Tag Archives: events

Welcome to the 2026-2027 season of Musselburgh Camera Club

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I would like to welcome everyone who came to our earlier than usual opening night on 13th August 2026, 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 2026-2027 programme on the club website: https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/programme-2026-2027/.
There are also monthly outings and photoshoots which are listed on our activities page: https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/club-activities-2026-2027/,
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/

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:
https://musselburghcameraclub.org.uk/competition-information/

We meet at 7pm each Thursday evening. Come along tonight for a joint meeting with Penicuik Photography Club and Haddington Camera Club, where you’ll be able to browse the images made for the 50mm North Berwick challenge. You will be able to vote for your favourite image, and there might even be a prize for the overall favourite. There will also be an A2 print of a North Berwick Scene where you can “Spot the Seagull”.

Welcome to to the club. A year of exciting photographic activities lies ahead of us.

Club opening night coming up on 13th August 2026

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The summer has gone by so quickly! A reminder that our club opening night will be on Thursday, 13th August 2026, 3 weeks earlier than last year, starting at 7pm in room G3 of the Fisherrow Centre.

NOTE: There is a new parking arrangement at the Fisherrow Centre. If you park your car in the grounds you need to scan the QR code at the reception desk and enter your number plate. Parking is free during Fisherrow opening hours, as long as you register.

This year we have some extra activities in addition to the usual filling in application forms and chatting over tea and biscuits. George and Derek would like to collect potential competition images early this year, to give our club a chance to enter the 2026/2027 SPF club competitions and to give us a wider selection for inter-club competitions. So, if you have any images that you think could help the club, please bring them along (or email them to George in advance). It will also be an opportunity to get some critique on potential competition images from our more experienced members.

And, talking of bringing along images, this year we will also be collecting images that are well-matched to particular months of the year (e.g. snow scenes for January or festival images for August). If we can collect some good images, Nicola has offered to produce a club calendar.

This year, we will have a challenge running through the whole season. Each member will be able to select a theme, idea or concept. The idea is to create a batch of images based on that theme that work together to tell a story. At the end of the season we will get together to show what we created. The challenge is optional, but it could add another level of fun to the season. Derek will explain further on the night.

The club has a new A3 printer, thanks to another generous grant from the Registers of Scotland. Mike will be setting up and testing the printer. If you joined the printing group last year and have an image that Mike could test on the printer you are welcome to bring it along on a USB stick or SD card, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get a good result yet until Mike has finished his testing and setting up. There will be another printing opportunity on 1st October 2026.

On our second night (20th August 2026) we will be joined by Penicuik Photography Club and and Haddington Camera Club for an inter-club Exhibition Night, where we will show our images of North Berwick taken with a 50mm focal length. We will be able to chat about the images and vote for our favourites. If you haven’t already done so, please e-mail Derek the images you would like to be entered.

I look forward to seeing you all on 13th August 2026.

30 April 2026 (AGM and Presentation of Trophies)

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The 2025/26 Musselburgh Camera Club season ended on 30th April 2025 with the AGM and the presentation of trophies. Teas, biscuits and cakes were provided by Jennifer Davidson and Liz Sowler, with help from Karen Woodcock, Jim Innes and others. 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 tournament. The top results were:

  1. Travel
  2. City Lights
  3. The Perfect Panorama

which become the themes for next year’s set subject rounds 1, 2 and 3. The AGM finished with a presentation of trophies and medals. 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 – 2025/2026

Our club will be hosting a visit by Mölnlycke fotoklubb members on 14th, 15th and 16th May this year. The current plan for their 3 day visit is as follows:

Please watch out for notifications and come along to the activities. Thank you to Ed Robertson, Gavin Marshall and Charlie Baird for offering to help with transport.

The club’s exhibition will be touring local libraries during the summer. Here is the current timetable and list of volunteers. Thank you to everyone who volunteered so far. Please let Steven or Ed know if you would like to volunteer for the 11th July, 25th July or 8th August slots.

We agreed at the AGM to start the next season 3 weeks earlier than usual, so the first meeting of the 2026/27 season will be on Thursday, 13th August 2026. I look forward to seeing you there.

