In the Herald - Stunning end to the summer

We really couldn’t have asked for better weather for our final evening photo walk of the summer.  Portencross is always a special place to visit and last week we were blessed with the lingering warmth of a long hot summer’s day and the glorious golden light of the sun setting across the Clyde estuary.

The glorious weather had attracted a group of young people who were happy to share the pier with the usual gathering of fishermen as well as the crop of photographers from Irvine Camera Photographers who had turned out to enjoy the evening sunshine.

As usual we had set ourselves some interesting challenges, designed to stretch our imaginations as well as to perhaps to get our members to move out of their photographic comfort zones.  One challenge was to illustrate solitude, which was going to be particularly difficult given the number of people gathered on the pier!  Also, we wanted to see abstract photos of the pier which would mean people moving away from the “postcard” view and honing in on shapes, patterns and light within the scene rather than trying to capture the whole thing.  Finally, we asked everyone to try an old film camera technique of double exposure – where two (or more) images are made on top of each other – creating a ghostly effect.

It was such a lovely evening that as the light began to fade none of us really wanted to leave.   When one of our members alerted us to the fact the MSC Virtuosa super liner was about to sail down the Clyde from Greenock, a group of us decided to stay on to try to get some long exposure light trails of the enormous vessel – something we are more used to doing with fast moving cars and buses!

As you can see from the photographs presented this week, our members once again came up with the goods.  I always find it fascinating to see how people see the same scene in different ways.  It underlines the fact that it’s the person making the photograph and not just the camera.

We are now moving into our Autumn/Winter season which sees Irvine Camera Club returning to Townend Community Centre in Dreghorn on Wednesday evenings throughout September.  If you would like to come along and say hello you will be assured of a very warm welcome.  All of our details and the club programme for the coming year can be found on our website www.irvinecc.co.uk.