Tag Archives: Photography

12 February 2026 (Audio Visual Evening)

Posted on by
Reply

This week we welcomed members from Penicuik Photography Club to Musselburgh for our annual audio visual evening. Musselburgh started the evening with a presentation made during a club photoshoot in Dalkeith Country Park, where members had been challenged to spot shapes in the woodland that could be turned into creatures with the aid of some googly eyes! Penicuik followed with a presentation which followed the route of the Seven Hills of Edinburgh event, giving information about each of the seven hills in turn. We then moved on to some individual presentations. Derek Muller introduced us his model Groot, which helped him create cinematic pictures set to great music. Brian Nicolson then showed a beautiful, nature-inspired video called Nature’s Beauty around Penicuik (click here to see it on YouTube). Steven Beard continued the nature theme and added some myth and legend with a presentation about Sherwood Forest. This was followed by Gordon Peerless’ video about Neildpath Castle, near Peebles. Charlie Baird then introduced her beautiful but heart-rending music video called Bittersweet (also available on YouTube). The evening then turned technical, with a a spectacular presentation by Bill Baird, in which fractals seemed to explode on the screen like fireworks. Everybody wanted to know how he did it (apparently using the magic of a fractal generator combined with Photoshop and a video creator). We then had two water-related presentations, with Mike Clark describing the life-cycle of grey seals, and Brian Salvona showing us some beautiful photographs and videos made at the Falls of Clyde. The evening turned technical again when Steven Beard showed us how to make 3-D photographs without using expensive equipment. Gordon Peerless then showed us some breathtaking displays from the Edinburgh Fire Dancing Club. We closed the evening with Derek Muller’s short “Goodbye”, made during our photoshoot at Cramond. We then broke for a delicious selection of sandwiches, cakes and biscuits provided by Jennifer Davidson and Amber Morris. Thank you to everyone who provided their videos.

  • Next week (Thursday 19th) Fiona Brims will be giving us a talk entitled “I am not a wildlife photographer…But…“. I look forward to it.

29 January 2026 (Set Subject Round 1 – Weather)

Posted on by
Reply

This week was the first round of our 3-part set subject competition, on the theme of “Weather”. George Todd had won the first round last year and earned the right to judge this competition. There were 39 entries from 13 members. George began by discussing whether particular judges had favourites. SPF accredited judges are trained to give an unbiased critique of each image, and they will usually comment on the sharpness, composition, etc… But it is natural for a photographer with a specific speciality to judge images in that category against their own high standards; so an award-winning landscape photographer (for example) will tend to expect a high standard from landscape images. George said he would try not to let his preferences influence the marks, except for the images he doesn’t like… 😉 You can find out more about the SPF judging process on their web site:

SPF: All Things Judging and Lecturing

Members had chosen to represent the weather in a variety of ways. There were landscape images showing different weather phenomena, photographs of sporting events taking place in difficult weather conditions, and photographs of people or things enduring the weather. Most of the images showed bad weather, but Ed Robertson’s “We also get good weather” showed some lovely sunshine. George commented on the composition and sharpness of each image. Some images were spoiled by dust spots in the sky, or by post-processing faults. A few images were over-sharpened, which produced some unnatural effects. Snow scenes are difficult to get right, as you need to compensate for the blue hue and make sure there is still detail in the highlights. The best images were the ones that had nicely captured a weather event, were sharp in the right place, had well-handled exposure and colour and had avoided processing faults and distractions. Mike Clark’s “Frosty Morning” image nailed all those requirements and captured a rare view of undisturbed hoar frost on a jetty at Lock Ard. The top scorers were:

  • 4th place (51 points)
    • John Fowler
    • Malcolm Roberts
    • Elaine Gilroy
    • Carol Edmond
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Derek Muller
    • Nicola Cawthorne
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • Mike Clark

The top images were:

  • Frosty Morning (Mike Clark) – 20 points
  • Break In The Storm (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • First Winter Frost (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
  • Be Careful (John Fowler) – 18 points
  • Wild West Coast NZ (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points
  • Rainbow Reflection (Steven Beard) – 18 points
  • Storm at Fairy Pools (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • We also get good weather (Ed Robertson) – 18 points
  • Change in the Weather (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Windy Golf Course (Carol Edmond) – 18 points
  • Misty Wet Madeira (Derek Muller) – 18 points
  • Lonely Walker Melanie Gallacher) – 18 points
  • More snow on the horizon (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points
  • Little boat before the storm (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points

Well done to Mike Clark, who wins the right to judge next year’s competition. Well done also to new member Nicola Cawthorne, who achieved an impressive 2nd place. This is just the first round out of 3, and the overall winner is the one who has the highest marks from their best two rounds. So the competition is still open, and there are a lot of members still in contention.

