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"Summer Trips Isle of May, 22-3"

Departing from Anstruther Harbour by Ferry and Rib, the outward trip was rather choppy but once docked at Kirkhaven Landing the sun appeared for our 2.5 hr stay. Amongst the 200 bird species recorded, the Island hosts the biggest puffin colony on the east coast with shags, razorbills, kittiwake gulls, and terns. The latter guaranteed to dive bomb as soon as you come ashore. There is lots to see during the visit, which always seems too short but as you can see from the Gallery below, everyone had fun and captured some stunning images.


You can also check the Isle of May Website .

After another choppy return trip to Anstruther the team had coffee and the stalwarts stayed for fish and chips at the renowned Anstruther Fish bar.


Another great “summer trip” enjoyed by all.


T eam Leaders
Gillian Temple
Ken Goodfellow


Participants
Dennis Brooks
Ian & Elizabeth Monk
John Brady
Veda Murphy

1st Monthly Winning COLOUR

COLOUR Winning Image - "Male Kingfisher with catch" - by David McConkey The Story The Kingfisher was taken from a hide in Dumfries & Galloway in September. The conditions were cloudy. I was in the hide for about 8 hours. The Kingfisher visited this perch about 5 or 6 times.
Settings Camera Canon 1dx mk 2 Manfrotto Tripod with Benro Gimbal head 150 - 600 Sigma zoom 421 mm focal length AWB ISO 3200 Aperture F7.1 shutter speed 1/1250

1st Monthly 2023/24. The Story behind the winning images.

Colour Prints - 1st - David Bolton Taken in May this year on Pender Island in the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. A pair of eagles had nested on a tall remote tree close to the water's edge. The nest had 2 chicks, one dead. I got to around 50 yards of the eagle, upwind and lying prone in tall grass. Equipment was a Canon 7D with a fully extended 18-300 mm lens. The image was cropped ,the contrast increased and selectively sharpened, all in Photoshop. By David Bolton Mono Prints - 1st HIGHLAND BEAST by David Scott Highland Beast: This image was taken early this year in February on a trip home to Scotland. I went out for the day to the West Coast on a trip to Kilchurn Castle, accompanied with Ken and David B. After the shoot at the castle we stopped on the way home and spent some time shooting these beauties in a field not far from Kilchurn. I have been dying to get some decent photos of Highland coo's for some time. I did a little post production mainly to remove the background and allow the handsome beast to shine, it seems to work pretty well in mono, though I do have colour print of this photo. Equipment used: Canon EOS5DS, Canon 70 - 200mm at f2.8 and a steady hand (it was cold) By David Scott Digital Image - 1st - Ken Goodfellow I followed the male orange tip round the garden in April waiting for it to settle, in this case, on a tulip bud. The photo was taken on a Canon R5 with a 100mm macro lens at 1/500 sec, F11 with an ISO of 1,000. The image was processed using Adobe Lightroom, cropped and sharpened in Topaz Photo AI. The image is unaltered in order to comply with SPF Nature requirements. By Ken Goodfellow

