Category Archives: Competitions

29 January 2026 (Set Subject Round 1 – Weather)

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This week was the first round of our 3-part set subject competition, on the theme of “Weather”. George Todd had won the first round last year and earned the right to judge this competition. There were 39 entries from 13 members. George began by discussing whether particular judges had favourites. SPF accredited judges are trained to give an unbiased critique of each image, and they will usually comment on the sharpness, composition, etc… But it is natural for a photographer with a specific speciality to judge images in that category against their own high standards; so an award-winning landscape photographer (for example) will tend to expect a high standard from landscape images. George said he would try not to let his preferences influence the marks, except for the images he doesn’t like… 😉 You can find out more about the SPF judging process on their web site:

SPF: All Things Judging and Lecturing

Members had chosen to represent the weather in a variety of ways. There were landscape images showing different weather phenomena, photographs of sporting events taking place in difficult weather conditions, and photographs of people or things enduring the weather. Most of the images showed bad weather, but Ed Robertson’s “We also get good weather” showed some lovely sunshine. George commented on the composition and sharpness of each image. Some images were spoiled by dust spots in the sky, or by post-processing faults. A few images were over-sharpened, which produced some unnatural effects. Snow scenes are difficult to get right, as you need to compensate for the blue hue and make sure there is still detail in the highlights. The best images were the ones that had nicely captured a weather event, were sharp in the right place, had well-handled exposure and colour and had avoided processing faults and distractions. Mike Clark’s “Frosty Morning” image nailed all those requirements and captured a rare view of undisturbed hoar frost on a jetty at Lock Ard. The top scorers were:

  • 4th place (51 points)
    • John Fowler
    • Malcolm Roberts
    • Elaine Gilroy
    • Carol Edmond
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Derek Muller
    • Nicola Cawthorne
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • Mike Clark

The top images were:

  • Frosty Morning (Mike Clark) – 20 points
  • Break In The Storm (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • First Winter Frost (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
  • Be Careful (John Fowler) – 18 points
  • Wild West Coast NZ (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points
  • Rainbow Reflection (Steven Beard) – 18 points
  • Storm at Fairy Pools (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • We also get good weather (Ed Robertson) – 18 points
  • Change in the Weather (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Windy Golf Course (Carol Edmond) – 18 points
  • Misty Wet Madeira (Derek Muller) – 18 points
  • Lonely Walker Melanie Gallacher) – 18 points
  • More snow on the horizon (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points
  • Little boat before the storm (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points

Well done to Mike Clark, who wins the right to judge next year’s competition. Well done also to new member Nicola Cawthorne, who achieved an impressive 2nd place. This is just the first round out of 3, and the overall winner is the one who has the highest marks from their best two rounds. So the competition is still open, and there are a lot of members still in contention.

  • Please send your 3 JPEG images for the second round of this competition (on the theme “Emotion”) to George Todd this weekend. George needs the images early because he is going away on holiday and needs to pass them to Derek.
  • Next Thursday (5th February) we have our annual quiz night. Jim Innes will be this year’s quizmaster.
  • Please note that the 3-way competition has been moved from 12th March to 2nd April. Our “Photo Scavenger Hunt” will take place instead on 23rd April. Derek Muller is going to make use of the changes in March to give us a special indoor photoshoot (more details later).

27 January 2026 (Match An Image Competition)

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On Tuesday, 27th January we visited Haddington Camera Club for the “Match an Image” competition, which took place at the Poldrate Granary in Haddington. The competition was judged by landscape photographer Stephen Ball, who gave us a talk last year on “Scotland Behind the Lens”. You can see more of Stephen Ball’s work on his web site:

