Murcia photo of the month December 2025
Here’s the top image of the month taken by the Los Alcázares Digital Camera Club (LADCC)
Members from LADCC were certainly moving and shaking it this month with a competition title of ‘Movement and/or Action’ for them to get their teeth into. The skill of ‘panning’ would be key to taking some good action shots. This is a photographic technique where you move the camera horizontally along with a moving subject during the exposure. The goal is to keep the subject relatively sharp whilst creating a motion-blurred background, giving a sense of speed and direction. The topic was perfect for practicing this technique so three photo outings were organised for the members to enable them to practice their panning skills and, in a few cases, to give it a go for the first time.
Our first outing, led by Gary Hull, was held beside the beach in Los Alcázares. We rode bicycles, jumped off chairs, photographed egg-timers in action and even dropped marbles into a hat while other members endeavoured to capture the action! Needless to say, we were given some odd looks by passers-by!
The second outing was led by seasoned action-photographer Tom Crawford. He led a session at the Embalse de Pedrera, near Torremendo, where the group endeavoured to catch bikers as they passed by at speed. Tom had already circulated an article on the panning technique and settings to be used so the group went straight into the action. Tom, himself, took his bike on the road too and ‘posed’ for some photos! This great photo was taken by our new member Klas Liesen.
Also thanks to Tom, who informed the group of an opportunity to visit the Ricardo Tormo race circuit in Valencia, another group of members ventured north to watch a practice day for the Formula E cars before their season starts in Brazil in December. This was a step-up in speed and the shots were very difficult to get, making us appreciate the skill of the pros. Initially quite a few of us managed to get excellent shots of the tarmac!! Suffice to say, as the session wore on, club members did take some pretty special photographs.
All three sessions were very much appreciated and a lot was learnt by all members.
However, not surprisingly, the photo of the month winner was Tom himself! His somewhat special photo of, soon to retire, Jonathan Rea in the World Superbike Championship in Aragón was a big hit with the members. With Rea’s perfect balance between maximum acceleration and keeping the front wheel down, Tom managed to capture the real essence of our competition title. His panning technique used a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/400s, enabling the bike to remain sharp while the background blurred, emphasising the speed and motion in a two-dimensional image. Big congratulations Tom! It also showed the rest of us that we need a lot more practice!!
Tom’s winning photo: “The GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time)
Several of the images submitted were taken on our outings and included ‘bikes’ in one form or another, as seen in the scroll bar above. You can see by the variation that, although skill levels may differ, this is still a very difficult skill to master. Besides these, a range of planes, boats, windsurfers and trains were submitted by members and, to the shock of some of our more European members, some very English cricket scenes were also included! This proved to be the club’s largest competition entry of the year with over 30 images up for judging.
Our final competition title of the year is ‘Water’ which is a rather more open-ended topic for our avid photographers to get their teeth into. No brief has been given so it will be interesting to see how the members interpret this title!
Along with the usual meeting this month the club will be having their end of year meeting and Christmas lunch at Las Claras Centre in Los Alcázares, where this popular club usually meets twice a month.
Our regular meeting pattern is to meet on the first Tuesday of every month with, often, an outing towards the end of the month, where the group gets together to collectively work on the topic for the monthly competition. With modern day technology we can all keep in contact for training sessions, sharing knowledge etc via ‘group chats’. We are interested in hearing from anyone who would like to join us when the opportunity arises. You will be put on a waiting list and be contacted when a space becomes available.
If you would like more information about the Club, please do not hesitate to look at our website,
www.ladcc.es, or email us at informationladcc@gmail.com.