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.

22 September 2022 (George Robertson: The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

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This week we had our first speaker of the season. George Robertson, who last year gave us a fantastic talk on his journey to K2 in “Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods”, returned to talk about “The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Climbing on Africa’s Highest Mountain”. George’s talk was shared with Beeslack Penicuik Camera club, with some Beeslack members opting to join us at the Fisherrow Centre and others opting to join by Zoom. George began his talk by repeating the introduction he gave us last year, explaining how his photography had begun from a need to record the experiences of the clients on his mountain adventure treks. You can find out more about George Robertson’s photography and mountain adventures on the following web sites:

https://georgerobertsonphotography.com/

https://www.mountaintreksphotos.co.uk/

http://www.mountaintreks.co.uk/

George first showed us a map of the routes he uses to take his clients to the summit of Kilimanjaro. His talk would show us highlights from two routes to the summit: one beginning at Machame and the other from Rongai. He explained that climbing Kilimanjaro is not a cheap option: it takes 6-7 days to complete the climb, and costs $120 per day to stay in the national park.

George’s trek began with civilisation and then moved up though the rainforest zone, with some beautiful photographs of the plants and wildlife visited on the way. The route then rose above the clouds and made way for moorland vegetation, and we started to see some spectacular views of the mountain ahead. George showed us pictures of the campsites, which had toilet blocks teetering on the edge of cliff! As George’s party climbed higher, the photographs became ever more spectacular; gazing across the clouds to the summit of Meru. We were taken into the Alpine Desert zone and shown pictures of a huge lava tower and the steep cliff face of the Barranco Wall, the hardest part of the climb. Eventually, we were treated to jaw-dropping shots of the icy glaciers on the mountain summit at sunrise, atmospheric shots of cloud formations, night shots of the campsite, and unique views of a rainbow surrounding a nearby peak and the Kilimanjaro’s shadow against the clouds. The final shot from the summit was of an American tourist sitting at the summit reading Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. George finished by showing us the route down the mountain back to the exit at Marangu. This time, more members were able to chat with George face to face after the talk. Another fascinating talk.

Next week we will be sharing a another speaker with Beeslack and will be treated to a wildlife photography talk from Tesni Ward. Tesni will be talking to us on Zoom, but her talk will be broadcast at the Fisherrow Centre (starting at 7:15 this Thursday). Zoom information will follow in due course.

See you there,

Steven

Our next meeting: George Robertson’s presentation on “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

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Our first speaker of the club season, George Robertson, will be visiting the club this week to give a talk entitled “The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Climbing on Africa’s Highest Mountain”.

The talk will be shared with Beeslack Penicuik Camera club. George will arrive in room G3 of the Fisherrow Centre at 7pm, and the talk itself will start at 7:15pm. You can find out more about George Robertson on the following web sites:

https://georgerobertsonphotography.com/

https://www.mountaintreksphotos.co.uk/

http://www.mountaintreks.co.uk/

George gave us a talk last year entitled “Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods” which was enthralling and entertaining. Click below to read more about it.

23 September 2021 (Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods)

I look forward to seeing you this Thursday. We are in for a treat.

Steven

08 September 2022 (Introduction to Photography and Printing)

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We had our second club night of the new season on Thursday, 8th September 2022, where Steven Beard, Joe Fowler and Charlie Briggs gave an introduction to photography and offered hints and tips to members. Gavin Marshall was the only member attending by Zoom.

The meeting began with Steven Beard giving a shortened version of his “Introduction to Photography” presentation. The presentation offered new members advice on composition, focus, exposure and colour. A PDF of the presentation is available on the club web site and may be downloaded by clicking the link below:

2022IntroductionToPhotographyDownload

A much more detailed version of the presentation can be downloaded in several parts from this club web page:

Introduction to Photography References

Steven also gave members a brief introduction to the club competitions, which can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

mcccompetitioninformation2022Download

Joe Fowler then showed members a series of images and explained why some shots worked and some didn’t. Joe explained that long exposure shots of rivers and waterfalls work better when the exposure time is just a few seconds or shorter, as longer exposures tend to burn out the water and remove detail. Shots of stunt riders (or birds) in the air worked better when there were fewer distractions in the background. Joe showed how he used the clone tool in Photoshop to remove the distractions. He had used this tool to construct a tight composition of boats at Fisherrow harbour or remove distractions from the edge of a shot of sea birds on Bass Rock. Joe finished with a motorbike racing shot which had won him “best image” at the Borders Digital Challenge. The image was constructed from 3 separate riders placed together using layers, with background distractions cloned out or blurred. Joe always take a shot of someone wearing a clear face visor so he can clone their eyes onto riders who insist on wearing black visors.