Scotland Captured – Photographer Stephen Ball

Musselburgh began the competition with Jennifer’s image of the googly-eyed elephant, which Haddington attempted to match with a picture of a tree, but there was no match because Haddington’s image did not have any google eyes. Haddington began with an image of some street signs, and the closest thing in our collection was Melanie’s close up of railings; again no match. Then we played the “unmatchable” abstract kaleidoscope image that Steven had made in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Haddington replied with an abstract spiral swirl. Stephen declared a match and also declared that Haddington had the better image, which gave 2 points to Haddington! Things got worse when Haddington played an image of a man sitting down with one of his boots poking through a metal stand. We thought we had nailed a match by replying with Derek’s image of a ballerina wearing boots with one of her boots poking through the side of a chair. But there was no match because the ballerina was standing up. Stephen commented that he thought ours was the better image, but you don’t win the points unless you match. We noticed that Haddington appeared to be short of animal images, so we tried Derek’s image of a green frog sitting on a red flower. Haddington replied with an abstract image of some green leaves, which was declared a match and also declared the better image. Another 2 points to Haddington. Haddington then posted an image of some skeletons sitting around a dinner table. We raised a laugh when we attempted to match it with an image of some teddy bears sitting on a tree stump. No match. We had a lot of good sport images this year, so next we lead with George’s cracking shot of a canoeist negotiating the rapids at Grantully. Haddington matched it and beat it with a picture of a breaking wave. “The canoeist has drowned!”, we all exclaimed. Another 2 points to Haddington. By the end of the first half we were trailing by 11 points to 17.

Haddington helped us drown our sorrows during the interval by providing a delicious spread of home made sandwiches, cakes, scones and biscuits. With half our images gone, could we catch up during the second half? Our luck changed in the second half. We successfully matched Haddington’s image of a man surrounded by smoke with Derek’s image of a man swirling fire sticks above his head, and ours was declared the better image! We managed to match Haddington’s astrophotography image of the bubble nebula with Kevin’s water droplet abstract. We also successfully matched a long exposure street shot with tram tracks by playing a photo of a pair of vintage trams taken at Beamish museum. Matches became harder as the second half progressed and our image pool diminished. We gained points by playing our sport and animal images, but we also failed to match their images (although I think we came close when we attempted to match their image of some upturned wheel barrows with our image abandoned boats). “They are a similar shape and they both carry things”, we exclaimed, but Stephen was having none of it. We played our image of the inside of the National Museum too early; attempting to use it to match Haddington’s abstract image of some light domes. You could sense the air of disappointment when the next image they played was of the inside of a railway station, looking almost exactly like our image of the museum. The competition ended with Haddington placing their last image: a snowy landscape. Could we match it? No, our image image was a shot of a pair of fighter aircraft in flight. Stephen mentioned again that he thought ours was the better image, but again you don’t win the points unless you match. We caught up a little during the second half, but the final scores were still:

  • Haddington – 28 points.
  • Musselburgh – 24 points.

It was an enjoyable competition from start to finish. The heckling and commentary from the audience was entertaining. Although the final result is disappointing (and at times we felt some of the decisions needed to be verified by VAR) we gave Haddington a run for their money, and a lot of our images went down well with the judge and with the audience. Thank you to Haddington for hosting the competition and providing a sumptuous feast at the interval, thank you to all the Musselburgh members who provided images and came to Haddington to support their club, and thank you to Stephen Ball for judging and putting up with our heckles.

  • This Thursday, 29th January, George Todd will be revealing the results of our first set subject competition, on the theme of “Weather”.

08 January 2026 (Human Portrait Print Competition)

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Happy New Year! The season restarted with our annual Human Portrait Print Competition. George Robertson, who had given us these fantastic talks on mountain photography, returned to the club as judge rather than speaker.

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

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

31 October 2024 (George Robertson: Exploring Kathmandu and the Khumbu Valley)

George explained that when he judges prints he first splits them into two piles, 20 points and 17 points, based on their initial impact. He then waits a couple of days and looks again at the prints to see if any had gone into the wrong pile. Finally, he looks in more detail and subtracts points for technical issues such as sharpness, exposure or processing faults.

36 prints had been entered by 12 members. Some period portraits had been taken at Duncarron Medieval Village or at a battle re-enactment such as the battle of Prestonpans. There were also some travel portraits and studio portraits, including some of club members taken at our recent creative lighting workshop or studio night. George recognised the familiar faces. George critiqued the impact and engagement of each image, noting whether the pose, expression and composition helped or hindered the intended story. Most of the images were sharp where they needed to be (on the eyes of the subject) but some were sharper than others. The emphasis needed to be on the face, and in some images the face wasn’t the brightest area. There were also some images where dark clothing appeared to merge with a dark background. George also spotted some post-processing faults and noted that some prints had a yellow or magenta tint. He suggested using the texture tool in Adobe Lightroom to soften or roughen the face, depending on the situation (e.g. soften for a beauty shot or roughen for a battle scenario). Here is a YouTube video explaining how to do this:

YouTube video demonstrating the Adobe Lightroom “texture” tool.

