Tag Archives: knockout

17 April 2025 (Best Image on the Night)

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Our last regular meeting of the season was our annual knockout, where members bring along a selection of their images and we all vote to choose our favourites. This year members could bring along digital images or prints, and 17 prints and 32 images were submitted.

We began with the prints. There was a varied selection, both mounted and unmounted. There was a beautiful print of a hare, some landscape images, a car, a black and white garden sculpture, some cute pictures of a dog, a rabbit and a little boy, some unusual shots of buildings and reflections, plus a lot of innovative abstract prints, such as a print of some smarties distorted by water droplets, or a print of the shadow pattern cast by a curtain. The images were voted off in a series of head-to-head rounds until only two remained. The final round was a face-off between George’s print of a pony with a comb-over hair style and Hovo’s lovely print of yachts in the harbour at night. In the end, George’s pony image won the most votes.

We moved on to the digital images. There were some great wildlife images, several cityscapes, some golfing images, landscapes, seascapes, portraits, and more cute animal pictures. Having 32 images made the head-to-head rounds easier. Images were voted off until only 4 remained. Members then voted for their favourite to determine the final placings, and the result was:

  • 4th place
    • A seascape of waves breaking around groyne number 5 (Mike Clark)
  • 3rd place
    • A siskin resting on a branch (Jennifer Davidson)
  • 2nd place
    • A colourful frog (Derek Muller)
  • 1st Place
    • A cute owl looking out from a mossy resting place (Jennifer Davidson)

We done to George and Jennifer, who both won a pack of mini Easter eggs!

  • Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help move our summer library exhibition. We need one more volunteer to fill the 17th May slot (setting up the exhibition at Gullane). If you are able to help that day please email Ed or Steven.
  • Next Thursday (24th April) we have our club AGM and prize-giving. We will be meeting in room G3 at 7pm and will move next door into G2 for refreshments after the meeting. Please bring along your ideas for next year’s set subject themes. More information will be mailed out soon.

01 February 2024 (Digital Knockout Competition)

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Our first club meeting of February 2024 was our annual digital knockout competition, where members bring in digital images on a chosen theme and vote to choose their favourites. This year’s theme was “water”, chosen at last year’s AGM.

8 members entered a total of 23 digital images with some creative interpretations of the “water” theme. There were a lot of photographs of rivers, waterfalls and beaches, some lakes with reflections, some underwater scenes and some snow scenes. There were also some impressive abstract images created from droplets and waves at the water surface. One particularly inventive image was “Water Music”, showing a water splash superimposed on some sheet music. Another simple but effective image showed the rain on the window of an Edinburgh bus at night. The images were voted off in a series of head-to-head rounds until only 3 images remained. Members then voted for their favourite to determine the final placings, and the result was:

  • 3rd place
    • An image of a splashing wave in front of Arthur’s Seat (Steven Beard)
  • 2nd place
    • An image of a Tough Mudder contestant emerging from water (Jennifer Davidson)
  • 1st Place
    • Waves crashing over rocks at North Berwick (Joe Fowler)

Well done to Joe Fowler, who won a packet of water biscuits! Well done also to Jennifer and Steven, who’s images survived the head-to-head rounds despite some very close counts.

  • Next Thursday Colin Joyce will be judging our human portrait print competition. George Todd will also be collecting entries for our second set subject competition. Please send your 3 JPEGs on the subject of “contrasting textures” to George.

See you on Thursday,

Steven

06 April 2023 (Digital Knockout Competition)

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As we approach the end of our 2022/23 season, we reached our annual digital knockout competition. This year’s knockout was on the theme of “black and white”, which had been chose at last year’s AGM. As this is an informal knock-out without a judge, members could interpret this theme any way they wished, although strongly coloured images were not popular in the voting rounds.

15 members entered a total of 43 digital images, plus one print which couldn’t be digitised in time. Members once again showed their creativity in interpreting the theme. There were black and white images of strongly shaped or textured objects, such as the Shard, a tunnel under St. Andrews Castle, shadows and refractions of household objects viewed through glass, black and white portraits, and some black and white wildlife and nature images, including some misty woodland scenes and portraits of birds. Then there were also images of black and white subjects photographed in colour, such as a piano, salt and pepper, a Dalmatian dog, or a pair of lemurs. The images were ordered randomly and paired together in a series of head-to-head rounds until only 3 remained. Members then voted for their favourite to determine the final placings, and the result was:

  • 3rd place
    • Peek a Boo (Jennifer Davidson)
  • 2nd place
    • Mortonhall (Karen Woodcock)
  • 1st Place
    • Clear Head (Jennifer Davidson)

Well done to Jennifer Davidson, whose winning image showed a black and white image of a glass head which emphasised the edges. Jennifer wins an Easter egg! Well done also to new member, Karen Woodcock, whose beautiful woodland image secured her second place. Jennifer’s third placed image showed a black and white portrait of some children alongside a black and white lamb.

  • The dates for our 2023 library exhibition have been announced. The club would like some volunteers to help transfer our prints between libraries on the following dates. All the libraries except Gullane will need our display stands. Please contact Ed or Steven if you would like to volunteer.
    • 6th May 2023: Setting up the exhibition at Gullane library.
    • 20th May 2023: Transferring the exhibition from Gullane to Prestonpans.
    • 3rd June 2023: Transferring the exhibition from Prestonpans to Port Seton.
    • 17th June 2023: Transferring the exhibition from Port Seton to Longniddry
    • 1st July 2023: Transferring the exhibition from Longniddry to Musselburgh
    • 15th July 2023: Taking down the exhibition from Musselburgh library.
  • Next Thursday we have the club’s outdoor photoshoot. We will be meeting at Cockenzie harbour at 7pm on Thursday, 13th April, and will explore the coastline from the site of the former power station up to Port Seton harbour.