News Season 2025 - 2026
20th November
The guest speaker tonight was award winning landscape photographer Stephen Ball from Scotland Captured. Stephen’s work has been featured in photographic magazines and has been exhibited in the UK and abroad.
The presentation “Scotland Behind the Lens” showcased images taken in Scotland over the last 15 years. He explained the camera equipment and editing software that he uses, and stressed that he prefers to get his images right in camera with minimal editing required. Stephen showed us stunning images taken all over Scotland from the Highlands and Islands to the Scottish Borders. Some successful photographs were only achieved by waiting at a location for several hours for the right weather and lighting conditions, walking for several hours to get to the best location or wading into seas and rivers to get the best viewpoint.
Members thoroughly enjoyed seeing the variety and quality of his work, appreciating Stephen’s interpretations of well-known Scottish landmarks whilst also treating us to images of less familiar locations.
13th November
The guest speaker tonight was insect macro photographer David Hamilton, known on Instagram as “WeeMadBeasties”.
David showed images of ladybirds, spiders, beetles and bees taken locally. He also shared images of colourful insects taken in Norfolk and stunning shots of rarely photographed insects taken in Malaysia, the USA and France. In April 2025 he organised a tour to Ecuador which was attended by participants from all over the world. He has arranged a 12-day macro photography tour to Colombia for May 2026. David’s work has featured in National Geographic’s documentary series “A Real Bug’s Life” and he has appeared in an episode of “Blue Peter” teaching children how to do macro photography and has been interviewed by BBC Scotland’s “The Nine”. His enthusiasm for this genre of photography was evident and after viewing his images the members were given the opportunity to try some of his camera equipment.
Following a question-and-answer session, Wilson Murray thanked David for sharing his fantastically detailed and colourful images with us.
At the next meeting on Thursday 20th November the guest speaker will be landscape photographer Stephen Ball who will give a presentation called “Scotland behind the Lens”. Thursday is also the hand-in deadline for the second print competition of the season.
6th November
The judging of the second digital image competition of the season took place tonight. The judge for the competition was Dave Ferguson from Falkirk Camera Club. Dave offered helpful advice on how he felt the images could be improved. There was a great variety of images for Dave to look at and after careful consideration his top scoring images were “Eyes Ahead” by Linda Greenhill which scored 20 points, “A “Fly” Rest” by Dominic Smith, “Follow the Leader” by Margaret Dewar and “Red Squirrel” by Linda Greenhill which were all awarded 19 points and “Backlit Seed” and “It’s my Ball” both by Dominic Smith which were given 18 points.
30th October
The annual theme competition took place at the latest meeting of Motherwell Photographic Society. This is always a fun night giving the club members the opportunity to become judges for the evening as the members score each other’s images. The themes this year were “Food and Drink” for the digital images and “Water” for the prints.
After careful consideration by the members the top images and prints were announced by Competition Secretary Wilson Murray. In the digital image section Rodger Shearer was in first place with “Fruit Bowl”. In joint second place was Iain Ferguson with “Strawberry Splash” and Linda Greenhill with “Christmas Hot Chocolate”. In the print section Rodger Shearer was in first place with “Linn Jaw”. Rodger’s print “Ascension Seascape” was second. In joint third place was Douglas McEwen with “What Lies Beneath” and Dominic Smith with “Water Drops”. Rodger scored the highest number of points on the night with his image “Fruit Bowl”. He will be presented with the Fergus Smith Memorial Trophy at the annual awards evening next April.
09th October
The first print competition of the season was judged by Cameron Scott from Carluke. The results are as follows
Beginners Section
1st "Red kite Hunting" by David Law
2nd "Relaxing on a Sunny Afternoon" by David Yardley
3rd "Birds Eye View, Bay of Kotor Montenegro" by David Yardley
Landscape and General Section
1st "Point to Point Racing" by Linda Greenhill
2nd= "Autumn Rays" by Linda Greenhill
2nd= "Falls of Measach" by Douglas McEwen
3rd= "Red Eye Tree Frog Silhoutte" by Linda Greenhill
3rd= "Stavanger" by Brian Saberton
Portrait Section
1st "The Unhappy Couple" by Linda Greenhill
2nd "Break Time in the Workshop" by Linda Greenhill
3rd " Golden Girl" by Linda Greenhill
18th September
The guest speaker at the latest meeting was astrophotographer photographer Stuart McIntyre from Bound by Starlight. Stuart is based in Motherwell and usually travels to the Scottish Highlands or Dumfries and Galloway to take images of the night sky. He was shortlisted in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards and has been published in the BBC’s Sky at Night magazine.
Stuart shared lots of information on camera settings, the ideal conditions for astrophotography, the equipment used and the importance of referring to a moon phase calendar. He showed the large group of members amazing images taken at various locations including Glencoe, Eigg, Skye and Urquhart Castle. There were dramatic shots of the Milky Way, Aurora Borealis and Orion Nebula, with recognisable Scottish landmarks in the foreground.
Following a question-and-answer session, Club President Rodger Shearer thanked Stuart for showing us his stunning images, obtained from a subject that is exceptionally difficult to photograph.
11th September
There was an excellent turnout for the second meeting of the new season. The guest speaker was wildlife photographer Paul McDougall, an award winning photographer, who through his company “Touch the Wild”, organises wildlife workshops and tours in the UK and oversees.
Paul’s topic for his presentation was “Capturing Moments”. He started by explaining the steps to take to capture a good wildlife image, including selecting the correct camera settings, being aware of the light and having a creative vision. Paul then displayed a series of incredible images showcasing wildlife in diverse environments including Scotland, Finland, Kenya, Canada and Nepal.
Following a question and answer session, Club President Rodger Shearer thanked Paul for sharing his stunning images with us. Rodger particularly admired Paul’s amazing use of light and shade.
Member Iain had a big birthday recently so as is the custom we shared birthday cake and all signed a card to wish him well.
3rd July
The club recently received the results of the Scottish Photographic Federation Annual Portfolio. This is a club and individual competition open to monochrome prints, colour prints and digital images. The highest scoring entries (approximately 30% of the total entry) became the Annual Portfolio of accepted prints and projected images for the year.
Motherwell Photographic Society entered all three sections. Our final placings were 22nd in the colour print section, 22nd equal in the monochrome print section and 10th equal in the digital image section. 28 clubs entered the competition.
Four of the club entries were accepted into the Annual Portfolio. Mummy’s Fur Coat by Rodger Shearer was accepted into the digital section with a score of 14 out of 15. Rodger’s colour print The Leap was given 13 out of 15 and Rodger’s monochrome print Stormy Waters also scored 13 out of 15. The Jersey Pullers by Dominic Smith was accepted into the digital section with a score of 12 out of 15. We look forward to viewing the Portfolio during the 2025-2026 season.
3rd July
A good number of members made the journey to Newarthill today for the funeral of Thomas McGinn. (We knew him as Tom) It was a sad occasion but a lovely service and some of us spoke to the family at the graveside on behalf of the club.
8th June
We have had the very sad news this week that one of our members has died. Thomas McGinn has passed away last week. He was a member of the camera club and of the committee for a very long time and until quite recently was an active member, putting in a variety of genre of images into our competitions from birds in Strathclyde Park to surfers in San Sebastian.
He will be sadly missed.