George finished by revealing the top images which gave him the most impact but had fewest technical faults. He suggested we look closely into the eyes of the top image, “Beauty can be Fragile”, to see the detail and sharpness. When all the scores were added up, the top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (49 points)
    • Carol Edmond
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 4th place (50 points)
    • Mike Clark
  • 3rd place (51 points)
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • George Todd
  • 1st place (55 points)
    • Derek Muller

George’s top images were:

  • Beauty can be Fragile (Derek Muller) – 20 points
  • Touch of Elegance (Melanie Gallacher) – 19 points
  • Soothsayer has Concerns (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Kalon – Ink Tells My Story (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Red Haired Beauty (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Woodland Queen (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points

Well done to Derek for winning the trophy and for producing such a magnificent top image. Well done also to George and Melanie for their consistently high quality entries. Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you to George Robertson for judging the competition and giving us some good advice.

  • Please send your 3 “weather” images to George Todd as soon as possible.
  • Next week we have a club where we can take the opportunity to look at the 21 images that we missed seeing at the Black and White Print Competition on 4th December. This is unlikely to take the whole evening, so if you have a photograph from the Christmas holidays that you would like to show, please bring it along and we can show it at the end (depending on how much time we have).

04 December 2025 (Black and White Print Competition)

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Our Black and White print competition was judged on 4th December 2025 by Malcolm Lind from Blairgowrie. Malcolm, a former school teacher with an interest in photography, history and archaeology, explained that he has been taking photographs since he was 3 years old. His first photograph was of his father looming over him trying to explain how to hold the camera steady. He joined Perth Photographic Society in 1999 and spent some time as the club president. Malcolm explained that he is not going to tell us how to take photographs. Each print will be judged on how well it makes an impression and tells a story.

42 prints had been entered by 14 members. Unfortunately, a folder containing 21 of the prints had been missed, so only the first 21 prints were presented on the night. However, presenting only 21 prints allowed Malcolm to go into great detail. Malcolm felt that the title of a print was very important, as it revealed what the photographer was trying to achieve. Being a historian, Malcolm recognised some of the scenes and told the story of the subjects being photographed. For example, the cross at North Berwick is a memorial to Catherine Watson, who lost her life while rescuing children in a storm; and Durham Cathedral is placed at a strategic bend on the River Wear. John Fowler’s “Last Look” brought back memories of the demolition of Cockenzie Power Station. Malcolm enjoyed the historical photographs from Beamish Museum, as the trams and steam engines gave him a feeling of nostalgia. There were a number of costumed portraits that were judged on the consistency of their story. Mike Clark’s portrait of a soldier demonstrated the classic “1000 yard stare” of someone who was traumatised and exhausted. Some of the other portraits contained anachronisms. Why was this soldier in an 18th century costume also wearing trainers and a watch chain, for example? You could get away with these inconsistencies if the title and composition reveals that the intended effect is cosplay, steam punk, or a joke. Carol Edmond’s Beetlejuice portrait had an iWatch, but the facial expression and and pose showed that this was unabashed cosplay. Malcolm liked prints where the photographer had gone the extra mile to show something unusual, and this was reflected in the scores. A few days later, Malcolm sent us the scores for the remaining 21 images, and when the final scores were added the final result was (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (49 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 4th place (50 points)
    • John Fowler
    • Derek Muller
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Steven Beard
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Mike Clark
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Finger Tree (Steven Beard) – 20 points
  • Breaking the Rapids (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Exmoor Pony (Mike Clark) – 19 points
  • Last Look (John Fowler) – 18 points
  • Storm Riders (George Todd) – 18 points

But that short list doesn’t reflect the overall quality of the images submitted. 11 images were good enough to score 17 points. Well done to George for winning, and to Mike and Steven for achieving 2nd and 3rd places by just 1 point behind. Thank you to Malcolm Lind for judging the competition and for entertaining us with his critique. Malcolm has sent us his critique for the 21 images that we didn’t see, which I’ll bring along this Thursday.

  • If you have 3 mounted prints to enter for our Human Portrait Print competition, please bring them along on Thursday and give them to George Todd. Please also email a JPEG version of your 3 images to georgetodd1957@me.com.

