The newsletter of Eastwood Photographic Society, Glasgow, Scotland
www.eastwoodps.co.uk
Year 2015 -2016 -
Number 12 - August 2016
Our trophy winners for 2015-2016.
Back row – James Finnigan, Alistair Cassidy, Ken Wilkie, Colin McLatchie, Alistair McFarlane.
Front row – Stuart McCann, Ken Lindsay, Ross Eaglesham, Peter De Marco.
For those who could not attend the club’s Annual General Meeting here are the trophy winners for the year
recently completed. It was great to see the trophies being shared between nine different members showing
the depth of quality we now have at the club. Those in second and third place in our eight competitions also
reflect that some of our best images are coming from a bigger percentage of competing members.
Once again Ken Lindsay was overall Club Champion finishing seven points ahead of Peter De Marco. Just one
point behind in joint third place were Ross Eaglesham, Stuart McCann and Ken Wilkie. In Division Two the
champion was new member Alistair Cassidy who will now test himself in the top division this coming session.
Alistair had a six point lead over James Finnigan and Charlie Moore in joint second place. In a very competitive
division the next placed members were Janet Jamieson and Manoj Mohan.
“The Novices” by Ken Lindsay and “An Eye on Parliament” by Alistair Cassidy
Glasgow and District Photographic Union Annual Print Exhibition
Some more Eastwood images
Our May newsletter highlighted our second placed club panel along with our individual awards winners. After the problems of the
last few years the GDPU seems to have found an excellent venue for this well supported exhibition. Here are a few more of our
images which were on display.
“Going Clear” by Cliff Lockyer
“Dawn at Laig Bay” by Omer Ahmed
“Successful Dive” by John Hannah
“Blackrock Cottage” by David Hendry
“On Lake Lucerne” by Jim McCreery
“Mending the net” by Stuart McCann
“We never sleep” by Keith Beard
“Snakeshead Frittillary” by Alan Robertson
My Photographic Journey and Last Season’s Favourites by Alistair Cassidy
“Being approached by Jim to write this piece is somewhat daunting. I should start by saying a huge thank you
to everyone who has made me feel so welcome at the club over the past season and I look forward to returning
for the new season soon. Hopefully I can get a few seascapes taken over the summer!
It has been a bit of a whirlwind period since I bought my first DSLR, a Nikon
D5100 in January 2013. It is now almost 3 ½ years and I have not regretted that
decision for a minute. I now use a Nikon D750 after an unfortunate accident
with my old camera at Celtic Connections in January 2015. Having spent the past few years living in
Perth and also being a keen musician, I seem to have focussed mostly on landscape and live music
photography, two very different fields but both very special to me.
I came to Eastwood PS, having spent the previous season at Perthshire PS. This wasn’t therefore my
first experience of being a member of a club or of competitions although I do like the more structured
approach that Eastwood take, with the league system, and feel that it has helped me to grow more
as a photographer and given me something to aim for. Having known Ross Eaglesham from Glasgow
University, I had already heard many things about the Club and it was nice to have a familiar face.
Being asked to pick my favourite photos from
the past year is not easy as judges can be
infuriating with their comments at times. In
fact, one of my favourite photos from the
year was possibly the only live music photo
that I entered and, I think that it got the
lowest score of the year – “Lost in the
Moment” (Nikon d750, Nikon 85mm f/1.8
lens, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 1/400th sec). The judge didn’t like the exposure on it, saying that it
was too dark. It is a lot darker an edit than I would normally do but I liked the isolation of
Floriane and the harp, with the background faded to black.
Of the other favourites though, I have most enjoyed the photos that have taken me out of
my comfort zone or allowed me to explore new techniques. In preparation for People and
Faces, the opportunity to rope a couple of friends, Julia and Caroline into posing for me was
fantastic. ‘Model photography’ is not something I had done very much of and so it was nice
to try something new. In particular, this photo, simply called “Julia”, is one I am pleased
with (Nikon d750, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens, f/2.8, 1/125th sec). I like how she is isolated from the background and also the foreground (although
most of the foreground is cropped out in this version of the photo). I like the light on her face and her expression looking into the camera.
The Old Glasgow competition was one that I battled with, not initially being
too enamoured by the theme. It made me really think about what I was
submitting though, possibly more than with any other competition. Working
to the theme really does focus the attention. This shot, “The Necropolis”,
(Nikon d750, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, f/14, 40mm, ISO 100, 1/6th sec.) was
one I had taken a few months earlier, originally editing it as a fairly standard
colour photo. It lent itself to a more aged edit though and was again a chance
to explore new editing styles in Photoshop.
The mono photo, “Marsco and Sgurr nan Gillean from Sligachan” (Nikon
d5100, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, f/13, 14mm, ISO 400, 1/200th sec.) was a
photo that I had entered previously in Perthshire and had also been entered
into the SPF print competition in 2015. I like the feature of the large rock in the
foreground
and how it is
mirrored by the mountains in the background. It was also one of my more
successful early photographs, having been taken at the end of a photography
course on Skye in April 2013.
