Author Archives: stevenmbeard

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About stevenmbeard

I am the chair of Musselburgh Camera Club, and also a software engineer at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh.

15 February 2024 (Audio Visual Evening)

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This week we hosted our annual audio visual evening with Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club. Two years ago we had hosted this meeting by Zoom in room G3, but this year we were fully back to normal. Members of both clubs met in room G6 of the Fisherrow Centre and were treated to tea, sandwiches and cakes by Liz Sowler, Ed Robertson and Carol Edmond.

Beeslack began the evening with a beautiful presentation created by Brian Nicolson, made from photographs of woodland scenes in Midlothian paired with inspirational music. Musselburgh then resurrected a presentation made by Steven Beard in 2012 describing his 2008-2009 trip to the Cerro Paranal Observatory Chile to commission the VISTA Infrared Camera. The place had also been used as the secret lair of the villain in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. The VISTA Infrared Camera was decommissioned in 2023, bringing the story to an end. Beeslack then showed their club presentation which celebrated the “Environs of Penicuik”. It featured a selection photographs from historical monuments and scenic places to visit around Penicuik taken by their club members.

The meeting then changed tack and showed a YouTube video created by Musselburgh member Derek Muller entitled “Getting Started in Screen Printing”. The video showed us how to use a MiSCREEN silk screen printer to transfer an artwork or black and white photograph onto paper, or a T-Shirt, etc… Derek creates his videos with a camera or iPhone and edits them using iMovie. Beeslack then showed a supplement to their club presentation which demonstrated the artistic filters applied by Bill Baird. Photographs of the Midlothian countryside were transformed into artworks before our eyes. This was followed by a short video showing a visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Musselburgh member Kevin Johnston and then a presentation showing a visit to Alicante, Spain in 2019 by Beeslack member Mike Walby.

The evening finished with three short presentations. Derek Muller showed a video of the waves crashing onto the shore at Portobello beach, which featured some lovely slow motion effects and a passer by who looked like they were going to get soaked but escaped. Then we watched a Beeslack video showing the Fells, Becks and Lakes of the Lake District. Beeslack also chose the perfect presentation on which to close the evening: a celebration of Valentine’s Day created by Gordon Peerless. We finished with a discussion over tea and cakes.

Thank you to Beeslack for visiting and showing their presentations, and thanks again to Liz, Ed and Carol for the catering. Next week Eddie Telford will be returning to give a talk on “Around the World in 80 Images”. See you there.

08 February 2024 (Human Portrait Print Competition)

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Gordon Rae kindly agreed to judge our human portrait print competition at short notice and had travelled to Musselburgh from South West Scotland. Gordon is an award-winning wildlife photographer whose work can seen on his web site:

https://www.gordonraephotography.co.uk

Gordon said he was impressed with the quality of the entries and had judged and scored them to a high standard, so he hoped nobody (especially beginners) would be disappointed with their score. Gordon had identified one winning portrait, plus some second and third placed runners up.

23 prints had been entered by 9 members. The subjects included sports competitors, street artists, musicians, wise men, soldiers, and pictures of other club members. John West had entered a unique, double-exposed, self-portrait called “Doppelganger” which was popular during the tea break. Gordon commented on the composition of the portraits and suggested some crops that would tighten up the subject in the frame. He explained that the “rule of thirds” guideline that is useful for landscape photography is not so important for portraits. Male subjects can be shown looking straight into the camera but female subjects often look better with their head turned at an angle. In some of the portraits there were dark shadows on the face that could have been prevented by using softer lighting (or by balancing the light with a reflector). He also warned photographers to watch out for colour casts in their prints and make sure that the skin colour looks natural. Watch out also for places where the subject could merge with the background (for example a dark coat shown against a dark background of a similar colour) and make sure there is a distinct boundary. The highest scores went to the prints that Gordon judged had captured a moment, showed a great expression, had a good balance of tones and had good backgrounds. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 4th place (46 points)
    • John West
  • 3rd place (51 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Joe Fowler
    • Carol Edmond
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Derek Muller
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Kalon (George Todd) – 20 points (and the overall winning print)
  • 96 Years Young (Carol Edmond) – 19 points (and overall 2nd equal print)
  • Beguiling (Derek Muller) – 19 points (and overall 2nd equal print)
  • Katrine (John West) – 18 points (and overall 3rd equal print)
  • He Gets The Joke (Derek Muller) – 18 points  (and overall 3rd equal print)
  • I Love my Purple hat  (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Downhill Racer (Joe Fowler) – 18 points