In our third presentation of the evening, Charlie Briggs explained how he prepares his images for printing. He begins with a calibrated monitor, so he is better able to judge the colours of his images. He also calibrates his printer and uses top quality printer paper. Charlie explained that the same image looks very different when shown on a screen or printed on paper. An image on screen is made by adding light to a dark background, but an image on paper is made by adding dark ink to a light background. An image which looks great on the screen will tend to look a bit dark and drab when printed. Charlie uses the following Photoshop tip to correct for the different.

  • Start with an image which looks good on the screen.
  • Open the image in Photoshop.
  • Click on the background layer and uses CTRL/J to duplicate the layer.
  • Select the duplicated layer and change the blending mode to “Screen”.
  • Adjust the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 20-25%.
  • Now print the image and see the difference.

Charlie showed members some example prints which showed how this method brightens the result and makes the prints punchier. This technique will be very useful for the Colour Print competition submission on 13th October 2022.

Here are some additional announcements since opening night:

  • Please don’t forget to contact Stephen Williams (sgpwilliams@outlook.com) to rejoin the club.
  • There is a PAGB award presentation this Sunday, 11th September at 1pm. Please email Steven Beard or Stephen Williams for the Zoom information if you would like to attend.
    Check here for details: http://www.thepagb.org.uk/awards/apm-awards/
    (NOTE: The Musselburgh Communities event was cancelled. I don’t know the latest status of this PAGB event.)
  • There is an astrophotography special Sky at Night being broadcast on Monday, 12th September at 10pm on BBC4. The program features some video images which I submitted to the BBC!
  • Our next meeting on September 15th is our first “Sets of Six” evening. Please bring along up to 6 images, or one video, to show club members. The night is also an opportunity to present a useful trick or technique (such as Charlie’s printing trick) that other members might find useful.
  • Please submit you 3 JPEG images for the Digital Projected Images competition to Geroge Todd (georgetodd1957@me.com) by 15th September.

I won’t make it to the next meeting, but I’ll see you all in 2 weeks for our first speaker of the season: George Robertson.

Steven

Welcome to the 2022-2023 Season!

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Our first club night of the new season began on 1st September 2022, where we were happy to introduce some potential new members to the club. For the first time since 2019 we had all the attending club members in the same room! We took the opportunity to chat over tea and biscuits, catch up, and look at some of the work that club members had produced over the last year. I gave a presentation which introduced members to the new club programme:

Programme 2023 – 2024

There have been some changes to the club meetings since the last season:

  • There are no longer compulsory covid restrictions at Fisherrow, although members are welcome to wear a mask and use the hand sanitizer. We are still intending to broadcast the meetings by Zoom but hope that most members can join us in person.
  • Our club meetings now start at 7pm, which allows more time for tea and coffee before the 9pm Fisherrow closing time. Meetings which involve another club might start later, so check your programmes.
  • The club has a new, faster laptop with a high-resolution screen!
  • Our print competitions are back to normal, which means that we are back to accepting 3 mounted prints plus 3 JPEGs.
  • The storage space at Fisherrow is being reduced. We now have a new cupboard in room G3 which will store our most commonly used items. The club lighting equipment will be moved to the cupboard under the stairs.

During the meeting I gave the following announcements:

I hope you all enjoy the new season. Please don’t forget to contact Stephen Williams (sgpwilliams@outlook.com) to rejoin the club.

28 April 2022 (AGM and Presentation of Trophies)

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The 2020/22 Musselburgh Camera Club season ended on 28th April 2022 with the AGM and the presentation of trophies. This season we have been presenting our meetings in a hybrid format where they are hosted at the Fisherrow Centre but broadcast live by Zoom, which has given members a choice of how to attend. Zoom has again allowed us to reach out to judges, speakers and clubs who would normally have been too far away to visit us. For example, we had another live meeting with Mölnlycke Fotoclubb in Sweden. Zoom also gave us the added bonus of being able to share some speakers with Beeslack Pencuick Camera Club. The hybrid format and remote judging meant that most competitions were still in a digital format, although this year’s Human Portrait Print Competition gave members an opportunity to practice printing and mounting. We hope club meetings will return to a more normal meeting format next season, although we will be keeping the Zoom option because of the opportunities it brings.

