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Annual General Meeting and Trophy Presentation

This year, the trophy presentation had Ross taking the photos as each winner collected their prize. Despite some confusion on which trophy was which, Mike orchestrated the event with his usual aplomb, creating quite a few laughs in the process. Additional excitement was generated by a batch of fruit scones provided by James Lyons, which received much appreciation during the tea interval. The AGM section of the evening was handled in an efficient, businesslike manner by the relevant committee members. Finally the vote on next year’s themed competitions emphatically selected Solitude (2nd monthly) and Nostalgia (3rd monthly). No excuses for not being prepared!

Annual Exhibition

The results are in! Thanks to judge Cameron Scott whose enthusiasm and carefully thought out critques made for an exciting and enjoyable evening. Winners are:

Susannah Smith (division 1 prints and monochrome), Mike Farrance (divsion 1 images and provost’s trophy), Jean McMillan (division 2 prints), Graham Horne (division 2 images), and Gordon Stewart (sports).

See more at Annual Exhibition

Hamilton Evening Photoshoot - Review

Our photoshoot in Hamilton, which had seemed so unpromising when we set out, proved to be fertile ground for the club’s ingenious photographers. Each of the teams has been able to put forward entries in all the categories, which we reviewed within the wider group. Some memorable images were the pun-tastic entry for “light and shade” (a light bulb in a lampshade) and an open doorway revealing some twists of paper and an overturned oil can, seemingly a prelude to arson. But the standout pieces were some monochrome images including the depiction of a young man vaping in the shadows. The author, Mike, later gave credit to a Creative Mono course he had taken via the RPS for inspiring him in this type of work.

Despite a forecast of rain and general pessimism on the allure of Hamilton town centre on a cold Thursday night in March, a good number of club members turned out to see what we could make of this outing. We broke off into small groups and started circulating the town, trying to meet the challenge of predetermined topics: 1) Movement, 2) Light and shade, 3) Silhouette, 4) Leading lines, 5) Shape(s), 6) Look up, 7) In a frame, and 8) Small details. By some miracle the rain largely stayed away. Possibly it was the effort of clambering around street furniture, trying to get a good angle, but it also seemed to get warmer. What was definitely enjoyable was the companionship of fellow photographers, which meant it ended up being a memorable and congenial event. Next meeting - the review…

Hamilton Evening Photoshoot

Members’ Challenge

Well done to everyone who entered the Members' Challenge (Thursday, 19th March). There were a great range of images within the theme of silhouettes and voting for our top 3 proved quite a challenge in itself! In the end we had a clear winner - congratulations to Alan. We had 2 equal 2nd placed images by Susannah, and 2 equal 3rd placed images by Mike. Alan’s winning entry depicting Tintagel Castle Footbridge in Cornwall is shown here.

GDPU Review

The evening of Thursday 12th March was an opportunity for members to score and judge the colour section of the GDPU portfolio. With Gordon on the timer, each image was brought up in turn on the projector. Members then had two minutes to review each photo and agree on a score, using the usual HCC scoring scheme. The process was a little reticent at first, but before long praise, criticism and scores were being enthusiastically shouted out from all corners of the room. Perhaps surprisingly, we got through all twenty images more or less on time. Also notable was the distinct consensus that emerged favouring more natural and less contrived images. With most scores clustering around the same area it wasn’t too difficult to decide a result in the majority of cases. Mike then took us through our results, contrasting them with those of the official judges. Another fun night.

4-Way Print Competition

Triumph in the 4-way print competion Lanarkshire derby on 6th March fell to Carluke (as usual) with 187 points, but Hamilton tied with Lanark for runner up with 171 points with Motherwell trailing on 163.

3-Image Portfolio

On 26th February it was the club’s 2nd annual event based on the 3-image portfolio. Members submit up to three sets of three images, presented on a panel in PDF format. After viewing the images on the panel and individually, members secretly score the entries, awarding up to 10 points for the panel itself. Presenting images this way focuses attention on the cohesiveness and continuity of the author’s work, as well as on the quality of the individual images themselves. It is a new twist on the creative process of photography. After scores were counted, congratulations fell to Heather, Susannah and Mike.