  • Please send your 3 JPEG images for the second round of this competition (on the theme “Emotion”) to George Todd this weekend. George needs the images early because he is going away on holiday and needs to pass them to Derek.
  • Next Thursday (5th February) we have our annual quiz night. Jim Innes will be this year’s quizmaster.
  • Please note that the 3-way competition has been moved from 12th March to 2nd April. Our “Photo Scavenger Hunt” will take place instead on 23rd April. Derek Muller is going to make use of the changes in March to give us a special indoor photoshoot (more details later).

22 January 2026 (Photoshoot Preparation)

Posted on by
Reply

This week, Derek Muller and Mike Clark gave us some advice on taking better landscape photographs. It could be said that landscape photographs are the purest form of photography, because they are all about capturing light. You can’t control the light on the landscape but you can wait until the lighting is right before capturing your image. Landscape photographs often include something in the foreground to draw you into the picture. Leading lines (such as from a path, the coastline or a line of trees or rocks) are especially good at doing that. Landscape photographers often travel to remote places, but you can also get good landscape images from your own neighbourhood. If you have a local view that you think would look good as a landscape shot, keep visiting the place in different weather conditions and at different times of the day, and keep trying until you get the shot that you think the place deserves. Notice where the light is coming from, think about where you would like it to come from, and come back when the sun is in the right place. There are some apps you can use on your phone to predict where the sun and moon will be at a particular time when viewed from any location (particularly useful if you are planning a sunset or moonrise photo).

The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE): Designed for landscape and night photography.

Sun Surveyor: More detailed info for the sun and moon.

Derek described two kinds of landscape photography:

  • Standard landscape photography is where you photograph the landscape in front of you, capturing a stunning composition when the light is at its best.
  • Alternative landscape photography is where you do something a little different, such as capturing an unusual subject as if it was a landscape image. You can photograph unusual things (such as a plate of daisies) in a landscape setting. John West’s image of paperclip figures on the beach is a good example. Another possibility would be to get down low with a macro lens and treat all the bumps on the ground as if they were hills.

Mike showed us a collection of landscape shots taken around Scotland. He showed how two shots of the same location (such as the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye or the falls at Glencoe) could look very different in different kinds of light. You can produce a dreamy, milky effect from running or splashing water by using a long exposure, although the extreme milky shots used to be more fashionable a few years ago. Nowadays it is better to keep the exposure short enough so there is some dreaminess but you can still see some detail in the water. Neutral density filters can be used to take long exposures in daylight. Their effect is explained on the following web site:

How to Choose the Right ND Filter for Long-Exposure Effects

Landscape photographs often (but not always) need the maximum depth of field, so all the objects from the foreground to the distant background are sharp. There is a “magic” focus distance (known as the hyperfocal distance) that you can set manually for a particular camera, lens and aperture that gives the maximum depth of field. Here are some examples of a web site or app you can use to calculate the hyperfocal distance.

PhotoPills: Hyperfocal Distance Table

HyperFocal Pro app

Finally, we discussed the plans for our Saturday photoshoot to Cramond Island. You can only cross the causeway to the island at low tide. The Queensferry Lifeboat Station web site has downloadable PDFs giving safe crossing times. You can also a phone app such as AnyTide or TidePoint. In the end we had a successful photoshoot, in spite of the cold wind and damp conditions. The misty environment and soft sunlight produced softer shadows and stronger colours that improved a lot of our shots. So, you don’t necessarily need good weather to get good landscape shots, although keeping your hands warm is essential for operating the camera controls! After the photoshoot we all escaped to a nearby cafe for hot chocolate or coffee. Thank you to Derek for organising the photoshoot and giving us some challenges to accomplish.

  • On Tuesday, 27th January we will be joining Haddington Camera Club for the Match An Image competition. The competition starts at 7:30pm at the Poldrate Mill, Haddington (also home of the Poldrate Arts and Crafts Centre). Click on the following map for directions:

Haddington Camera Club location: Google Maps

  • This Thursday, 29th January, George Todd will be judging the first of our three set subject competitions on the theme of “weather”. Come along to the Fisherrow Centre at the usual time.

