The club has been contacted with information about the Royal Overseas League photography competition, which is free to enter and open to everyone over the age of 18. The competition is open until 6th September 2021 and is accepting digital images on the theme of “International Friendship”. Not many of us have travelled overseas recently, but perhaps you have some images which fit the subject?
Visit this link for more information: https://www.rosl.org.uk/photography
The Fisherrow Centre are looking for some nice prints of Musselburgh (such as the harbour or river Esk) to be displayed on a wall in a small upstairs room they have recently upgraded. They have funding for the upgrade, so they could pay for new prints if necessary.
If you have any nice shots of Musselburgh you would be happy to see displayed on a wall at the Fisherrow Centre, please let me know (StevenMBeard@aol.com) and I’ll pass on your details. It sounds like an opportunity to advertise your work and advertise the club.
All the best,
Steven
This is to let you know I am planning to visit Granton Harbour in Edinburgh for a possible photoshoot around 3pm on Sunday afternoon. I hope there will be street parking available. Google tells me there is some parking at the Gypsy Brae recreation area nearby if I can’t find anything. You don’t have to go to the harbour at the same time as me, and members who live nearer than me might prefer to visit around sunrise or sunset and get some better lighting conditions. You also don’t need to go this weekend. If you are not working full time, a weekday visit may be less crowded.
There are other photoshoot options available for members who don’t want to travel into Edinburgh, or if Granton Harbour turns out to be too crowded (there were a lot of folk heading for the coast today):
Wherever and whenever we end up, we can meet this coming Thursday, 22nd April, to compare our experiences.
Best of luck!
Steven
Sandra Crowhurst has pointed out that the Royal Horticultural Society’s 2021 photography competition is now open for entries. Click below for details.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/promotions/rhs-photo-competition/
Entry is free, so if you have already collected photographs for our “flowers and horticulture” competition you could send them to this competition as well. You could also browse their galleries for ideas how to improve your images before submitting them. Best of luck!
Congratulations to John West, whose photograph of Edinburgh at night was featured at the top of the BBC News “In Pictures” page a few days ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-54188930.
John says anyone can send their pictures to the BBC. The rules for entering are on their web page at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10768282. The current theme is “open road”, which closes in 3 days. You can also see the archive of photos from previous themes back to January 2017. Photos for the latest theme appear at the bottom of the BBC News main page for a few days and later move to the archive on the “Your Pictures” themes page.
Elaine Gilroy would like club members to send her any photographs of geese you might have. Elaine’s community choir will be giving a virtual performance for Christmas, and one of the pieces they are singing is “Something Told The Wild Geese”. Elaine’s musical director would like to add a nature clip of some geese to accompany the choir’s virtual performance, so any images of geese would be useful. If you can find images which match the song’s lyrics as well, so much the better.
Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, “snow.”
Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, “frost.”
All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.
Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.
Please email your images to elainegilroy@hotmail.com.
This is to let you know I have booked a time slot to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh at 15:00-17:00 on Saturday, 19th September 2020. I am planning to enter by the West gate at Arboretum Place, as there is more parking there.
The current rules will not let us all meet up at the gardens, but I suggest members make their own arrangements to visit the gardens and take photos. You don’t have to choose the same time slot as me (especially if the weather forecast changes between now and when you book!). If you arrange to visit the gardens between now and 24th September we can meet by Zoom, share our experience and offer each other advice. After that there’s nothing to stop anyone going back to the gardens a second time to take that advice into account. I hope everyone will eventually get the same out of it as a normal photoshoot, even if it takes longer.
As a reminder, the “nature and wildlife” images are due on 3rd December 2020 and the “flowers and horticulture” images on 4th March 2021, so there’s still plenty of time.
See you at the virtual trophy presentation this Thursday.
Steven
The club has been contacted by an S6 pupil from Preston Lodge High School in Prestonpans to find out if any club members would be willing to take some souvenir portraits of the class at their final year school prom at 7:30pm at the Strawberry Barn in Dunbar (near the Thistly Cross roundabout) on 5th June 2020. The pupils would like to be photographed on arrival. I think we will need more than one photographer to photograph them all in a short space of time while they are arriving (luckily it’s June so there should be daylight). The pupils are happy to reimburse expenses, although they can’t afford professional prices. To save time and costs they would be happy to accept digital copies of the photos and make and frame the prints themselves.
If you can help out on 5th June please let Joe or Steven know.
I was asked if there are resources that will tell you what is coming up in the sky, so you can make plans for astrophotography. The answer is sufficiently useful that I thought I would post it to everyone. I think the very best web site for planning astrophotography is this one:
https://www.heavens-above.com/
Click on the link and you have a large number of options. I have programmed the above link to select “Musselburgh” as the default location. Click on “location” in the top right corner to see what the sky is doing where you live. The site is used by amateur astronomers, satellite and space enthusiasts, but the pages I think would be most useful for astrophotography are:
Another very useful site is this one:
The first thing you’ll need to do is click the “set home location” link under “Set time” and set your home location to Edinburgh, Scotland (it doesn’t know about Musselburgh). This site doesn’t have as many features as heavens-above, but it is is best site for predicting eclipses. Click here to bring up the eclipse planning page. The site is not as good at remembering your location, so make sure you type “Edinburgh, Scotland” in the “Place or country” box to get the correct information. You’ll find the next eclipse visible from here is a rather boring penumbral lunar eclipse on 5th June 2020. Keep tracking forwards and you’ll see there is a good solar eclipse on 10th June 2021. Put that date in your diary.
Finally, another site I find useful is this one:
The site is dedicated to monitoring solar activity, so it is a good place to get sunspot and aurora predictions. The site doesn’t plan ahead but tells you what’s in the sky right now. It’s a good place to see alerts about aurorae or unusual clouds that could make interesting landscape images. Best of luck!
I hope all this will be useful to some members.
The club has received the following message from Jane Renton, Musselburgh Amateur Musical Association president.
Musselburgh Camera Club 
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