Monthly Archives: Feb 2022

24 February 2022 (3 Way Inter-Club Competition)

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The 3-way inter-club competition between Musselburgh Camera Club, Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club and Haddington Camera Club took place on Thursday, 24th February 2022. The meeting was hosted by Beeslack via Zoom, with images judged by Simon Allen from Dumfries Camera Club. Musselburgh had come 4th in the 4-way interclub competition earlier in the year, so we were eager to do better this time.

Each club has submitted 15 digital images, making a grand total of 45 images. There were landscape images, wildlife images, horticultural images and portraits ranging from characters at a battle re-enactment to a family beach holiday. The most unusual image was a stunning astrophotograph called “Cygnus Wall”, submitted by Haddington.

Simon mentioned there was a high standard of images overall. There were no bad images, and the marks represented the overall ranking of the images compared against each other. Simon commented on the composition and execution of each image. He described what he liked and didn’t like about each one. The best photographs had a clear distinction between subject and background, and images with bright distractions lost marks. But Simon pointed out that some background objects were necessary to show the whole story. For example, a portrait of a soldier would not have worked without the out of focus image of his musket. Some images had sharp edges in the background which might have been created by selections in Photoshop not being properly feathered.

Musselburgh members watched the competition either from home or from room G3 at Fisherrow. The post-competition chat had to be curtailed for those at Fisherrow because of a change to the Fisherrow opening hours (so apologies to Beeslack and Haddington that we had to leave so quickly at the end). The final scores were:

  • 1st place: Musselburgh Camera Club, 255 points.
  • 2nd place: Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club, 248 points.
  • 3rd place: Haddington Camera Club, 232 points.

So our revamped selection of images was a big success! Here are Simon’s best Musselburgh images:

  • Roe deer on guard (Jennifer Davidson) – 17 points.
  • Glenfinnan Viaduct (Steven Beard) – 17 points.
  • White Tailed Sea Eagle (Mike Clark) – 18 points.
  • Millarochy Bay Sunset (Gordon Davidson) – 18 points
  • Kalia – Green Activist (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Dreaming of days gone by (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Stylish (Carol Edmund) – 19 points
  • Mountain Gem Humming Bird (George Todd) – 20 points

Well done to Musselburgh, thank you to everyone who provided images for this competition, thank you to Simon Allen for judging it and thank you to Beeslack for hosting it.

In case you missed it

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If you were not at Musselburgh Camera Club last Thursday, Andrew Lanxon Hoyle has now added a recording of his talk on “Expanding Your Mental Kitbag” to his YouTube channel:

We get a plug at the beginning. The recording shows everything except the extensive question and answer session we had at the end.

See you this Thursday for the 2-way competition.

Cheers,
Steven

17 February 2022 (Andrew Lanxon Hoyle: Expanding Your Mental Kitbag)

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This week we were delighted to welcome our second face-to-face speaker of the season. Andrew Lanxon Hoyle is an Edinburgh-based photographer and senior editor for the technology publication CNET.com, responsible for shooting automotive, product and editorial images. Andrew has his own web page displaying his work, where you can find many of the images he showed us tonight.

http://lanxonphotography.com/

He is also well-known for posting photography stories and advice on his many social media channels:

In fact, you can find now a recording of his talk here:

Andrew gave us a presentation entitled “Expanding Your Mental Kitbag”. If you find yourself running out of ideas as a photographer, or are not happy with the images you are creating, it is tempting to try expanding your kitbag. Surely, buying an expensive piece of kit like a new lens will help improve your work? But Andrew pointed out that you could just end up pointing your new lens at the same subjects. Instead he recommends expanding your mental kitbag. Don’t let yourself be categorised as just one type of photographer (landscape, portrait, macro, still life, etc…) if you happen to be good at that one thing. Try new ideas, new situations and new techniques. You will find that ideas that work in one area of photography can be adapted to a new area and bring sometimes surprising results.

Andrew took us on a fascinating photographic journey from when he started with simple product photography to his later, more sophisticated use of lighting. He learned an off-camera flash lighting technique for wedding photography and then found he could use that same technique for his editorial images. Andrew’s signature is to find unusual ways of showing a subject. Where most product photographers would show someone holding a phone, Andrew would show the phone against an abstract landscape. And instead of showing a distillery manager sampling his whisky, he photographed him in the grain silo! The more techniques Andrew tried, the more he learned how to use lighting. A DJ’s spotlights could be used to make a unique wedding shot. A high speed flash can be used to freeze the motion of a water splash, whatever the shutter speed. The highlight of the evening was Andrew’s story of how he photographed the Bugatti Chiron. Instead of settling on the usual “on the road” shot, Andrew proposed to shoot the Bugatti at night against a popular landmark in Madrid. The photoshoot required a road to be closed by a police escort. The shot was created using a light painting technique where the car was lit from different angles and dozens of shots stacked together to give the final result. Andrew impressed Bugatti so much they nicked his photo. That must be the definition of success!

