Category Archives: Programme

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.

13 February 2025 (Camera Settings Evening)

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This week we had an evening devoted to a discussion on camera settings. Steven began the evening with a general presentation on camera settings. The notes from the presentation can be downloaded from the following page:

Introduction to Camera Settings

Steven was intending to demonstrate the effect of the different settings live, but unfortunately the HDMI link from his camera to the club projector didn’t work. 😦 But members experimented with different exposure modes by photographing light and dark objects against a black or white background. The ability to focus on an erratic object was testing using a chaotic pendulum, and the flash modes were compared by photographing a cat toy being waved around in the air. There wasn’t enough time to cover all the possibilities, but if you are interested in learning more about autofocus modes, here is on online tutorial:

https://www.naturettl.com/understanding-autofocus-points-and-modes/

Here are a couple of tutorials explaining what you can do with the “slow sync” flash modes that we tried during the evening:

https://www.iphotography.com/blog/slow-sync-flash-photography/

https://www.theschoolofphotography.com/tutorials/slow-sync-flash

Derek finished the evening by giving a demonstration on depth of field. A collection of little men were placed at different distances from a background, and members tried photographing them with different aperture settings.

  • Next week Joe Gilhooley will be giving us a talk entitled “If I Can Do It, You Can Do It“. You can find some of Joe’s work on his web site:

http://www.joegilhooley.co.uk/index.html

See you there.

The first MCC meeting of the New Year starts on 9th January

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Happy New Year! Our meetings will resume at 7pm this Thursday, 9th January in our usual room G3 at the Fisherrow Centre.  David Ferguson, president of Falkirk Camera Club, will be judging our Human Portrait print competition.

It is also time to submit entries for the first of our three set subject competitions. Please send your 3 JPEG images on the subject of “Buildings” to George Todd (georgetodd1957@me.com). Here are some events that may be on interest:

See you this Thursday.

05 September 2024 (Opening Night)

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The 2024-2025 season is now well underway. I would like to welcome all the potential new members who came along to try us out. 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 Elaine Gilroy or Charlie Baird for an invitation.

You will find our 2024-2025 programme of activities on the club website:
https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/programme-2024-2025/ There will also be regular outings and photoshoots not mentioned in that programme, so keep watching our Facebook group. Ed, the club secretary will also notify members of events by email, in case you don’t use Facebook.

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/

Here is a list of interesting events that could present photographic opportunities in the next few weeks:

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

I look forward to another year of exciting photographic activities.

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.

Sets of Six this week

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Due to a programme change, we will be having a “Sets of Six” evening this Thursday (25th January). If you have something interesting to share (perhaps a work in progress or pictures from a recent trip, etc…), please bring along up to 6 images or a short video to show during the evening. Images can be shared on a data stick or emailed in advance to George Todd. There will also be a technical presentation and “show and tell” on Macro photography.

There is up to date programme on the club website. Jean Manson’s talk now takes place on 4th April 2024.

Programme 2023 – 2024
The latest 2023/2024 programme

See you this Thursday at 7pm. I look forward to seeing what you bring.

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!

21 September 2023 (Minimalism My Way)

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Neil Scott FRPS of Edinburgh Photographic Society visited the club to give us our first talk of the season, describing his adventures into minimalism in photography. Neil is a skilled portrait and still life photographer and likes to introduce a degree of surrealism or minimalism into his work, often creating a series of photographs with a common theme. The recent pandemic had given Neil the opportunity to experiment with minimalism in household objects. We were were introduced to four of Neil’s still life themes:

  • Metallographs, where Neil had cleverly photographed small metal objects from an angle that made them look like something else. One example of a metal clip that looked like a rower.
  • The red series, where small, familiar red objects were photographed inside a plain shape against a stark white background. One particularly striking example was a red chilli pepper on a white plate against a which background.
  • Household geometry, where Neil had spotted contrasting shapes when two or more household objects were juxtaposed. The images lose the identity of the household objects and take on a life of their own when cropped. One example was the edge of a table photographed next to a radiator.
  • Frames, which consisted of brain-teasing pictures of intersecting wooden frames in impossible positions, rather like the false perspective creations of M.C. Escher.

Neil explained that lighting a minimalist scene is harder than it looks, as there is very little contrast between the (often white) subjects and (often white) background. Neil prefers to use soft natural light coming from the side so it casts soft shadows, and he will sometimes deliberately block the light with a book or similar object to control the shadow in the background. Each scene is placed in front of an “infinity curve”, which can be made by curving a piece of plain card from horizontal to vertical against a wall. The infinity curve creates a background with no boundaries that fools the viewer into thinking the scene goes on forever. Some of Neil’s images were photographed against black velvet to create a black background.

Neil finished by showing us more of his minimalist and surreal creations, showing how he can turn what at first seems like a boring image (e.g. one person standing on an empty beach) into an artistic creation by blurring the image and manipulating the colours. An image of a solitary horse rider on the beach was particularly striking. Thank you Neil for once again fascinating us with your fantastic creations. You can see more of Neil’s photograph on his web site:

https://www.neilscottphotos.co.uk/

Our next meeting (Thursday, 28th September) will be a “Sets of Six” evening. Please bring along any set of 6 images (or a few short videos) that you think will be of interest to club members. If there is time, we can also use part of the evening for a technical presentation, for example if you need help with the “editing challenge” or any other project.

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday,

Steven