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.
