About the Club
Milngavie and Bearsden Camera Club is a photographic society open to those with a keen interest in photography. Most members of the club live in and around Milngavie, Bearsden, the Greater Glasgow Area, East Dunbartonshire and West Stirlingshire.
Club activities are centered on weekly meetings, held on a Tuesday evening between late September and April at the Community Education Centre, Allander Road, Milngavie G62 8DN. Meetings begin at 7.30 PM and last for about 2 hours. The annual membership subscription is £30, which is tremendous value for money in comparison with any professional photographic organisation. For enquires about membership please e-mail the club secretary.
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Examples of Members' Work |
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Within the past year the club enlargers were donated to an educational institution so that all activities have become entirely digital. Currently there are over 70 members and a waiting list to join. The members elect a committee at the AGM and the club is operated by a formal constitution. Although the membership is a predominately male there are active and talented female members. The youngest member is in his early twenties and the oldest is probably in his eighties. Members come from all walks of life. By occupation many are retired although others have demanding work lives.
On most weeks an external guest speaker will present his or her work in print or projected form. In addition there are five competition evenings where members submit digital images and prints for adjudication by a judge. Every year there are nights given over to the display of members work and practical nights held for educational purposes.
Small exhibitions of members' work are also shown at the the tea break on most club nights.
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Club members produce conventional and imaginative photographic work
A portrait workshop from a visiting speaker with his model, a whisky tasting, a boat trip to the Isle of May, a member leading a portrait demonstration and the club treasurer on the boat.
Example from a Club Evening
Thanks to all the members who took part in the photos and retouching club night on 15th February 2010. Particular thanks to the good sports who faced the cameras.
The club syllabus secretary, Euan Fraser, though a fantastic landscape photographer, does not have superpowers as you might think from the image above. Gordon took 2 shots, one of which included the tables upon which lay our hero (now with backache). The second shot showed the empty room and this was layered with the first shot before the empty floor was revealed with a mask. A shadow was airbrushed in at the end.
Three members pose for their TV debuts on Crimewatch.
The monochrome shot was taken with a studio flash. The other shots were taken with the tungsten modeling light from the flash. The modeling light is similar to an ordinary household table lamp. Anyone in the club could do this with a basic understanding of their camera. And it doesn't have to be an expensive DSLR - the tungsten shots were snapped on a cheap compact camera. Images and description by Gordon Saunders. Gordon is a professional graphics artist and photographer.
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The Club owes its origins to a successful photographic competition promoted by Mr Bett of Anderson and Bett, a local pharmacist, and held in connection with Milngavie week 1969.The competition judge expressed surprise that with the high standard of entries, Milngavie did not have a camera club. A small committee was formed to rectify the situation and the first recorded meeting of the Milngavie and District Camera Club took place in December of that year.
The syllabus for the 1970 season was prepared, and meetings were held in Milngavie's Lesser Town Hall. There were no darkroom facilities which was just as well, since most members were interested in colour slides. The keen print workers possessed their own enlargers.
In 1975 the name of the club was changed to reflect the fact that many of the members lived in Bearsden, and and the following year the meetings of the club moved to the Milngavie Community Education Centre. From its inception the club has only had two secretaries, the late Robert Simpson (1972- 1987), and Malcolm Boddie,the present incumbent since 1987. Robert Simpson who latterly became the chairman and honorary president sadly died last year, but his memory is commemorated by the presentation from his son, of a trophy bearing his name, which is now competed for annually.
The membership of the club now stands at over 70, with a waiting list of approximately 25.
The club is now one of the most successful in Scotland in terms of its competition results. Locally, in the Glasgow and District Photographic Union, several members have had first places in the salon section of the annual exhibition and competition. Nationally, in the Scottish Photographic Federation (SPF) print and projected images competitions the club has been consistently successful, and one of its members is on the Roll of Honour of the SPF. Several members have gained awards and acceptances in international exhibitions.
Some also hold distinctions of the Royal Photographic Society.