Oban Photographic Club

There was a good turnout at Oban Photographic Club’s AGM on Monday 26th March. Summing up the past year, Vice President Stephen Lawson said it had been a good year for the club with good attendances for the weekly meetings. Speakers had given members helpful guidance on how to improve their images. Stephen went on to thank everyone for all their help during the year.

Main Office bearers for the coming year are:
President – Stephen Lawson
Secretary – Katy Weir
Treasurer – Nevin Blackwood
Competitions secretary – Maurice Wilkins

Competitions for the coming year are:
1. “Open”
2. Black and White – prints only
3. Cameron Harris Trophy – “The Kitchen”
4. “Landscape/seascape”
5. “Isolation”
6. “Sport”, a new trophy sponsored by Kevin McGlynn
7. “Night Time”

There will be the “Subtle Humour” evening as well as the Argyll Trophy the subject this year being “Argyll Harbours”.

Well-known judge and frequent visitor to the club, Sandy Clelland from Penicuik, gave the results of Oban Photographic Club’s last competition of the season on Monday 19th March.
The subject “Open 2” attracted the largest entry of the year and gave Sandy a tough task. His critism of the many images on subjects ranging from wild life, abstract and landscape to portraits and architecture was however fair and constructive.
Results were: – Digital Images 1st Stephen Lawson with an image of a Blue Tit with a piece of moss in it’s claws; 2nd Ronnie MacKillop with a night shot of Singapore; 3rd Stephen Lawson with another of his excellent images.
Prints: – 1st John Douglas with a picture of Black Rock Cottage in Glen Coe. John also had 2nd & 3rd.
Stephen Lawson was judged to have the overall best image on the night and was presented with the Frank Walton Cup along with a voucher donated by Oban Photographic Centre.

Winning images will be posted in the Gallery section shortly.

The next meeting on 26th March will be the club’s AGM.

There was a full house in the McCaig Room of the Regent Hotel on Monday 12th March when Oban Photographic Club hosted this year’s Frank Walton Argyll Trophy. The competition is competed for by the four Argyll camera clubs and was judged this year by Alan Gawthorpe from Aberdeen. As can be imagined, there were some stunning images put forward and the result was in doubt right up to nearly the end.

The results were: – 1st Helensburgh; 2nd Cowal; 3rd Oban and 4th Mid Argyll.
The judge’s choice of best picture was one from Neill Ross of Helensburgh depicting a racing motorcyclist appearing to head straight for the camera.

Next Monday’s meeting (19th March) will be the results of the final competition of the season. The judge for the evening will be Sandy Clelland.

Oban Photographic Club held their annual Open Evening in the Regent Hotel, Oban on Monday 5th March.

The speaker, introduced by Alex Clark, was Leading Aircraftsman Stuart Hill from the Royal Navy Photographic Division. Stuart, who is at present based at Faslane, gave a thoroughly entertaining presentation of his, and his fellow photographers’, work. Stuart’s job entails photographing groups (ships’ crews, regiments etc.), Royalty on visits to ships, the launch of new vessels (including the nuclear submarine HMS Astute). He also takes images backing up action in the likes of Afghanistan and Iraq and out in the Caribbean with the US Coast Guard on drug smuggling patrol. Stuart’s photography was first class and included some amazing shots of helicopters, carrier based jets and submarines on the surface. Jim Kirkpatrick gave Stuart a well-deserved vote of thanks.
Alex Clark thanked members for their kind donations of home baking.

A collection, amounting to £85, was taken for Stuart’s favourite charity – CHAS.

The next meeting of the club is on 12th March. The results of the inter club competition for the Frank Walton Trophy will be announced by our judge for the evening Alan Gawthorpe from Mearns Camera Club.

Stu Hill from the Royal Navy’s photographic section will be giving a presentation to the club on Monday 5th March 2012.

This is an OPEN night and members of the public are also welcome to attend.

