Cambridge,UK clubs and workshops

[Gary Holliday]

I'm moving to Cambridge in a month or two. Are there any camera clubs/ workshops with darkroom facitlities in Cambridge?

Thanks

 

[Dave Miller]

I'm moving to Cambridge in a month or two. Are there any camera clubs/ workshops with darkroom facitlities in Cambridge?

Thanks

Here's a link to the area photographic federation that has a link to clubs in the area. I cannot say if any have darkroom facilities. http://www.eafphotoclubs.co.uk/

I can say that you are moving to a beautiful part of England, and will not be short of photographic opportunity for many years.

 

[roteague]

Hi Gary,

Sorry, I can't answer your question. However, I just wanted to say that I found Cambridge to be a really beautiful town, and I would love to visit there again someday.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I also found Cambridge to be quite a nice town when I've been there. I belong to an organization that debates every year where to hold its annual conference, and always decides to hold it at Fitzwilliam College.

There are a few good (if not cheap) old camera shops there, so there is bound to be something.

 

[Struan Gray]

If you are going to be part of the University there are plenty of options. Most colleges have their own photographic society and there is a university wide one too. Many departments - particularly the technical ones - have darkrooms that staff and trusty students can wangle the use of for personal work. There used to be a university photo lab that was a fair bit cheaper than commercial labs, especially for B+W and anything larger than 35 mm.

Even if you're not part of the University, the exhibitions and slide shows the photo clubs and travel/adventure sports clubs organise can be excellent (or dire . Kettle's Yard also often has interesting exhibitions in its gallery space if you're into the contemporary art thing.

 

[Gary Holliday]

Thanks for the information folks. I've been scouting around looking at various potential photographic locations, but Cambridge is too bloody flat. In Northern Ireland, I'm surrounded by hills which hug the towns and villages.

What is there to photograph in Cambridge? I'm looking for old trees and landscapes. I'll probably start with the historic buildings and do a series of cyanotypes or something similar.

 

[Dave Miller]

Then make an asset of it’s flatness, it’s a big sky country. The old college buildings and “backs” are photogenic too; hire a punt (with punter) for an hour or two, and view the city from the water.

 

[Davec101]

Hi Gary

Here is a link to the Cambridge Camera club site. Have been a member for a while but have not been to the meetings of late http://cambcc.org.uk/ . There is a nice group of people at the club and am sure you will find the meetings enjoyable. They meet up every mondya at 7:30 if i remember right. Quite a lot of digital members but their are still some traditional photographers too. Hope this helps.

 

[catem]

Thanks for the information folks. I've been scouting around looking at various potential photographic locations, but Cambridge is too bloody flat. In Northern Ireland, I'm surrounded by hills which hug the towns and villages.

What is there to photograph in Cambridge? I'm looking for old trees and landscapes. I'll probably start with the historic buildings and do a series of cyanotypes or something similar.

How far can you go?
It's still flat but (apologies to people who love Cambridgeshire) more interesting....Suffolk is full of beautiful stretches - ancient scraps of forest, wild and lonely marshlands, stretching to the sea....it's a photographer's paradise (IMHO).

For the lack of hills, I can see your point, but as others have said you have to go with it - if you can, you'll be hooked forever.

 

[Dave Miller]

Hi Gary

Here is a link to the Cambridge Camera club site. Have been a member for a while but have not been to the meetings of late http://cambcc.org.uk/ . There is a nice group of people at the club and am sure you will find the meetings enjoyable. They meet up every mondya at 7:30 if i remember right. Quite a lot of digital members but their are still some traditional photographers too. Hope this helps.

The only problem with your club Dave is that it is so popular that it is closed to new members, and has a waiting list in operation. However; here in hilly Northamptonshire the East Midlands Monochrome Goup has plenty of room and welcomes all comers, providing that they can negotiate the mountains of Earls Barton.

 

[mono]

Just to inform you about Cambridge and its photographic possibilities ;-))

http://www.darknessandlight.co.uk

 

[Gary Holliday]

Thanks for the link mono. It's exciting discovering a whole new landscape, but avoiding the cliched scenes will be difficult. The city from the river does seem like an alternative viewpoint, but awkward to do in practice.

I've been working on a project for the last few years, looking at the ancient British cultures and their mark on the landscape here in Ulster, focusing mainly on stone formations.

I don't think I can continue the theme in Cambridge, but would be interested in any pre-Roman sites.

 

[catem]

I've been working on a project for the last few years, looking at the ancient British cultures and their mark on the landscape here in Ulster, focusing mainly on stone formations.

I don't think I can continue the theme in Cambridge, but would be interested in any pre-Roman sites.

