DAVE COATES ARPS,MPAGB, EFIAP, PSA3* (Published Mar 2007)
N.C.P.F. PRESIDENT
Dave's interest in photography first started when he was bought a Kodak Brownie 127 box camera by his father, somewhere round about 1956 or 1957. Dave's first pictures at Scout camps near Harrogate (where the family lived) and Raby Castle, and a school outing to Liverpool. His interest in photography came from his father who had a camera for many years; his Dad's first photographs were taken hanging out over the side of a Bristol Fighter in France, during WWI. Additionally Dad's best friend, Dave's Uncle Don, used to show them his colour slides. Uncle Don was known better in the photographic world as J D Donlevy, a member of Armley PS in Leeds, twice President of the YPU and for many years in the 1950's and 60's Secretary and later Treasurer of the PAGB Executive. He was the first person in the UK to be granted the ESFIAP award for services to photography.
Dave's involvement in photography varied until at Christmas 1958 his brother, who was nine years older than him, and in the RAF, returned from Christmas Island with hundreds of 35mm colour slides. That led to a four-month campaign on Dave's part to convince their Dad that he needed a 35 mm camera for his birthday in early May. Shortly before then Dad (who was a pharmaceutical chemist) went to a wholesale merchant in Leeds and came back with a Braun Super Paxette (35mm rangefinder camera). Dave remembers having to contribute £5 of his hard earned pocket money to the total of £17 it cost his Dad even at wholesale prices; the market value was about £25 in those days, a lot of money.
Initially Dave took a lot of slides with Kodachrome (12 ASA then later 25 ASA) and High Speed Ecktachrome (160 ASA) when he was cycling or walking in the Dales and else where on holiday. Eventually his chosen career in the police service and other things that interest young men became priorities but he still used the camera on occasions. It was his brother returning from Hong Kong in 1965 who set him off again and the result was that he replaced the Paxette with an Exacta 35mm SLR and a range of Zeiss lenses.
In 1984, having settled in Northallerton, he splashed out and bought a Minolta system centred around an X700 and an X500. Coincidentally at this time Dave found that he had Monday evenings free, and joined Northallerton Camera Club, where he is still a member. In 1992 he changed to Pentax with a brace of their new Z1 automatic focus cameras and has used them or their successors the Z1P to this day, although he is also the owner of a digital SLR.
Dave joined the RPS in 1992 when he was awarded his LRPS. He is a founder member of the Tees Digital Photo Group, formed in the late 1990's. Dave also joined the PSA in 1999 and Circle 36 of the UPP in 2000. He is still a member of all these organisations.
Dave has held several posts in his club since he was first press-ganged on to the Committee of Northallerton CC as Annual Exhibition Secretary in 1988, a post which he held for seven years until 1995, when he took over as Publicity Officer (for four years) and also as NCPF Representative, a post which he still holds. In 2000 he became club Secretary, a post that he also still holds. In 1998 he was persuaded to join the NCPF Executive as Southern Area Representative, a year later, much to his surprise he found himself appointed General Secretary a post that he held for five years until in 2004 he was elected Vice–President and ultimately in 2006 was honoured with the post of President.
Until Dave joined Northallerton CC his photography was confined to family, friends and holidays etc. Entry into club competitions broadened his horizons, but he also found it to be restricting in style and frustrations were building up. One night, a revered club member, Tom Cross put on a slide show about Swaledale and that sparked Dave's interest. He could now take the pictures which he wanted and would be able to show them to others. Dave's first slide show "White Rose Walk" was completed in 1987. There followed a steady stream of shows and this remains one of his main photographic motivations. As a result of looking for variation in his shows he has developed a liking for natural history work, especially of wild flowers and fungi.
In the early 1990's visiting lecturers opened his eyes firstly to the RPS and then the NCPF, which the club joined in 1993. About this time a number of new influences appeared on the horizon. His club gained a new member, John Webster, who provided serious competition in the club, John literally 'moved the goal posts' upwards in terms of photographic quality. Dave tried and failed in an application for his ARPS, which also made him look at his work critically. Finally he went to a lecture at the Caedmon Hall, by Duncan McEwan, which really fired his imagination. Between these influences and a remarkably lucky half hour of glorious light in the Lake District one weekend Dave found a new direction for his work.
In August 1995 Dave retired from the police service after thirty-three years service and in the following year decided to make a slide show on the Lake District and also to see if he could get his Associateship of the RPS. At the same time someone passed his name to Terry Fletcher, editor of the Dalesman and Cumbria magazines and he ended up sending a portfolio of slides to Terry. Over the years they have used his Dales and Lake District pictures many times in their magazines and calendars. By March of 1996 Dave was awarded an Associateship by the 'Royal', followed in April by the 'Credit' award from the PAGB, and by the end of the year he had built his show "Escape to the Lakes", which was followed three years later by "Light in the Lakes".
