Happy New Year to Musselburgh Camera Club members! Our first meeting after the Christmas Break was the first of our 3 set subject competitions, on the theme of “Macro”. Unfortunately, I was at home with Covid and missed the competition, but I look forward to the top images appearing on our Facebook page. Thank you to Ed for taking the following notes:

There were 42 entries from 14 members for this competition. Most of the subject matter included flora and fauna, but there were a couple of unusual items from imaginative photographers. George started out by talking about the various definitions for Macro
Photography, but settled on the subject being photographed at Life size
or greater magnification. While George was going through the images he pointed out a couple of recurring issues. The first was that removing distractions should absolutely be done, but that it should be done carefully. There were a couple of instances of less than perfect cloning that spoiled otherwise strong images. Distractions around the edges should also be taken removed. The other recurring comment was about cropping choices, where
the photographer had cropped ends of insect legs off, or otherwise chopped bits of the subject and that can look awkward. On the other extreme, there were a few images that had a subject that was quite a small part of the whole image and these could perhaps have been cropped harder. Artificial light sources are often used for Macro shots to provide enough light, but that can give rise to other issues on wet or very reflective surfaces – consider diffusing the light source or, perhaps use a polarizing filter. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

• 5th place (50 points)
  • Joe Fowler
  • John West
  • Jim Innes
• 4th place (51 points)
  • Mike Clark
  • Elaine Gilroy
  • Derek Muller
• 3rd place (52 points)
  • Malcolm Roberts
• 2nd place (53 points)
  • Jennifer Davidson
• 1st place (54 points)
  • Gordon Davidson

The top images were:

• Fly on a leaf (Palpada) Hover Fly (Gordon Davidson) – 20 points
• Shield Beetle Laying Her Eggs (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
• Jumping Spider (Malcolm Roberts) – 19 points
• Nigella Seed Head (Elaine Gilroy) – 19 points
• Busy Bee Collecting pollen (Gordon Davidson) – 18 points
• X-rated (common red soldier beetles) (John West) – 18 points
• Fly (Common Green Bottle Fly) (Jim Innes) – 18 points
• Honey Bee Side On (Derek Muller) – 18 points

Well done to Gordon Davidson, who wins the right to judge another competition next year. This is the first of a 3-part competition, with the final result depending on the total score from the best 2 competitions. With only 4 points separating the first 5 places, anything could happen. Part B of the competition takes place on 29th February 2024.

• George Todd is still collecting prints for the “Human Portrait” competition. If you can produce 3 mounted prints please let George know and bring them along next Thursday.
• Next week we will be discussing mobile phone photography.