My last photo in this selection is “An Eye on Parliament” (Nikon d750, Nikon 2470mm f/2.8 lens, f/11, 27mm, ISO 100, 30 secs.). It was taken late in the season,
on a visit to London and was one of the first photos I edited using the Nik
Software. I just love the detail in the photo, the movement of the London Eye
and the clouds and how the Parliament stands out in the background”. (See this
image on page one – Editor).
Judges and their views
Some more images and judges comments from our
international with our Canadian friends.
EDITORIAL
Over the course of the last
couple of years more and more
Eastwood photographers have
been venturing into wildlife
and natural history. Shots of
birds and other wildlife are
hard to get and invariably
require a lot of patience as
well as good equipment and
photographic skill.
It is interesting to hear different comments and scores from judges as they view
images throughout the year. A good opportunity to get the views of two different
judges simultaneously is our annual competition with Victoria Camera Club on
Vancouver Island. As promised in a previous issue here are some more images from
this year’s friendly. The judges were Bob Collins (Scotland) and Larry Breitkreutz
(Canada). The scores out of 20 are in brackets.
“Heavy Horse Sunset” by Janet Jamieson
(EPS).
Larry – Interesting, imaginative image. Well
thought out and designed. The graphic horse
stands out nicely against the clouds. The
image may be strengthened if there was a bit
more space in front and on top of the horse’s
head (16).
Bob - Tight cropping adds to the power of the
image. No background distractions. (17).
“Snowy Egrets in Mating
Dispute” by Stephen Weideger
“Simplicity and Intricacy” by Mars
Romer (VCC).
If you are keen on this type of
photography why not visit the
Annual
Scottish
Nature
Photography Festival which
will take place once again at
Battleby near Perth. The dates
are 10th and 11th September.
Details next page.
Bob – The cut out is too obvious
and missing the elegance of the
stems (15).
Larry – Fascinating idea very well
executed.
Very clean image
without any distractions (19).
“Under the bridge” by Bobby Carey (VCC).
Larry – Nice clean graphic abstract. Exposure
very well handled. Depth of field drops off a bit
towards the back. The colours and reflections
all add to an overall captivating image (17).
Bob – Nice pastel colours and diagonal. Ideal
background to merge ‘gull in flight’ into (17).
“Autumnal Greenfinch”
By Alan Robertson
It seems only yesterday that
the club had its final evening of
the session but here we are
just over a month away from
the beginning of a new one.
We begin on 8th September.
Hazel Gordon has prepared
another interesting syllabus.
More of this in our September
issue.
Enjoy your photography.
Jim.
“Captain on sunset watch” by Graham
Campbell (EPS).
Bob – Interesting and well composed. Nice
saturation of colours (15).
Larry – A graphic image with strong,
saturated colours. However, the top of the
image struggles to relate to the bottom part.
The vertical items along the horizon, which
look like windmills or poles, add interest to
the skyline. (13).
Congratulations to Colin McLatchie
Picture of the Month
“Zebra Crossing” by David Hunter
Three of our top photographers entered images into the 2016
Scottish International Salon with several acceptances gained.
Many congratulations go to Colin McLatchie who gained an
SPF Gold Medal for “Taking it on the chin”, above, which was
voted the best monochrome by a Scottish resident. Colin had
three acceptances in total.
David says “I liked this image of so many different animals
interacting. This is a dangerous crossing of the Mara River in
Kenya. If you look carefully you will see the snouts of
crocodiles and a lone hyppo. The zebras tend to lead the
more timid wilderbeast across the river. It was taken with a
Nikon D50 and a telephoto lens. A speed of a 640th of a
second was used to freeze the galloping animals to the left of
the picture”.
Ten Years Ago – 2006
Some top photos that year
“Waves of Stone” by
Ken Lindsay.
This was top advanced
slide in round two.
Peter De Marco has just begun submitting images for
international salons and did very well indeed with nine
acceptances including “Walkies are you barking mad”,
above.
Finally, Ken Lindsay had seven acceptances including “Sunrise
over Wanaka”, below. Well done to you all.
“Bike Racers” by Chris Everett. This was top advanced image
in print round three. “Clematis Early Sensation” by Andy
Shearer. This was a successful entry in the club’s first digital
competition.
And finally – Now you see
it now you don’t.
Scottish Nature Photography Festival
This event will be held over week-end of 10th and 11th of
September at Battleby, near Perth.
Presentations,
workshops and exhibitors are included in the programme.
Guest speakers include well known photographer Colin Prior,
Neil Aldridge, award winning conservation photographer,
and Chris Gomersall, a professional photographer for over
thirty years, fourteen of which were spent as a staff
photographer with the RSPB. Tickets and full programme
details from www.wildmedia.org.
In physics a colour is visible light within specific
wavelengths. It is accepted that black and white are not colours.
White is the reflection of all colours and black is nothing.
The visible light spectrum is ROYGBIV. Each colour zips about at
different speeds. R is the slowest while V at the other end is the
quickest. Pink happens when red and violet get together yet they
never do. So it doesn’t exist.
However this is disputed by some who say that as pink is not part of
the light spectrum, it is an extra spectral colour and has to be mixed
to make it.
In an online post, ‘Stop this absurd war on the colour pink’, a US
blogger says research indicates all colour is a fabrication of our
brains. Pink is real or not but it is just as real or not as ROYGBIV.
Sourced from the press by Sandra McCreery.