08 January 2026 (Human Portrait Print Competition)

Posted on by
Reply

Happy New Year! The season restarted with our annual Human Portrait Print Competition. George Robertson, who had given us these fantastic talks on mountain photography, returned to the club as judge rather than speaker.

23 September 2021 (Into the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods)

22 September 2022 (George Robertson: The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

31 October 2024 (George Robertson: Exploring Kathmandu and the Khumbu Valley)

George explained that when he judges prints he first splits them into two piles, 20 points and 17 points, based on their initial impact. He then waits a couple of days and looks again at the prints to see if any had gone into the wrong pile. Finally, he looks in more detail and subtracts points for technical issues such as sharpness, exposure or processing faults.

36 prints had been entered by 12 members. Some period portraits had been taken at Duncarron Medieval Village or at a battle re-enactment such as the battle of Prestonpans. There were also some travel portraits and studio portraits, including some of club members taken at our recent creative lighting workshop or studio night. George recognised the familiar faces. George critiqued the impact and engagement of each image, noting whether the pose, expression and composition helped or hindered the intended story. Most of the images were sharp where they needed to be (on the eyes of the subject) but some were sharper than others. The emphasis needed to be on the face, and in some images the face wasn’t the brightest area. There were also some images where dark clothing appeared to merge with a dark background. George also spotted some post-processing faults and noted that some prints had a yellow or magenta tint. He suggested using the texture tool in Adobe Lightroom to soften or roughen the face, depending on the situation (e.g. soften for a beauty shot or roughen for a battle scenario). Here is a YouTube video explaining how to do this:

YouTube video demonstrating the Adobe Lightroom “texture” tool.

George finished by revealing the top images which gave him the most impact but had fewest technical faults. He suggested we look closely into the eyes of the top image, “Beauty can be Fragile”, to see the detail and sharpness. When all the scores were added up, the top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (49 points)
    • Carol Edmond
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 4th place (50 points)
    • Mike Clark
  • 3rd place (51 points)
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • George Todd
  • 1st place (55 points)
    • Derek Muller

George’s top images were:

  • Beauty can be Fragile (Derek Muller) – 20 points
  • Touch of Elegance (Melanie Gallacher) – 19 points
  • Soothsayer has Concerns (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Kalon – Ink Tells My Story (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Red Haired Beauty (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Woodland Queen (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points

Well done to Derek for winning the trophy and for producing such a magnificent top image. Well done also to George and Melanie for their consistently high quality entries. Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you to George Robertson for judging the competition and giving us some good advice.

  • Please send your 3 “weather” images to George Todd as soon as possible.
  • Next week we have a club where we can take the opportunity to look at the 21 images that we missed seeing at the Black and White Print Competition on 4th December. This is unlikely to take the whole evening, so if you have a photograph from the Christmas holidays that you would like to show, please bring it along and we can show it at the end (depending on how much time we have).

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.

04 December 2025 (Black and White Print Competition)

Posted on by
Reply

Our Black and White print competition was judged on 4th December 2025 by Malcolm Lind from Blairgowrie. Malcolm, a former school teacher with an interest in photography, history and archaeology, explained that he has been taking photographs since he was 3 years old. His first photograph was of his father looming over him trying to explain how to hold the camera steady. He joined Perth Photographic Society in 1999 and spent some time as the club president. Malcolm explained that he is not going to tell us how to take photographs. Each print will be judged on how well it makes an impression and tells a story.

