Rostrevor Magazine 2020-2021

Page 32 / Rostrevor Magazine 2020 - 2021 Many of the great sporting moments enjoyed by Rostrevor Old Collegians on the football, cricket and soccer fields have been captured by Old Scholar Claude Beltrame (’78) over the past decade. This year, he has further devoted his incredible photographic talents - and hundreds of hours - to our College sporting teams from First XVIII Football, Open A & B Basketball and First XI Soccer and Cricket through to some of our younger football, cricket and basketball sides. His photographic coverage of this year’s Intercol is unrivalled in the College’s history and can be viewed on the College website, along with numerous Co-curricular photo galleries from 2020. The value of this contribution, both to Rostrevor’s current families and our historic records, is enormous and we thought it would be good to hear direct from Claude about his passion for photography and the Red and Black. My photographic journey started in 1977 at Rostrevor College. I would spend many hours in the dark room at school processing sports photos and photos of school camps. I submitted twelve photos for the 1977 school annual and was thrilled when three images were printed. In 1980, I took on the responsibility of running the Old Scholars Soccer Club as secretary/ president until 1990. In the middle of the 2006 season, I was injured and out for eight weeks and couldn’t play, so I picked up a camera and decided to photograph the games. Only then did I realise the importance of documenting some of the club’s heroes/legends like Gianni La Scala who attracted big crowds and excitement wherever we played. He could have played at the highest level, but he chose Rostrevor, because that’s where his heart was. Over time, I gained the experience and the expensive hardware required to shoot quality sporting images. My photographic journey reached a massive high in 2013 when photographing the Rostrevor Old Collegians’ Football Saturday night grand final. I stayed up until 2am in the morning to edit and produce 350 of the best photos out of the 3000 I took the evening before. At the time, I didn’t know anyone in the ROCFC committee, so on Sunday morning, I searched up the ROCS’ website and found Reonaldo Cialini’s phone number. I sent him a message introducing myself and asking whether he’d like to take a look at some images I had taken the night before. By that evening, Reonaldo had put my photos up on the Claude Beltrame (’78) Club website and later they were printed in the Red and Black Magazine. It was such an amazing feeling to photograph such a historic moment – I felt really lucky to be there. These days, I divide my time between the Old Scholars’ soccer, football and, as of late, the Old Scholars’ Cricket as I believed they were under- represented. I think it’s important to capture the legends that represent Rostrevor at the Old- Scholar level. Their effort, passion, hard work and will to win is what makes me keep coming back. We at Rostrevor are equally grateful to Claude for his effort, passion, hard work and will to ‘capture the moment’. Our current students and their families and Old Scholars will be able to look back on many fantastic sporting moments for years to come thanks to Claude. Claude Beltrame in Year 11 (1977)