Well done to George for winning the competition and achieving best print with a fabulous portrait of a tattooed boxer, and well done also to Derek, Jennifer, Joe and Carol. Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you to Gordon Rae for judging the competition for us at short notice.

We had some spare time after the competition, so Gordon gave us a short presentation entitled “Birds of Iceland”, which showed the wildlife photographs he had collected on a tour of Iceland (see Gordon’s Iceland gallery for a couple of examples). Gordon explained that he most often used a Nikon 200-400mm lens with a 1.4X teleconverter. Most of his photos are taken at f/5.6, but at low angles he finds f/10 a better choice because the water appears more out of focus at those angles. We enjoyed the talk so much we booked Gordon to give us a full-length talk next year. Watch out for next year’s programme.

  • On Thursday, 15th February we will be joined by Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for our annual audio visual night. We will be meeting in the larger room in the far corner, G6, not our usual room, G3.
  • If you would like to enter the “contrasting textures” set subject competition, please send your three JPEG files to George Todd this weekend.

See you this Thursday for some AV entertainment.

01 February 2024 (Digital Knockout Competition)

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Our first club meeting of February 2024 was our annual digital knockout competition, where members bring in digital images on a chosen theme and vote to choose their favourites. This year’s theme was “water”, chosen at last year’s AGM.

8 members entered a total of 23 digital images with some creative interpretations of the “water” theme. There were a lot of photographs of rivers, waterfalls and beaches, some lakes with reflections, some underwater scenes and some snow scenes. There were also some impressive abstract images created from droplets and waves at the water surface. One particularly inventive image was “Water Music”, showing a water splash superimposed on some sheet music. Another simple but effective image showed the rain on the window of an Edinburgh bus at night. The images were voted off in a series of head-to-head rounds until only 3 images remained. Members then voted for their favourite to determine the final placings, and the result was:

  • 3rd place
    • An image of a splashing wave in front of Arthur’s Seat (Steven Beard)
  • 2nd place
    • An image of a Tough Mudder contestant emerging from water (Jennifer Davidson)
  • 1st Place
    • Waves crashing over rocks at North Berwick (Joe Fowler)

Well done to Joe Fowler, who won a packet of water biscuits! Well done also to Jennifer and Steven, who’s images survived the head-to-head rounds despite some very close counts.

  • Next Thursday Colin Joyce will be judging our human portrait print competition. George Todd will also be collecting entries for our second set subject competition. Please send your 3 JPEGs on the subject of “contrasting textures” to George.

See you on Thursday,

Steven

25 January 2024 (Sets of Six and Macro Presentation)

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This week we had a “Sets of Six” evening, where members bring along images or give interesting demonstrations. I started the evening by giving a macro photography demonstration. I brought along a small (25cm x 25cm) lightbox into which I placed a “Musselburgh mussel” on a stand.

An image of a mussel inside a light box.

Macro photography is extreme close-up photography where the original idea is was to make the image on the camera’s sensor at least the same size as the subject itself. To achieve this you need a lens which can focus very close. A macro lens is one designed to have a close focus distance for macro photography, but if you don’t have a macro lens (or want to try macro photography at a different focal length than your macro lens) the following gadgets can also help:

  • Extension tubes will reduce the focal distance when fitted between your camera and lens. These are the best option because they contain no glass and won’t affect the performance of your lens. But make sure you buy ones compatible with your camera.
  • Close-up lenses can be screwed to the front of your lens, just like a filter. These have the advantage of being cheap and easy to fit, but because they contain glass they affect the performance of your lens.

