up, got out of our vehicle's & our model was excited about wanting to shoot with a fire truck, because she had the perfect dress. I approached the fireman & had a chat with him & he was very happy to allow us to use the truck as a backdrop for our shoot & even turned on the lights for us. After the truck photos, we went into the grounds of the church to get some shots & into a field for the sunset shots. Overall, it turned out to be an excellent night.

Next was Liverpool's Albert Dock. Meeting at the big wheel, we took a slow walk around the Albert Dock, making our way towards the Liver Buildings & back down the main road again, towards Mann Island. Again, I set the three challenges to the members, patterns, contrast in colour & an interesting shallow depth of field. The members took the patterns challenge with ease, as Liverpool is full of them, from the patterns on the footpaths to the brick & windows on the buildings. Was great to see so many images for this one. The contrast of colour & the interesting depth of field seemed to be more of a challenge, but it didn't stop the members from having a go. After 2 hours, half the members present went home, while the remining members decided to stay & capture the sunset & the buildings at night. Again, some excellent shots from our members who decided to stay on.

The following Thursday, we met the Artz Centre for our studio night. Ian had arranged for Megan, a yoga & Jujitsu model. We started with just a few shots of our model in some yoga poses, then we moved into some technical shots of her boxing, using a technique called, rear curtain sync, before finishing off the night of Megan in her Jujitsu gear & striking some poses again. This was a fantastic night 7 the members loved the rear curtain sync technique. As the images give you an insight to the movement before the flash fires.

The 23rd & 24th July, saw Beacon Photographic Club have a stall at the Green Fayre on the Beacon. This is the first time since 2019 this event has run due to Covid & it was great to be invited back. We set ourselves up in the centre of the large marquee, so as the public walked in, they saw us & our signage & members prints first. the public could walk all the way round our stall, so they could see members images on display. Over the 2 days, we had a lot of people pick up our leaflets & a good few people talk to us about the club, the images on display & the photography they are interested in. We were surprised by just how many people didn't know about us or the fact there was a camera club in Skem. We hope now that we've been to the Green Fayre & we're advertising ourselves in Skelmersdale groups on Facebook, people will be more aware of us. We look forward seeing you all soon.

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