Tonight is the first evening of the new season which is jam-packed with high quality presenters along with the usual mix of internal, external and international competitions and members' nights. We welcome new members to our "Meet & Greet" evening at which our President will introduce the Committee and highight some of the season's events.

Karen is passionate about wildlife - especially Scottish wildlife. She can't think of anything better than being out in the countryside armed with her camera watching and photographing the amazing creatures we share our planet with.

When it comes to photography her aspiration is to capture images that show animals in their habitat behaving naturally. She doesn't believe in photographing just to tick off a species. In an ideal world, if she didn't have a day job and a dog who doesn't travel, she'd be up in the Scottish Highlands every weekend learning as much as she could about the wild inhabitants. As it is she spends all her vacations in Scotland – “we are so lucky to have such a diverse and interesting range of wildlife here in my home country and personally I don't see the need to travel further at this time”.

Her favourite animals to photograph are otters, puffins and mountain hares - partly because all three are observed and photographed totally in the wild, no baiting, no set-ups. This for her is the most rewarding way to photograph and observe animals; it's an honour to share space with these creatures.

She does have a day job too, working at BBC Radio Scotland on their online content. This involves live music photography, filming and editing.

You can see a selection of the Karen’s photograph in her gallery at her website: https://www.karenmillerphotography.co.uk/.

David has a wide-ranging photography portfolio which includes corporate work, landscapes, light paintings and “little people”.

Tonight’s presentation is on Light Paintings. David creates these using very long exposures and are created under the cover of darkness. He uses various tools to create light sculptures within the landscape, and he is present in each image the whole time the photograph is being taken – he remains invisible as he is constantly moving around and avoid illuminating himself during the exposure. All of the light sculptures are created on location. No post-editing trickery is ever used.

Sounds like we’re in for an interesting evening. You can see some of David’s work at his website: https://www.davidgilliver.com/photography/ .

Don is an Edinburgh-born, local photographer. With a creative spirit, love of nature, travel and different cultures, his curiosity and photography have taken him around the globe. These foreign adventures, as well as allowing him to immerse himself in photography on a daily basis, have opened his eyes to the beauty and diversity around us. They also gave him a newly found appreciation for the city and country of his birth. As his travels continued and his desire to share what he saw grew, so did his passion for photography. With his attention now firmly fixed on Scotland he can think of nothing better than sharing this passion for photography with others. Being able to do so within the beautiful, UNESCO World Heritage City of Edinburgh is, for him, a dream come true.

He views photography as a lifelong vocation. He looks forward to the continual process of learning and growing and hope that the enthusiasm which he has for photography can be used to encourage others.

If you’d like to see Don’s work then have a look at his website: https://www.edinburghphotowalks.com/don-munro/ .

John is a hobbyist photographer who specialises in Art Nude, Fashion and Model photography. He also does Landscapes if he’s already there, Nature too if something flies out in front of his camera.

He is a member of the Royal Photographic Society and an active member of St Andrews PS.

His presentation tonight explores the ins and outs of nude photography, that is … “what is nude photography and how to get started?”. It examines the main genres and its sub-cultures, the difference between studio and location work. It demonstrates the difference in themes using digital and print methods, it follows through with how to book a model, what to expect and achieve. It covers subjects like cost and the different types of payments, also how to act during an actual shoot. It lists the Do’s and Do Not’s of working with models, what to expect when working in the studio and what to expect when working on location, camera settings and how to deal with weather. The presentation also deals with composition and editing, and finally how to build a portfolio.

Take a look at John’s website for more information: http://www.mrspider.co.uk/ .

This is the hand-in date for the first internal competition of the season. It's a digital image only competition. Images should be submitted to the club's website by midnight on the 7th but can be submitted at any time up to 8 weeks before that.

To submit images for the competition login to the Members page on the website and click on "My Images" in the left hand menu. Follow the instructions on the "My Images" page to submit an image for the competition. Full details of the rules for submitting images for internal competitions can be found on the Information page of the website.