Cornwall Visit Spring 2009

[BarryWilkinson]

I would like to express my thanks to Neil and Jean for organising a really great weekend. There is so much to do and see around West Cornwall. It was nice to see some new and familiar faces. My personal thanks to Tony and Jean for driving me around.

The weather was not perfect but this is England! But I'm pretty sure a lot of film was used over the weekend and would really like to see some results posted here.

The Hotel proved excellent, the Doom Bar was superb! Nice to view everyone's prints in our 'private' space. Newcomer Bill's prints were superb, thanks for bringing them Bill, keep up the good work.

Looking forward to returning to this area, well done Neil and Jean.

Barry

 

[delphine]

THANK YOU!

Ditto.

A very heartedly thank you to Neil and Jean for guiding us and welcoming us. I had a great time, and it was nice to see old faces, and finally meet Ian, as well Keith and Roger.
The portfolios were very inspiring. For me, the highlight of the week-end were Bill's still lifes, and cornish pastries.

Saturday was a bit of a drench, and it is unfortunate that Ian and his nephew had so much hardship during the night. I understand that I am no longer in charge of the weather.

A pity that the visit was so short. The Cornish coast is a marvel.

Hoping to process my rolls soon-ish :rolleyes:

Warmest regards to all,

Delphine

PS: I am sorry I missed the group photograph

 

[Mark Burley]

Hi All, both Norma and I had a great time - huge thanks to Neil and Jean for organising us all. Great venues and no grumbles. I personally loved seeing everyones prints again. So much that inspired - thank you all.

Highlights for me were Cot Valley and Gwithian? beach - great locations - or should I say amazing!

But best of all were all of your prints - magic stuff from everyone. Stoo's fantastic toned images of the Lakes and Porth Nanven. Neil and Jean's Lith prints, Tony's landscapes and a sublime portrait of Jean, Keith's superb prints of Dartmoor and studio portraits, Ian's prints from Greece including 6x17 images, Rodger's Canadian landscapes, Delphine's incredibly technical printing technique - leading to beautifully simple prints! Barry for lending an invisible hand to the weather God, Bill's wonderful studies of fish, rocks and landscapes - that will keep on inspiring me for years to come.

Thanks all, for a superb weekend...

Great location, good company, great food and drink and a lovely space to say. Thank you to everyone for making the weekend so good

- as ever , the APUG weekenfd

 

[Brook Hill]

Jean and I would like to say a big thankyou to Neil and his wife Jean for making the weekend such a success. Not only did Neil & Jean act as first class guides, taking us to all those special places, they also spent a lot of time in advance checking them out and planning the time table; your efforts were much appreciated by us all.

It was great to meet up again with old friends and meet new ones which made such a relaxing and interesting weekend. It was hard to drag ourselves away from breakfast on Monday to go home.

Tony

 

[Neil Souch]

Hi everyone!!

We are so pleased that you all had a good time (despite the weather) and made it home OK. It was great to see you all too and to see all the wonderful work you brought along for us to all see. I think we all learnt a lot from the various photo sharing sessions we had and gained much inspiration from seeing the prints in the flesh. It was also good to hear the the Queens came up to your expectations as it is always good to have a hotel that you can recommend. I know when I found the Queens, and although I had no idea what it was actually like, I was pretty assured it would be OK as I had not heard anything said about it. One thing about living down in west Cornwall you soon find out is that bad news travels fast so if you don't hear anything - it is usually OK! I have developed two of my 6x6 films yesterday and the negs look OK (Cot Valley / Gwithian / South Wheal Frances) so hopefully some prints will be produced later this week The best part of the trip for me was seeing most of you tucking into hot Cornish pasties at 11.30 am which were supposed to be eaten at Gwithian for lunch!!! Then finding that this was OK as spares had been purchased for lunch and were in the cars ;-)

Don't forget if you ever want to come back again you will always be made welcome by us local fellow enthusiasts and that there are many more Cornish pasties, Doom Bars and wonderful photo loctions to be discovered and sampled

Neil.

 

[bill spears]

So glad you all had a good time despite the weather. Hats off to all those who braved the elements with their cameras, especially on the Saturday and especially to Stoo at Botallack (that was hardcore mate !!) Hope everyone's equipment has dried out ok !

Really enjoyed meeting you all in person - seeing all your lovely prints was very inspiring and, Delphine: I don't want to hear of any more '' refusing to show your work'' episodes ! - I so admired your dedication.