05 February 2026 (Quiz Night)

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This week the club had its annual quiz night, hosted by quiz-master Jim Innes, who was on last year’s winning team. Jim had devised 50 questions on various subjects, ranging from photography and science to history, sport and pop culture. Did you know that the “P” within “JPEG” stands for “Photographic”, or that the “K” in “CMYK” means “Key”? We also learned that Henry Fox Talbot’s photographic printing process was demonstrated only 5 years before the first Penny Black stamp was issued, and that a standard golf hole is only 4.25 inches in diameter. Club members split into 4 teams of 3 or 4, who marked their answers on a handy score sheet provided by Jim. After Jim had revealed the answers and the scores had been added up, the final result was:

  • 1st place (35 points) – The Blue Team (Ed Robertson, John Fowler, Rick Riley and George Smith).
  • 2nd place (25 points) – The Red Team (Kevin Johnston, Janet Ferrier, Mary Riley and Steven Beard)
  • 3rd place (23 points) – The Yellow Team (Jennifer Davidson, Charlie Baird and Gavin Marshall)
  • 4th place (21 points) – The Purple Team (George Todd, Mike Clark and Derek Muller)

Well done to the Blue Team, who won some chocolate and the right to host next year’s quiz. Although the 4-person teams did have a little bit of an advantage over the 3-person teams, the Blue Team was still way ahead of the rest of us. Rick Riley offered to be next year’s quiz-master. Well done again, and thanks to Jim for compiling a very entertaining and enlightening quiz.

Next week, 12th February, we will be hosting Penicuik Photography Club at the Fisherrow Centre for our joint audio visual evening. We’ll be starting at 7pm in room G3 as usual.

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.

Events coming up in the next few weeks.

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Club members can check out planned events in East Lothian, Midlothian and Edinburgh by clicking on these links:

In particular, the following events may be of interest:

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.

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

15 February 2024 (Audio Visual Evening)

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This week we hosted our annual audio visual evening with Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club. Two years ago we had hosted this meeting by Zoom in room G3, but this year we were fully back to normal. Members of both clubs met in room G6 of the Fisherrow Centre and were treated to tea, sandwiches and cakes by Liz Sowler, Ed Robertson and Carol Edmond.

Beeslack began the evening with a beautiful presentation created by Brian Nicolson, made from photographs of woodland scenes in Midlothian paired with inspirational music. Musselburgh then resurrected a presentation made by Steven Beard in 2012 describing his 2008-2009 trip to the Cerro Paranal Observatory Chile to commission the VISTA Infrared Camera. The place had also been used as the secret lair of the villain in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. The VISTA Infrared Camera was decommissioned in 2023, bringing the story to an end. Beeslack then showed their club presentation which celebrated the “Environs of Penicuik”. It featured a selection photographs from historical monuments and scenic places to visit around Penicuik taken by their club members.

The meeting then changed tack and showed a YouTube video created by Musselburgh member Derek Muller entitled “Getting Started in Screen Printing”. The video showed us how to use a MiSCREEN silk screen printer to transfer an artwork or black and white photograph onto paper, or a T-Shirt, etc… Derek creates his videos with a camera or iPhone and edits them using iMovie. Beeslack then showed a supplement to their club presentation which demonstrated the artistic filters applied by Bill Baird. Photographs of the Midlothian countryside were transformed into artworks before our eyes. This was followed by a short video showing a visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Musselburgh member Kevin Johnston and then a presentation showing a visit to Alicante, Spain in 2019 by Beeslack member Mike Walby.

The evening finished with three short presentations. Derek Muller showed a video of the waves crashing onto the shore at Portobello beach, which featured some lovely slow motion effects and a passer by who looked like they were going to get soaked but escaped. Then we watched a Beeslack video showing the Fells, Becks and Lakes of the Lake District. Beeslack also chose the perfect presentation on which to close the evening: a celebration of Valentine’s Day created by Gordon Peerless. We finished with a discussion over tea and cakes.

Thank you to Beeslack for visiting and showing their presentations, and thanks again to Liz, Ed and Carol for the catering. Next week Eddie Telford will be returning to give a talk on “Around the World in 80 Images”. See you there.