Tag Archives: landscape photography

10 April 2025 (Stephen Ball: Scotland Behind the Lens)

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This week we were pleased to welcome Stephen Ball to Musselburgh as our last speaker of the 2024/25 season to give us one of his signature talks on landscape photography: Scotland Behind the Lens. Stephen is originally from London but moved to Scotland in the 1990s. He started his career as a theatre lighting designer and technician before moving into photography, and has recently won several landscape photography awards. You can read more on his “Scotland Captured” web site.

Stephen used to use a Nikon D7100 but has recently switched to a Nikon Z7, which gives a better image quality. His standard kit consists of a tripod, a collection of kit lenses and a set of Lee filters (neutral density, graduated and polarizer). Stephen explained that he likes to get his images right in camera. He uses Adobe Lightroom only for minor adjustments, such as cropping or adjusting the colour saturation. He will occasionally adjust the highlights when there are bright lights in the scene (such as the spotlights on the Queensferry Crossing). He likes to visit places very early in the morning or late at night when there are fewer people around. When Stephen photographs a landscape, he sets his camera on a tripod and takes the time to look at the scene and think about the composition. He avoids the temptation to take a large number of quick snaps, and the tripod helps him slow down. He adjusts the exposure manually and likes to choose a low ISO (such as 64 or 100) and small aperture (such as f/16 or f/22) to get the best image quality with the maximum depth of field. If there are many focal points in a scene, he will increase the depth of field by focus stacking. Stephen avoids using a wide angle lens to capture a panorama because it distorts the edge of the scene. Instead, he builds a panorama from several overlapping shots made in portrait orientation. He has also started experimenting with shots cropped to a square format.

Besides photographing Scottish landscapes, Stephen also likes to photograph the Edinburgh Tattoo, arranged through his membership of the Beautiful Edinburgh Facebook group. He explained how he uses different camera settings for these images. He selects a higher ISO setting for these darker scenes, and normally begins the evening with an aperture around f/11 to get a good depth of field, but when it gets darker he changes to “Auto ISO” and uses wide apertures like f/4.

Stephen took us on a tour of Scotland pictured through his lens, starting with popular locations like the Crawick Multiverse, Stobo Japanese Gardens and Leaderfoot Viaduct in southern Scotland and locations closer to home such as Dalkeith Country Park, Seacliff Beach, Preston Mill, North Berwick and Bass Rock. He also showed us iconic scenes in Edinburgh, from the picturesque Dean Village to citywide views from Calton Hill. Stephen also showed us how he obtained some unusual shots of the Forth bridges in the early morning mist, and he found the platform at Dalmeny Station gives an unusual view peering down the length of the rail bridge. He then took us further afield, showing beautiful scenes from all over Scotland, including an autumn scene at Loch Dunmore, some misty shots of Loch Ard, frosty images of Rannoch Moor and mountain scenes at Buachaille Etive Mor, Glencoe and Sligachan, Isle of Skye. Many of Stephen’s images had been taken only a week or two ago, showing us what we could expect to see if we were to travel to these places right now. Stephen finished his highland shots with a recent image he had captured after a long climb to the Old Man of Storr, where the view was so breathtaking that Stephen almost forgot to take any photographs! Thank you, Stephen, for inspiring us with so many beautiful shots of Scotland.

  • Next week we have a our “Best Image of the Night” evening. This is a fun, informal evening where we discuss and vote for our favourite images on the night. Please bring up to 3 images, either in JPEG format on a USB stick, or as prints, or a mixture of both. Prints can be any size (as long as they are large enough to see from the room) and don’t have to be mounted, although mounted prints are fine as well. I look forward to seeing what you bring.

20 February 2025 (Joe Gilhooley: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It)

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The club was delighted to welcome Joe Gilhooley from Loanhead, Midlothian to talk about his work. Joe’s interest in digital photography began in 2010, when he wanted to record his daughter growing up. He purchased a Canon DSLR and took the camera on family trips. He developed a liking for landscape photography but fell into the usual trap of coming home with 400 scattergun images of the same scene. He now recommends pretending you have a roll of film and only capturing the small number of images you think are worth keeping. Joe has 3 Canon DSLR camera bodies, a Sony compact camera, and a selection of 9 lenses. He always uses a tripod for landscape photography and recommends using the camera in “mirror up” mode with a remote shutter release to prevent camera shake. Joe’s love of landscape photography won him the “Scots Magazine Photographer of the Year” award in 2017 and 2019. Joe joined the Royal Photographic Society in 2020 and achieved an LRPS qualification in 2021 and is working towards the ARPS qualification. You can see more of Joe’s work on his web site:

