Category Archives: Meeting Blog

A summary of the previous night’s meeting, plus MCC updates.

29 September 2022 (Tesni Ward: Wildlife Photography)

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This week, in a joint Zoom talk hosted by Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club, wildlife photographer Tesni Ward told us about her experiences in wildlife photography. Tesni is based in Sheffield. She first took up photography in her childhood as a way of encouraging her father to spend less time setting up photographs in a theme park and more time taking her on the rides! Her interest in wildlife photography began with a photographic holiday to Alaska, where she had the opportunity to see bears in their natural habitat. Her trip was spoiled when her main telephoto lens was damaged in flight. She saw other photographers taking superb clear shots while she ended up deleting hundreds of blurred attempts, and vowed never to be caught out by substandard equipment again. She learned from her experience with a damaged lens not to rely solely on long-distance telephoto shots. Tensi now takes shots at all focal lengths, with her wide angle shots taken after days of patiently getting to know her subjects and winning their trust. Tesni became a professional wildlife photographer when she was made redundant from her job, coincidentally just after buying new equipment and booking an African wildlife safari. A conversation with another photography on the trip convinced her to take the opportunity to change career and make a living from what she loves doing.

Tesni treated us to a breathtaking slide show of her photographs; ranging from her early shots of bears in Alaska, her photographs of big cats on her African safari, her shots of pelicans and coypu on a trip to Greece, and mountain hares, pelicans and seabirds closer to home. Each image came with a story of how Tensi had waited for hours for the light to improve, or how she had crawled over frozen mud to get to the correct spot. Other photographers sometimes laughed at her tenacity, but she eventually achieved the shot she wanted. A selection of these images can be seen in Tesni’s gallery (below).

Image Gallery

During the tea break we had the opportunity to find a bird hiding amongst a photograph of jumbled rocks. Although several members could identify something strange in one part of the frame, it was Mike Clark who managed to home in on the exact spot. Well done Mike.

Tensi encouraged us all to try wildlife photography. You can check her web site to find out more about her workshops. She encouraged us not to be snobbish about the subjects. Shots of geese, ducks and pigeons are just as important as shots of pelicans and swans, as these creatures are just as important to their environment and might one day become rarer. All in all it was a very enjoyable and entertaining talk. Tensi showed us all just what can be achieved with a little determination and tenacity.

Next Thursday, 6th October 2022, Doug Bernt will be judging our Digital Projected Images competition. George Todd will also be collecting prints for the Colour Print competition. Please bring along your 3 mounted prints, if you haven’t already given them to George.

See you there,

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.