1st Monthly 2024.25 The story behind the Winning Images

Top Image & Nature DPI Winner - Pair of Crested Tits by Tina Boswell The image was taken in the first week of January 2024, in the Cairngorms. I had been trying to capture these little birds for a long time but they are quite elusive. Peter and I spent days tramping through the forests of the Cairngorms. We could hear plenty and kept catching glimpses but never settling long enough to catch a decent image. We had seen them on the feeders at Loch Garten but we wanted to capture them within the forest itself. So we enlisted the help Cairngorm wildlife aficionado Neil McIntyre He took us deep into the forest on very cold and wet day and there they were, lots of them. He left us to it and we had hours and hours of photography and 100s and100s of images. This particular images was special as they are difficult to capture in pairs, they are fast and territorial and very rarely do you get two on a branch. You can see from the body language they are facing off. But I just kept shooting, they were only on the branch a couple of seconds and I kept my fingers crossed and was very happy that I caught the shot. The only work in post was a crop. Gear- NikonZ8 Nikon 500mm pf f5.6 ISO 3200 1/320s +0.3 1st Colour Image Green Hut by David Bolton The Green Hut, often referred to as the Grouse Hut, is in a desolate spot on a B road near a church somewhere north of Kinclaven wood. Looks every bit like a god forsaken place. The hut sits near a small loch with mountains in the background. An abundance of reeds provides  helpful foreground interest . The image was taken with Canon equipment and processed using Photoshop obtained on a disc from the Riyadh souk. David Bolton 1st Mono Image - Home Guard by Gillian Temple This is a composite image of three pictures taken at a WW2 reenactment event.  The background is soldiers in a trench, which has been faded slightly, the foreground image of a Home Guard soldier, then textures and writing over laying the whole image.  All images were taken with Canon R5 camera and 24-105 mm Lens and edited in Photoshop. Gillian Temple

1st Monthly Winning MONO

MONO winning image - "Threesome" - by Gillian Temple This composite of three individual images was taken during lockdown when getting out was not easy (also ideal for wet weekends). The images were taken with a black backdrop, using a single studio light setup. The camera was a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 24 – 105 mm lens at f5.6, 1/60sec, ISO 100. They were converted into mono in photoshop with a key line added, then placed onto one image to make a Tryptich image.

2023/24 Season Welcome Back

Tuesday 12th September was our opening night of the Season. It gave members the opportunity to welcome new members and check out what's on in this years syllabus. Thanks to our syllabus secretary, it is full of top quality talks to accompany our competition events. Members enjoyed an a talk from our President outlining the creative opportunities of AI/Generative Fill in Photoshop Beta. In his words; "Last night I gave a talk on the effects of AI on the world of creating images through the use of AI/Generative Fill in Photoshop Beta. The images shown included some created solely by the use of generative fill and some by using a genuine photograph which was manipulated using different levels of luminosity of Quick Mask using “TK Gen Fill” a free to download from Tony Kuyper. Attached are some of the images shown along with a sequence showing the effect of different levels of Quick Mask luminosity has on a standard image. I hope you enjoyed the presentation and that it gave you something to think about with regard to the ever evolving use of AI." Ken Goodfellow

2024 - Annual Competition - The story behind the winning images.

Colour Print King Charles Puppies The photo of the two King Charles puppies was a studio shot taken with a dark background and studio lights softened with large umbrellas.  The shot was taken with my Canon R5 24 - 105mm lens at 28mm with and ISO of 200, F9 and a shutter of 160.  The puppies were such a delight to photograph (and I got a cuddle). They have such individual characters, it was fun capturing that, but I had to work quickly to gather the shots I wanted before they got tired. Gillian Temple Mono Print   Full Gallop: I was pleased with this image when I downloaded it off the memory card, I had reduced my shutter speed down so I could achieve some movement in the two animals' legs and retaining the rest of the two subjects sharp. The image was of course taken at the Warwick rodeo, this competition requires the horseman to guide the calf round cones and through a gate, against the clock. Equipment: Canon EOS5DS, 200mm f2/8 canon lens with x2 extender @ f/5.6, 1/320 sec, 400mm. David Scott Note - " Full Gallop" also gained the Silver Medal for the best overall image.   Open DPI   Handsome Beast : This image was taken on February 24th 2023, my last trip back home, I had been out on a photoshoot at Kilchurn Castle with David B and Ken, on our way back we came across a field of these highland coo's, great photo opportunity, in post-production I had a clear view of how I wanted to edit this image to make the beast pop and show off the sharpness and detail in the fur, also very pleased to have got a catch light in the eye. Equipment: Canon EOS5DS, 200mm f/2.8 Canon lens @ f/2.8, 1/160 sec, 200mm. David Scott Nature DPI Insect The image of the Insect was taken when I was out for a walk around Lord Elgin's estate at Charlestown. The camera used was my Olympus OM-1 with a Olympus 40-150mm (80-300 35mmeqv.) lens. The settings were 1/1000sec at f2.8 ISO 800. Dennis Penny

