I have received the following which someone might be interesting in:-

Dear Clive, 
 
I'm Paul Lambie, a Trustee of Musselburgh Museum and a volunteer with East 
Lothian Archives in the John Gray Centre. For years the Musselburgh Museum 
Committee had the ambition of obtaining the late John Knight's collection of 
remarkable photographs from his son Stuart. 
 
Late last year Stuart gave to me and Craig Statham of East Lothian Archives 
most of the photographic prints to be catalogued and made available to the 
public for inspection: Stuart kept most of the negatives. It's a large 
collection and Craig hadn't got the time to start cataloguing it. 
Unfortunately he has just left East Lothian and has taken up a position as 
map curator in the National Library in Causewayside. 
 
He suggested to me that I try to get a Musselburgh Museum volunteer to take 
on this task, with guidance from Archives staff. So far nobody has come 
forward in the Museum, and I had the idea that the Camera Club may be a 
better place to find somebody with photographic and historical interests to 
do this job: there is published guidance for the cataloguing. 
 
So that is why I'm writing this note. I no longer live and work in 
Musselburgh. My address is:-
18 The Green, Pencaitland EH34 5HE, and my telephone number is 01875 341376. 
 
Paul Lambie

Please note that there will not be a meeting at Fisherrow next week as we are to visit Beeslack CC in Penicuik for an AV evening.

The following week, Thursday 6th March, we will be joined by the Musselburgh Art Club and will be in the large room (32). It will be an opportunity to see some Artistic Paintings and compare them with Photographic Photoshopping!

Please bring along some of your prints so that we can have a good representation of MCC’s efforts.

Following the Set Subject (Street Photography) recently judged, last night we had the opportunity to hear from members as to how they came to take their images and what they thought about when they were taken.

The next Set Subject (Night Photography) need to be submitted by 20th March. As these are for projection I hope that all members will select up to 3 images and either bring in a CD/memory stick or e mail them to me.

For the more advanced members (if you do not already do so) set your metering to manual – decide on your shutter speed (depending on your lens and movement of your subject) select the f stop(depending on required depth of field) and have your ISO at say 200.

By being on manual you should see in the viewfinder the metering scale which will tell if you are over exposed or under exposed – move one ( or more) of the parameters by the number of stops to get the correct exposure either in a matrix or spot setting. Remember three clicks or button pressing will change the setting by one stop. Take the image and look at your histogram and it should show that there is no clipping and you will have achieved a correct exposure (no loss of detail) with less work to do in Photoshop.

Then think about focusing – the best part of your lens is in the centre – so keep the focal point in the centre and get this on the point in the image which you want to be the sharpest and re compose. However to get better control, disable the auto focus on the shutter button (via the menu – look at manual if you can find it) and use the focus lock button – once you have auto focused it will lock that point until you refocus, so you can recompose your image as many times as you like and the original focus will be maintained.

Instead of using the Aperture Priority mode as I have normally used in the past I used the above procedure over the last few weeks (it does get a bit of getting used to) but I have found that I got a much better results in respect of exposure and focusing.

Clive

Having just returned from my trip last night I was delighted to find that we came first in the ‘4- Way Inter Club Competition’ on the 11th Feb and that we achieved 3rd place at the ’12 Way Club Competition’ on 9th Feb. Especially that Anita Nutter’s ‘ Wood-nymph’ got the best Overall Print’.

Congratulations to those who entries were selected, we need to work hard over the rest of the year to build up another ‘quality’ selection in order to have material for next year.

On the contrary I was disappointed to find that we only had 18 entries from eight members for the ‘set subject’ comp. The subject was selected by members at last years’ AGM.

Submissions for competitions are not he ‘be and end all’ but unless members  make a real effort to join into this aspect of the club’s activities we cannot improve our skills and confidence .

I wish for the club to be ‘a members’ club and all to work as a team, for us all to benefit from ideas and skills of each other and this can only be achieved if all join in the activities. If anyone has any ideas how we can achieve this please let me know.

Members should not be put off if they think that their images are not winners, getting comments (good or bad) is what helps to build up one’s skills and confidence. So do your personal best and take part.

At this Thursdays’ meeting we will need the submission for up to two B & W mounted prints. Libby Smith who gave us a talk on B & W photography last October is our judge for this comp. she has a three hour round trip( in good weather) so it would be a disaster if we do not have sufficient  number of submissions. So please make a real effort.

Yes I am back and have started ‘moaning on’ again, but the principles and benefits of being a member of this club is important to me and I really want every member to also benefit from building up their skills and most of all enjoying this fascinating and ‘demanding’ hobby.

Clive