Thank you very much for inspiring us with a fascinating talk.

10 February 2022 (Audio Visual Evening)

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This week we once again hosted our annual audio visual evening with Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club. Little did we know when we hosted this meeting a year ago that a year later we would still be hosting it by Zoom. A major difference this time was that the meeting was also broadcast in room G3 of the Fisherrow Centre.

The meeting began with a presentation from Beeslack about The Union Canal, following the route of the canal from its beginning in Edinburgh to its merger with the Forth and Clyde Canal at the Falkirk Wheel. With a combination of ground-based photographs and drone shots, were treated to a virtual journey, visiting the many landmarks which the canal passed (such as the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena the Almond Aqueduct, Linlithgow Palace and the Falkirk Tunnel).

Next, Musselburgh showed the long-awaited presentation from John Knox and Gus Langlands’ Landscape Group entitled “The Herring Road”.

The Herring Road. A Landscape Group Presentation

The presentation began by describing the history of the fishing industry at Dunbar and, through archive photographs, telling the story of the Dunbar fishwives. The presentation was in several parts, each introduced with a reading by Jennifer Davidson. It took us on a 29 mile journey along the Herring Road, which the fishwives used to carry their heavy baskets and creels of fish to sell at the market in Lauder. We were again taken on a virtual journey along this route, visiting landmarks such as the village of Spott, the Witches Stone, the Whiteadder Reservoir, and through the Lammermuir Hills to Lauder. It looked difficult enough to make that journey with photographic equipment, let along while carrying several stone of fish. After the fishwives had sold their fish in Lauder, they had to make the return journey back to Dunbar, being careful to avoid thieves who might want to steal the money they had made. The presentation returned to Dunbar and, by contrast, showed us the modern view of the town and described the modifications which made Dunbar Harbour the way it looks today.

We finished the evening with a series of short presentations from Beeslack, bringing us introductions to the Scottish Wildlife Centre, the City of Edinburgh, Shetland and Australia. All in all it was a fascinating and entertaining evening. Thank you to Beeslack for joining us. You didn’t get any tea and biscuits for a second year running, but I hope we can correct that the next time we host this meeting.

03 February 2022 (Set Subject Competition – Travel in Scotland)

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The second of our 3-part set subject competition took place this week.  The competition was judged by George Todd, who won last year’s competition.  13 members had entered 39 images altogether. The theme of “Travel in Scotland” had been interpreted fairly loosely. Some images showed beautiful Scottish landmarks or landscapes which could be reached by travelling in Scotland. A group of trees with a beautiful sky were assumed to be in Scotland. Other images showed Scottish transport, such as a road, ferry, bridge, railway station or viaduct.

George commented on the composition of each image. The landscape images were stronger when they contained three elements: an interesting foreground, a middle ground and a distant background. Some of the images were good in part but were spoiled by containing too much of a particularly uninteresting element, such as a car park or an expanse of water, grass or greenery. George suggested cropping these area to reduce their dominance and rebalance the image. Some of the images showing an empty scene would have been improved by a focal point, such as a person standing in the railway station or a boat on the water.  Images of landmarks were better if they could tell a story by including some characters, and there were some fun images of highlanders, tourists and highland cattle.

The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (47 points)
    • Lorraine Roberts
    • Kevin Johnston
  • 4th place (48 points)
    • George Smith
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 3rd place (49 points)
    • Malcolm Roberts
    • Gordon Davidson
    • Carol Edmund
  • 2nd place (50 points)
    • Joe Fowler
  • 1st place (51 points)
    • Steven Beard
    • Mike Clark

The top images were:

  • Glenfinnan Viaduct (Steven Beard) – 20 points
  • Racing Along (George Smith) – 19 points
  • Bow Fiddle Rock (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Hebrides to Uig Ferry (Jennifer Davidson) – 17 points
  • Scotland for Ever (Joe Fowler) – 17 points
  • Scotland the Brave (Joe Fowler) – 17 points
  • Packhorse Bridge Carrbridge (Malcolm Roberts) – 17 points
  • Mystery Island Cruise (Mike Clark) – 17 points
  • Blue hour at the 3 Bridges (Gordon Davidson) – 17 points
  • Melrose Abbey (Carol Edmund) – 17 points

Steven Beard and Mike Clark have both won the right to judge next year’s competition! Well done to both. The league table after two competitions looks like this:

Joe Fowler (52 + 50 = 102)
Mike Clark (50 + 51 = 101)
Steven Beard (49 + 51 = 100)
Carol Edmund (49 + 49 = 98)
Malcolm Roberts (– + 49 = ??)
Gordon Davidson (45 + 49 = 94)
George Todd (47 + — = ??)
Lorraine Roberts (– + 47 = ??)
Kevin Johnston (– + 47 = ??)
Jennifer Davidson (45 + 48 = 93)

Joe Fowler is in the lead, but only 1 point separates the top 3 places. Entries for the final part of the competition on “Street Photography” are due on 3th March 2022.