This meeting will be held in McCaig room at the Regent Hotel 19:15 for a 19:30 start.

There was a good turnout of members to Oban Photographic Club’s weekly meeting, in the Regent Hotel, on Monday 20th February to hear the results of the “Mellow Yellow” competition. The judge was well-known local expert Frank Walton who gave a very constructive and informative assessment of the varied entries.

1st prize went to Ronnie MacKillop for a stunning close-up of a yellow dahlia flower.

Stephen Lawson gained 2nd with an image of a pallet of Mellow Yellow oil paint and 3rd with a yellow sports car. Ronnie received the Laird Parker Trophy as well as a voucher from Oban Photographic Centre.

The next meeting of the club will be on Monday 27th February. Our guest for the evening will be Kevin McGlynn, photojournalist.

Hand in entries for Open 2 competition

The meeting of the club on Monday 5th March at 7.15pm for 7.30pm is an “Open Night” when the Royal Navy Photographic department will give a presentation. This promises to be a very interesting evening and everyone is welcome.

Neil MacGregor, from the Glasgow area, was the guest judge at Oban Photographic Club’s weekly meeting on Monday 13th February. Neil had the difficult task of judging the many entries for the “Landscape/seascape” competition; his comments and criticisms were constructive, helpful and enjoyed by everyone.

The results were almost a clean sweep for longstanding club member John Douglas, who had 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Prints section and 1st and 2nd in the Digital images. Maurice Wilkins from Arduaine came 3rd in the Digital Images. John received the Gordon Sellars Trophy as well as voucher from Oban Photographic Centre.

The next meeting of the Club is on Monday 20th February. Results of the “Mellow Yellow” competition will be shown and judged by Frank Walton.

Members of Oban Photographic Club turned out at the Regent Hotel, Oban for their usual Monday evening meeting on 30th January to bring, and judge, entries for the Argyll Trophy. The subject for the trophy, which was donated by Peter and Katy Weir of Ledaig Caravan Site several years ago, was, as chosen by them, “Argyll Weather”. As can be imagined, the storms and severe weather we have experienced in the last year featured heavily!

1st prize was given to an image of the sun’s rays bursting out from behind clouds over Kerrera taken by Jim Kirkpatrick from McCaig’s Tower.

2nd prize went to an image taken by Maurice Wilkins of one of the storms hitting a headland near Arduaine Gardens.

3rd prize was awarded to Bob McCulloch for a picture taken during the hard frosts of 2011 and showed smoke-like mist rising off Oban Bay. Bob reckoned that the temperature was –16 degrees!

The next meeting of the club is on 13th February when the results of “Landscape/seascape” will be given by judge Neil MacGregor from Bearsden.

On 16 January we viewed images from all over the British Isles, from the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain’s portfolio including abstracts and landscapes to portraits and wildlife, presented in varying degrees of art or realism. As is usual in that kind of presentation, most of the images deserved to be included but members had doubts about a few of the rest! Photoshop, or its equivalent, use was clearly evident!

In the second half of the evening, member Tim Haynes gave an instructive talk and demonstration on black and white photography and how to process it digitally. As he said, it is really shades of grey varying from dark to light. This type of photography is becoming more popular and to see how to take a colour image and change it to Black & white was very interesting.

The next meeting of the club is on 30th January when members will themselves judge the entries for the Argyll Trophy. The subject chosen this year is “Argyll Weather” so some spectacular images will be on show.

Oban Photographic Club’s 1st speaker of the New Year was David McLellan of Carluke Camera Club with his subject of “West Highland Highway.”

David, who retired from his insurance business through serious illness, fought back to full recovery and now uses his love of the Scottish mountains to fund raise for charity. How about climbing 30 Munro’s in 16 days!! His photos, and narrative, of the mountains was truly inspirational to all.

Next meeting 16th January:-
Hand in Landscape/Seascape
PAGB 2011 disc & Monochrome presentation by Tim Haynes