It’s our last meet of the year at the AK Bell Library, and it’s time for our AGM. This is an important formality in the calendar, as we get to hear something of the work that goes on to keep the club functioning smoothly. And it doesn’t take all night – we’re planning to complement this with a ‘critique evening’, where we can all bring in images we’ve taken (digital or prints), and can gather in small groups to discuss them. What works, what could we do better. It’s a great opportunity for some feedback on images we’re thinking of for the SPF Portfolio competition, and for the Festival of the Arts exhibition, over the coming months. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week25
Well, we don’t have so many novices any more! Through this season’s expanded Cultivating Novice Photographers programme, we now have many more confident photographers, speaking with ease about their progress through the year.
Away from the main club nights on Wednesdays we’ve had two main groups meeting regularly in person – John’s group have been getting together in Aberfeldy; Ian’s group in Scone – plus a number of one-off special-interest gatherings elsewhere.
The experience of the members of the two groups prior to joining PPS has varied enormously, with interests in wildlife, travel, macro, family portraiture. And they’ve been learning on the job, as they meet the various photographic challenges they’ve been set – high-key, low-key, shallow depth of field, movement, and so on.
Lizzie, Nicole, Lynn and Alastair talked us through some of what they’ve been working on through the year, and Ian spoke on behalf of the group he’s been helping. We heard how they’ve all improved in camera-handling, in composition, and in processing the images to bring out what they saw in the first place when they took each photo.
John wrapped up with some thoughts on the mono work he’s been developing over the last year.
We’ve had 20 brand-new members this season, and it’s lovely to see so many of them making such progress in their first year, both in the images they take, and in their willingness to stand up and speak about them. Congratulations!
As our season gets into its final month, it’s time to celebrate the progress of some of our newer members who have been taking advantage of our grandly-titled Cultivating Novice Photographers programme. Three small groups have been meeting regularly with experienced members. Some of this cohort will be sharing what they’ve been up to, showing their images and speaking about their growing confidence. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week24
Newcomers are still welcome to register online, and come along to meet us for a couple of weeks, with no commitment. That gives you the chance to decide if you like what you see. Or you can jump straight in with new or renewed membership. Either way, go to the online form on our Membership page to register. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/membership/
Selfie night is always fun, and last night was as much fun as ever. 24 Selfies from 10 photographers, and hugely inventive and entertaining. The in-house event photography did it’s best to keep up with the selfie theme.
Not just selfies but also a second half of audio-visual presentations – no less than 9 of these to savour.
At the end of each showing, everyone gets to go on their phones for the vote-casting.
Worthy Winners are in the winners galleries, for – Dall Cup Selfies and – Simpson Cup AVs
One evening, two competitions, and these are judged by us the members, so it’s a lot of fun as well as a chance to show the prodigious talent of our members in two quite diverse fields of photography. Watch out for details in the members’ mailing. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week23
Newcomers are still welcome to register online, and come along to meet us for a couple of weeks, with no commitment. That gives you the chance to decide if you like what you see. Or you can jump straight in with new or renewed membership. Either way, go to the online form on our Membership page to register. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/membership/
Firstly, congratulations to PPS’s Vicky McNamara for her Commended placing in the recent Scottish Photograhic Federation SPF Print Championships, for her mono, ‘Do you have to?’.
It was lovely to welcome Omar Shamma to the library speak to us again. He’d previously delighted us on Zoom, when he told us about his street photography in London, back when we were meeting online during the time of covid.
This time, in person, we heard about his photographic travels in the north and south – Svalbard and the Antarctic Peninsula. After a brief and colourful moment to set up, he told us of the archipelago formerly known as Spitzbergen, where the best way to get around is on a photography cruise, on a small/medium-sized ship, with options for zodiac excursions and landings.
The zodiac trips have their own characteristics – photographers packed shoulder to shoulder, facing each other across the boat, and all trying for that bucket-list shot, as the boat bounces around beneath them. To come back from such trips with a worthwhile image is an achievement – Omar had scores of them. And he told us his tips for getting the shot that are often just as relevant on a cold day in Scotland as they are at the ends of the earth.
The talk was sub-titled ‘the last wilderness’. Sadly, the ends of the earth are nearer than they’ve ever been. Omar’s closest polar bear sighting was, we heard, made more poignant when it was noted that the object the bear seemed to be playing with was not seaweed or a piece of seal, but a carrier bag. Legislation being introduced for future seasons will increase the distance to be kept between tourists and the bears, and frame-filling photos will be even harder to come by.
