This week we welcomed members from Penicuik Photography Club to Musselburgh for our annual audio visual evening. Musselburgh started the evening with a presentation made during a club photoshoot in Dalkeith Country Park, where members had been challenged to spot shapes in the woodland that could be turned into creatures with the aid of some googly eyes! Penicuik followed with a presentation which followed the route of the Seven Hills of Edinburgh event, giving information about each of the seven hills in turn. We then moved on to some individual presentations. Derek Muller introduced us his model Groot, which helped him create cinematic pictures set to great music. Brian Nicolson then showed a beautiful, nature-inspired video called Nature’s Beauty around Penicuik (click here to see it on YouTube). Steven Beard continued the nature theme and added some myth and legend with a presentation about Sherwood Forest. This was followed by Gordon Peerless’ video about Neildpath Castle, near Peebles. Charlie Baird then introduced her beautiful but heart-rending music video called Bittersweet (also available on YouTube). The evening then turned technical, with a a spectacular presentation by Bill Baird, in which fractals seemed to explode on the screen like fireworks. Everybody wanted to know how he did it (apparently using the magic of a fractal generator combined with Photoshop and a video creator). We then had two water-related presentations, with Mike Clark describing the life-cycle of grey seals, and Brian Salvona showing us some beautiful photographs and videos made at the Falls of Clyde. The evening turned technical again when Steven Beard showed us how to make 3-D photographs without using expensive equipment. Gordon Peerless then showed us some breathtaking displays from the Edinburgh Fire Dancing Club. We closed the evening with Derek Muller’s short “Goodbye”, made during our photoshoot at Cramond. We then broke for a delicious selection of sandwiches, cakes and biscuits provided by Jennifer Davidson and Amber Morris. Thank you to everyone who provided their videos.

• Next week (Thursday 19th) Fiona Brims will be giving us a talk entitled “I am not a wildlife photographer…But…“. I look forward to it.