Tag Archives: art

11 Dec 2025 (Eddie Telford: Remember Photography is Fun – Part 2)

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This week Eddie Telford returned to Musselburgh Camera Club to give us another custom talk. When he last spoke to us back in April 2024 the custom themes were “Remember Photography is Fun” and “Around the World in 80 Images”. This time he resumed the “Remember Photography is Fun” theme and added some advice on the theme of “From Beginner to Advanced”. Eddie began by telling us not to worry about competitions and scores. The main reason to take up photography is to have fun. Eddie showed us some examples of the joke photographs he had made: for example a photograph of someone slumped over a chair mimicking a yoga āsana, or showing the mischief at home that children got up to during the Covid pandemic. The “Nessie” toy (who likes whisky and now has his own passport) features in many of Eddie’s fun travel photographs.

Eddie described his recent experience photographing the Women’s Open Golf Championship at Dundonald Links. He sets his camera to silent mode and takes his photos from a distance with a long lens (to avoid disturbing the players) and tries to take one shot just at the moment the ball is struck. If he is lucky, the ball will still be in the shot. Eddie also likes bunker shots because the sand can fly into some dramatic shapes. Besides the action shots, Eddie also captures portraits of the players, first when they are concentrating on their shot or posing with their trophy, and then a few minutes later when they have relaxed. The relaxed portraits looks more natural. Eddie also showed us some images he captured at a youth competition organised by Bowls Scotland. The story begins with drone images showing the initial setup, followed by some action shots, this time captured at the moment when the player releases the ball.

Eddie is a member of Ayr Photographic Society and often supplies images to Ayrshire Magazine. Eddie was keen to point out that Ayr Photographic Society won the SPF Digital Championship this year for the first time in 35 years! He described two fashion photoshoots he made for the magazine: one was with the 2024 Miss Scotland, shot on the Ayrshire sea front, and the other was a shoot with the winner of Miss Great Britain at Turnberry. There was also a photoshoot covering the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Institute. Eddie was surprised at the images chosen by the magazine, but they wanted images that emphasised the characteristics (such as the jewellery or a particular look) featured in their articles. Eddie prefers natural-looking shots where the model looks relaxed. Magazines also like images that have a lot of empty space where they can add titles. Eddie also showed us how photographers and artists can help each other. He has collaborated with local artist, Rona Mcseveny, who converted Eddie’s photograph of Ayr Town Hall into an artwork which became the Lord Provost’s official Christmas Card.

Eddie showed us an audio-visual he made to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day in Ayr, including the “Field of Heroes” art exhibition. Eddie finished with an audio-visual advertising the spectacular scenery of Dunure, which was used to raise money for Dynamic Dunure, a local charity. We finished the night with a chat with Eddie over tea and biscuits. Thank you Eddie for a another great presentation. We look forward to your next visit.

Next week we have our Christmas night out at the Lido restaurant in Musselburgh. Our table is booked from 7pm on Thursday, 19th December 2025. See you there.

30 Oct 2025 (Carrie Southerton: A Fun Insight Into Dog Photography)

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This week we really did have a fun insight into dog photography. Carrie Southerton (aka Carolyn Cowan) visited the club with her husband Alasdair and took us through the story of their dog photography business. Carolyn has always had a relationship with photographic arts. She owned her first camera at the age of 3 and spent most of her life either in front of the camera as a model or behind the camera as a photographer. She has always loved dogs, and her German shepherds, Beagles and Jack Russell terriers have won several awards at the Crufts dog show. Carolyn became a press photographer covering dog shows; and a gig photographer and covering events with bands such as Heaven 17, Human League, the Sex Pistols and Adam Ant, etc… A few years ago, Carolyn realised she could combine her love of dogs and photography by setting up a dog photography business, and “Carrie Southerton Dog Photography” was born. You can find out more on the business web site and Instagram page:

https://www.carriesoutherton.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/carriesouthertondogphotography/

