29 September 2020. We had a talk from Edinburgh based photographer John Glynn, entitled "Ways of Seeing". John advocates studying the work of other photographers and artists and having a plan when working, rather than simply capturing chance shots. The whole talk was recorded and a link can be found on the Members' Page, which is also password protected. (If you don't know that one, you will soon as an email is being sent to registered members).
State library, Victoria by Jon Moore. (Winner)
Barns Ness, by Sally Heaphy. Joint second place.
Leading Lines, by Paul Laycock. Joint second place.
Cellphone Challenge winners as voted by club members.
22 September 2020. We have now been meeting via "Zoom" for four weeks- and it seems actual attendee numbers are pretty well the same as last year in Poldrate, even though some regular members have opted not to go the online route.
Tonight was fairly heavy technically, as Sally A gave us a crash course in Lightroom , via a slowish link. For a quick resume of the differences between Photoshop and Lightroom, look here.
Derek then did a class on composition, once he sorted out the incompatibilities between Zoom and Mac OS Catalina. We'll see how OS XI handles it when "Big Sur" arrives.
If you can take, or find, a pic or two illustrating any of the features Derek mentioned, or any other composition tips & tricks, like Brenda's "Simplicity" approach, send them to the same address as the Cellphone Challenge, preferably by "Wetransfer", by next Tuesday. Think "Hogarth" lines, Golden Ratio, triangles, dark, scary bits, relative distances and psychoneurology if you have some. My brain is in back to front , so I think all composition rules are just made up. Cram as much stuff in as you can, I say. Cameras aren't cheap! See what you come up with.
These sort of talks are challenging enough to deliver in real life. Onscreen they can be hard to see small detail. This is something we will all learn about this year I expect. One advantage I find to the online scenario is that I'm sitting at home, cuppa to hand, in a well lit and comfy room, at my own PC, so I can look stuff up as the speaker mentions it - and nobody dozes off and starts snoring as occasionally happened in a darkened and sometimes stuffy room with a projector.
Brenda and Tony R also gave us five photos which have significance for them. I enjoy these vignettes , because the images are not constrained by "competition standard"; instead we see images which say something about their authors. I didn't know Brenda wrote Scots verse. I didn't know Tony was an old seadog. I certainly didn't know he was on the "Endurance" with Shackleton (105 years ago!)- but he's right- it doesn't always have to be your own photo to matter to you and that's worth thinking about by anyone doing five photos.
15.September 2020. Your scribe was on North Uist , with a data capped (and very slow) web connection. 56k modem I think.Meanwhile, back in Haddington, the club got into proper photography, having got the intro and the AGM out of the way.
Grace H gave a talk on basic camera settings. Paul and Sally H showed five personally important photos. Andy B talked on "Which Lens When?" and Andy C gave a talk about drone photography entitled "A Higher Perspective".
8 September 2020. This was the AGM we should have held way back in March, which was Covoided. (New verb). AGMs are not fun, but must be got through. Usually it happens at the end of the year. It's to be hoped it didn't put our new members off.
1 September 2020 was an introduction to Zoom, giving everyone a chance to play with the buttons and practice staring at a webcam. This does not come naturally to those of us of a certain age- but we're getting there.
