RPS Northern Newsletter - Lockdown Special

NORTHERN NEWS Lockdown Edition ISSUE 16

September 2020

NORTHERN NEWS ISSUE 16 - September 2020

THE NORTHERN TEAM Regional Organiser John Devlin ARPS northern@rps.org

Secretary Lyn Newton LRPS northernsecretary@rps.org

Treasurer

John Dilworth

Team Irene Berry Michael Curry

Susan Devlin Kathleen Jobson Carmel Morris

NORTHERN NEWS INFORMATION

Š2017 All rights reserved on behalf of the authors. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for such permission must be addressed to the Editor.

The Royal Photographic Society, Northern Region and the Editor accept no liability for any misuse or breach of copyright by a contributor.

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the RPS or the Northern Region.

Editor: Lyn Newton LRPS northernsecretary@rps.org Cover image Isolated journey home by Gordon Smith

Selfie

LOCKDOWN‌ it’s a word we have come to live with these past few months and no doubt it will be around for a few more! Covid -19 has, without doubt, affected all of us in one way or another from social distancing to losing a loved one.

At times, certainly as far as the news was concerned, there seemed to be very little else happening in the world. As shops, restaurants, cafes and the like closed, and travel was restricted to essential need, we truly were in a state of lockdown.

Organised events within the RPS were cancelled, ZOOM meetings went through the ceiling in a bid to feed our love of photography, and many of us turned our cameras to the dark art of still life. As lockdown is easing in some form or another, we are getting back to the kind of photography we are familiar with, albeit with social distancing, wearing of face masks and restricted access to places.

In our dedicated Lockdown Newsletter, we asked our Northern members for a selection of images that have been taken over this period. Many of you have supplied your images and we are truly grateful for your input. Some of you have supplied just images, some gave us images with a few words and others supplied quite a bit of script. Although not asked for, your comments are excellent and have supported your images no end.

We trust you will enjoy looking through the pages and the images in our Lockdown Special and sincerely hope as the months come and go, normality will once again be restored.

Thanks,

John

Ed Forster ARPS

Socially distancing

Lockdown

Easing

Paper Bags

Images by Geoff Bradford ARPS

Palimpsest

After Morandi

Images by Brian Swales LRPS

"Perfect loop" - Taken at the British jet ski championships.

"Red squirrel" - This inquisitive squirrel kept disappearing and re-appearing in the tree.

"What's that buzzing I hear?" - I only noticed the Hoverfly when I viewed it on my computer. The Harvest mouse does seem to have a startled look!

Perfect Loop

What’s that buzzing I hear

Red Squirrel

Celine Alexander-Brown LRPS Experimenting during lockdown, stripping away the detail to reveal the beauty of the ordinary

Images by David Tanner

Images by Lyn Newton LRPS

Empty spaces where once there were crowds…..

Keeping our distance together‌..

Images by Gordon Smith

Webcam Zoom

Photo Capsule

Withdrawal

Joe Cornish—Hon FRPS Newton Woods

Images by John Dilworth A reminder of those shopping queues in the early days

Back of the queue

Early Confusion

New Normal

Images by Irene Berry LRPS

Images by Graeme Clarke ARPS

Locked down in garden……..

Carder bee on quince

Cranesbill

Blue tit with grub

Images by John Devlin ARPS

Discarded

A foggy day in Saltburn

Sectioned

Images by Francis Annett

March on Alone

The Writing’s on the Wall

Beware the…..

John MacFarlane ARPS Bird: There is a busy yard next to our house in the NW Lake District which was in little use during lockdown. Wrens took the opportunity to construct a beautiful nest on the stone wall of the yard and bring up a family. This image was taken with a hidden long lens and a remote trigger.

Pool: Shortly after lock down was first opened up a bit, I visited Eskdale valley not far from where we live in Cumbria for some subscape photography.

I felt this underwater image of a single ‘bubble wrapped’ gill scrambler jumping into Tongue Pot rather fitted the title, “Social distancing in a bubble”.

You may notice a discarded drinks can on the bottom of the pool. The Esk river banks were strewn with litter, even high up the Esk valley. Sadly the Lake District has been blighted by litter and discarded squalor since lockdown.

Stars: During initial lockdown there was noticeably less light pollution, even when viewed over the lake district mountains from distant towns.

This gave the opportunity to try out some night photography and display the wonder of night skies.

Milky Way over Cumbrian Mountains

Wren with catch—nest on stone wall

Social distancing bubble - Eskdale

John Stephenson LRPS

Here are my three photographs regarding the "Lockdown Experience�.

Quite a task as we live in an area where we had walks from the front door into woodland and farmland as well as the garden and once you could travel a little further, a coastal area, a wildlife trust and moorland all in just a few minutes. As we went out almost every day and I always carried my camera I have, shall we say, built up a very large and diverse collection of pictures!

Isolation and the weather

Even the tomatoes arrived fed up

Social Distancing

Keith Snell LRPS EFIAP EPSA

ON AND ON AND ON (16th March 2020) During early lockdown my daily local exercise took me past this frequently photographed dead tree. But now it had a menacing look about it threatening to go on and on.

BEING PREPARED (16th April 2020) With apparently no end to the ongoing lockdown restrictions, it seemed an appropriate time to prepare for a long period of self-isolation.

ROCKPOOL TREASURES (28th May 2020) With easing travel restrictions I could make the short drive to my local coast. The sun illuminating the beautiful underwater details was a reminder of the hope that nature brings.

Socially Distancing Alone

Images by Anne Healey

Socially Distancing Together

Images by Bob Turner ARPS

Images by Joy Renwic

Thank you

Thumbnail image

I’m not taking any chances

Images by Mike Berry ARPS

From bars to hairdressers and on to retail giants, so many locations that were taken for granted have been caught in the shadow cast by Covid 19.

Will our lives ever return to what we took for granted as normal....who knows.

Images by Gerry Simpson LRPS

Images by Kathleen Jobson LRPS

Images by Linda Golightly

Image by Mike O’Brien

Margaret Whittaker LRPS

Although no explanation was asked for I felt it might be appropriate to include some information as the images might not be as expected in a lockdown!

As a volunteer host and tour guide at The Alnwick Garden charity, I was unable to do either of these activities during lockdown, however as their volunteer photographer I was able to go in and take images on my own.

In April the stunning tulip display in The Ornamental Garden was at its best and no one could see it. In June The Cherry Orchard was overgrown with weeds and unkempt but the cow parsley had taken over as the grass had not been cut and it became a weird but beautiful place.

To celebrate VE night coloured lights were beamed onto The Grand Cascade in red white & blue, but the water and jets were not running.

The place I knew and loved, without people, had lost it’s soul - it lay still and quiet and unloved during lockdown, I was, for a few brief moments in time, able to experience what turned out to be in my eyes... Magic.

VE Celebration

Tulips

Cherry Orchard

Images by Peter Dixon ARPS

Trees at Hepburn

1.5 Seats

Tete e tete - Socially distancing

Images by Rosamund Macfarlane ARPS

Red squirrel in the garden

Fox in the garden

Thriving wildlife

Images by Susan Hillier

Lockdown Communication

Passing as ships in the night

No Fun

Images by Susan Devlin LRPS

Waiting for a table

Good job it’s sunny

Cleaning Service

Images by Tracey Ainsley

Image by William Maughan LRPS

Lockdown Rainbow