Another highlight for me was seeing all the large format cameras out on location - what a lovely sight ! We're really 'starved' down here in Cornwall of good traditional (Real!) photography and this kind of event makes me feel almost priviledged to belong to the film brigade.

Hopefully get to see some of you again in the future, maybe on another meeting although time and money restrictions usually get in the way for me.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Stoo Batchelor]

Well, I can only echo the thanks being given to Neil and Jean for the work they put in to the organization of the weekend. They put together a list of fantastic locations to visit.

It was also great to get together with old faces, and meet some new. The sharing of the photographs is always the highlight of these weekends, and this one didn't disappoint. I hadn't seen Neil and Jean's work before, so it was great to see their wonderful Lith images. Mark's portfolio has grown and he had added some great new work, which is always a pleasure to see. Keith Tapscott's portraits are a joy, no monitor could ever do them justice. Some great stuff from Roger, Ian and Tony as well, the list is endless, apologies if I've missed you.

My highlight was the portfolio of Bill Spears. Truly delightful. I don't think I will ever look at fish the same way again!

Star prize of photo of the weekend is a joint one for me, and it has to go to both Bill's winning untitled still life of a bunch of tulips, which won him the title of Black and white Photography's 'Printer of the Year'(hope I'm right there) and Delphine's image of 'The Natural History Museum' Both truly, truly wonderful photographs.

See you all next spring (or sooner)

Best

Stoo

 

[Neil Souch]

Delighted to hear you enjoyed yourself Stoo

Neil.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

I enjoyed the weekend in Cornwall, despite the weather. It was nice to meet fellow apug members and I was in awe of the prints that I saw from every one who brought their photographs with them.
The quality of those photos made me feel very inadequate to be honest and they were very inspiring to say the least. It was also a good way of finding some of the many photogenic locations in Cornwall. I will definitely be visiting there again sometime.

We didn`t need the suncream that Bill recommended us to bring along.

Best wishes to everyone who attended and I hope you all took some good photographs.

Keith.

 

[Ian Grant]

Was a great weekend despite the RAIN and force 10 storm on the Friday night, James & I couldn't have got wetter if I'd jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed (we were camping)

What a great bunch of people it was a real pleasure to meet you all, I hope the next UK APUG events co-incide with one of my trips back to the UK. Thanks Neil for all your organisation.

I think you have all convinced James to have ago at B&W for himself, if anyone's shootingonDarmoor he'd like to cycle down & meet up.

Ian

 

[Neil Souch]

Keith,

We were all VERY impressed with your photos too My favourite of yours was the portrait of the black girl and I just wish I could do portraits like that - the print was exceptional - congratulations I hope you can get to some of the other APUG dos and if I can help you with locations in Cornwall do let me know.

Cheers,
Neil.

 

[BarryWilkinson]

I agree with Neil, Keith's prints are superb.

Barry

 

[Neil Souch]

Was a great weekend despite the RAIN and force 10 storm on the Friday night, James & I couldn't have got wetter if I'd jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed (we were camping)

What a great bunch of people it was a real pleasure to meet you all, I hope the next UK APUG events co-incide with one of my trips back to the UK. Thanks Neil for all your organisation.

I think you have all convinced James to have ago at B&W for himself, if anyone's shootingonDarmoor he'd like to cycle down & meet up.

Ian

Keith,

We were all VERY worried about you and James in that rain and the force 10 - honest! I hope you can get to some more APUG dos in the future and if you are in Cornwall do let me know. It was great to meet James too and I am sure we are all delighted to learm that he will have a go and B&W. We certainly need some young blood in and this is very good news! Maybe Keith can help James out with Dartmoor as it is right on Keith's doorstep.

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Was a great weekend despite the RAIN and force 10 storm on the Friday night, James & I couldn't have got wetter if I'd jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed (we were camping)

What a great bunch of people it was a real pleasure to meet you all, I hope the next UK APUG events co-incide with one of my trips back to the UK. Thanks Neil for all your organisation.

I think you have all convinced James to have ago at B&W for himself, if anyone's shootingonDarmoor he'd like to cycle down & meet up.