42 prints had been entered by 14 members. Unfortunately, a folder containing 21 of the prints had been missed, so only the first 21 prints were presented on the night. However, presenting only 21 prints allowed Malcolm to go into great detail. Malcolm felt that the title of a print was very important, as it revealed what the photographer was trying to achieve. Being a historian, Malcolm recognised some of the scenes and told the story of the subjects being photographed. For example, the cross at North Berwick is a memorial to Catherine Watson, who lost her life while rescuing children in a storm; and Durham Cathedral is placed at a strategic bend on the River Wear. John Fowler’s “Last Look” brought back memories of the demolition of Cockenzie Power Station. Malcolm enjoyed the historical photographs from Beamish Museum, as the trams and steam engines gave him a feeling of nostalgia. There were a number of costumed portraits that were judged on the consistency of their story. Mike Clark’s portrait of a soldier demonstrated the classic “1000 yard stare” of someone who was traumatised and exhausted. Some of the other portraits contained anachronisms. Why was this soldier in an 18th century costume also wearing trainers and a watch chain, for example? You could get away with these inconsistencies if the title and composition reveals that the intended effect is cosplay, steam punk, or a joke. Carol Edmond’s Beetlejuice portrait had an iWatch, but the facial expression and and pose showed that this was unabashed cosplay. Malcolm liked prints where the photographer had gone the extra mile to show something unusual, and this was reflected in the scores. A few days later, Malcolm sent us the scores for the remaining 21 images, and when the final scores were added the final result was (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (49 points)
    • Jennifer Davidson
  • 4th place (50 points)
    • John Fowler
    • Derek Muller
    • Melanie Gallacher
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Steven Beard
  • 2nd place (53 points)
    • Mike Clark
  • 1st place (54 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Finger Tree (Steven Beard) – 20 points
  • Breaking the Rapids (George Todd) – 19 points
  • Exmoor Pony (Mike Clark) – 19 points
  • Last Look (John Fowler) – 18 points
  • Storm Riders (George Todd) – 18 points

But that short list doesn’t reflect the overall quality of the images submitted. 11 images were good enough to score 17 points. Well done to George for winning, and to Mike and Steven for achieving 2nd and 3rd places by just 1 point behind. Thank you to Malcolm Lind for judging the competition and for entertaining us with his critique. Malcolm has sent us his critique for the 21 images that we didn’t see, which I’ll bring along this Thursday.

  • If you have 3 mounted prints to enter for our Human Portrait Print competition, please bring them along on Thursday and give them to George Todd. Please also email a JPEG version of your 3 images to georgetodd1957@me.com.

24 November 2025 (4 Way Inter-Club Competition)

Posted on by
Reply

Our annual 4-way interclub competition took place on Monday, 24th November 2025. Musselburgh Camera Club members joined members from Kirkcaldy Photographic Society and Stirling and District Camera Club to visit Edinburgh Photographic Society at their premises in Great King Street in Edinburgh. Edinburgh had laid on a feast of drinks, sandwiches and cakes. The competition was judged by Ricki O’Niell, an internationally acclaimed artist and photographer from Dundee. Ricki had a train to catch, so the competition whizzed by at a faster pace than usual.

Each club had submitted 15 digital images, making a grand total of 60 images. This year we were up against several images that had scored highly in the 2025 SPF Digital Championship, so the competition was tough. Edinburgh’s first image called “Apotheosis” got them onto a good start by getting 19 points. Kirkcaldy followed with a lovely landscape called “Break in the Rain at Tiumpan Head” which scored 17. Musselburgh’s first image was “Barn Own” by Derek Muller, which was awarded 16 points. The disappointing trend continued when of our most dramatic image, George Todd’s “Quad Launch”, only scored 15 because it didn’t look realistic. Most of our images achieved reasonable average scores, but we had fewer top images than the other clubs, and that made a difference. We ended up in last place for the second successive year with the final scores:

  • 1st place equal: Edinburgh Photographic Society, 257 points.
  • 1st place equal: Kirkcaldy Photographic Society, 257 points.
  • 3rd place: Stirling and District Camera Club, 254 points.
  • 4th place: Musselburgh Camera Club, 246 points.

The top scoring images in the competition were:

  • Root Cellar Delights (Stirling) – 20 points.
  • Well-timed Duck (Kirkcaldy) – 20 points.

Our top images were:

  • Frosted Whiskers (George Todd) – 19 points.
  • Proud Woodpecker (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points.
  • Strength Against the Current (George Todd) – 18 points.
  • Dave, Going His Own Way (Derek Muller) – 18 points.

The early finish gave us more time to chat in Edinburgh’s lovely premises. Well done to George, Malcolm and Derek for holding up against such tough competition. It looks like we need to try harder next year.

20 November 2025 (Soft Focus and Double Exposure Workshop)

Posted on by
Reply

We spent the club meeting on 20th November learning some techniques that we could try on our Saturday photoshoot at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. We tried two different techniques:

1) Double Exposures

This technique combines two or more exposures together to create a surprising result. Try “double exposure photography examples” as a Google search to see some example images. Common examples include portraits blended with natural or architectural silhouettes, or multiple poses blended together. Exposures can be combined in-camera, or they can be captured separately and blended later using software such as Adobe Photoshop. The following YouTube videos show how to set up a Canon camera:

