Category Archives: General

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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.

25 April 2024 (AGM and Presentation of Trophies)

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The 2023/24 Musselburgh Camera Club season ended on 25th April 2024 with the AGM and the presentation of trophies. We discussed the upcoming programme for 2024-25, which John West has packed with more speakers and special events. We are planning a series of monthly photoshoots through the year, so watch out for notifications or check our activities page. The club now has a private Facebook page which members can join to be notified about events and to chat during the summer while we are not meeting at Fisherrow. Click the link below to 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. Buildings
  2. Distorted
  3. Cycling

which become the themes for set subjects 1, 2 and 3. We decided that the knockout will be open to all images next year.

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 received the club’s “Golden Teapot” award. The full list of trophy and medal winners can be found on the following page:

Trophy Winners – 2023/2024

Although the 2023/24 season has come to an end, the club’s exhibition will be touring local libraries during the summer. This year we also have an exhibition at Cockenzie House. Here is the timetable and list of volunteers.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered. Our first meeting of the 2023/24 season will be on Thursday, 5th September 2024. But in the meantime I hope to see you at some of our summer photoshoots.

All the best,

Steven Beard

Breaking news: Scottish Nature Photography Award Winners

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The winners of the Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2023 Awards have been announced. Charles Everitt, who gave us a talk just a couple of weeks ago, has been announced the overall winner. Here is the BBC news article:

BBC: In pictures: Nature photography award winners

I think Charles’ winning image was one of the ones he showed us during his presentation. Congratulations to Charles!

  • Please note that Musselburgh Art Club have cancelled their visit to Musselburgh Camera Club this Thursday. We’ll have a members’ evening instead. Stephen is going to try to move us back to room G3, so please check room G3 before going upstairs to room F1.

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!

27 April 2023 (AGM and Presentation of Trophies)

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The 2022/23 Musselburgh Camera Club season ended on 27th April 2023 with the AGM and the presentation of trophies. The AGM was organised as a hybrid meeting, with most members attending at Fisherrow but a small number joining by Zoom. Next year we plan to go back to face to face meetings as the norm and restore our regular tea and coffee breaks, but we’ll use Zoom as an occasional tool for reaching out to more distant speakers and clubs.

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. Macro
  2. Contrasting Textures
  3. Flowers
  4. Water

The first 3 topics become set subjects A, B and C and the last topic will become the subject of our digital knockout competition. For beginners who may be reading, “Macro” is a close-up photograph of something small, as defined in this article: Macro photography definition. It’s an opportunity to look at the small things around you. You can use any of the special equipment described in the article (macro lens, reversed lens, extension tubes, close-up lens) to take macro photographs, but here are a few tricks you can try if you don’t have such equipment:

  • Use a telephoto lens at its minimum focus distance. Some lenses can take surprising good macro photographs even when they are not labelled as “macro”. You can use a larger subject to disguise the fact that you are not that close.
  • Take a photograph through a magnifying glass. A close-up lens is merely a magnifying glass that clips onto the front of you camera.
  • Use your mobile phone. Mobile phones can take close up photos because their cameras are small.

The AGM finished with a presentation of trophies and medals and with a delicious selection of snacks and refreshments provided by Jennifer Davidson, Liz Sowler and George Smith, who also received the club’s “Golden Teapot” award. The full list of trophy and medal winners can be found on the following page:

Trophy Winners – 2022/2023

Although the AGM brings the formal 2022/23 season to an end, there will be informal meetings by Zoom every Thursday evening throughout the summer. We also have an exhibition in The Wee Hub at Ocean Terminal and at various libraries. The timetable can be found at the following page:

2023 Library Exhibitions

Our first meeting of the 2023/24 season will be on Thursday, 7th September 2023. We have another programme packed with speakers, competitions and special events to look forward to. In the meantime, best of luck and I hope you have a summer packed with fun photography.

See you in September if not before. All the best,

Steven Beard

30 March 2023 (Joint Evening With Musselburgh Art Club)

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This week we were delighted to welcome back Musselburgh Art Club for our annual joint meeting. One of the art club members had brought along a photographic print of an Alpine mountain landscape, which Joe Fowler was happy to critique. Joe went on to show a selection of prints created by club members. There were some beautiful landscape images taken from around the world and some portraits of interesting people. Joe explained how he would often make a picture from several components placed on top of each other using layers in Photoshop. Sometimes you would capture a great portrait of someone against the wrong background, and he would replace this background to improve the composition. Joe also showed a few of the club’s abstract prints, which showed how photographers can be creative and turn almost anything (even spoons and wrapping paper) into an interesting image.

