Club Meeting Davy Bolam Memorial Evening 22nd September 2026
This week the whole meeting was dedicated to the memory of Davy, who sadly passed away last March after a short illness. Davy was a very active Member of this Club for over 46 years, and served on the Committee as Competition Secretary from 1989. He also acted as the Club’s Webmaster and organised the programme of Summer Walks. His service was recognised in a special award from the PAGB. We were joined by several members of Davy’s family, and some friends of the club.
Chairing the meeting, Peter Downs described Davy as an incredible photographer, and we were treated to a show of his digital images, in colour and mono, including stunning landscapes, woodland scenes, seascapes, and night and sunset shots. In the realm of architecture Davy had a particular penchant for exploring abandoned buildings, and as well as formal portraits his work often showed people in settings with interesting compositions. He was a wildlife enthusiast but also loved to photograph cats.
It was when the images of other members showed where they had been inspired by Davy’s work that his creativity had clearly become legendary. He was well known for intentional camera movement, especially beach scenes, still life compositions altered by textures and filters, and the use of zoom bursts and reflections. Experiments with smoke trails, oil drops on water and flowers in ice were particularly memorable.
All this was followed by Davy’s own AVs, of Morpeth Around the town, of a sculpture trail, and, with his love for photographing boats, of Paddy’s hole. His blue tit AV, lasting but a few seconds, demonstrated his unique sense of humour.
Seeing Davy appearing on images of past summer walks reminded us how he is greatly missed by the club, and Steph Robson had compiled an AV presentation of the successful 2026 Davy Bolam summer walks around the county and Tyneside, which completed the evening, followed by a buffet.
Chairing the meeting, Peter Downs described Davy as an incredible photographer, and we were treated to a show of his digital images, in colour and mono, including stunning landscapes, woodland scenes, seascapes, and night and sunset shots. In the realm of architecture Davy had a particular penchant for exploring abandoned buildings, and as well as formal portraits his work often showed people in settings with interesting compositions. He was a wildlife enthusiast but also loved to photograph cats.
It was when the images of other members showed where they had been inspired by Davy’s work that his creativity had clearly become legendary. He was well known for intentional camera movement, especially beach scenes, still life compositions altered by textures and filters, and the use of zoom bursts and reflections. Experiments with smoke trails, oil drops on water and flowers in ice were particularly memorable.
All this was followed by Davy’s own AVs, of Morpeth Around the town, of a sculpture trail, and, with his love for photographing boats, of Paddy’s hole. His blue tit AV, lasting but a few seconds, demonstrated his unique sense of humour.
Seeing Davy appearing on images of past summer walks reminded us how he is greatly missed by the club, and Steph Robson had compiled an AV presentation of the successful 2026 Davy Bolam summer walks around the county and Tyneside, which completed the evening, followed by a buffet.