Author Archives: Wallace Gilbraith

For our first night back after the break we met for the Grant Cup – this is our digital image competition on a theme, and this year’s theme was: ‘Time’.

Quite how the photographers interpret the theme is entirely up to them – literal, poetic, humourous, abstract. However you approach it, to do well you need to come up with a crowdpleaser, because the voting is by us, the members.

The concentration is palpable as each of 48 images is projected, three times, and handwritten notes are made. 5 marks to our favourite, 4 marks to the second, and so on.

Then all the phones get turned on, and we submit the scores through our online voting form.

Placings are known right away, and we have a further look at the top five images, and hear something of how they were made. There’s time too for another look at some of the others in the field, including some from this season’s new members.

Congratulatons to our winners. As always, these are posted to our Galleries. And congratulations to everyone who entered, and who gained experience and confidence in the process.

We’ve been on a break from our meetings in town, but not idle. Not least: our novice programme is well under way, with many of our newer members getting together with old-hands who have offered to help them get more from their photography. 

We come back on 10 Jan with our Grant Cup digital competition. It’s for digital images on the theme of ‘Time’, and it’s judged by us, the members. Watch out for details in the members’ mailing.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week15

See what we were up to last time:
https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/…/news/

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/ 

Last night we were delighted to host Rob Davis, of Ayr Photographic Society, on his first visit to Perth, to judge our PKM Trophy mono print competition. Rob started out by noting what he had been looking for in our entries: distinct, purposeful and artistic use of light, shade, tonal range, and where the light actually is in the image. And, when they’ve nailed all of that, for images that have a storyline or a narrative of their own.

He also referred to the Scottish Photographic Federation’s ‘What Judges Should Be Looking For’ (we link to this on our Competitions/ general guidelines page), being how SPF judges are guided to allocate marks in the 1-20 system, and which gives a surprising amount of flexibility for rating subjective appeal as well as a solid technical foundation.

He had 57 prints to cover, which gave a good length of time for comments on both the image itself and the quality of the printing, including the choice of paper on which it was printed. There were several film-based images, a darkroom print here and there, and Rob was un-fazed by the inclusion of a cyanotype-printed T-shirt amongst the entries.

Without the distinctions of colour, mono images need to make distinctions by use of tone; one of Rob’s tips, which we’ve not heard before, was to explore the presets in your favourite editing software, and see if any of them can bring out some tonal differences in the RAW file that the eye on it’s own might miss, and then use that as a basis for manual processing.

Commentary complete, there was time to check the scores and spend some more time viewing the prints at close quarters, before heading home and perhaps putting some of Rob’s advice into practice.

This week we have the PKM Trophy, our mono print competition. It’s also our last meeting before Christmas. 

This competition is not just about the image, it’s about the print, so it’s worth sitting close to the easel.

Our visiting judge is Rob Davis from Ayr Photographic Society – click on the link to see some of his work.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week10

See what we were up to last week:
https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/…/news/

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/ 

We had a great turnout upstairs in the Sandeman Room for three speakers from our ranks:

Graham Robb told of his experience setting up a pop-up shop in Aberfeldy with John BOyd, offering studio-style portraiture. From what he says, the photography is the easy bit, the tricky part is managing the oh-so-brief interactions with the client/ models.

Martin Samson spoke of the Scottish Tower House castle, of which there are several thousand, thanks to King David’s land distribution policy of old, and of which Martin has visitied a great many with his camera. A few weeks earlier, Graeme Youngson had spoken to us in praise of taking on a ‘Project’, and Martin’s work with the castles is a fine example of this approach.

Leading into the tea break, Wol GIlbraith encouraged us all to get profiicient at building the bamboo print stands we’ll need for next week’s print competition. There’s a new ‘How To …’ video, here. It’s short, and the bit with the rubber bands comes at 00:45 or so.

No-one can follow the incomparable David Hay, this time sharing his images taken at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. His attention to compositional detail is exemplary, as was obvious when she showed his ‘tourist shot’ alongside his ‘composed shot’ of some of the finest modern architecture in Europe. Staying for a week in a hotel 5 minutes from the site gave him plenty of opportunity to explore before ever getting his camera out, by which time he had a good idea of what was available – including a few compositions that no-one else seems to have found. Wonderful!

Top of the bill for this week’s three talks we have David Hay, with Photographing Modern Architecture at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. It’s an extraordinary city, and we know from the other week that David has an eye for the shot.

