Joint Meeting with Glenrothes CC
On 6th March Cupar Camera Club were hosts to members of Glenrothes Camera club at the Castle Hill Community Centre, Cupar for a buffet lunch and to share Digital Images, Black and White prints and Colour prints. Each club submitted fifteen photos in each category. It wasn’t a competition so there was there was judge, no point scoring, and no winners or losers. Instead the author of the photograph gave an explanation as to how it was made and members from both clubs enjoyed a discussion about the photo and in the process learned a bit about the clubs and a bit about how their photos could improve in camera technique, post processing, composition and printing.
At the end of the session there was general agreement that the meeting was worthwhile and should be repeated. It was also suggested that joint events with guest speakers, and joint photo shoot sessions could be organised.
Some of both Club’s images:
Light Trails and More….
On 13th March members of Cupar Camera Club had a fun evening taking photos of moving lights. Half the members stayed in the club rooms and photographed the swirling light sticks and torches using a slow shutter speed. The other members went onto the streets of Cupar to photograph the traffic again with a low shutter speed.
Equine Photography with Jane Lazenby
On 27th February Cupar Camera Club held a Zoom meeting on Equine Photography. Some members joined the meeting at home, others came into the club rooms for the presentation. The club was fortunate to have Jane Lazenby one of the UK’s leading equine and horse photographers, give the presentation.
Jane is based in Yorkshire but travels the UK to indulge in her passion and her vocation – taking photographs of horses despite having an extreme allergy to horses in her childhood .
Her presentation was broken down into sections based on what type of horse photo you were taking (or in Janes case Commissioned to take). From events, local pony club, models with horses to the all action specialist photographer.
Each section was full of valuable insights, tips and tricks to capture the very best images, how to keep yourself and the horse and rider/owner/model safe (and yourself!). From the right moment to capture a showjumper, the poses that horse owners are looking for through to how to get those pesky ears forward at the right time!. She covered dealing with backgrounds, creating fine art photos and much more.
Visit:- https://www.ejlazenbyphotography.co.uk/
Results of the Annual Competition - 6/3/25
At the meeting of Cupar Camera Club on 6th March the results of the Annual Competition were announced. The competition was in three parts. Members can enter up to two images that must be not more than two years old into each of three categories: Digital Image, Mono Print Image and Colour Print Image. The choice of subject was up to the photographer.
The judge for all three sections was Ian Mackay, President of Perthshire Photographic Society. Ian gave constructive, positive and encouraging comments on every image in the competition. The winners of each section were Digital Image - Mike Chandler with ‘Hummingbirds - Mano a Mano’’; Mono Print – Helen Miller with ‘Window Seat’ and Colour Print - Keven Scott with ‘Luminosity‘. An additional award was given for the best portrait from all three sections, this was won by Ruth Vance with ‘American Tourist’
Mike Chandler, Winner of Best Digital Image receiving his trophy from judge, Ian Mackay.
Kev Scott, winner of Best Colour Print
Helen Miller, Winner of Best Mono Print
Ruth Vance receiving her trophy from Ian for Best Portrait
Christmas Fun
The meeting of the Club on 12th December was the last one before the Christmas break. It was as bit of a fun night with a photography based quiz set by Frank Andrew and the Phone Photo competition. Members could enter one photo taken on their phone. These were displayed on the night and each member present could vote for one photo (but not their own), The winning image was ‘Three Wise Monkeys’ taken by Lorna Thompson. Lorna returned to the club after several year absence and proved that she had not lost her touch. Lorna was also on the winning quiz team with Fred Linney and Hazel Fletcher. They scored a perfect 15 out of 15, just one point ahead of two other teams. Each received a cash prize that turned out to be a bag of chocolate coins.
‘Three Wise Monkeys’ by Lorna Thompson
The festive fun continued on Sunday when members gathered on St Andrews for a photo treasure hunt. At 10.00 a WhatsApp message was sent out to members and their task was to take photos with the theme ‘Red and Gold’. At 11.00 that theme came to an end when a second WhatsApp message changed the theme to ‘Time’. At midday the third and final theme ‘The best of St Andrews’ was broadcast. Members taking part will now have to pick their best photo for each theme and, without any post processing, submit it for a member critique and vote in the New Year.
Discovering Nature Photography
Cupar Camera Club welcomed Alan and Julie Walker to the meeting on 5th December to give a presentation on their nature photography. They showed members photos of birds and animals they had seen on travels round the globe - Macaques (snow monkeys) taking a sauna in thermal pools, huge Stella Sea Eagles bullying other birds of prey to steal their meal and Crowned cranes performing there elegant dances in the snow of the cold winter in the Japanese island of Hokkaido. We were shown the images Alan and Julie had taken of polar bears and foxes in Churchill, Canada, mountain hares in Scotland, giraffes and other creatures in the Kalahari desert, and many other wonderful photographs. Alan told the stories behind how he and Julie had taken the photos. They shared with members the camera settings thay had used and gave tips on how they set about getting their images. Julie had spent hours lying in the snow to get close up photos of the Mountain Hares, They had waited with the Snow Monkeys until all the crowds of tourist had left on their buses so they could get the shots they wanted.
The three stand out tips they gave were :-
One. When photographing animals in the snow ‘over expose by one, two even three stops to make sure the snow in the photo is shown as white not grey.
Two. Try to get a ‘different shot’ by getting low down to be at eye level with the subject or perhaps using a shallow depth of field to make the foreground and background out of focus.
Three. Most importantly, be patient and wait for the posture, behaviour or action that will make your photo stand out from all the others.
Alan and Julie Walker with club programme secretary Frank Andrew
Competition 2 Winners - 21/11/24
Our judge for Competition 2 this season was Jim Hamilton. He gave us detailed and insightful feedback on the submitted images. Many thanks to Jim for his hard work on reviewing and choosing the winners. Thanks Jim!
Here are some photos of the competition winners along with Jim.
Results for Competition 1 - 24/10/24
At the club meeting on 24th October 24 members received the results of round one of the seasons photo competition league.
We were honoured to have this round judged by Hamish Brown MBE FRSGS. Hamish is a renowned professional writer, lecturer and photographer specialising in mountaineering and outdoor pursuits. His work has graced the covers of British GQ, The Times Magazine, The Observer, Men's Health and Vogue. Fife-based Hamish was the first person to walk Scotland's 282 munros in a single, 112 day trip covering 1639 miles using only ferries and a bike as transport between the mountains. Hamish recently celebrated his 90th birthday with a fund-raising abseil from the Forth Bridge and has had the last of his long list of books published. Hamish continues to inspire and he has no plans to slow down any time soon.
The Photo is of Hamish Brown and Liz Barrie winner of the Open Print section.
