Category Archives: News

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

Another masterclass! This time from our very own David Hay, speaking about ten of the photographers who inspired him. He brought a trolley full of books, and told us about Vivienne Maier, for one – that’s one of hers on the screen here. And about Jaques Henri-Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, and five others – not just about their work and what was special about them, but stories from the lives of these great characters.

After the break, David spoke of ten images from the PPS Galleries archive that exhibited particular qualities in a photograph. As he talked through them, it became more apparent what a skilled group we are.

And finally, ten of his own images, with a little about how he goes about taking them. For example: first time in a new place it’s normal to be excited and indiscriminate, and easily led towards the standard views. Second time, there’s a better chance to figure out what’s really going on and how the place works. Third time is the time to take photos.

And what happens when he’s taken them. An image very similar to Tears, below, from our Main Cup in 2017, was recently entered in a global competition, and won in the Best Street and Travel section. A fine photograph, like a fine photographer, will keep succeeding.

On Wed 08 Nov we have A Conversation with David Hay. One of our most longstanding and respected members, David is very experienced as a photographer and a photographic judge, and has a reputation for a sharp eye and a kind word. Tonight’s conversation can be thought of as Desert Island Pics: we have asked David to pick a selection of images from three sources – his own collection; by well-known photographers; and from the PPS archives. In conversation with Tom Ryan, David will tell us what makes these pictures stand out from the crowd, and what we can learn from them.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week06

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/

Local Perth astrophotographer Andrew Allan aka Scotland’s Night Sky gave us a guided tour of the galaxy – indoors in the warm, while outside the conditions necessary for his craft were far from ideal.

Having started young with an interest in Space before ever picking up a camera, Andrew has built a strong following for his Scottish landscapes photographed under a night sky – the sort of landscapes many would be happy to have taken in daylight.

More than just a slideshow of his work, Andrew shared his approach to understanding, planning and capturing his images of celestial phenomena – moons, eclipses, planetary conjunctions, constallations, milky way, and northern lights.

He’s right – in Perthshire we’re extraordinarily well placed to be appreciating the night sky. He’s a fine example of getting out there and doing what you love. And his new book could well be appearing under a few more Christmas trees before too long.

Next up, on Wed 01 Nov, we have our third Speaker: Andrew Allan is 26 years old and is from Perth. He’s been doing astrophotography seriously for about 5 years and is building a successful brand as “Scotland’s Night Sky”. As well as photographing the night sky here in Scotland he has made a number of trips to Arctic Norway and Iceland in pursuit of Auroras. Over the past couple of years he has filmed content for BBC and collaborated with Martin Compston. And, very recently, he has produced a guidebook that tells you everything you need to know if you want to photograph Scotland’s Night Skies. You can find more on his website www.scotlandsnightsky.com

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week05

Newcomers are very 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 had been billed as ‘Urban Photography with a dash of Chiarascuro’, and so it proved. An oft-published author, Graeme was a wonderfully lively speaker, and he gave us a masterclass in the principles and practicalities of urban (or street) photography, with many examples exhibiting extreme contrast and great blocks of negative space.

He also encouraged us to think beyond individual images, and consider Projects. The more we work with a given theme, be it style or subject matter, the more we learn about it, and perhaps about ourselves.

And to embrace our failures. A handful of ‘keepers’ from an entire day out? What other pursuit has quite as high a failure rate as photography? And yet, every day is a school day, and every failure can become a learning success.

From comments overheard, this was all received as being accessible to everyone, and indeed inspirational to many. The tricky Italian word was even attempted a few times, and, whatever the pronounciation, the message was clear – expose for the highlights, and let the shadows go to black. (Or vice versa – more Italian).

Perhaps we’ll see more urban/ street in this style in our Facebook group, at Perth Photo Forum.

Our new 2023-24 season is under way, for anyone with an interest in Photography, and living within Perth, Perthshire, Perth and Kinross, and surrounding areas in Scotland. 

Next up, our second Speaker: Graeme Youngson is an accomplished street photographer from Aberdeen. Of particular interest is his use of ‘chiarascuro’ technique to produce dramatic high-contrast black and white images.

https://www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk/2023/07/programme-2023-24/#week04

Newcomers are very 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 at How do I join? to register.Our Facebook Page has other posts you can share – https://www.facebook.com/PerthshirePhotographicSociety

Wow! What a way to start the Speakers element of our season! George spoke to us with contagious enthusiasm, and told us the story of his boardroom background, and his reawakening as a digital artist. He then talked us through his exhibited project, ‘Hope: Ten images depicting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in surrealist form‘.

You can read more about this project here, on Stirling Uni’s Culture on Campus blog. It scarely conveys George’s energy, but it does at least give a sense of the scale of his ambition.

From a technical viewpoint, he had some helpful insights about his choice of colour palette for each image, how the eye is drawn to areas of movement in an image, and how our mind makes up what might exist beyond the confines of the frame.

He also told us of some of the background reading he’s done in support of this project, and, more importantly, in support of of his own personal development to ‘discover your purpose’, of which the project is an expression.