September marks the end of the summer holidays and for Irvine Camera Club it means the start of another club season. Not that the club has been quiet over the summer months. On the contrary, Irvine’s keen photographers have been keeping themselves very busy with lots of interesting trips and expeditions designed to stretch their creativity. Our club excursions are a fantastic way to learn from each other and to practice new techniques.
The club committee, chaired by Douglas Sanderson, did a great job of bringing together a programme of events that took us all over Ayrshire and beyond.
Evening trips to the Ballast Bank in Troon and Dunure Castle in Ayr provided stunning scenery bathed in the gorgeous early summer evening light that the Ayrshire coast is renowned for. When the weather is fair there really are few places to rival the views from our own doorstep.
For those looking for more visceral thrills there was the excitement provided by the flying shale and dust thrown up by the hair-raising bikers of the Glasgow Tigers Speedway. Kevin Thorne and Alan Kempster made full use of the access to the centre circle to really get in amongst the action.
Calming things down again the club managed to fill the MV Glorious for a boat trip from Girvan to Isla Craig. Deserted light house, teaming colonies of breeding seabirds and the remains of the curling stone quarry and stone works made for a fascinating visit.
Irvine Camera Club’s support of the NATS (air traffic controller) Tough Mudder Team is becoming a yearly fixture and once again we took a large party of photographers down to Drumlanrig House to cover the event. As usual we had lots of thrills and spills to capture, as well as the challenge of four seasons in one day!
Returning to North Ayrshire we had a visit up to Dean Castle Country Park and for the very keep there was a Sunday morning “Dawn Chorus” wildlife and insect macro photography session – well done to Lorna Reid!
An evening trip to the abandoned and derelict Dalquharran Castle near Girvan provided some very atmospheric and quite spooky images. It also gave our burgeoning drone flyers a fantastic subject to shoot with their high-flying cameras.
Irvine Camera Club has its own professionally kitted out photographic studio adjacent to our club room and we took the opportunity to use it during the summer to shoot images of our chairman’s granddaughter, Becky, who is an accomplished dancer and also a very patient photographic model.
Article by Clive Watkins