24 November 2025 (4 Way Inter-Club Competition)

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Our annual 4-way interclub competition took place on Monday, 24th November 2025. Musselburgh Camera Club members joined members from Kirkcaldy Photographic Society and Stirling and District Camera Club to visit Edinburgh Photographic Society at their premises in Great King Street in Edinburgh. Edinburgh had laid on a feast of drinks, sandwiches and cakes. The competition was judged by Ricki O’Niell, an internationally acclaimed artist and photographer from Dundee. Ricki had a train to catch, so the competition whizzed by at a faster pace than usual.

Each club had submitted 15 digital images, making a grand total of 60 images. This year we were up against several images that had scored highly in the 2025 SPF Digital Championship, so the competition was tough. Edinburgh’s first image called “Apotheosis” got them onto a good start by getting 19 points. Kirkcaldy followed with a lovely landscape called “Break in the Rain at Tiumpan Head” which scored 17. Musselburgh’s first image was “Barn Own” by Derek Muller, which was awarded 16 points. The disappointing trend continued when of our most dramatic image, George Todd’s “Quad Launch”, only scored 15 because it didn’t look realistic. Most of our images achieved reasonable average scores, but we had fewer top images than the other clubs, and that made a difference. We ended up in last place for the second successive year with the final scores:

  • 1st place equal: Edinburgh Photographic Society, 257 points.
  • 1st place equal: Kirkcaldy Photographic Society, 257 points.
  • 3rd place: Stirling and District Camera Club, 254 points.
  • 4th place: Musselburgh Camera Club, 246 points.

The top scoring images in the competition were:

  • Root Cellar Delights (Stirling) – 20 points.
  • Well-timed Duck (Kirkcaldy) – 20 points.

Our top images were:

  • Frosted Whiskers (George Todd) – 19 points.
  • Proud Woodpecker (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points.
  • Strength Against the Current (George Todd) – 18 points.
  • Dave, Going His Own Way (Derek Muller) – 18 points.

The early finish gave us more time to chat in Edinburgh’s lovely premises. Well done to George, Malcolm and Derek for holding up against such tough competition. It looks like we need to try harder next year.

06 November 2025 (Colour Print Competition)

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This week we welcomed Dougie Allan, secretary and webmaster for Penicuik Photography Club, to judge our Colour Print competition. On his last visit Dougie had given us a talk on drone photography, and he is now experimenting with astrophotography. You can see some of Dougie’s work in his Penicuik Photography Club gallery. Fortunately, he managed to avoid the traffic jam outside Musselburgh that had held up some members.

56 prints had been entered by 19 members. Dougie said that it was tricky to judge a competition where there was one category for both beginners and advanced photographers. A few mounts had been spoiled by blobs of glue, but this didn’t affect their marks. He commented on the lighting, sharpness and composition of each print. Some lovely portrait prints were a little dark and could be improved with extra lighting, especially a light to separate the model’s dark hair from a dark background. Dougie preferred candid shots where the people shown appear to be unaware of the photographer. There were also a few wildlife shots that were a little too dark to show detail in dark areas. It isn’t possible to use a flash with these shots, but Dougie suggested a slightly longer exposure and some dodging and burning to make the final corrections. Some of the prints were a little too tight in the frame and others had areas of blank space that could have been cropped out. Dougie recommended shooting a slightly wider angle than you need, which gives you the opportunity to crop the image before printing and include enough space around the edges. Dougie liked several of the prints, but it was small differences in sharpness and depth of field that separated the top marks. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (50 points)
    • Carol Edmond.
  • 4th place (51 points)
    • Joe Fowler
    • Elaine Gilroy
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Mike Clark
    • Edward Robertson
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Nicola Cawthorne
  • 2nd place (55 points)
    • Derek Muller
  • 1st place (58 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Quad Launch (George Todd) – 20 points
  • Between the Poles (George Todd) – 20 points
  • No 1 Out the Bend  (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Running Against the Clock (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Dockland (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
  • Mountain Hare Close-Up (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Autumn at the Hermitage (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Exotic Frog (Edward Robertson) – 18 points
  • Me and my Sax (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Brown Hare Boxing (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Sanderling in Flight (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Young Sight Impaired Eagle (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points

Well done to George Todd, winning with 58/60, to Derek Muller for coming a close second, and to Mike, Ed, Jennifer and new member Nicola for achieving a bronze medal. Thank you also to Dougie for judging our prints.

