Skelmorlie Camera Club has enjoyed a picture-perfect lockdown by taking to social media to stay connected with the community.

The club started using social media before lockdown as a way to reach budding young photographers, and the pandemic has only accelerated that process.

Club member Fiona Collins says their lockdown ‘alphabet challenge’ was a huge hit with locals and gave them a great platform to show their work.

She said: “The club tends to be made up of slightly older people and I suggested to the other members that we use social media to try and connect with younger people.

“Before the pandemic I would post about what we were doing to try and raise awareness of the club in Skelmorlie.

“During lockdown, I started to notice that locals liked posting pictures on Facebook, so I realised there was an interest in photography.

“I started the alphabet challenge where people would send in pictures of where they had been for every letter, and it took off from there.”

A summer of online activities for the club ended with a competition to find the star photograph for next year’s Skelmorlie calendar.

Fiona says the club were able to use their new online reach to bring the competition to a wider audience.

She explained: “Every year the camera club has been responsible for getting the photograph for the local calendar that’s produced.

“The funds raised by it are used to support the old peoples Christmas lunch in Skelmorlie, and we have to choose a picture of Skelmorlie or Wemyss Bay to feature.

“We haven’t had many entries over the last few years and we were fed up with similar pictures being used every year.

“We decided to put out a call online for pictures and the response was more than we could have imagined.”

After sharing the competition online, the club got around ten times the number of normal entries, with Karen Willey’s snowy scene the eventual winner.

Fiona said: “We got over 60 different entries which we were very pleased with, and there seems to be more young people involved as well.

“All the entries were judged in our normal way by looking at the composition and clarity and things like that.

“It was very close between a couple of them, but the winning picture was loved by the judges for its lighting and they said it was evocative.

“So that photo will be on the calendar which will be sold in shops in the town and also sent to former Skelmorlie residents living all over the world.”

The club is now looking to make the most of its lockdown online success and attract new members, especially those younger residents who have an interest in photography.

Fiona said: “We’re now looking to carry on that good response from the competition and are looking for members to join the club.

“We want to stress that it is more of a photography club than a camera club and we encourage people to take part no matter what kind of camera they have.

“Everything is still online at the minute but we are still able to do lots of tutorials, presentations and expert talks.

“We would really like to see more young people involved in the club and we want to try and reach out to local groups in the area as well.”

If you are interested in joining, search for Skelmorlie Camera Club on Facebook or go to www.skelmorliecameraclub.co.uk.