Legislation has reached Antarctica, too. To minimise the spread of bird flu, those going ashore have their feet disinfected before and after, and tripods are deprecated. Even dropping an un-sterilised knee into the snow to get your lens down to penguin-level incurs a prompt correction from the guides.
Omar talked us with good humour through image after memorable image, with wonderful framing through ice formations, and light ranging from brilliant and clear to threatening and stormy.
The cruises run photography competitions for various genres: landscape, wildlife, abstract, people, and so on. Suffice to say, Omar cleaned up. It’s been a delight to hear his story.
This week we have another visiting speaker. Omar Shamma will tell of his recent visits to polar opposites – Spitzbergen and Antarctica. Omar has presented to PPS before, about his generous and friendly approach to street photography. See now what he brings back from those parts of the world where the names have no streets. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week22
Newcomers are still welcome to register online, and come along to meet us for a couple of weeks, with no commitment. That gives you the chance to decide if you like what you see. Or you can jump straight in with new or renewed membership. Either way, go to the online form on our Membership page to register. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/membership/
Our third print competition evening of the season is for the Colour Rosebowl, which allows members to enter up to three colour prints. It’s also our third evening of the season adjudicated by an SPF-accredited judge, and last night we welcomed Piers Hemy, long-time member of Cromarty Camera Club, for his first outing of judging in Perth.
Piers started the evening by sharing a few of his own images, confessing to a love of textures and patterns. He also showed a few landscapes that appeared to be treated to excessive polarisation, but which were in fact shot in infra-red, to illustrate how easy it is to jump to conclusions. However an image was made, he said, whatever challenges were overcome, the judge can only go by the result – guided by the title, and coloured by their own preferences, or prejudices. He noted that overall, the standard of entries for this competition were more uniformly high than he had seen before.
With a field of 36 prints, we were able to view all entries with commentary before the tea break. This allowed time during the break to view all the prints, on the stands around the room. What impresses in a print can vary between being viewed from the back of a lecture theatre and viewed close up.
After tea, the results, and an opportunity to discuss some of the prints further, with the author and amongst the membership. This is where we can learn more of how an image was made, and what challenges were overcome – or perhaps what ingenious techniques were employed. There’s no simple formula for success, but clearly perseverence pays. Lots of opportunities for learning.
Our final externally-judged competition of the season is for the Colour Rosebowl; it’s for up to three colour prints per entrant, and the choice of subject is open. It’s another opportunity to hear constructive critique of our work, and this time our SPF-accredited judge is Piers Hemy. He’s been based for many years at Cromarty Camera Club and is doing the honours in Perth for the first time.
Newcomers are still welcome to register online, and come along to meet us for a couple of weeks, with no commitment. That gives you the chance to decide if you like what you see. Or you can jump straight in with new or renewed membership. Either way, go to the online form on our Membership page to register. https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/membership
Our members’ night in the downstairs former-cafe saw PPS members being treated to three excellent presentations on three topics:
John Boyd discussed printing – do it yourself or get professionals to do it? John talked us through the pros and cons, and what’s needed, for each. Printer, paper, ink vs being organised enough to send files off and await prints by post. A calibrated monitor is a good idea for both options. And consideration of the annual volume at which point home printing starts to have the economic edge.
He reckoned it had taken a fair time to get the hang of home-printing, but we can learn from his experience and perhaps get confident more quickly.
Raymond Leinster, previously best known in PPS as a master of wildlife photography, turns out to be a master of sports photography too. As he told us, contact the clubs or watch the event listings to find out what’s going on. Your access to the action will vary depending on whether you photograph an event for your own pleasure, under an arrangement with the organisers, or on behalf of the organisers.
Either way, usual photographic principles apply – composition, technique, engaging with your subjects – all whilst not getting hit by the ball, the athlete, the horse, the car, and so on. And who knew there were opportunities to photograph harness racing, or parkour, so close to home.
Third up, Tim spoke about computational photography techniques including pixel-shift, lucky imaging, HDR and focus stacking, starting with the choices and decisions made at time of capturing data, and the benefits and considerations of each technique.
He worked through an example of focus-stacking using Ralston’s memorial Cairn in Glen Coe, processing it using DxO PhotoLab, Serif Affinity Photo and LuminarAI.
Benefits of various image-blending techniques. Key: tick = you get the benefit, thumbs-down = you don’t; blue = secondary; orange = not without some other work
