I had always liked taking pictures of holidays and events from when I was a teenager. I had gone from Kodak Instamatics, with their cube flashbulbs, to Olympus Single Lens Reflex (SLR) and finally a Digital SLR, but I had not really considered the composition and technicalities of photography, I was just ‘point and click’.
When I retired from my work, I finally decided that I wanted to explore the ‘art’ of photography as a proper hobby and decided that joining a photography club was probably a good start! That was how I became a member of Irvine Camera Club.
The club has certainly improved my knowledge of how a camera works and how to manage settings, along with helping me understand how to take better pictures. They are a friendly group, with a variety of fields of interest in photography to be able to help all levels of skills. The club competitions provide the opportunity to photograph different, prescribed topics and subsequently receive feedback, from judges or club peers, on your entries to help improve skills in photography and subsequent editing.
As part of my learning, I wanted to do sports photography and I asked Marr Rugby Club and Darvel Football Club if I could attend their games to take photographs. Both clubs were happy to allow me to do so however, due to Covid, I only attended one rugby match before the first lockdown. I have however, since the lifting of the first lockdown, been able to do photography for Darvel FC and I am now their club photographer. Irvine Camera Club has subsequently visited Darvel FC to take pictures during their first match under floodlights.
I have included a variety of pictures from my portfolio showing various aspects of photography.
If you would like to take your photography to another level and to share your hobby with other like-minded people then I can recommend joining a camera club.
Sandra King
You can find out all about Irvine Camera Club at our website www.irvinecc.co.uk
