Donald Polson Wildlife Competition
Donald was a talented Choral singer featuring in local choirs, and an enthusiastic photographer. He was also a committed Falkirk Camera Club exponent of Slide Shows and of Audio Visual sequences and active in the Club during the late 1980’s and 1990’s.
Donald was part of a group of F.C.C. members including Charlie Clarke, Don McDougall, Jimmy Young, Bob McIntyre, Willie Risk and Joy Bell who took their own, and Club, Slide Shows and A.V. Shows around community organisations in the town. Rarely a week went by over the club season months when they were not out & about visiting groups, promoting Falkirk C.C. and sharing their photography.
Donald was a keen Wildlife Photographer and he also took great satisfaction in encouraging others to try this challenging field. He advised Club members to start at home with the flowers & plants in the garden before perhaps having a go at birds feeding. He would then suggest venturing out into public parks & gardens then to the countryside.
He died in 1996 and we wanted to mark his great passion for photography, his ability of freely passing on his knowledge to others, and for contributing to the life of Falkirk Camera Club. We came up with the Donald Polson Wildlife competition.
It’s called a Wildlife Competition, as opposed to a Natural History competition, because it was originally aimed at new wildlife photographers so the rules were less stringent. It started in 1998 when we still used film so image manipulation, now controlled under International Natural History rules which are issued by photographic governing bodies such as the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique ( www.fiap.net ), was not an issue.
The Club approach to the rules of this competition are still relaxed when compared to International Rules in order to encourage participation although, as the years have passed, the competition now benefits from Club members who have become particularly skilled Natural History photographers. The essence though remains the same, to follow Donald’s ethos in encouraging Club members to try wildlife photography, perhaps for the the first time.
This year, David Jones was in 3rd place with Swallow Flying. Janet Hoggan with Sitting on a Bed Of Thorns and Ronnie Anderson with Last Light were in equal 2nd place. Graeme Barclay was in 1st place with Mr & Mrs Fox. Our thanks to judge Charles Everitt, an acclaimed Natural History photographer whose constructive comments were welcomed by all.
Smartphone Competition
Photographic technology and processes have evolved, almost continually, since the first photograph was produced in 1826. Early exposure times were as long as 8 hours, dropping to a few minutes during the early 1840’s, then to 10 seconds or less and finally to the fractions of a second we know today. Wet Process Developing and Printing processes evolved accordingly before Digital technology began to take prominence as the 21st century dawned. Cameras within mobile ‘phones appeared a few years later and today Smartphones produce a quality of image unimaginable at that time.
This season, to explore the photographic capabilities of Smartphones, we introduced a Smartphone competition. Photographs from Smartphones can be used in our other events but this exclusively Smartphone competition concentrates on this technology. Entries ranged from Portraits to Landscapes and Natural History photography. Interestingly, some of the entries could be described as Contemporary, in photographic style. A welcome addition to our club’s repertoire.
Catherine Anderson with Prepare For Landing, Graeme McPhee with Beach, and Ronnie Anderson with Smiles all shared 3rd place. Catherine ( this time with Ice In The Glen ), Ronnie ( this time with Chilly Glen Coe ), and Geof Longstaff with Where Have They All Gone shared 2nd place. Martin Harrower was in 1st place with On The 12th Floor. Our thanks again to judge, Charles Everitt.
Next Week
On Thursday 29th January we welcome Zaneta Threlfall on her first visit to Falkirk C.C. She is a writer on Wildlife, Conservationist and award winning Natural History photographer.
Thanks for looking in.