After a first entry into an International in 1996, Dave again entered the Northern Counties Exhibition the following year and to his absolute amazement he won the Gold Medal for his shot of the boat house called "Ullswater Morning". He now finds that International Exhibition work is as, if not more, important to him than competition work and ranks alongside slide shows as one of his main motivations. Dave was awarded his AFIAP in 2002 and EFIAP in 2005. At the same time he worked towards climbing the PAGB Awards Distinction 'ladder', gaining his 'D' in 1997 and having failed in 2001, finally achieving the 'Masters' award in 2003.
Dave has also become involved in judging competitions. He was first appointed as a judge by his own club, Northallerton, in 1988 and shortly afterwards he was put on the NYSD list of judges. Dave was appointed to the Federation Judges' List in 1995.
Dave does not dislike any form of photography, so long as it is well done. Of course he finds some styles are not to his personal liking, but he hopes that he can still appreciate good work in any field. Dave does find photography that intrudes into people's grief, weaknesses or frailties is somewhat repulsive, but that is more to do with the photographer's attitude than anything else; quite simply he does not like exploitation. There can, in certain circumstances, be a place for that type of work in photojournalism, but whether it should have a part in our hobby is another question.
Dave has many happy memories of his "Firsts"; the first trophy in club competition, back in 1986, the first Federation Trophy in 1995, his first international medal in 1997 will always be well remembered. Dave has over the years derived great satisfaction from contributing towards the many successes that Northallerton have enjoyed over the last decade, locally in the NYSD, in Federation competitions and especially at Warwick.
One of Dave's joys in photography is being able to share his hobby with Sheila and seeing her get her distinctions with both the RPS and the PAGB. For both of them it is not so much moments as experiences and the fact that they have met so many very nice people through photography. The people Dave is thinking of range from the visits of people like Freeman Patterson, André Gallant, Duncan McEwan, and many others including the ordinary club members who have invariably extended superb courtesy, hospitality and friendship wherever they have gone.
One experience that stands out was being approached last year to take part in the television programme "Dales Diary", which is fronted by Luke Casey. This followed on from a short photographic essay Dave did for the 'Dalesman' magazine towards the end of 2005 and which one of their researchers read. Once they knew Sheila was interested in photography as well they became doubly interested. Although the day chosen to do the piece was a dead loss photographically, Dave said "the way they put the story together was excellent from our point of view and seemed to be enjoyed by those who saw the programme".
Photographic moments for Dave were when in 2001 he designed and created his own web site, more as an ego trip for him than anything else. Imagine his surprise when a couple of years later he got an email from a London publisher who, solely on the basis of his web site, were offering him the chance to provide all the photographs for two new books they were planning to publish. After checking out that this was not a 'con', things went apace and in 2004 Dave had two hardback books, one on the Yorkshire Dales and the other on the Lake District published in his name. All right, the books are aimed at the tourist market and he doubts they will lead in themselves to future publications, but he considers himself immensely lucky and proud to have his work in print in this way.
One story that has to be told is of Dave's problems early one November morning when Sheila, John Webster and Dave, were standing alongside the back road around Derwentwater. They were attending the RPS Northern Region's Lakes Weekend and had got up early to get some pictures. They all had cameras on tripods taking pictures of the Autumn colours. Dave's backpack was laid open on the grass verge, when he heard the sound of the wind suddenly rising and called to the others to grab hold of their tripods. Imagine his surprise when he saw the wind lift his 7kg backpack up in the air above his head and throw it over the edge and down a 50 to 100 foot stone scree below their feet. Seconds later, the wind had gone but all Dave could see was little black, but very expensive, objects bouncing down the scree. Imagine Sheila's horror when Dave decided to go after them to try and rescue something. Fat chance of that. Fortunately he held his insurance with the Norris's, through the PAGB scheme and thankfully he had an 'independent witness' in John. Dave supposes the story was too outlandish not to be true, but his claim was approved in less than a fortnight, Dave had all the gear replaced within four weeks and the insurance paid out (well over two grand) within six weeks.
Dave was one of those individuals who in the mid-1990's attended a lecture at Middlesbrough by the late Barrie Thomas. Along with everybody else he was enthralled and inspired. In his case though that particular candle burned dimly for a year or two as he was still primarily interested in slides. In 1997, as a member of the Tees DPG his interest in digital photography continued to develop slowly and in 1998 Dave bought his first computer with Photoshop 4 installed. Dave's inspiration came from Federation lectures and workshops along with, of course, the Tees DPG.
If quality light appears it is still the slide camera that Dave reaches for first. For sometime he has made prints of favourite pictures and is now producing even more from both digital camera and scanned slide sources. He can envisage the day he might turn more towards the digital camera, but is still drawn by the quality of slide projection. Dave does have ideas towards print shows or even digitally projected shows, but is waiting to see what opportunities the future holds. A joint print show with Sheila is a possible future project as he feels that to a very large extent the quality of her photography is not appreciated as widely as it ought to be.
Editor