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

Joe started by showing us the 10 images he had submitted to win his LRPS qualification, which included a night view of the Forth Bridges, a night view of Edinburgh from Calton Hill, star trails over the Belhaven Bridge and a clever still life which simulated colours being painted onto a bowl of fruit. Joe likes to take his landscape images during the blue hour: the hour just before sunrise or just after sunset when sky is still bright enough to give a blue background. Joe watches the weather forecast and will often drive to a location at short notice to arrive in time for the perfect conditions. Calm conditions at sunrise are ideal for capturing still reflections and morning mist. Joe took us on a journey across Scotland, showing us a wide variety of excellent images of castles, gardens, monuments, lochs, mountains and iconic viewpoints. His subjects included landscapes, cityscapes, wildlife, star trails and fireworks. In 2022, Joe successfully applied for a press contract to photograph the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which gave him the opportunity to capture some beautiful images of the event. Joe had also offered his services to several football clubs, and had obtained a press pass to capture images of key moments during their games. Joe finished by showing us some of his sports photography images. Joe uses two camera bodies for his sports photography. One body has a 400mm lens attached, which he uses to capture distant action. The other has a 70-200mm lens, which he uses when the action gets closer. He uses fast (f2.8) lenses and a very high ISO to achieve the fast shutter speeds required for sports photography. A monopod helps to support the weight of his heavy 400mm lens.

It was a fascinating evening where Joe gave us hints about good places and times to take photographs and encouraged us not to be afraid to contact organisations like sports clubs and local newspapers who may need a local photographer.

  • We are having our “Sense of Speed” club photoshoot this Saturday, 22nd February at 10:30am in Lewisvale Park, Musselburgh, EH21 7AR. Bring your camera to practice photographing bicycles, dogs and people moving against a background. For best results bring a lens with a large maximum aperture, such as f2.8.

02 February 2023 (Set Subject Competition C – Landscape)

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Our set subject competition concluded on Thursday with the third and final part, on the theme of “Landscape”. George Todd had won last year’s competition and judged our entries. George mentioned that he liked landscape images to contain three balanced parts: something interesting in the foreground to lead in your eye; something in the middle distance; and something in the far distance to give depth to the image. He also mentioned that landscape images containing bodies of water work better when there is a landscape in the distance (with the water ending in a distance island or distant mountains, for example).

14 members had entered 42 images altogether. Most of the images showed scenes from Scotland, although there were a few from as far afield as England, Ireland, Iceland and Arizona. George found that some scenes were spoiled by the inclusion of people and houses in the far distance which didn’t add anything or act as focal points. George also pointed out how one image was spoiled by a large number of footprints in the foreground sand. He recommended photographing sandy scenes early in the day before other tourists have arrived to spoil the pristine surface. He also explained how landscape images could be made more punchy and colourful using a “levels” adjustment in Photoshop. Images that were a little too hazy and flat in the distance and could be improved with the Photoshop “de-haze” filter. Overall, George was impressed with the quality of the entries, especially from new members Ross Robertson, Jim Innes and Derek Muller, and there were a lot of high marks. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (50 points)
    • Malcolm Roberts
  • 4th place (51 points)
    • Steven Beard
    • Steve Williams
    • Elaine Gilroy
    • Jim Innes
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Mike Clark
    • Derek Muller
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Joe Fowler
    • Ross Robertson
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • Gordon Davidson

The top images were:

  • Sunset in Arisaig looking towards Eigg and Rhum (Gordon Davidson) – 20 points
  • Wild Ponies (Joe Fowler) – 19 points
  • On the Trail (Steven Beard) – 19 points
  • Glen Coe Water (Mike Clark) – 19 points
  • Sky High (Ross Robertson) – 19 points
  • Icy Fjord (Steve Williams) – 18 points
  • Autumn Reflections (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Natural Light Show over Urquhart Castle (Derek Muller) – 18 points
  • The Desert Guardians ensure the sun is extinguished after another burning day (Derek Muller) – 18 points

Well done to Gordon Davidson, who had the top image, achieved the highest mark, and has won the right to judge next year’s competition if he so wishes. Also well done to Derek Muller for submitting the most imaginative and amusing titles! The scoring was very close and, now that George has consulted his final spreadsheet, I can reveal that the final result from all three competitions is:

  • 1st place
    • Joe Fowler (54 + 53 = 107)
    • Malcolm Roberts (57 + 50 = 107)
  • 2nd place
    • Mike Clark (52 + 52 = 104)
  • 3rd place
    • Steven Beard (52 + 51 = 103)
    • George Todd (55 + 48 = 103)
    • Derek Muller (51 + 52 = 103)
    • Gordon Davidson (49 + 54 = 103)
  • 4th place
    • Steve Williams (51 + 51 = 102)
  • 5th place
    • Carol Edmund (50 + 49 = 99)
  • 6th place
    • John West (49 + 49= 98)

Well done to Joe and Malcolm for jointly winning the trophy! The scoring was so close this year that there are a lot of medal winners. Well done to you all.

