Happy New Year! We start back after the break with a real treat – the Grant Cup competition. It’s for digital images, up to three per person. It’s themed – this year’s theme is ‘Transient’. And it’s judged by the members present. So, no learned commentary from an external judge this time, just us, looking at all the entries a couple of times, then casting our votes to identify the top crowd-pleasers. Don’t miss what promises to be a great evening. Bring your own pencil.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription reduces by 50% after New Year, and the £27.50 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
Last night, another evening of insight from our own ranks, as we were treated to four speakers sharing their images and skills.
John Boyd’s title, Home Training Ground, referred to the daily practise that helps us get familiar with our camera and what it can do. Satisfying images can be hard to come by when we’re struggling with our gear. On the other hand, cultivating a habit of taking photos every day helps us get to the point when the camera becomes an extension of our eye, and it’s no longer an effort to think about which settings to use. Illustrating his message with scenes from his daily dog-wallks, John has set us a challenge – to take daily images in December, and bring the best ten to share at the next Members’ Night.
Dave Moran showed us how to make an audiovisual presentation, a self-running slideshow of images with a soundtrack, perhaps to tell a story or set a mood in a way that’s a little different from a single image. His hands-on demo used PTE software (it stands for Pictures To Exec), available for Windows and Mac. There are other products, based on similar principles, offering a variety of features. Dave’s timing is spot on – an AV does take a bit of planning; our annual Simpson Cup is contested in March; and we now have four weeks off over Christmas to get organised.
Tom Ryan’s Photographing Birds in Flight suggested that, to capture striking images of small things that are both distant and fast-moving, it can be helpful to turn our back on manual settings, and instead let a modern high-end camera take a lot of the guesswork and luck out of the process. With examples from four days out over the summer, Tom showed us what’s possible, and how freeing ourselves from the technicalities lets us concentrate on the feeling we’re seeking to convey.
Finally, David Hay shared a series of images from his local walks around Pitlochry, taken during the time when local walks were the order of the day. These showed the great variety of autumn colours on the trees, mists hanging above the Tay, the way the sunlight refracts through the dewdrops – so many of nature’s wonders can be found not far from our doorsteps, even if we live in the town. David tells us that these were taken on a lightweight consumer-level camera with a plastic lens – no high-end megabuck pro gear here. But, to come back to John’s message at the start of the evening, his eye is trained by many years of daily practise.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription of £55 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
Last night we were treated to an evening of judging of our mono prints, for the PKM Trophy competition. Doug Berndt from Edinburgh PS did the honours, and cast his judicious eye over our 35 prints. His commentary included his appreciation of the impact and story of each image, before considering composition and technical matters, and an assessment of photographer input.
Being a print competition, Doug also made a point of noting the choice of paper type for each entry, which for the most part he found to be appropriate to the image thereon. And he noted how helpful it is to judges when entries include a white-paper border between the image and the mount, the better to assess how the highlights appear on the chosen paper.
We met in the more intimate surroundings of the Sandeman Room, upstairs. As for the 4-Way the previous week, prints were shown on the new display stand, this time illuminated by a pair of rather large studio softboxes, before being moved to the bamboo stands around the walls. To see each print from a good angle, and to keep out of the way of the audience, Doug delivered his commentary, and his laser pointing, from the back of the room.
This week, it’s the PKM Trophy, our annual mono print competition. We’ve had to bring this forward a week, so this will be held upstairs in the Sandeman Room rather than in the theatre, which should make for a more intimate evening. Judging will be by Doug Berndt from Edinburgh PS, who was last with us in Feb 2020. We can expect him to cast a keen critical eye over our prints, with the aim of helping us think a little deeper about our work in the context of SPF-judged events.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription of £55 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
This week, it’s the Annual 4-Way Photographic Competition, better known as the 4-Way Battle. It’s PPS’s turn to host, and we’ll be welcoming our regular co-battlers from Dundee and St Andrews Photographic Societies (the usual fourth club being indisposed for the time being). We’ll have a visiting judge again, from the Scottish Photographic Federation again, who will score the prints and the JPGs each out of 20, and the club with the highest combined score will be declared the winner.
As with last week’s Main Cup, for many of us it’s the judge’s comments that are the real value of these occasions, on both our own images and on those of others. Not forgetting the conversation stimulated amongst ourselves as we compare the judge’s comments with our own impressions.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription of £55 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
Exciting – our first competition of the season, and our first in-person competition since Mar 2020. Welcome back! The Main Cup was well-entered, with images from half the membership, representing a broad spread of experience, from seasoned old hands to fresh first-season-ers.
Visiting judge Ken Lindsay, from Eastwood PS, showed a handful of his own images, before giving his comments on ours in a relaxed and accessible manner. Some of the common themes are common to all, regardless of what camera we use – the importance of deciding where to stand and how much to include in the frame. Other themes concerned the processing of the image, with some reference to the ever-popular Lightroom, but there are alternatives out there to suit all budgets, including very good free software.
It’s always a treat to see what we’ve all been working on. Whatever the comments, the cream tends to float to the top, and we always enjoy comparing notes on which bits of crushed walnut seem to sink to the bottom. In this way, although we can learn from the judge’s comments, we can also we can learn a great deal from each other.
This week, we’re having our first competition of the season, the Main Cup. This is for three images, on any theme or style, and in this, consistency is key. The judge, from the Scottish Photographic Federation, will score each out of 20, and the combined score out of 60 will determine the placings.
More importantly for many of us, the judge will also comment on each, and it is this commentary that can help us think more deeply about our photography, and how we can better tell the stories we want to tell, and achieve our creative vision.
After the event, the top-placed entries will be posted on our Galleries pages for us all to enjoy, and perhaps learn from, again.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription of £55 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
A mount-cutting masterclass with John Boyd, who showed us front boards, back boards, white boards, cream boards. How to choose your print size to suit your aperture size. How to cut, and how to stick. The demonstration table attracted a great deal of interest in the break, and we can look forward to seeing lots of beautifully-mounted prints throughout the rest of the year.
Dave Moran shared his experience of producing a calendar – a topical subject, as that time of year is coming round again.
Wol Gilbraith briefly outlined the running of a typical print competition, and explained the custom that, after the entries are commented upon by the judge, the prints are set out around the room so we can take a closer look at them in the break. We need a better way of displaying them than propping them against the skirting board, and have devised a system of lightweight demountable bamboo stands. The building of these stands was demonstrated, and can, in times of need, be reviewed for reference here. (Addendum – the Nov 22 video has been updated with a Nov 23 version, now shown below)
Last but not least, because he was actually on first, we were joined by Scott Russell from Culture Perth & Kinross, who told us of the resources available in the various Maker_Spaces that can be found and accessed at libraries and elsewhere around the county.
This week we’re having a Members’/ Workshop night, where we share our expertise and practical skills. John Boyd will show us how we can mount our prints, for competitions and for display; Dave Moran will talk us through making a photographic calendar. And in the tea break, Wol Gilbraith will show us how to assemble the bamboo stands we’ll use for displaying entries in print competitions, starting with the 4-Way Battle.
We’re also hoping to be joined by Scott Russell from Culture Perth & Kinross to talk about their Maker_Spaces, which “have an extensive range of creative technology available and free to use for … individuals” – including some printers that could be useful, and a photography studio, and more.
New faces are still welcome to attend two weeks on a trial basis, to see if you’d like to join us for the season. For those who are ready to join, the online Membership Form for the season is open. The membership subscription of £55 can be paid by BACS or by cheque – details are in the membership form.