The art club showed us a selection of their paintings. There were some lovely portraits, still life and landscape paintings. Some of the landscapes in those paintings were familiar to camera club members, having been painted from photographs taken from popular viewing points. Light, colour and composition are just as important in a painting as in a photograph. There were some paintings that made a bold statement by using a restricted pallet of colours. At one point, what looked from a distance like a painting of a mountain scene turned out to have been created from hundreds of shreds of torn paper. There was a discussion about how paintings are mounted. Oil paintings tend to be displayed unmounted unless they need to be displayed behind glass, in which case a mount helps to separate the painting from the glass. Other paintings can be displayed with a complementary mount board.

During the break we had time to chat over tea and cakes and look more closely at the works presented. Thank you to the art club for entertaining us once again, and to our caretaker for helping us at the end.

  • Doug Bernt tells me that the 159th Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography is open for entry and will be accepting prints until 5th June 2023. He says: “Fees are reduced this year – 10% discount for coordinated entries of 10 people or more. Entrants are admitted free (normally £5) to the exhibition and can pick up a copy of the printed catalogue. As you are close, entries could also be dropped off with me or at EPS to save sending them in. The RPS Visual Art Group Members Exhibition and the RPS Scotland Members Exhibition will also be on display with the International.“
    See the exhibition web site for more details: https://www.edinburghphotosalon.com/
  • Member Derek Muller will be riding on 21st of May 2023 to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer in the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. Click the following link if you would like to sponsor him: https://www.gentlemansride.com/rider/DerekMuller448548
  • Next week we have our digital knock out competition on the theme of “Black & White”. Please bring along 3 JPEG images on that theme. We will show the images and vote for our favourites on the night.

See you on Thursday.

23 March 2023 (Sets of Six / Technical Presentations)

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This evening was very busy and varied. We started with a “Sets of Six” session. This was an idea that folks could show a short video or AV or show a set of (up to) six images on whatever subject they choose, and folks could ask questions and discuss. The first item was a short AV presentation from Allan Cameron that was prepared from film images taken on a compact camera on a visit to Tunisia in 1986. This featured some appropriate music and on-screen captions. The film-based images have a certain look and colour that added to the aged look of the photos that digital images just don’t have. Ross Robertson provided a selection of landscape shots. Malcolm Roberts had a set of images from a studio day organised by Ron McCombe, from a harvest mice to a tarantula. Steve Williams had a set of aviation images, including some taken from Traprain Law so that he was even higher than the planes. Derek Muller brought along a set of images that he thought captured Feelings, and they sparked some discussion. New member Jim Innes had a variety of shots from the iconic dark hedges in Northern Ireland to the lit up phone box in Portobello with a light streak from a passing bus. Liz Sowler had some images from her travels including Lake Garda and the Faroe Islands. Gavin Marshall showed some photos of clay pigeon shooting, one freezing the shot in mid-air while another showing the moment the clay disintegrated. Joe Fowler brought a set of images that highlighted his photoshop compositing skills. George Todd brought 2 versions of the same image showing how a problem image that had a colour cast (from the long exposure used) and many blotches caused by light rain, that was not too obvious at the time. He then showed a mono version that got rid of the colour cast and had various other adjustments made along with a lot of careful cloning to get rid of the many raindrop splodges. His patience was rewarded with a striking image produced from a fairly unpromising start image.

Next up were ideas submitted for a poster to advertise the club in local shops etc. There were quite a few candidates shown. An interesting suggestion was made that we could use more than one design. A decision was deferred until next week and George invited anybody who wanted to submit any other ideas.

Finally, Joe gave a very clear and useful demonstration on how to prepare a window
mount using a Logan mat cutter along with a scalpel, scissors, masking tape, etc. This led
to some discussion around whether competition judges subconsciously preferred window
mount images to the simpler method of sticking prints straight onto the mount board.

  • Steve Williams announced the request that the club has received about running a Photo Walk as part of WalkFest 23 later in the year. Any interest should be discussed with Steve in the first instance. The web page for last year is here:
    https://www.volunteereastlothian.org.uk/latest-news/east-lothians-festival-of-walking-and-wheeling-15-21-august
  • There is a “free to enter” photography competition being held by the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) and more information can be found on their website:
    https://www.rosl.org.uk/photography
  • This coming Thursday, 30th March, we will be holding our annual joint meeting with Musselburgh Art Club. We will be meeting in G6 at 7pm. Our meetings with the art club tend to be hands-on, with artwork displayed around the room, which is not a good format to view by Zoom. Members are encouraged to come to G6 in person.

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.

Appeal for photographs of Preston Tower

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Prestonpans community council are looking for photographs of Preston Tower to help with its restoration. If you have any photographs of Preston Tower in your collection please email them to prestonpanscommunitycouncil@gmail.com, together with dates when they were taken. You can also click this sentence to add photos to their original Facebook post.