I can't think of any of those in the whole of E.Anglia, I don't know if anyone else can? I'd be interested if so. The oldest site I can think of is Sutton Hoo (Viking buriel ground) on the banks of the Deben (Suffolk) - relatively speaking not that old, I suppose (and not that British either)...

 

[Ben Taylor]

Grimes Graves springs to mind - not, as the name suggests, a burial ground but actually a Neolithic flint mine. It's not a stone formation, but the landscape has been left kind of pitted by these early mine shafts - I believe they've opened one of them which you can visit too.

It's near Thetford in Norfolk, a short drive from Cambridge.

 

[Bob F.]

I've been working on a project for the last few years, looking at the ancient British cultures and their mark on the landscape here in Ulster, focusing mainly on stone formations.

I don't think I can continue the theme in Cambridge, but would be interested in any pre-Roman sites.

There does seem to be a dearth of ancient sites in and around Cambridgeshire for some reason ( http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/mapbrowser/?map=large - takes a few seconds to load it's database, but well worth the wait). Possibly the fens were simply too wet and inhospitable in those times to be attractive places to live...

In any event, happy hunting!

Cheers, Bob.

 

[Gary Holliday]

I've come across a few excellent locations; Flag Fen and Sea Henge although the latter seems to have been vandalised by the "experts."

http://www.flagfen.com/seahenge.htm

 

[catem]

I remember the discovery of Sea Henge now, and all that controversy. There's something about it all that I find very sad....in a way I wish it hadn't been 'discovered'.

On a sideline, when I was a child in Suffolk, Sutton Hoo was just a landscape and a shape in the ground that you could jump down into and play in. No fences, very few people ever there. Just you and your imagination. As it had been for hundreds of years. Now it's mini-theme park, and like Stone Henge, you can't get near it. It's quite nice as they go, and sure it's preserved for posterity, but.....

 

[mono]

There are Roman roads in that area and huge earth walls like Devils Dyke!
You can buy "Maps of ancient monuments" (I wonder if they are still available nowadays...)

Yes, and Grimes Graves are interesting!
I think it was 40 years ago that I have been there.

 

[catem]

Devil's Dyke is in Sussex, in fact, not Suffolk.

I may be wrong but I'm not sure the Romans got very far at all in E.Anglia. Don't forget Bodeccia was a Norfolk lass. The people there were too wild and hideous and in-bred. They still are...

 

[mono]

Devil's Dyke is in Sussex, in fact, not Suffolk.

I may be wrong but I'm not sure the Romans got very far in E.Anglia. The people there were too wild and hideous and in-bred. They still are...

Devils Dyke: correct, but not far from Cambridge I think.

The Romans have been there!

Most of all, when he has his eyes open on ancient monuments he will find lots of interesting places in the near or far surroundings there ;-))

 

[catem]

Fortunately this country is stuffed with ancient monuments, you're right mono.
BYW pricklineess over the Suffolk/Sussex thing is because people - from UK too, - always, when you say you come from Suffolk, say something like "oh yes, I like Brighton too...". (Which for those who don't know is in Sussex - different direction/location altogether).
Until recently that is - unfortunately we're having to battle the greatest invasion ever - incomers from London and beyond who've qualdrupled (octupled) in the past 15 or so years. I think we might at last be lookiing at defeat, but I'm thinking of getting out my woad....Actually I've done the opposite and moved to the city....

Sorry....back to Cambridge....

 

[mono]

Sorry, I just found it:

Devils Ditch (Dyke), near Newmarket, east of Cambridge.

I´m getting old ;-)

http://www.devilsdykeproject.org.uk/histarch.html

Yes... back to Cambridge

 

[catem]

Sorry, I just found it:

Devils Ditch (Dyke), near Newmarket, east of Cambridge.

I´m getting old ;-)

http://www.devilsdykeproject.org.uk/histarch.html

Yes... back to Cambridge

I've never heard of that one! - Thanks.

Here's the more famous one:
www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/3526

 

[Gary Holliday]

Grimes Graves springs to mind - not, as the name suggests, a burial ground but actually a Neolithic flint mine. It's not a stone formation, but the landscape has been left kind of pitted by these early mine shafts - I believe they've opened one of them which you can visit too.

It's near Thetford in Norfolk, a short drive from Cambridge.

#

I like the look of that site Mr Ben, I can see my photo already. Are English Heritage funny about cameras and tripods?

 

[bogeyes]

Ancient sites

Take a 2 hour drive up the A1 and go west to the Derbyshire peak district, plenty of sites here, search the net for The Peak District, stone circles, stone walls burial sites etc.