  • Next week is the hand-in date for our Black and White Print competition. Please bring along up to 3 mounted prints and email your JPEG versions to George. Click here for a guide on how to mount your prints.
  • Next week we also have a “Live Shooting Workshop”, which will be similar to the “Creative Lighting Workshop” we had in September, except this time we will concentrate on still life and macro photography. Please bring along your camera and a flashgun (if you have one). A macro lens will help, but if you don’t have one you’ll still be able to use a standard lens. If you have any lighting equipment (torches, flash, LED lights, soft boxes, etc…) or interesting things to photograph (e.g. toys, flowers, jewellery, crockery, seashells, etc…) please bring them along as well. I look forward to a fun evening of photography.

Steven

 

09 October 2025 (Digital Projected Images Competition)

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We were delighted to welcome Campbell Skinner to the club to judge our Digital Projected Images competition. Campbell is president of Greenock Camera Club and is internationally recognised for his stunning sport photography. You can see some of Campbell’s work on his web site:

https://www.campbellskinnerphoto.com/

Campbell began by telling us not to give too much weight to the marks he was about to give out. Feedback is more important than marks, and understanding why your image didn’t get a higher mark will help you improve. 33 members had entered 66 images covering a wide range of subjects, including sport, wildlife, landscape, portrait and abstract art. Campbell recommended that we look carefully to make sure that the title of an image is relevant and doesn’t clash with what we are seeing. Does it matter if the train is going to Aviemore when that isn’t apparent from the picture, or if the reflection of the red door was taken at Gosford? In another example, a canoeing shot entitled “Tight Turn” didn’t show what they were turning around. Campbell recommended that when attending a sporting event (such as the Grandtully slalom) that you recky the place first. Look where the light is coming from, look where the players might get involved, decide on the best place to stand to capture those players, and check what is visible behind them in the background. If there are distractions in the background, try to remove them by moving or using a wide aperture to blur them out. He also recommended that portrait, sport and wildlife shots be taken at eye level. If the players are on the ground, get down to their level. Try to avoid portraits where the subject’s eyes are turned instead of their head. A lot of shots had been taken in dull or over-harsh lighting conditions. If the lighting is dull, Campbell recommended using the dodge and burn tools to highlight your subjects, lighten eyes, reveal details and darken the background. Wildlife shots should stand out as if you could “touch” the subject. If your shot is taken in poor lighting, you could also try again at a different time of day. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (50 points)
    • Jim Innes
  • 4th place (51 points)
    • Steven Beard
    • Mike Clark
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Amber Morris
  • 2nd place (56 points)
    • George Todd
  • 1st place (57 points)
    • Derek Muller

The top images were:

  • Frosted Whiskers (George Todd) – 20 points
  • Dave Going His Own Way (Derek Muller) – 20 points
  • National Museum (Steven Beard) – 19 points
  • Strength Against the Current (George Todd) – 19 points
  • She Dances With Fire (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Proud Woodpecker (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points
  • Rapid Run (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Hurricane and Spitfire (Steve Williams) – 18 points
  • Sold Out (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Going for a Win (Jim Innes) – 18 points
  • Barn Own (Derek Muller) – 18 points
  • Beach Day (Amber Morris) – 18 points

Well done to Derek Muller for winning with 57/60 points, to George for coming a very close second and to Amber for achieving her first medal. Thank you Campbell for judging our competition and giving us a lot to think about.

We will be reviewing this competition on 23th October. In the meantime, have a go at making some of the changes recommended by Campbell. We can also use that evening to give our own feedback. Which were your favourite images?

Next week, 16th October, Derek will be collecting entries for the Colour Print Competition. We will be having a club night based on a technique, rule of composition or theme; so please bring in an image (or a small collection of images) on a technique, rule or theme that interests you. Here are some examples to help you find inspiration:

  • Telling a story about a subject in 6 images (as suggested by Charles Everitt).
  • Making a triptych out of 3 related images.
  • Still life photography (with or without John West’s paperclip figures).
  • ICM photography.
  • Time lapse photography.
  • Street Photography (as inspired by Graeme Barclay).
  • Combining images to make a composite.
  • Using depth of field creatively.
  • Using art tools to improve photographs.
  • Etc…

I look forward to seeing what you bring along. I’ll be showing you some of my attempts at 3-D photography.

 

Welcome to the 2025-2026 season of Musselburgh Camera Club

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I would like to welcome everyone who came to our opening night on 4th September 2025, especially the new members. If you entered your email address on the club home page you should receive these blog entries that describe our meetings. You can also follow group activities by joining our member-only Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/25703565185901411. Ask our web master, Elaine Gilroy, for an invitation.