Ask David Bergman: A Step-by-Step Guide for In-Camera Multiple Exposures

Eric Floberg: How to Shoot a DOUBLE EXPOSURE In-Camera [2023]

If you explore the “shooting menu”, you’ll find Nikon cameras have a similar setup. We discovered that all our cameras had slightly different ways of setting up double exposures, and the newer cameras had more options. If your camera doesn’t have a multiple exposure option, you can still take single exposures and blend them in Photoshop. We tried a few experiments inspired by Leonardo de Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

2) Soft Focus Techniques

Hans van der Boom had given the club a talk on improving flower photograph using soft focus techniques back in April 2024. Bob Daalder also describes how he uses soft focus techniques in macro photography in the following blog:

Macro Photography: Discover the Little World with Bob Daalder

We explored the following soft focus techniques:

  • Using a wide aperture to blur the background.
  • Making a double exposure (as described above) but combining an in-focus image of a flower with an out of focus image.
  • Using coloured cellophane to mask off an area you want to be out of focus.
  • Using an out of focus image of a crinkled piece of Aluminium foil to create some foreground bokeh.

We discovered that both techniques need a lot of practice to get right, but it is fun to experiment. We came away from our Botanics photoshoot with lots of weird and wonderful images.

06 November 2025 (Colour Print Competition)

Posted on by
Reply

This week we welcomed Dougie Allan, secretary and webmaster for Penicuik Photography Club, to judge our Colour Print competition. On his last visit Dougie had given us a talk on drone photography, and he is now experimenting with astrophotography. You can see some of Dougie’s work in his Penicuik Photography Club gallery. Fortunately, he managed to avoid the traffic jam outside Musselburgh that had held up some members.

56 prints had been entered by 19 members. Dougie said that it was tricky to judge a competition where there was one category for both beginners and advanced photographers. A few mounts had been spoiled by blobs of glue, but this didn’t affect their marks. He commented on the lighting, sharpness and composition of each print. Some lovely portrait prints were a little dark and could be improved with extra lighting, especially a light to separate the model’s dark hair from a dark background. Dougie preferred candid shots where the people shown appear to be unaware of the photographer. There were also a few wildlife shots that were a little too dark to show detail in dark areas. It isn’t possible to use a flash with these shots, but Dougie suggested a slightly longer exposure and some dodging and burning to make the final corrections. Some of the prints were a little too tight in the frame and others had areas of blank space that could have been cropped out. Dougie recommended shooting a slightly wider angle than you need, which gives you the opportunity to crop the image before printing and include enough space around the edges. Dougie liked several of the prints, but it was small differences in sharpness and depth of field that separated the top marks. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

  • 5th place (50 points)
    • Carol Edmond.
  • 4th place (51 points)
    • Joe Fowler
    • Elaine Gilroy
  • 3rd place (52 points)
    • Mike Clark
    • Edward Robertson
    • Jennifer Davidson
    • Nicola Cawthorne
  • 2nd place (55 points)
    • Derek Muller
  • 1st place (58 points)
    • George Todd

The top images were:

  • Quad Launch (George Todd) – 20 points
  • Between the Poles (George Todd) – 20 points
  • No 1 Out the Bend  (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Running Against the Clock (Derek Muller) – 19 points
  • Dockland (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
  • Mountain Hare Close-Up (George Todd) – 18 points
  • Autumn at the Hermitage (Mike Clark) – 18 points
  • Exotic Frog (Edward Robertson) – 18 points
  • Me and my Sax (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
  • Brown Hare Boxing (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Sanderling in Flight (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
  • Young Sight Impaired Eagle (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points

Well done to George Todd, winning with 58/60, to Derek Muller for coming a close second, and to Mike, Ed, Jennifer and new member Nicola for achieving a bronze medal. Thank you also to Dougie for judging our prints.

  • Next week is the hand-in date for our Black and White Print competition. Please bring along up to 3 mounted prints and email your JPEG versions to George. Click here for a guide on how to mount your prints.
  • Next week we also have a “Live Shooting Workshop”, which will be similar to the “Creative Lighting Workshop” we had in September, except this time we will concentrate on still life and macro photography. Please bring along your camera and a flashgun (if you have one). A macro lens will help, but if you don’t have one you’ll still be able to use a standard lens. If you have any lighting equipment (torches, flash, LED lights, soft boxes, etc…) or interesting things to photograph (e.g. toys, flowers, jewellery, crockery, seashells, etc…) please bring them along as well. I look forward to a fun evening of photography.

Steven

 

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.