Carolyn and Alasdair’s studio covers a 7 acre estate in Slamannan, Near Falkirk. The estate is landscaped with features that provide a range of dog photography environments, including two log jumps for dynamic shots, a selection of mounds and rocks for posed shots, a flower meadow, some marshland, a ridge that simulates being on the edge of lake, plus walls, doors and fences that can be used as props. Carolyn uses three Canon EOS 1D bodies and two Canon EOS 3 bodies. These are paired with a selection of lenses: 16-35mm f2.8, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6, 105mm f1.4 and 70-200mm f2.8. Carrie uses multiple camera bodies so she can switch lenses quickly without having to remove them from the camera. This also keeps the cameras and lenses clean. The dogs are lit with a selection of Newer and Godox lights and soft boxes. Most of the photographs are taken using a wide aperture and very fast shutter speed, although Carolyn might stop down the aperture in very bright conditions. She aims to underexpose each shot slightly to preserve detail in dogs that have white patches, but also tries to overexpose a plain sky background to make it easier to replace.

Carolyn explained the story behind some example photoshoots. The best photos are taken when lying on the ground to get down to dog level, and she uses her clients to get the dog’s attention and encourage it to pose or jump as needed. Quite often the dog will do something unexpected, but these “out takes” sometimes turn out to be more interesting than the original plan! The photoshoots are just the start of the process. Each client is given the opportunity to choose a situation and a colour pallet for their dog portrait. Group shots are made by photographing each dog individually. Carolyn has a collection of photographs of different skies, backgrounds, and photographs or drawings of extra things (such as a bird, flower or butterfly) that can be included. Every portrait is carefully crafted with hours of tedious editing, which Carolyn demonstrated by showing us some mesmerising high-speed videos. Carolyn uses Corel Paintshop Pro, which she prefers to Adobe Photoshop. The dogs were placed together, leads and harnesses removed, a new background added, extras placed, boundaries cloned and healed, areas brightened or darkened, colours adjusted, eyes brightened and sharpened, special effects added, tones adjusted, textures applied, etc… The process turned each photograph into an artwork.

Carolyn ended her talk by showing us some “catch the cheese” shots which had recently raised several thousand pounds for charity, as reported by the Daily Mail, the Falkirk Herald and the Daily Record. We finished with tea and biscuits and a general chat.

Next week we have our Colour Print competition, judged by Dougie Allan of Penicuik Camera Club. Members will have the opportunity to choose a print for our exhibition at Cockenzie House in November.

02 October 2025 (Editing Challenge)

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This week members revealed what they had done with the four images that were circulated 3 weeks ago. The four images were:

  • A gyrocopter superimposed on a dark, cloudy sky with an artefact in the background.
  • A Chinese performer in a bright blue costume against a tilted background with distractions.
  • A back-lit lady standing in front of a church.
  • A man in Viking costume with a shield holding a ferret against a building with brightly coloured distractions.

15 members had accepted the challenge. The brief had been to edit any two of the four images, but some members had tried all four. All the images were too dark, so a common correction was the brighten the images and adjust the contrast. The back-lighting had lost some of the detail in the lady’s hair, which could be recovered with a highlights correction. Dodging and burning tools could be used to lighten the eyes and faces of the people or to darken bright blobs in the background.

Members revealed the different ways they had dealt with the distractions in the background. The easiest option was the crop the image to remove the distractions altogether, even if this meant losing most of the Viking man’s shield, for example. Some had used the clone and healing tools to replace distractions, and others had kept them in but made them less distracting by desaturating and darkening the background. There were mixed feelings about the hairs on the Viking man’s costume, which some members had removed as a distraction and others had emphasised as part of his character. The work on the Chinese man showed how you could spent ages removing two really obvious distractions but miss a smaller one that could be eventually pointed out by a judge. It’s worth taking a second look at your images after you have corrected them. However, the most creative way to remove distractions from a background is to replace it altogether. Kevin and Stephen had both replaced the boring grey sky behind the gyrocopter with a much more interesting sky, and Stephen and Jim had placed the Viking man in front of a much more attractive landscape.