You will find our 2025-2026 programme on the club website: https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/programme-2025-2026/. There are also monthly outings and photoshoots which are listed on our activities page: https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/club-activities-2025-2026/, but you’ll find the most up to date information and chat about each activity on our Facebook pages.

The club web site contains a collection of tutorials on photography that our chair has added over the years:
https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/introduction-to-photography-presentations/

A list of the events coming up in the next few weeks has already been posted. Click this link to read that post: https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/2025/08/26/events-coming-up-in-the-next-few-weeks/

This coming Thursday, 11th September, we have our Creative Lighting Workshop. Please bring your camera and (if you have one) a flashgun. We’ll start the evening by showing a selection of different lighting equipment. If you have anything unusual you would like to show, please bring it with you. We will have 3 different portrait lighting setups that you can try for yourself. On this occasion we’ll be concentrating on taking portraits, so please bring along any costumes and props you think would look good.

Information on how to enter the club competitions can be found here (or you can just ask George Todd, our competition secretary). Competition images are normally emailed to George at georgetodd1957@me.com:

Competition Information
An introduction to the club competitions

Welcome again to the club. A year of exciting photographic activities lies ahead of us.

24 April 2025 (AGM and Presentation of Trophies)

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The 2024/25 Musselburgh Camera Club season ended on 24th April 2025 with the AGM and the presentation of trophies. Although the AGM is our last meeting at the Fisherrow centre this season, we are planning a series of activities through the year, so watch out for notifications or check our latest activities page. The club has a private Facebook page which members can join to be notified about events and to chat during the summer. Click the link below to chat or request to join (you’ll need a Facebook account):

https://m.facebook.com/groups/25703565185901411

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. Weather
  2. Emotion
  3. Comedy

which become the themes for set subjects 1, 2 and 3.

The AGM finished with a presentation of trophies and medals and with a selection of snacks and refreshments provided by Jennifer Davidson and Liz Sowler, who once again received the club’s “Golden Teapot” award. The full list of trophy and medal winners can be found on the following page. Well done to all of this year’s winners.

Trophy Winners – 2024/2025

Although the 2024/25 season has come to an end, the club’s exhibition will be touring local libraries during the summer. Here is the current timetable and list of volunteers. Further exhibitions may be added between 5th July and 2nd August.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered. Our first meeting of the 2024/25 season will be on Thursday, 4th September 2025. But in the meantime, I look forward to seeing you at our summer photoshoots.

17 April 2025 (Best Image on the Night)

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Our last regular meeting of the season was our annual knockout, where members bring along a selection of their images and we all vote to choose our favourites. This year members could bring along digital images or prints, and 17 prints and 32 images were submitted.

We began with the prints. There was a varied selection, both mounted and unmounted. There was a beautiful print of a hare, some landscape images, a car, a black and white garden sculpture, some cute pictures of a dog, a rabbit and a little boy, some unusual shots of buildings and reflections, plus a lot of innovative abstract prints, such as a print of some smarties distorted by water droplets, or a print of the shadow pattern cast by a curtain. The images were voted off in a series of head-to-head rounds until only two remained. The final round was a face-off between George’s print of a pony with a comb-over hair style and Hovo’s lovely print of yachts in the harbour at night. In the end, George’s pony image won the most votes.

We moved on to the digital images. There were some great wildlife images, several cityscapes, some golfing images, landscapes, seascapes, portraits, and more cute animal pictures. Having 32 images made the head-to-head rounds easier. Images were voted off until only 4 remained. Members then voted for their favourite to determine the final placings, and the result was:

  • 4th place
    • A seascape of waves breaking around groyne number 5 (Mike Clark)
  • 3rd place
    • A siskin resting on a branch (Jennifer Davidson)
  • 2nd place
    • A colourful frog (Derek Muller)
  • 1st Place
    • A cute owl looking out from a mossy resting place (Jennifer Davidson)

We done to George and Jennifer, who both won a pack of mini Easter eggs!

  • Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help move our summer library exhibition. We need one more volunteer to fill the 17th May slot (setting up the exhibition at Gullane). If you are able to help that day please email Ed or Steven.
  • Next Thursday (24th April) we have our club AGM and prize-giving. We will be meeting in room G3 at 7pm and will move next door into G2 for refreshments after the meeting. Please bring along your ideas for next year’s set subject themes. More information will be mailed out soon.