Before him, we’ll hear from Graham Robb, on Pop-up Pics in Perthshire. Graham and John set up a mini studio in a pop-up shop in Aberfeldy, offering portrait photography.

And Martin Samson on Scottish Tower House Castles – photographing various tower houses, and regaling us with many tales and legends attached to them.

In the middle, Wol Gilbraith will get us ready to build the print stands we need for next week’s PKM Trophy mono print competition.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week09

See what we were up to last week:
https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/…/news/

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/ 

Damian’s publicity photo, of him surrounded by dark-framed monos, as used in our Upcoming promotion of last night’s talk, made him look ever so slightly sombre – but he proved to be anything but. A product of a sculptor father, artist mother, and artist grandfather, Damian told how he was slow to realise quite how visual he was, until he moved into photojournalism and to his current position on the picture desk at The Herald in Glasgow.

As he describes it, for him the Outdoors is a place of peace and of wonder, and his landscape photographs capture wonderfully the infectious optimism that comes from being out exploring the land, childlike, for the pleasure of finding what’s round the next corner, over the next hill. It’s not all at well-known locations by any means, and we saw a lot more more golden light than the dark-framed monos would suggest.

After tallking us through a selection of his vast and prize-winning portfolio, Damian generously told us of some of the apps and websites that help his planning, and ours too if we choose to use them. From Windy and its map of webcams showing local conditions all over, to The Photographer’s Ephemeris showing where the sun will be at any given time and place, and many in between.

Damian also showed us what’s in his bag, and it’s not that much. A NIkon D850, three lenses, a couple of filters, and a wee tripod. Oh, and the wee drone that he dare not fly, after he watched his pal ditch his in a river by mistake. Why pack loads of gear if it makes it a chore to carry? Get out there, get exploring, take the photos that make you happy, and maybe you’ll make other people happy too.

We’ve got another treat this coming week, Wed 22 Nov. Damian is one of Scotland’s best known and most highly regarded Landscape photographers. He has been highly placed in every Scottish Landscape Photographer competition for the last decade and is a veteran of more than 15 solo exhibitions from London to Aberfeldy. In between photographing stormy landscapes, he is deputy photo editor for The Herald and Times Group in Glasgow. Not to be missed.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week08

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/

Last night we were pleased to welcome Mary Gibson to judge the first competition of our season. Mary is a member of Carluke Camera Club, and had driven 85 miles to be with us. On this occasion, of course, the hat she wore was not of CCC but the SPF (Scottish Photographic Federation), as she gave us the benefit of her experience in her assessment of our digital competition entries.

We like to invite visiting judges to show us some of their own work before they talk through ours. We find this gives us a better sense of where their eye is at, and helps us understand some of the thinking behind the comments they make. Whilst retaining her interest and knowledge in nature, animals and motorbike sports, these days Mary leans towards ‘creative’ photography, which has been brought her considerable success in competitions.

Our own competition itself was notable for several features. The Main Cup ranks the photographers for consistency, based on the combined score of three images. And in this case Mary has 93 images to address, which must be a PPS record in modern times, and which put a bit of a strain on the programme for the evening in general, and on the tea break in particular. This is not such a bad state of affairs – keep those entries coming in! Mary particularly highlighted matters of compositional strength in how photographers had handled various scenes and how the eye flows around the frame; and if the limits of time meant Mary wasn’t able to say a huge amount about each image, at least we’ve all had a chance to see each other’s work and can discuss it amongst ourselves afterwards.

As usual, we’ve got the winning entries on our Galleries page.

Next up, we have the first competition of the season, which as well as being a competition is a great opportunity to hear some learned commentary on our images from a judge accredited by the Scottish Photographic Federation. We’re fortunate to have Mary Gibson from Carluke CC coming to share her expertise for the evening. Our members’ mailing will give a fuller introduction.

Mary will have her work cut out – we’ve got what’s probably a record-breaking (for us) 93 images to enjoy. Expect to be inspired to think more deeply about how you can better tell the stories you want to tell.

For this, the Main Cup, the competition is run as an accumulator. Entrants submit three digital images, they’re scored out of 20, and the combined score of all three, out of 60, is what determines the placings.

After the event, the top-placed entries will be posted on our Galleries pages for us all to enjoy, and perhaps learn from, again.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week07

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