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On Monday 26^th September, we hosted a special evening to celebrate the Club’s 25^th Anniversary. We welcomed members of the club both past and present, a number of visitors, and gave a particularly warm welcome to the past presidents who graced us with their presence. Eleven of the club’s twelve past presidents were there. Apologies were received from Bill Terrance, who was unable to attend, and we all send him our good wishes.

Our guest speaker was John Hannah. John is a highly esteemed member of both Milngavie and Bearsden Camera Club, and Eastwood Photographic Society. Chosen as our anniversary speaker by the past presidents, his presentation featured spectacular wildlife images from all over Scotland and England. The diversity of animals and birds he had captured was amazing, and he gave hints on locations and photographic technique.

After a break for some home baking and coffee, it was our own Jim Stevenson’s turn to present a collection of images he had collected from the 25 years of the club’s history. We were treated to images from all our past presidents, club outings, and prize winners over the years. Jim also had on display a large number of prints, a yearbook and calendars produced by the club in the past.

A great night for new and old members alike. Here are all the past presidents – photo taken on the night – along with the guest speaker, John Hannah (in red).

Kilmaurs Club’s 2nd Open Competition was held last Monday night, and as usual the different sections, (Mono prints, Colour Prints and Projected images) were all strongly contested.  This time, however, Jim Stevenson took top honours in all three sections. The competition judge, Boyd Meiklejohn from Ayr Camera Club, chose the above image entitled ‘Flora and Fauna’ for the award of the trophy– a beautifully lit image with a little surprise which had wandered into the frame.

Shining some light on his technique, Jim says, “Multiple focus-stacked images were shot on an Olympus EM1iii, which doesn’t usually require a tripod, but I needed a free hand to light the scene from above with a LED torch. After I began shooting the stack (where the point of focus moves through the scene front to back), a ladybird ambled into the shot. It didn’t appear on any of the frames until about shot 20, at which point it was recorded in focus. Completely accidental and couldn’t be repeated.”

Focus stacking is now a very popular technique for close-up photography, and this example is truly a worthy winner.

Jim Stevenson’s “Cappella in Pre-dawn Mist” lifted the trophy on a night of Landscape Photography when all the entries to the Rose Urie Competition were reviewed by judge Charlie Moore of Eastwood Camera Club. Jim’s superb colour print was chosen from an overall entry of 64 varied landscape images.

Jim explained, “Cappella della Madonna di Vitalità, is near San Quirico d’Orcia in Tuscany. Joanna and I were very lucky to catch it on a misty morning. In fact, when we arrived there, we couldn’t see anything. The mist cleared quickly, and in a couple of minutes was all gone. Only minimal global adjustments were required, and nothing added or taken away. I used a Nikon D810, 70-200mm lens at 200mm, 100 ISO, F9 and 1/30th sec exposure.”

And so, at last, we’ve held our first formal photo competition since the re-start of the club back in September. A good number of club members came together in our new and larger venue to hear our judge, Stephen Philips from Bearsden and Milngavie Camera Club, present his comments and scores on our 1^st Open Competition images.

A great variety of topics were on show including sport, landscapes, table-top and portraiture. Talented new member, Ian Mortimer, took first place in not one but both of the print sections, winning with a wedding portrait in the Mono section and a nature print of a feeding heron for the top Colour print. However, it was superb projected image of a young dog by Martin Clark that took the judge’s eye for the award of the overall trophy – a portrait of “Buddy the Pup”. Continue reading “Martin’s the Top Dog.” →

Fiona Wallace tells us how the Kilmaurs Club has coped with a year of restrictions

Like many clubs and societies, Kilmaurs Photographic Club has been hit fairly hard by the various restrictions over the past year.   With the first lockdown bringing an abrupt halt to the 2020 season, members found themselves not just unable to get to meetings but so many of their regular photo haunts were now out of bounds. Taking new images almost overnight became a considerable challenge.  Those lucky enough to have beauty spots on their doorsteps within the travel restrictions fared slightly better, but all in all, the situation has meant that the majority of members were left clicking their heels rather than their shutters, certainly as far as outdoor photography was concerned.

Undaunted, some members ventured into new indoor projects such as product photography, while others found a new interest in still life and tabletop photography.  For others, it was rediscovering the beauty in the flowers and wildlife in their own garden. Continue reading “Locked down but not out” →