4th Monthly Competition

Our 4th monthly competition was decided by thoughtful, respectful and constructive judge Brian Cathie. In his appraisal, Brian took time to consider each image on its own merits, taking care to separate his assessment of the intention, subject matter and vision from the technical aspects of the photo such as focus and lighting. During the interval chat, he revealed the driver for the impressive breadth and quality of his own portfolio - he simply loves taking photographs! We thank Brian for a constructive and scrupulously fair appraisal of our works.

Update: Results are now in!

Gordon Scott

Our first February meeting saw the return of Gordon Scott, who had judged our monochrome competition earlier in the year, this time with a presentation of his own work on the subject of New York. Gordon had visited the US cultural capital several times, but the focus of his talk was his visits in 2018 and 2023 with Fujifilm X-T2 in hand. Particular muses were the clubs and bars of the new wave era, the striking modern architecture of the Vessel building and the Guggenheim museum, and the more classic interior of Grand Central Station, although, as Gordon demonstrated, street photography is his most favoured genre. Gordon travelled without a tripod but was able to get some fantastic long-exposure shots by simply taking advantage of available surfaces on which to place his camera. The image shown here, “Colour of Manhattan", was taken from a cable car, about which Gordon commented that he was lucky not to be obstructed by other passengers. The talk concluded with some street photography shots surrounding the 2023 criminal indictment of the present incumbent president. The club thanks Gordon for an evening which was part travelogue, part photographic retrospective, but all entertaining.

Using AI to Enhance Your Photography

On 22nd January, the club was treated to a fascinating and entertaining presentation by Mike on the growing role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in modern photography. The session explored how readily available AI tools can serve as a powerful assistant for creative planning and technical execution across various stages of the photographic process. Some areas covered were: -

Optimizing Camera Controls: AI acts as an intelligent, on-demand manual, simplifying complex camera settings.
Suggesting Camera Settings: Photographers can input a scenario (e.g., "fast-moving subject at sunset") to receive optimal starting points for the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, ISO).
Themed Competition Subject Generation: AI created imaginative, unique prompts for a future club competition.
Location Planning and Logistics: AI assists with finding locations, suggesting the best time of day/year for light/weather, and compiling equipment checklists.
Self-Critique in the Persona of a Judge: AI can critique an image based on judging criteria and a specific persona, providing detailed, constructive "Hamburger system" feedback to help members refine their work before submission.

Mike's presentation confirmed that AI is a valuable tool for enhancing creativity, streamlining technical challenges, and improving photographic self-improvement.

3rd Monthly Competition - Results are in!

This competition on the theme of reflections led to some remarkable images. Congratulations and kudos to 1st Division winners Donald Parsons and James Battersby, along with 2nd Division winners Graham Robertson and Heather Simpson

Adobe Post-Processing

Much appreciation for a return visit on January 22nd from Adobe evangelist Martin Sproul and his talk on post-processing, focussing on Layers in Photoshop. Once again, Martin proved there is nothing to be scared of in Photoshop! He gave members invaluable advice on using layers, including tips on how to minimise file sizes and the use of selection tools. Just one of the tricks Martrin left us with was how to use a brush to make selctions. As we discovered, using a hard edge makes it much easier to follow edges more accurately. Feathering can then be applied retrospectively to blend the result more pleasingly into the original image.

Ross versus Mike

On 11th December the Club was presented with an exploration of different approaches to photography. Over two days, two photographers - Mike and Ross, had taken their cameras to two locations - the East Lothian coastline and Glasgow City Centre. Although each has varied output, Mike is more known for landscape photography whilst Ross is at home in the urban environment, and at events and gigs. The pair headed out together on each occasion, although they split up whilst in Glasgow, and started looking for images to capture. Some of the best results of each outing (along with some which didn’t work) were presented to the Club audience. Whilst both had successes, it was clear that each had approached his home subject with greater intention, enabling stronger results. For the landscape work, Mike worked the skies, the water and the sands, sometimes using long exposures, whilst Ross felt the loss of a definite subject. In Glasgow, Ross took lots of people-pictures, even asking a passerby to feature, whilst Mike preferred his humans zoomed in from a distance. A great opportunity for members to appreciate different approaches to photography and have quite a few laughs along the way.