One of the most difficult things in macro photography is getting the focus right. Macro photos tend to have a very narrow depth of field, especially if you choose a longer focal length to keep clear of your subject. One way to correct the narrow focal length is to use a narrow aperture (such as f/16 or f/22) but that leads to a longer exposure time and motion blur. Good lighting is very important in macro photography. For still subjects you can use a light box. Click here to see a review of the one I demonstrated, but there are other makes and sizes available. For moving subjects you can use a ring flash which fits on the front of the lens, which won’t cast shadows like a flash attached to the camera body. If you are lucky enough to have bright natural light available, a small reflector or diffuser can be used to soften the lighting and brighten the shadows. A gadget, such as a Wimberley Plamp, can be attached to your tripod to hold subjects like flowers that might be blown by the wind.

Another way to achieve a better depth of field in macro photography is using a focus stacking. Here is a YouTube video which explains how to do it.

You can change the focus by using the focus ring on your lens, but some photographers find a focus rail (which moves the camera back and forth on a rail) is easier to control. This site shows you how use a focus rail: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-macro-focusing-rail-for-a-focus-stacked-close-up.

Finally, I demonstrated a USB microscope, which can produce extreme macro close-ups. The depth of field for these devices is extremely narrow and they work best with two-dimensional subjects. But they can detect tiny objects invisible to the naked eye, such as dirt on the front of your lens you didn’t know was there. Here is a review: https://gadgets-reviews.com/uk/review/1388-best-usb-microscopes.html. These range from cheap to very expensive. I demonstrated a mid-range Jiusion microscope which saves HD images.

Several members then showed a selection of interesting images: Kevin Johnson showed how classic album cover art can inspire photography; Mike Clark showed some “before and after” results in underwater photography; John West showed how you can use ICM to transform an image of the interior of a cathedral; Malcolm Roberts described his visit to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition; There were also some unique views of The Kelpies. George Smith showed his first attempts at astrophotography; Elaine Gilroy showed her photographs of birds; George Todd showed a selection of holiday images; and Derek Muller showed a rig he had set up to capture water splashes. Derek also showed some of his favourite images of acorn people created by David M Bird. More of these images can be found on David’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@davidmbird

Finally, Joe Fowler showed us how images can be improved by removing the distractions and using the clone tool to add more interest. Thank you to everyone who showed their images. It was a long but very entertaining evening.

Next week we have a digital knock-out competition. Please bring up to 3 images on the subject a “water” and then vote for your favourites.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition

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Musselburgh Camera Club members may be interested to know that the National Museum of Scotland are showing the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition again this year. The exhibition runs from 20th January until 6th May 2024. More information can be found on the museum’s web site:

https://www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/national-museum-of-scotland/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year/

11 January 2024 (Set Subject Competition A – Macro)

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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.

14 December 2023 (Quiz Night)

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This week the club had its annual quiz night. 80 questions were devised by Ed Robertson, the winner of last year’s quiz. We began with questions about photography, followed by questions on history, geography, travel, culture, chemistry and biology. Do you know how many Hawaiian islands there are in total, the name of the river flowing through Lisbon, the name of the lead singer of The Who, or the heaviest organ in the human body? Well, neither did we. :) Club members competed in 3 teams of 4 lead by a scribe who compiled the answers and added the scores. The final result was:

  • 3rd place (51 points) – Team Jim.
  • 2nd place (55 points) – Team Liz.
  • 1st place (68 points) – Team Gavin.

Well done to Team Gavin! There will now be some negotiations to decide which member of the team (Gavin, Steven, Mike or Marian) will set next year’s quiz questions.

Don’t forget to submit your 3 JPEG images for our first set subject competition (on the subject of “Macro”) to George Todd.