Members had an opportunity during the evening to suggest and vote for the topics for next year’s set subject competitions. The top results were:

  1. Castles
  2. Wildlife
  3. Landscape
  4. Black & White

The AGM finished with a presentation of trophies and medals to those present in the room and with trophies delivered to those who attended by Zoom. The full list of winners can be found on the following page:

Trophy Winners – 2021/2022

Although the AGM brings the formal 2021/22 season to an end, there will be informal meetings by Zoom every Thursday evening throughout the summer. We have also restarted our summer print exhibition in local libraries, with a schedule on the following page:

2022 Library Exhibitions

Our first meeting of the 2022/23 season will be on Thursday, 1st September 2022. We have another programme packed with local and remote speakers to look forward to. I hope to see you then.

Steven Beard

Club Photoshoot at Figgate Park, Portobello

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Next week’s Musselburgh Camera Club photoshoot will be taking place at Figgate Park (Figgy Park) in Portobello. We will meet there on Thursday, 14th April from 7pm onwards and stay as long as the light allows. I understand there are some lovely walks and opportunities for photographing water birds. I don’t know the area as well as some members, but it looks like Hamilton Drive has the best parking opportunities, so I will aim to be at this entrance by 7pm:

Map of Hamilton Drive entrance

Click here for a map, courtesy of the Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club.

Figgate is quite a small park, so if you arrive after 7pm or use a different entrance I’m sure you’ll bump into other members while wandering around.

I look forward to seeing you there, Steven.

The 158th Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography 2022

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Doug Berndt would like to let Musselburgh Camera Club members know that the Edinburgh International is open for entries. There’s a 10% discount for group entries of 10 or more. Doug says being local, to save postage, prints could either be dropped off at Mailboxes Etc at 96 Rose Street or contact him for a time when EPS is open. If prints are marked for collection, all could be retrieved after the exhibition from EPS. Entrants also get free entry to the exhibition and can collect a copy of the printed catalogue. Visiting the exhibition is all the sweeter when you have one or more of your own prints selected!

Click this link for more information: https://www.edinburghphotosalon.com/

07 April 2022 (Doug Berndt: My photography journey, distinctions and some of my favourite images)

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This week we were delighted to welcome Doug Berndt ARPS EFIAP to Musselburgh Camera Club. Doug is the “Immediate Past President” of Edinburgh Photographic Society. Doug is our last speaker of the season, and because of a technical issue, is also the first speaker to visit the club both in person and speak to us by Zoom within the same session. You can see more of Doug’s work on his web site:

https://edinburghdoug.com/

Doug spoke about his photography journey and explained how he achieved his ARPS with the Royal Photographic Society and his EFIAP with the International Federation of Photographic Art. Doug began by showing us the old film cameras he used when just getting into photography. He then showed is the 10 images he had used for his LRPS qualification. The aim for LRPS is to show a wide range of photographic techniques using 10 images combined into a panel. The RPS provide advice and feedback to help a photographer to put together a panel, and Doug explained how he was helped to decide which images to include. Doug then showed us the 15 images he had used for his ARPS panel. An ARPS panel needs to show a distinct body of work described by a 250 word statement of intent. Doug chose to describe a trip on the Waverley paddle steamer, and the sites visited on its journey along the Clyde. Doug finished his RPS journey by showing us his current FRPS panel, which is a work in progress at the moment.

We were also treated to a display of some of Doug’s outstanding photographs that were accepted for photographic salons, and those that won different medals and awards. This record of achievement lead to his EFIAP distinction. Doug finished the evening by showing us some of his favourite images; featuring scenes from the Edinburgh Festival, shots made on journeys through Kenya and India, and beautiful wildlife images. Doug’s experience revealed the fickle nature of photography: A highly praised photograph of a puffin that was included in an RSPB book became “just another puffin photo” a few months later; and a sharp, colourful rural scene with highland cows received a better mark when deliberately blurred and converted to black and white.

Thank you Doug for sharing your experience and providing advice about putting together panels of photographs. We are sorry the technical issue meant we couldn’t chat face to face over tea as originally intended. The club wishes you the best of luck with your FRPS assessment when it comes.

31 March 2022 (Joint Evening With Musselburgh Art Club)

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This week it was a delight to revive our relationship with Musselburgh Art Club and restart our joint meetings after a 3 year hiatus. Our last joint meeting had been on 28th March 2019. We met in the larger room (G6) at the Fisherrow Centre, with some Musselburgh members joining by Zoom.

