Author Archives: Wallace Gilbraith

Another Members’ Night last night, and another evening upstairs in the Sandeman Room. The presenters get to sit if they wish; we get to see the images on the large-screen telly rather than projected; and we get to sit closer to both the images and to each other. All of this works to the benefit of the evening for those who come, and yesterday we were so many we had to fetch extra chairs.

We had a chance to hear from two of us who joined this year. David Allan gave an overview of his ’50 years, but not counting’ photographic journey, from a Zenit 35mm wih no film in, to a modern digital, with a consistent sense of fun. Bob Bain showed us what he’s been doing to capture images of wildlife with varying numbers of legs – birds, mammals, butterflies and spiders, and even some fish.

We also heard from Tom Ryan speaking about some of the legal and ethical aspects of street photography, taking photographs of people unawares, and the gradations between public and private spaces. And after the break, David Hay wowed us with more of his images, this time from winter walks near his home in snow, frost and mist. Some of the conditions he captured lasted mere minutes. His motto last night – ‘when in doubt, go out’.

This week will be a Members’ Night, with four speakers from our midst 

• David Allan – 50 years, but not counting
• Bob Bain – The Wildlife around us
• David Hay – Winter photography – more seasonal images taken during lockdown
• Tom Ryan – Street Photography – What are the legal and ethical issues around taking pictures of people in public places?

http://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2022/06/programme-2022-23/#15-february-2023

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.

The SPF Portfolio competition is held each autumn, and images are rated as 2, 3, 4 or 5 by each of 3 judges, giving a range of scores from 6 to 15. Afterwards, each participating club is sent DVD with a slideshow of the ‘accepted’ entries – those scoring 11 or more. And each year, our very own David Hay talks us through the show, pointing out emerging trends, creative flourishes, un-noticed errors, and insights into ‘the making of’ many of the images.

We looked at the Mono acceptances before tea, which featured four PPS images: Omar – Me and my shadow; Sandie – Boy on the bike; Wol – Sound of sunshine; Tim – Wailing widow falls.

And after tea, we looked at the Colour ones, including PPS images from: Annette – Ice bird; John – Mountain hare; Omar – Skye 2; Omar – Skye 3; Tom – Tokyo train trip lady; Ian – Lighting up time at kirkjufell; Hillary – Loch Linhie rain squall; Tom – Tokyo skyscrapers.

How did we get so many acceptance? In part because our images are good. And in part because we entered a lot of them – over 75 – curated in a wee Facebook group we set up for the purpose. This let all the authors get some peer-review input, to improve the learning all round, and to select images with a good chance of doing well.

This week will be Portfolio night. We’ll take a look at the high-scoring images as entered, by clubs from around Scotland, to last year’s SPF Portfolio competition. Images will be provided on DVD by the Scottish Photographic Federation; commentary will be by David Hay, who is one of our most experienced members, and who has served as a SPF judge for many years. 

http://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2022/06/programme-2022-23/#08-february-2023

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. 

As our judge for the Nan Borthwick and Peter Rourke Salver competitions we welcomed Eva Christie, local creative, reformed musician (her words!), and director of the Scottish Yarn Festival and the Scottish Wool Producers Showcase, to bring a fresh perspective on the photography of our entrants.

It is our custom to invite visiting judges to start by sharing with us a little of their own work, and Eva described her visual axes as being of colour and texture. As she talked through her impressions, and what she liked about each image, her thoughtfulness became clear.

As one of our number emailed afterwards – ” I thought Eva had done a superb job as a judge and had clearly put a lot of thought and work into the task of being a judge. It gave us a refreshing different outlook on our hobby. Well done to the Committee for getting her”.

Quite so. She’d looked — she’d really looked – at all the images. What better compliment can anyone pay to our images than to look at them?

The top picture shows Eva with Sandie and her winning entry in the Peter Rourke. And, significantly, a happy-looking audience! Winning images are, as always, posted on our galleries pages as we get them.

Next up, we have an evening of two print competitions. The Nan Borthwick Salver is for a set of three images showing a clear intention of a connecting theme of style, content or both. The Peter Rourke Salver is for prints that show photographic artistic styles. 

This year we’ll be welcoming Eva Christie as our visiting judge, who will comment on our entries. Eva is a local creative with a keen eye, and is director of the Scottish Yarn Festival, so we may get a fresh perspective on our work.

http://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2022/06/programme-2022-23/#01-february-2023

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. 

Local photographer/ photograpy lover Des O’Neill brought in a fresh blast of inspiration last night – several dozen books about photography, carefully chosen from his even-larger collection. Charting his development in the art through the cameras he’s used and the through the books he’s bought, Des gave us a glimpse of multiple worlds of possibility, far removed from what we might think of as ‘club photography’.

More than a talk, Des gave us time with his books, to browse, perchance to dream. Above, Sandie, Sabrina and Lizzie marvel at Kirsty Mitchell’s lavish ‘Wonderland’.

We saw Vivian Maier, Martin Parr, Don McCullin, Sebastiao Salgado, Ciarán Og Arnold, Julia Margaret Cameron (and heard the story of the two copies, thanks to the tea cup and the intervening bat!), and so many more. We had time to compare notes, and get a little lost in our own thoughts too. If we had our own premises we might have a small lending library. Anyone got thoughts on setting up something up anyway?

Below, Jimmy, Roben, Bob and Ian find themselves captivated.

Local photographer Des O’Neill has a huge and varied collection of books on photography that he’s compiled over many years. He’ll tell us about some of them, including, perhaps, the one about Sebastião Salgado’s ‘Gold’, about the gold-rush mine in the Brazilian jungle in the 1980’s. And maybe the one about Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), pictured here, who is credited with producing the first close-up portraits in the history of the medium. 

http://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2022/06/programme-2022-23/#25-january-2023

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 was a workshop-ish, looking at what can be done when processing digital images with several different software packages. The aim was to help we members think about what what’s possible, about what we’re using right now, and about how we might want to move forward.

We looked at a selection of apps, from free software you can use on a phone or tablet (Snapseed), through to industry-standard desktop tools favoured by enthusiasts and professionals(Lightroom, Photoshop), with a look at some of the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence (Luminar AI) on the way.

Our panel of ‘test drivers’ put the apps through their paces, editing a selection of digital images. Tim, above, worked with Luminar AI on Ian’s snowy peak image. Graham, below, pointing a finger at his tablet running Snapseed, produced a multiple exposure combining three images he’d taken earlier in the evening. Ian and Wol took turns too, with Photoshop and Lightroom respectively.

Spending only 10 minutes on each image, we barely scratched the surface of the ‘how to …’, but we may have started to explore the ‘why’.

This week will be a workshop night, and we’ll be looking at what can be done when processing digital images with several different software packages. The aim is to help us members think about what what’s possible, about what we’re using right now, and about how we might want to move forward. We may manage to explain some terminology along the way.

We’ll be looking at a wide range of apps, from free software you can use on a phone or tablet, through to industry-standard desktop tools favoured by enthusiasts and professionals.

It promises to be a lively evening, with a panel of ‘test drivers’ putting the apps through their paces, 10 minutes at a time, editing a selection of digital images, and with plenty of time for questions and discussion.

http://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2022/06/programme-2022-23/#18-january-2023

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.