Next week, Thursday 21st December, we have our Christmas social. We will meet in the bar at the Ravelston House in Musselburgh from 7pm and dinner will start at 7:30pm. It would be helpful if you could bring the exact money to pay your bill (£22, or £19 for OAPs). Directions can be found on the hotel’s web site. Don’t forget to register your number plate if you park in the car park.

Contact Us
How to get to the Ravelston House

I wish all Musselburgh Camera Club members a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

07 December 2023 (Black and White Print Competition)

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Our Black and White print competition took place on 7th December 2023, judged by Fiona Brims, who travelled to us from Central Scotland. Fiona’s work can be found on her web site, where her work on creative portraiture stands out in particular.

https://www.fionabrimsphotography.co.uk/

28 prints had been entered by 10 members, which was fewer than usual, so Fiona had time to comment on each print in detail. She gave some useful, amusing and considered feedback explaining how each of the prints could be improved. Fiona introduced us to three tongue-in-cheek terms. Oomph! A print needs to have an impact. Increasing the contrast and making sure the background gets darker towards the edge all help to keep the eye on the subject. Smidgeon. Lightening some of the shadows by just a smidgeon could help improve the visual impact. Meh! Some of the blank skies, areas of empty grass or open water made boring areas in between areas of interest. Try to minimise the boring areas by changing your viewpoint to reduce their size or by boosting their contrast. Fiona found there was something to like in each of the prints. There were some nice compositions with a good tonal range, some striking and atmospheric landscapes and some studies with an emotional impact. There were some prints which gave a fantastic first impression but Fiona was disappointed to find were not sharp when viewed closely, or they had smudges or cloning faults in the background. Fiona recommended that when photographing an object it is important to have an anchor point to put that object in context. So, for example, a photograph of a typewriter could be improved by showing some of the desk it is sitting on, or a photograph of lights dangling from a tree needs to show where the lights are attached. There were also a few black and white portraits. Fiona explained that she liked to see a catchlight in the eyes, which improves the empathy with the viewer. At the end we had plenty of time to chat and review the prints over tea and sandwiches. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 4th place (46 points)
    • Jim Innes
  • 3rd place (48 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Mike Clark
    • Carol Edmund
  • 2nd place (50 points)
    • Derek Muller
  • 1st place (55 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Man on a Tram (George Todd) – 20 points
  • Suffering for your art (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Patiently waiting for prayer to finish (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Exhausted (Carol Edmund) – 18 points

Well done to George Todd, who wins the competition, and to Derek, Jennifer, Mike and Carol, who came close.  Fiona will return next year to give us a talk.

There is now only one meeting left at Fisherrow before Christmas. Come along next Thursday (14th December) at 7pm for our annual quiz night.

 

16 November 2023 (Match An Image Competition)

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This week club members visited North Berwick Photographic Society for the “Match an Image” competition. The competition took place at the St. Andrew Blackadder Church in North Berwick, where we were treated to tea and cakes.

The competition was judged by Gordon Rae. North Berwick began the competition with an image of a tap, and Musselburgh replied with Jim Innes’ image of a kite surfer. We were astonished that Gordon declared our image a match. This first round set the scene for the competition, where every single pair of images in the first half was declared a match! John West’s domed bowl of pears and light bulbs successfully matched North Berwick’s photo of the inside of a domed cathedral roof. We played John West’s image of a feeding hoverfly to discover that North Berwick had an image of a feeding giraffe weevil, which was declared the better image as it was a harder subject photographed in Madagascar. We tried to exhaust their images of insects by following up with Malcolm Robert’s beautiful blue dragonfly, only to find they matched it with a photograph of a crocodile with butterflies on its head, also photographed in Madagascar. At the tea break North Berwick were leading 20 points to Musselburgh’s 18 points.

