AGM

The club AGM was held on-line on June 3rd. The full minutes of the meeting will be distributed shortly.

Items of note:

• The club syllabus will be conducted online via video conference until at least December
• Election of office holders as follows:

Chair: Ford Renton, Vice Chair: Kat Slater, Secretary: Fiona Kilgour, Treasurer: Christine Swalwell, Syllabus: Alistair Peacock, Internal comp: Ford Renton, External comp: Ron Bell, Press: Ford Renton, House and Catering: Jim Paxton, AGRI: Ford Renton

Committee: All of the above plus Fiona Jamieson, Chris Mack-Riddell and Neil Mclean

A new Practical night committee was formed: Ford Renton, Alistair Peacock, Kat Slater, Chris Mack-Riddell and Jim Paxton

ON-LINE MEETINGS

We’ve had two successful online meetings, with more to come. Firstly, Ford gave us his wee presentation on astrophotography. This was followed a couple of weeks later with Scott Near giving us some hints and tips on editing within Lightroom.

Next date for your calender is May 13th when Scott Near is returning with more editing hints and tips. You should already have an invite from ford in your inbox. If not, don’t worry, he’ll be sending reminders the day before the meeting.

Just click on the link and input the meeting ID and password. You may need a Zoom account. They are free so sign up anyway, we may be doing this for some time to come.

THE ANNUAL 2020

Last Wednesday Gala camera club held its annual competition. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the meeting was held by online video conference. Our judge Graeme Webb of Graeme Webb Photograph in Hawick also joined us online to give very welcome critique on the awarded images.

About 18 members joined in, sadly a few couldn’t connect for some technical reason. However, those who were there enjoyed a very entertaining evening. Many thanks go to our judge Graeme and well done to all those who entered. The full results are as follows.

DPIs:

Nature: Commended Christine Swalwell, Alastair Peacock; 3^rd Ford Renton; 2^nd Keith Obrien; 1^st Fiona Kilgour – Tufty

General: Commended Christine Swalwell, Neil McLean; 3^rd Neil Mclean 2^nd Christine Swalwell; 1^st Gordon Swalwell – Fallen Petals

Landscape: Commended Gordon Swalwell (2); 3^rd Alastair Peacock 2^nd Ford Renton 1^st Christine Swalwell – Glenfinnan

People: Commended Lisa Kerr, Chris Mack-Ridel 3^rd Lisa Kerr 2^nd Ford Renton 1^st Neil McLean – Isla

Prints:

Nature: Commended Neil McLean, Alastair Peacock 3^rd Christine Swalwell 2^nd Neil McLean 1^st Christine Swalwell – Nuthatch

General: Commended Christine Swalwell, Neil McLean, John Frater 3^rd Gordon Swalwell 2^nd Neil McLean 1^st Gordon Swalwell – Water Abstract

Landscape: Commended Christine Swalwell, Ford Renton (2) 3^rd Neil McLean 2^nd Christine Swalwell 1^st Christine Swalwell – Towards Ballahullish

People: Commended Gordon Swalwell, Ford Renton, John Frater 3^rd Christine Swalwell 2^nd John Frater 1^st Gordon Swalwell – Christine.

In our monthly competitions, the winners were Beginners – Chris Mack-Ridel, DPIs – Fiona Kilgour, Prints – Ford Renton

Trophies:

Best B&W Print Ford Renton – Beach Hut; Best Colour Print Gordon Swalwell – Water Abstract; Best Projected Image Christine Swalwell – Glenfinnan; Best General Image Gordon Swalwell – Water Abstract; Best Landscape Christine Swalwell – Towards Ballahuilish; Best Nature Christine Swalwell – Nuthatch; Best People Gordon Swalwell – Christine; Best Home Processed Print – Gordon Swalwell – Water Abstract; Best Beginner Chris Mack Ridel – Too Cool for This; Best overall and Burns Trophy Christine Swalwell – Nuthatch

Competitions, summer meet-ups and the annual jolly

From club secretary Fiona.

Following on from the syllabus meeting 11/3/20 I thought I would let you all know the subjects for our 2 themed competitions for the 2020/21 season to allow you plenty of time to think about them. It goes without saying that, with everything going on at the moment, dates may change.

9/12/20 – Texture

24/2/21 – Every Picture Tells a Story

Summer events – again, these may be cancelled/changed etc so keep an eye out for emails or Facebook messages.

Summer evening shoots 6/5/20 – The Hirsel, Coldstream; 3/6/20 – Cauldshiels Loch; 1/7/20 – The Haining, Selkirk; 5/8/20 – Smailholm; Sunday 12/8/20 – Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Annual Summer Outing – Cragside House (date to be confirmed)

The Battle of Midlothian

After an epic and close fought battle Gala CC emerged victorious. Midlothian CC pipped us by one point 179 to 178 in the prints but Gala clawed back the points in the DPIs winning those by 176 to 169. Overall victory went ot Gala 354 to 348.

Many thanks to Curtis Welsh for his hard work and excellent critique. His comments on the top scoring images can be seen here. Full score sheet can be seen here.

Well done to top 20/20 scorers John Frater, Alistair Peacock, Alistair Stuart, and Simon Wootton

Here is a gallery of the DPIs (just click on the image to get a larger view)

Food Photography

Here are the results of last night’s Food competition

Beginner DPI – Chris Mark-Riddell 1st and 2nd

DPIs

Speedlite Night with Kenny Martin

What a great night we had  on 5th Feb with pro Kenny Martin who gave us a demonstration of shooting with a single speedlite and a few attachments. Despite suffering from a very heavy cold he had us captivated. Kenny showed how some wonderful shots can be had with simple attachments such as snoots, honeycombs, shoot through umbrellas and reflectors. Many thanks to Kenny for his time and patience and thanks to our Vice Chairperson for “volunteering” to be the model

GALA / EARLSTON / KELSO 3-WAY

Gala emerged victorious with 242 points. Second were Kelso and third Earlston with 203. Well done everybody.

Professionally judged by Jane Wright of https://www.vanillamoonphotography.com, Innerleithen. Highest scoring images for Gala were John Frater with 19 points each for Sparrow Hawk Dispute and Osprey with Catch, also Alistair Peacock 19 for Bamburgh Sunrise. Kelso’s high scorers were Walter Turnbull, Bill Hume and Gavin Liddle all with 18. Earlston top dog was Adam Drummond with 18.

Thanks to Earlston for their marvellous hospitality

OPEN COMPETITION 22ND JANUARY 2020

The results of out open competition are as follows:

Prints:

1st: Nuthatch – Christine Swalwell; 2nd: Frosted Triptych – Ford Renton; 3rd: Towards Ballahuilish – Christine Swalwell; Comm.: It’s number One – Neil McLean

DPIs:

1st: Rolling Fields – Gordon Swalwell; 2nd: Ruin Under the Stars – Ford Renton 3rd: Girl Power – Neil McLean Comm.: Buzzard – John Frater; Mr Chaffinch – Lisa Kerr; Peacock – Graham Meikle; Siskin – Fiona Kilgour.

VENUE UPDATE:

All returns to normal. We are now back at Langlee for the remainder of the season

FOUR OF A KIND

The results of our 4 of a Kind competition were as follows. Well done everyone.

Prints:

1st  – Try,try,try and try again – John Frater. 2nd – Dragonflies – Christine Swalwell.  3rd – The flies have it – Geoff Harrison.

DPIs:

1st – Habitat – John Frater. 2nd – Water Abstract – Gordon Swalwell. 3rd – Generation – Lisa Kerr

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