2024 - SPF Digital Championships

The judging took place on 17th Nov for the SPF digital championships, the format was changed this year and done in two parts, so images went into round one, selected prior to the event, then round two images were selected on the day based on the results and judging in round one.  There were 34 clubs competing overall 24 clubs for the plate and 10 clubs for the trophy.  Our club did extremely well coming 3rd out of the 24 clubs.  Our President, Gillian   won the Gold medal for the best image in the plate !! King Charles Spaniel s. First Round Images Second Round Images Note that detailed scores for these images and the overall SPF DPI competition can be found in the Members only section. The Prize Winners

2nd Monthly winning COLOUR

JUMP Image taken at Warwick rodeo in 2018 on a hot and dusty day, perfect conditions for these types of shots. Shot in RAW and processed in Photoshop, I decided to set this image up as a portrait as it suited the head on positioning of the subject, I toned down the background to eliminate distractions and allow the eye to focus on the subject, I was particularly pleased the rodeo riders face was nice and sharp and with a good facial expression, decided to leave as a colour as it looked more punchy and popped out the screen. Camera EOS 5DS Lens EF 70-200mm f/2.8 Aperture f/4.0 Shutter 1/800 sec Focal 200mm ISO 100 David Scott DPAGB EFIAP

2nd Monthly - the story behind the winning images

1st Colour print - by Allan Petrie The image was taken at around 6am on the August bank holiday. I had planned the shot using photopills as I wanted to capture the sun coming up under the bridges. The weather didn't turn out as I had expected however the very subtle colours worked well. The picture itself is a merge of 3 bracketed shots and combined using DXO HDR efex pro2. Further minor edits were done using lightroom/ photoshop. I used a canon r6 with a EF10-22 lens. It was taken at 10mm at f/11 iso100. The maximum exposure on this one was 1second 1st Mono print by Gillian Temple The Driver – this was taken at a local event when this man was walking by and I took a candid shot of him. The lighting was right for a natural shot without any additional light or flash. I wanted the shot natural so no need to pose. The shot was taken at F5.6 to blow out the background at 35mm Canon R5 with a 24-105 mm lens. Turned into Black and White in Photoshop with very little edit. 1st Digital image by David Scott Image take at Warwick rodeo pre-covid, I know I enter quite a lot of this type of image, I just love the whole atmosphere of the place. The background was a bit busy so I eliminate this with the dust overlay, which in reality is in fact fog, so I adjust the colour and contrast in the fog to try and make it more convincing, I selected this image as I feel it is nice and sharp and liked the bright colour of the cowboys shirt, I didn't need to do too much editing to the main subjects, just levels, curves and bit dodging and burning. Canon EOS 5D lens EF 70-200mm f/2.8 David Scott EFIAP, DPAGB

2nd Monthly 2023/2. The Story behind the winning images

Colour Prints - Gillian Temple THE BEE I would like to say I waited until I was in the right position for the light, and the Bee facing the camera before ensuring both the bee and the flower were in focus... but this was taken while I sat on the bank of the Loch waiting on the Osprey coming in, and enjoyed watching the bees busy at work. I was using my Canon R5 with my 100 - 500 mm lens with the 2x extender. This shot was taken at 600mm. In post production I used Lightroom for the initial exposure tweeks, then cropped in Photoshop. GT Mono Prints - Dave Scott AS ONE I took several shots of this woman horse rider, she looked so comfortable with the horse and was clearly enjoying her moment, this sang out as a mono, the light and the detail I managed to achieve was so satisfying and it always great to see these images on a nice fine art medium. Canon EOS SDS, Canon 70-200mm f2.4 lens. DS Digital Image - David Scott DON'T STEP ON MY HAT You have to be quick taking these shots, as soon as they emerge from the gate you just keep shooting, some pay off some don't, I got this one nice and sharp, good expression on the riders face and his hat off laying in the dust so it gives us a bit of a story, the side light from the left gave the image a dramatic feel, one of my favourites. Canon EOS5DS, Canon 70-200mm f2.4 lens. DS