In the second half it became harder to match the images; but we successfully matched their image of baobab trees in Madagascar with Steven Beard’s image of Butterdean Wood. Then they matched Jennifer Davidson’s Woodland Nymph portrait with a very different lady whose tattoos matched the nymph’s dress. The matches became more tenuous as the evening wore on. Karen Woodcock’s Winter Sky image and Joe Fowler’s Old Mill image both successfully matched North Berwick’s pictures from Arizona because all the images contained rocks and stones. But the matches became harder and harder, and Steve William’s interior of the Sagrada Familia couldn’t quite match their abstract image. Then we pulled off a lucky match late in the competition when North Berwick presented us with an image of an upturned boat on the beach at sunset and we replied with Mike Clark’s image of the X Craft submarine. The competition finished as a well-deserved draw, with Musselburgh and North Berwick both achieving a total of 36 points.

Thank you to everyone who travelled to North Berwick to support the club, and to everyone who submitted images. And thank you to Gordon Rae for judging the competition and putting up with the heckling. Next year the competition returns to Musselburgh.

Next week we are hosting the 4-way interclub competition at Musselburgh. Come and support your club as we host Stirling and District Camera Club, Edinburgh Photographic Society and Kirkcaldy Photographic Society. We will be meeting at Fisherrow in the larger room G6 (not our usual room) at 7pm on Thursday, 23rd November.

09 November 2023 (Colour Print Competition)

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This week the club welcomed Kenneth Goodfellow CPAGB LRPS, of Dunfermline Photographic Association, to judge our colour print competition. Ken described how he had transitioned from film photography to digital photography back in 1999, when he bought his first digital camera and started using an early version of Photoshop. You can see a gallery of Ken’s images in Dunfermline’s members gallery:

https://www.dunfermlinephoto.org/members

32 prints had been entered by 11 members. Ken showed that several of the prints had issues with their mounting. There were some ragged edges that could have been trimmed, some mounts were still tacky with glue, and some prints had glue stains on the front. Ken recommended that members check their mounts for excess glue before submitting them. Some prints had air bubbles or ripples, and Ken recommended covering prints with tissue paper and pressing them from the middle outwards to expel air bubbles. He also warned us of “A3 syndrome”: If you have a nice A3 printer and are feeding it with expensive A3 paper there’s a temptation to make sure none of the paper is wasted, so all your prints end up A3-sized. Ken felt that some of the prints would have looked better cropped to a different aspect ratio. Also be careful how you label the mount, as it determines which way up an image will be judged. One of the images was judged upside down as a result of its label. “Why is this image labelled St .Peter’s Square and it shows a lamp, and is Shankar heading to the brickworks or from the brickworks?” Ken also gave us the usual advice about cutting out distractions, watching for lost detail in the highlights and shadows, and making sure the subject of each print is sharp. Despite all the criticism about mounting, many of the prints were of a high quality and achieved high marks. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (52 points)
    • Joe Fowler
    • Gordon Davidson
  • 4th place (53 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Carol Edmond
  • 3rd place (54 points)
    • George Todd
  • 2nd place (55 points)
    • Derek Muller
  • 1st place (59 points)
    • John West

The top images were:

  • Pear Shaped (John West) – 20 points
  • Melon-Cauli (John West) – 20 points
  • Knee to the Ground (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
  • Shankar Heading to the Brickworks (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Dutch Style Still Life (John West) – 19 points
  • Formidable (Carol Edmond) – 19 points
  • Helenium (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Monkey Sanctuary Success Story (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Eyes Wide Open (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
  • Three Sisters (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Pettico Wick Jetty Surf (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Vulnerable (Carol Edmond) – 18 points
  • Lady of Venice (Jim Innes) – 18 points
  • Eyes on Lunch (Derek Muller) – 18 points
  • Coming in to Land (Derek Muller) – 18 points

John West blew away the competition and earned a fantastic 59/60 points for his expertly-created set of still life prints! Well done also to Derek Muller’s and George Todd.

Our next meeting will be taking place at North Berwick, where we are joining them for our annual “Match an Image” competition. North Berwick Photographic Society will be hosting us at 7:30pm on Thursday, 16th November in the St Andrew Blackadder Church Chapel, St Andrew Street, North Berwick.