Ian

Ian, there is a book simply titled as DARTMOOR by Ian Robson with photographs by Lee Frost that would be worth a look at if James is interested (ISBN 1-84107-039-4). There are plenty of interesting land marks close to the road side such as the Merrivale stone-rows, Combestone Tor, Widecombe-in-the-moor, Buckland-in-the-moor and Burrator etc, which might be more convenient for cyclist. Some of the places in my B&W photos, were well off the road and not really ideal for cyclist to visit.
If I plan a visit there sometime in future, I will bear in mind meeting up with James.
There will be an exhibition of B&W prints at the Dartmoor visitor centre in the summer by Chris Chapman who was a friend of the late James Ravilious. I am not sure of the dates, but will let you know, as James might be interested in seeing those.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I must pay greater attention to these events in the future. It sounds as though the group had a productive gathering.

Tom.

 

[Mark Burley]

Keith - your prints of Dartmoor were wonderful. More than equal to the rest of us. I hope to be in the Chagford area in July for a few days. So would be happy to catch up again for a day if you fancy it!

Mark

 

[Neil Souch]

Keith,

We were all VERY worried about you and James in that rain and the force 10 - honest! I hope you can get to some more APUG dos in the future and if you are in Cornwall do let me know. It was great to meet James too and I am sure we are all delighted to learm that he will have a go and B&W. We certainly need some young blood in and this is very good news! Maybe Keith can help James out with Dartmoor as it is right on Keith's doorstep.

Cheers,

Neil.

I do apologise this post was meant for IAN !!!

 

[Neil Souch]

I must pay greater attention to these events in the future. It sounds as though the group had a productive gathering.

Tom.

Tom,

I have been to three of these dos now and I can say they have all been very worthwhile. Give one a go and I can assure you will be made most welcome and will go away looking forward to the next one

Neil.

 

[rjkkap]

Hi all - just to echo the thoughts and thanks that have gone before. Fantastic to see everyone, and Cornwall served up great locations as usual... shame about the rain. Not staying at the Queens with you all unfortunately meant I didn't have the chance to see much of the work people brought with them - next time perhaps. All my 5x4's have been sent off to Peak for processing - here's hoping I managed to keep the camera still for at least some of the exposures!

Looking forward to an Autumn meet up already.

Best
Richard

 

[Steve Roberts]

Ian, there is a book simply titled as DARTMOOR by Ian Robson.

Actually it's Ian Robinson, a good friend and neighbour, for anyone Googling the book. I'm the person he mentions in his introduction who takes him down a mine. As a matter of interest (or perhaps not!) Ian never actually got to meet Lee Frost during the production of the book. Lee Frost never managed to make it for any of the local launches of the book in Tavistock and Plymouth and we used to joke that I could pretend to be him as no-one would know! Ian is an accomplished photographer in his own right, specialising in travel and outdoor writing. He operates his large house as accommodation for large groups of people, usually for a week at a time in the summer, but does also offer weekend accommodation for smaller numbers at weekends out of season. His website can be found at:
http://www.oldminehouse-dartmoor.co.uk/ (if that offends any advertising rules, moderators please remove - I include it for interest).

Best wishes,

Steve

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Actually it's Ian Robinson, a good friend and neighbour, for anyone Googling the book.

Best wishes,

Steve

My mistake, thanks for pointing out my error Steve.
Mark, perhaps I might see Norma and yourself around Chagford in July.

 

[simulatordan]

Hello All,

It was nice meeting you all in Penzance over the weekend. This is the first time I have been able to get to any of these get-togethers. It was a pity that commitments during the weekend meant I could only go the gwithian towans and Godrevy but I enjoyed it very much. Roger was good enough to spend some time showing me the mysteries of a 10 x 8 field camera; I had to explain to some visitors to gwithian why there were strange men walking around with very large cameras on their backs and why we didn't just use a D******l one. Seeing the prints on Friday night was great too. Thanks to all who set it all up and thanks to all for an enjoyable time - brief though it was.

Regards Daniel

 

[Ian Grant]

strange men walking around with very large cameras on their back

You calling me strange

It was all good fun, at one point Roger had an audience sitting above him at the edge of the cliff area

Ian

 

[bill spears]

Seeing the 10x8's on location was a real treat, except for the fact that I now have a couple on my Ebay watch list ! Oh Dear

Sorry we didn't get to meet Daniel, must have missed you at Godrevy.

 

[Neil Souch]

Stoo, thanks for posting the excellent pics of the weekend

If you have not seen Stoo's pics have a look in the Gallery!

Neil.