Bowes Railway Museum Competition

Message From Bowes Railway Museum

Museum Life Through a Lens!

We recently welcomed the members of Gateshead Camera Club, Wickham  Camera club and Washington Camera Club to Bowes Railway Museum and with a group of such gifted creatives on site for the 1940 weekend, it wasn’t long before some stunningly beautiful images emerged.

From atmospheric landscapes to moody monochromes and eye-catching close up’s, the portfolio of photographs captured the incredible potential of the site to offer up some striking views.  

Following a great day of photography,  members of the groups each submitted an image which was put forward for Bowes Railway volunteers to choose the one which best captured the essence of the 1940 weekend at the museum. Bowes volunteer Martin Blyth designed and created an original trophy for the competition winner.

Congratulations to club member Sarah Emma Scott  Foggan who won with a spectacular image taken at the 1940 weekend  of a Sweetheart and a Air man. Sarah  received her trophy  from  Sandra Mitchell at a celebration event held at the museum.

All 10 photographs submitted for the competition have been donated to the museum and are on display and sale to raise money for the museum.

A big thank you to all the members of the camera clubs for their amazing work and we look forward to making the competition an annual event.

1st Sarah Emma Scott Foggan -  A Sweetheart and an Airman  (Whickham Club)

2nd Brian Denham  - SS officer ( Gateshead Club )

3rd  Will Ireland -  Designing Queens ( Washington Club )

1st - Sarah Emma Scott Foggon

We installed our 'book theme' print exhibition in Low Fell Community Library today 25 July 2026.

It's on until 4 September, please call in, Mon-Fri 09:30 - 17:00, Sat 09:30 - 12:30.

Most prints are available for sale with profits going to Gateshead Camera Club and the Library.

2025 - 26 Presentation Evening 

Queen Elizabeth Hospital 

(February 2026)

Victoria popped in to the new Colposcopy/Oncology Ward at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital yesterday morning.  Many of our prints have now been put up and really do look fantastic, brightening up the corridors. The QE would like me to pass on their sincere thanks to all members who kindly submitted images. 

These images of the North East will generate interest and will hopefully lessen the anxiety of patients on the ward. 

Images are also currently being selected by hospital staff for waiting rooms on wards 12, 14 and Critical Care. 

I'm sure you will agree it is a great way for our club to support the local community.

During our summer break we've enjoyed several outings including; The Locomotion at Shildon, Seaham, The Hoppings, Bowes Railway Museum and coming soon Hareshaw Linn.

We were invited to take part in a project at Bowes Railway Museum which would become an annual competition and a long lasting partnership between both our organisations.  The aim of this project was to produce images that GCC could display at the museum in order to attract new members and raise the profile of both organisations.

Following a great day of photography on 5 June, ten GCC members each submitted 3 images. From those images, 1 from each member was put forward for Bowes volunteers to choose a winner.  Bowes volunteer created a stunning trophy for the competition winner.

We celebrated on 19 August with tea and cake at a ceremony hosted by Bowes to launch our gallery and announce the competition winner.

Huge congratulations to long time GCC member Bob Stokell for winning the inaugural Bowes Trophy and a massive well done to everyone who took part in this project. We presented the Bowes volunteer who created the trophy with an image of himself working at the blacksmiths forge.

Thank you so much to all the members of Bowes Railway Museum for working on this project with us, providing guided tours and being incredibly hospitable. 

Well done Ashlee and Adrian for organising this project.  It's has been a huge success and we’re looking forward to next year’s competition.

You can find more information about Bowes Railway Museum, opening hours, history, tours etc. at; https://bowesrailway.uk/

In July 2025 we installed an exhibition of our prints in Low Fell Library with a book titles theme.  The exhibition continued until September 2025.

Ashlee, Victoria and Adrian have refreshed our prints on the angels at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Gateshead to cheer up patients, visitors and staff. 

St Oswald's Charity have selected the following 4 images taken by 3 GCC members to be included in their 2026 calendar which will be on sale later this year.

St Oswald's work to improve quality of life for everyone, of all ages, in the North East who are living with a progressive life-limiting condition, and for their families and carers too.  Please support this good cause.

Margaret Annable's ‘Misty Causeway’ image has been chosen as the October picture in the My Northumberland calendar and is exhibited in  Alnwick Playhouse as part of the What a Wonderful World Festival .

https://www.facebook.com/100080169657078/posts/457190853629899/?app=fbl

Presentation Evening 2024

The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain

Guidance

‘Artificial Intelligence’ in Photography

Introduction

This guidance amplifies the General Conditions for PAGB Events. It applies directly to all images submitted to PAGB events.

This guidance may be adopted by others including Federations and Clubs or may be modified for their own use in any way at their discretion.

Principles

How an individual creates an image for their own use, and what source material is coopted for image creation, is entirely at the individual’s discretion. But, when an image is submitted alongside the images of others into a competition or exhibition, then each participant needs to be assured that the other participants are using only their own original work. The PAGB sets out to give that assurance within its General Conditions (box).

Images must be entirely the work of the Photographer. In composite  images, all component images must meet this requirement. For the  avoidance of doubt, use of images from any other source including, but not limited to, royalty free image banks and clipart are not permitted.

There is a distinction between the image content, which is controlled by the General Conditions, and image processing and presentation which is at the photographer’s discretion. Processing can utilise techniques such as selection, noise reduction, calculated textures, montage, HDR, focus stacking and many others. Presentation may include keylines, print paper types, print mounting and others.

Photographers who enter PAGB events with images which do not meet the General Conditions are liable to sanctions under the PAGB Breach of Rules Procedure. The Breach of Rules Procedure may also apply to other events such as those with PAGB Patronage.

Image Automation

There are now many image processing methods available in camera, or in processing software or in plug-ins for such software, which have been refined or trained by their developers using the characteristics of many images. The list of methods is extremely long with examples such as face-detection focussing, raw conversion, monochrome conversion, noise reduction, focus stacking, HDR, panorama stitching and many more.

To the extent that these processes are applied only to the photographer’s original image, or to all the photographer’s original images in a composite, then they comply with the PAGB General Condition.

Image Generation

Banks of individual textures and skies have been available for some time and there are software systems which will overlay an imported texture or substitute a sky.

Increasingly there are image generator systems which draw on, or have been developed or trained on, content from large image banks to create new images, via a user prompt or specification.

Any importation, whether manual or automated, of all or part of a single image or of a generated image which includes or has been developed from the work of others, means that the resulting image content is not entirely the work of the photographer. The resulting image then does not comply with the PAGB General Conditions and is not permitted where those conditions apply.

Compliance

It is appreciated that the individual photographer may not be fully aware of exactly how individual processing functions act, whether in-camera or in post-processing, However, the PAGB would expect photographers to be aware of when any significant addition has been made to an image which is not part of an original work by the photographer.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital - Exhibition

We've been working in partnership with Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust on a permanent exhibition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The aim is to promote art and wellbeing through photography.  And, to brighten up the hospital for staff, patients and visitors.

Our exhibition finally launched on 30 November 2023 as part of the charity's Light up a Life Remembrance Service. 

We don't want to wish anyone ill, but if you're getting treatment or visiting relatives, have a look downstairs in the Atrium near Costa.

Thanks to all Gateshead Camera Club members for donating your prints and mounts.  Hopefully this is just the start of a long term partnership with the Trust.

As always, new members are welcome to join Gateshead Camera Club and possibly get their images displayed in our ongoing exhibition.

22 - 23 Exhibition