Some members had combined the images in creative ways. Elaine combined the Chinese man and the lady into a single portrait, and Steven added the gyrocopter as a hair fascinator for the lady. Marian had converted the images into bold works of art, with a Pointillist rendering of the gyrocopter and a recreation of the Viking man in flowing brush strokes. But the comedy images were the highlight of the evening. Derek had converted the lady into a clown, Joe had given her a scary mask and Kevin had placed her inside a blossoming tree. Elaine had added the gyrocopter to the selfie taken at the Ayr air show. But the most entertaining images on the night came from Jim Innes, who not only managed to add the Viking man to some dramatic landscapes, had also shown him posing in front of an Iceland supermarket. The evening ended with Jim’s image of the gyrocopter being sprayed by fly killer! Thanks a lot to everyone who responded to the challenge.

  • Next Thursday, 9th October, we will be inviting Campbell Skinner to judge our Digital Projected Images competition.

11 Sep 2025 (Creative Lighting Workshop)

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We got our 2025/2026 season well and truly started with a creative lighting workshop. Steven began the evening with a discussion of the lighting equipment available to photographers. This web site has a good introduction to creative lighting techniques: https://shotkit.com/photography-lighting/. Taking photos in low light usually requires a long exposure, which can blur your photos with camera shake. Adding extra lighting is a good way to improve portraits and still life photos taken in a dark place. This time we concentrated on portraits. We’ll spend more time on still life photography at our second workshop on 13th November 2025. There are two basic kinds of lighting available:

  1. Flash. A flash creates an intense and very rapid burst of light. The burst is so rapid that it freezes any movement or camera shake. A disadvantage of a flash is that it can cast a shadow onto the background. Also, because the flash only fires briefly, it’s hard to see in advance where those shadows will be. Some flash units have a dim “modelling light” which shows up the shadows. Firing a flash straight into someone’s face can also cause “red eye”. If your camera has a built-in flash it will probably suffer from these problems. You can get a softer lighting and eliminate the “red eye” problem by attaching a flashgun to your camera and angling the flash upwards so it bounces it off a light ceiling. You can start to emulate a studio setup by adding “slave” flash units which synchronise with your main flash. Lighting your subject from the left and right side can give a softer effect with fewer shadows.
  2. Continuous lighting. Continuous lighting allows you to see how your subject is illuminated before you take the picture. You can add as many lights as you like. However, these lights tend to be dimmer than flash, so you’ll find yourself putting up with longer exposure times. We demonstrated several different kinds of continuous lights at our workshop. There were some bright, mains-powered bulbs, a battery-powered LED panel and a battery powered torch.

Members tried out 3 main lighting setups. Ed and I had set up some of the club’s studio lighting equipment. This equipment consisted of two main-powered flash units combined with some modelling lights, a diffuser umbrella and a “beauty dish”. The equipment triggered each time it detected a flash. This combination was good at taking well-lit portraits with soft lighting. Derek had brought two contrasting setups with continuous lighting. One setup demonstrated how a single light from the side can create dramatic, high contrast portraits. The other setup had two lights with red and blue gels, which created colourful special effects. Steven showed how the battery powered lights can be deployed and removed very quickly, when the LED panel and the torch were used to photograph a rabbit who didn’t like the bright lights.

Next week (18th September) we have our first speaker of the season. Graeme Barclay of Midlothian Camera Club will talk to us about Street Photography.

09 January 2025 (Human Portrait Print Competition)

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In a last minute change, David Ferguson, president of Falkirk Camera Club, visited us for a second time this year to judge our Human Portrait Print competition. David had previously judged our Digital Projected Images competition. David is an expert on portrait photography and well qualified to judge this competition, but he pointed out that any marks given are just his opinion. He has himself had the same print given a widely different mark on different occasions. David mentioned that portrait photography is often described as “capturing the personality of a person or group of people using lighting, a background and props”, but portrait photography can be much more than that. It can cover any situation where people are the main subject. The eyes are the most important part of any portrait, and the general rule is that the eyes must be sharp, and at least the eye closest to the camera must be sharp. David explained how lighting can affect the mood of a portrait. Many of the portraits entered had been made under soft, balanced lighting, which works well for female subjects, but male subjects often look better when lit more strongly from one side to enhance the contours of the face. He also suggested some of the male portraits would also have looked better in black and white. He also warned that lighting a face from below eye level can be unflattering and should be avoided, unless it is done for special effect (as in some horror movies). He suggested experimenting with the lighting when taking a portrait and try several variations until you find one that works. David also commented on the pose of some of the entries. Arms can be difficult to pose naturally, and he recommended avoiding poses where arms or elbows point towards the camera, as they can look distorted and distracting.