  • Since we are coming up to the last few competitions of the season, it is time to start returning your trophies from last year to George so he can engrave them ready for the AGM.
  • This coming Thursday, 9th March 2023, we will be hosting our annual meeting with Mölnlycke Fotoklubb from Gothenburg. The meeting will be held by Zoom, but we will also show the meeting at Fisherrow. Come along a comment on Mölnlycke’s images and vote for your favourites.

03 March 2022 (David Clapp: Landscape and Travel Photography)

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On 3rd March 2022 we joined Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for a joint session by Zoom, which once again let us to connect with a photographer from further afield. This time we were joined by David Clapp, a successful travel and landscape photographer from Newton Abbot, England. David said he started photography in 2002/2003, at first capturing images on film before moving on to digital photography. He started as a guitar teacher but his interest in photography lead to a career as a full-time professional in 2009. He has contributed travel photographs to guide books and stock photos to Getty Images. David explained that he doesn’t like the “instant gratification” aspect of social media. He prefers people to take more time and enjoy photography as an artform. You can see and enjoy David’s images one his website or his teaching page:

/https://www.davidclapp.co.uk/

https://www.westdean.org.uk/study/tutors/david-clapp

David began by showing us a trick he uses to select the best compositions from a vista. If he finds himself looking at a panoramic landscape he takes a series of, say 7, overlapping shots in portrait mode and then blends them into a large panorama. He can then crop out smaller compositions from this large image. Shooting in portrait mode means you don’t lose resolution when extracting portrait-format subsets. David suggested that the best way to progress in photography is to take risks. Take photographs that mean something to you, rather than photographs designed to please your peers. David took a risk when he converted one of his cameras to infrared photography, but it paid off. He showed us some stunning images of gnarled trees photographed around Dartmoor. The shots looked like snow scenes, but were in fact taken on a misty summer day with the infrared-converted camera.

David explained the composition of his landscape images and illustrated each composition by drawing “force lines” which represented the leading lines which your eye tends to follow. The strongest compositions have “force lines” which come in from a corner and lead you to a focal point. He tries to place focal points either on a 1/3rd or in the middle. Lines which criss-cross the image give it more complexity. David also showed how a balanced image would look more pleasing to the eye. He arranges to have the same-sized gap on the left and right sides and at the top and bottom of each image. He finds the most pleasing compositions are made at moderate focal lengths, and finds a 35-70mm lens ideal for landscape photography. A few years ago everyone tried to capture the “rock in the foreground” shot, where a wide angle lens captures a huge vista stretching from a rock in the foreground, to some trees in the middle ground and then mountains in the distance. Such a shot can capture the attention at first, but your brain tends to lose interest because too much is included and the foreground objects dominate the shot. David prefers to take landscape shots of specific objects within their surroundings, such as the trees in Dartmoor, rock formations on the top of a hill, or farm buildings within a farm. He recommends avoiding focal lengths wider than 35mm.

David described the method he uses to capture the best landscape shots. He avoids using a tripod (unless deliberately making long exposures at night) and instead takes hand-held shots at a high ISO setting. A tripod tends to anchor you to one spot, and David likes to look through the viewfinder, identify the key components in a scene, then move the camera until he finds a spot where the key components are spaced in a pleasing way. Try to have evenly-spaced objects in the scene and try not to have overlaps between objects. Zoom in and out and rotate the camera to find a shot where lines are anchored at the corners. If there is a building in the scene, try to include the door, and don’t turn take the shot more than 45 degrees away from that door.

David warns of falling into the trap of using excessive processing in Photoshop. Adding a colour or contrast boost to your images might make them look punchier, but it can also make them look unnatural. This is another example of spoiling images to make them attention-grabbing. David showed us the histograms of some of his images. They rarely contain completely white or completely black areas because most natural scenes don’t look completely black or completely white to your eye. This gives the images a more pleasing, natural and artistic look. Revisiting the same scenes many times in different lighting conditions will help you capture the best images.

In the second half of his talk, David gave an introduction to architectural photography, using images of the high rise buildings in Bishops Gate in London as an example. He explained how he applies the same techniques for these images. Shots of small groups of buildings work better than large cityscapes. You can even capture abstract images by focusing on just one part of a building. Upward-facing shots can be used to capture a strong perspective, with the vanishing point placed on a 1/3rd or in the middle. Try to rotate the shot so the edges of the buildings pass through the corners. Photographs of window reflections work better when there are no clouds in the sky.

Unfortunately, Musselburgh members at the Fisherrow Centre missed the end of David’s talk because of the early closing time 😦 but I understand he went on to show more abstract images captured in London and show more infrared shots.

Thank you very much Beeslack for hosting this extremely fascinating and captivating talk, and thank you David for taking the time to engage with us.