The evening began with a presentation from Joe Fowler, who showed a selection of our recent prints. Most of the prints were landscapes, showing how photographers use lighting and composition to set the mood. Joe invited art club members to guess where the photographs had been taken. Joe also showed how photographers could use post-processing to change a scene. A mountain landscape image had been created by combining a wide angle image of the mountains with a telephoto image of some buildings. This gave the buildings a more comparable size and helped balance the scene. The art club were surprised by this technique, since they usually painted scenes from life, but were interested in trying it themselves. Joe also showed harbour scenes, some still life images, and John West’s self-portrait of an artist at work.

The art club showed us a selection of their paintings. There was a discussion of the relative merits of different paint media. Most of the paintings had been made using acrylic paint, which could be built up in layers and modified as needed, but there were also some beautiful watercolours. We learned that watercolour is an unforgiving medium which is difficult to modify once painted, so it was a bold choice. There were some very impressive works by beginners. There was an interesting discussion about how cropping is judged differently for photographic works and paintings. Photographic judges tend to be more critical of parts of objects being cropped out (especially if the cropping looks accidental).

It was great to be able to meet and chat with art club members again after such a long wait. We finished the evening with some tea and biscuits and a closer view of the works presented. We were limited by the early closing time at Fisherrow, but a big “thank you” to our janitor for his help and understanding at the end.

24 March 2022 (Set Subject Competition – Street Photography)

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The 3rd and final part of our 2021-22 set subject competition took place on 24th March 2022 on the subject of “Street Photography”.  Elaine Gilroy had won last year’s competition and gained the right to judge this year.  After the second competition, the leader board was being lead by Joe Fowler, Mike Clark, Steven Beard and Carol Edmond.

39 images had been entered by 13 members. Elaine had researched the definition of street photography before judging.  Wikipedia defines is at “Photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places”.  Elaine noted that the genre has quite a wide definition. It doesn’t have to feature people as long as there is evidence of a story, although it is normally made outdoors in an urban environment.  There were some really interesting stories told by the photographs entered. A couple chatting on a bench. Someone lying on the sea wall next to the beach. A skateboarder caught in mid air. A man taking his dog for a walk. One striking image submitted by Kevin Johnston showed a moving car only just missing a group of people! Elaine suggested some images could be improved by cropping them to home in on one part of the story (e.g. an image with two couples who were not interacting could be improved by concentrating on one of them). Some of the images needed straightening and others contained cloning faults or dust spots that could be removed. Coloured distractions could be avoided by converting to black and white. Elaine also suggested removing some distractions, such as a bollard in the foregound.  Elaine suggested giving some of the images a clarity boost to improve their overall sharpness.    The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (50 points)
    • Carol Edmond
    • Ross Robertson
  • 4th place (51 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Joe Fowler
    • Mike Clark
  • 3rd place (54 points)
    • Steven Beard
  • 2nd place (55 points)
    • Gavin Marshall
  • 1st place (57 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Niqab Lady (George Todd) – 20 points
  • Guitar Man (Steven Beard) – 19 points
  • Home Delivery (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Stranger Danger (Mike Clark) – 19 points
  • Like My Outfit (Gavin Marshall) – 19 points
  • The Shore (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Penny for your Thoughts (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
  • Castle Combe (Steven Beard) – 18 points
  • Business is Slow (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Look He’s Reading (Carol Edmund) – 18 points
  • Oops (Gavin Marshall) – 18 points
  • Saxaphonist (Gavin Marshall) – 18 points

Well done to George Todd, who wins the right to judge next year’s competition! Special congratulations should also go to Gavin Marshall for his best competition result so far, and to new member, Ross Robertson, for being well placed in his very first competition.    When combined with the scores from the previous two competitions, the final result is:

  • 1st place
    • Steven Beard (51 + 54 = 105)
  • 2nd place
    • George Todd (47 + 57 = 104)
  • 3rd place
    • Joe Fowler (52 + 51 = 103)
  • 4th place
    • Mike Clark (51 + 51 = 102)
  • 5th place
    • Malcolm Roberts (49 + 51 = 100)
  • 6th place
    • Carol Edmond (49 + 50 = 99)
    • Jennifer Davidson (48 + 51 = 99)

I was astonished to win the trophy! Well done everyone else, and thank you Elaine for judging the competition. Some members missed the beginning of this competition because of the change of hours at Fisherrow, but Elaine was kind enough to give a replay of the first 15 minutes.

See you next Thursday when we have our joint meeting with Musselburgh Art Club. We are meeting in the larger room, G6, at 7:15pm