2nd Monthly 24.25 - The story behind the winning images

Colour Print Winner - Sparrowhawk by Linda Cooper In May 2022 I attended a long weekend workshop using well-known hides in Dumfries & Galloway. I had my trusty old Canon 90d with a Sigma 150-600mm contemporary lens and a bean bag, and filled several memory cards over the 3 days. Recently I have been looking through hard-drives with my new Mac Mini and BenQ monitor and found the sparrow hawk again. usually, I just use Adobe Bridge to go through images, open in Raw, crop, use the light sliders, texture, clarity, a very small amount of sharpening and colour noise management, then convert to Tiff in photoshop and print. I really don’t like doing a lot of computer processing, and this image needed very little processing before print. I use the superb Canon Professional Print Software and a Canon PRO-300 printer. I was surprised at the 1st prize to be honest, but it’s often surprising to me how judges make a decision, and it can be so variable from one judge to another about what takes their eye. Mono Print Winner - Christchurch Cathedral by Ian Monk This image was taken in Dublin last year with my Canon R5 and RF 24-105 f4 Lens. It was a busy location with a complex road junction. I tried a number of locations. The best I could find was in the middle of a pedestrian crossing on the main road. I took a series of high burst rate shots towards the bridge between the Dublinia Museum and the Cathedral and to obtain the width and verticality I used two images taken a fraction of a second apart. One fully vertically aligned , so losing a wedge at each side, the other aligned as layers in photoshop to create the final base image. I used a 3rd image of the same scene which had 3 birds in it, duplicated and brushed in photoshop to provided a distraction in the Gap in the sky above the bridge. The left image below shows the cleaning up required in photoshop to remove cars, traffic cones, some people and the motorcycle headed towards me. This took some time but would be considerably easier now with the release of the powerful remove tool in photoshop. The Right image below shows both images after layer alignment in photoshop. The resultant image was tidied up to eliminate any indications of the fill then cropped and processed mostly in lightroom with the final conversion to mono using the Silver Effects original professional version. I print my own images using a Canon BJ3100 ink jet printer starting with the image in lightroom to print in photoshop . I calibrate my 27" DEL and 37" BenQ using a SpiderPro but even so the print never matches the screen exactly without some tweaking. This can take a number of test prints. A Pro tip learned from others in the group to reduce the cost of paper and ink to run these tests is to use A3+ paper cut it up into 8 pieces and print 110x165mm to get the correct colouration and brightness. The difference between projected and reflected light can be surprising so usually the brightness and sometimes contrast levels need to be adjusted in photoshop to correct the print to what I see on the screen. I used to use the ART shop in Kelty for making the mounting boards but with their closure I had to borrow the skills and cutting equipment of another Kelty Warrior to make the mounts using precut boards from Pinnacle. I also use their Premium Lustre A3+ paper. I have since bought a Compact Elite compact cutter and will try next time to do the prints myself. There is a company in Pitreavie Business Park who do board mounting for about £13 each as a plan B. Digital Photogtraphic image - Wool Cart by David Scott Wool Cart: I took this earlier this year at a small outback town called Boonah, every year they have an event at the show ground, loads of things happening like; horsemanship, Scottish pipe bands, wood chopping, dog handling, piglet racing and loads more, of course a bar so it's a great day out. This wool cart was lined up ready to do a circuit of the showground and I thought this would make a good subject, I positioned myself for a full-on frontal shot. Of course, there are many distractions in the background, so I had to carry out a fair bit of post processing, I only wish they had actually loaded the cart with bails of wool.  Equipment. Canon EOS5DS, Canon 70-200mm lens and a steady hand.

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