39 prints had been entered by 13 members. Some of the portraits were of other club members, taken during last year’s studio night, and we were amused to see the same hat coming up again and again. David judged each image on its lighting, pose and sharpness, and whether the composition told a story. Although it is good to crop out distractions in the background, David felt that some images had been cropped a little too tightly to tell the full story. Sometimes it’s good to see the whole outfit. Some portraits were a little different. Charlie Baird’s portrait of a woman “Looking out to sea” broke the rules by not showing the eyes, but it still worked because of the strong narrative. John West’s double self-portrait “Is COVID behind us” also had a strong narrative. Hovhannes had blurred the boundary between art and photography by entering a series of innovative prints which combined photographs with ink drawings on plastic. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (49 points)
    • Joe Fowler
    • Charlie Baird
  • 4th place (50 points)
    • John West
  • 3rd place (51 points)
    • Carol Edmond
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Hovhannes Hovhannisyan
  • 1st place (55 points)
    • George Todd
    • Melanie Gallacher

The top images were:

  • Siddharta Guardian of the Hoogly Imambara Temple (George Todd) – 20 points
  • A Quiet Moment (Melanie Gallacher) – 19 points
  • The Pessimist (Hovhannes Hovhannisyan) – 19 points
  • Anastasia (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Breakfast Time (Carol Edmond) – 18 points
  • Ayla (Melanie Gallacher) – 18 points
  • Little Man (Melanie Gallacher) – 18 points

Well done to George and Melanie who share the trophy, and well done also to new member Hovhannes on a well-deserved second place, and to Carol for achieving her usual high standard. Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you to David Ferguson for judging the competition for us at short notice.

  • Don’t forget to send your 3 JPEG images on “Buildings” to George Todd before the end of the weekend.
  • Next week we have a talk from wildlife photographer Gordon Rae, who judged last year’s portrait competition. Although we can’t get a reply from Gordon, we are in his talk schedule:

    https://www.gordonraephotography.co.uk/section807167.html

    Gordon describes his talk “Wild at Heart – A Photographers Journey”, as “A far from boring presentation that takes you on what can only be described as a wonderful wildlife journey“. Fingers crossed that it goes ahead as planned. I’m looking forward to it.

10 October 2024 (Indoor Photoshoot)

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This year’s indoor photoshoot was based on an idea by Derek Muller, inspired by a video on toy photography:

John, Steven, Jennifer, Joe and Liz brought in examples of their home studio setups, while members were asked to bring in small toys, vases, flowers, mirrors, rocks, shells, glass decorations, and other interesting things to photograph.

  • John West brought in his photo studio tent and his collection of paperclip figures. He also showed us examples of how he sets up his studio at home with LED lights and a curved piece of card to make an infinity curve.
  • Steven Beard brought in his small portable light box, which has built in LED lamps and a selection of coloured backgrounds, a dimmable LED torch and a glass globe. He also brought a selection of close-up lenses, which can be used as an alternative to a macro lens. In particular, the budget lenses can distort the edges of the frame and mimic the effect of the lenses shown in the “toy photography” video.
  • Jennifer Davidson brought a lined box with backdrops, torches and lights, together with a large selection of flowers and objet d’art.
  • Joe brought in some objects which cast shadows and showed how the plain white wall of the room could be used a backdrop to create some stark-looking images. Steven’s torch turned out to be useful for casting the shadows.
  • Liz Sowler showed how you can make a simple, home-made light tent out of a laundry drier covered with a sheet. Objects placed inside the tent could be lit with torches shining through the entrance. Liz had brought a glass eagle which we discovered looked best when lit just by the ambient light.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening. I hope our members have had the opportunity to learn from the different setups and take home a good selection of still life images.

  • Next week we have our first competition of the year. David Ferguson will be visiting us to judge our Digital Projected Images competition.
  • Next week is also the hand-in date for entries to the colour print competition. Please bring in 3 mounted prints and give them to George. Don’t forget to send JPEG copies of your 3 images to George as well.