Detail – 21-Jun-2012
Another competition night. This time we had non-SAPF judge Lindsay Poland from City Cross Camera House judging the Detail competition. Lindsay surveyed our work, and although he’s often happy to share opinions (wander in to the shop and have a chat :lol:) he was a bit less fulsome in his comments on this evening.
That worked to our advantage as he quickly judged the images, with some minor critical comments, and as always reserved the highest marks for the absolute best images (no one got a 10!).
But what we did afterward I think added to the night significantly – I asked him why he awarded the images the marks he did – from the low to the high. For example, Jenny Pedlar’s blue door was a great image and he really liked it, but he down graded it a bit due to some distracting elements in one corner. There was a bird print from James that got a lowish mark – the reason was due to what appeared to Lindsay to be over sharpening. A high key image of my daughters eye was down graded as he felt it needed some more of her face (not just her eye) – to make it more of a story than a clinical image (fair comment). This sort of Q&A generated some interesting discussion from the floor which went on for another 20 minutes and I feel was more productive for many of us as it was a conversation between us and the judge rather than wisdom from upon high.
So if you are all willing, we might try this with some other judges as the year progresses and tease out far more than the thinking out loud we are used to hearing. In the meantime, check out the top digital images (sorry – haven’t had time to get the top prints from authors)
Chris 😉
Jeremy Watson – professional photographer – 7-Jun-2012
Workshops have been a touch tricky this year – our guest speakers or events haven’t always worked out or been available, and this evening looked like being the same! The night was supposed to be about Antarctica, but we had to find a guest speaker at very short notice.
Fortunately, Jeremy Watson (of that great natural light portrait evening) agreed to step in at the last minute. Jeremy told us a bit about himself:
- His work takes him away from home for 3-4 months – usually to the bush
- Jeremy runs education sessions for ArtsSA at Carclew, and for SA Health. The workshops are very much participatory events and often involve mental health, disadvantaged groups or juvenile detention kids – the main point being to engage people. This can be used to advantage in school setting too with team building exercises.
In all cases, strong outcomes are sought, bombarding the participant with creative, high energy material – homework is optional! - If you’ve been to the Royal Show you may have an Ikea catalogue – with your picture on the cover. That was Jeremy’s job (very hard work!!!), but he also runs a lot of pop up photo sessions for people like SANTOS or the Motor Accident Commission
- There isn’t a lot of marketing in his other work, which these days is mainly digital and straddles both commercial contracts and visual arts.
- He has some exhibitions too – cafes, pubs, restaurants if your interested.
So as you can see, he has a lot to occupy him and tries to have a range of jobs that keep him occupied for a good part of the year. Have a look at what Jeremy is working on at present and you get the idea:
- A youth workshop at Streaky Bay for 12-25 year olds with a fashion stylist
- a 20 year retrospective of his work
- Pop up photo booths for Schoolies
- a new portrait folio
- a book for a church
- feet for a beautician
- Red Cross Drug and Alcohol programme
- the migration team to help refugees
- a project with children in Sri Lanka
We got onto some general discussions like Why do we take photos? The answers that popped up from the audience ranged through capturing beauty, autobiographical, needing an audience (don’t we all?), sharing (yep!), getting new ideas and discussing photos. Now aren’t they the reasons that a lot of us are members of Blackwood Photographic Club?
Jeremy suggested if we want to extend ourselves try setting an assignment – find “faces”, shoot colour, take candid shots. We had a bit of general discussion about candid photos. Jeremy found that people in Australia aren’t as shy about having their photos taken as we think. He showed some images he’d taken in New York (he’s been there and used a point and shoot rather than dSLR to really get involved) and said Adelaide wasn’t really that much different.
If we are to take photos be aware of some of the rules. There is no actual right to privacy although we have a reasonable expectation of it. The important distinction is that if peoples images are used commercially (ie for profit/sale) that’s a possible risk of litigation if they have not consented. On the other hand, places like the beach are public places, as are city streets and there is no law restricting photography per se. Be overt about taking your photos, don’t be timid, and even share the photos with the subjects. However, there are restrictions regarding children, private property, Defense department land, Sydney Harbour Bridge foreshore and others. There is a discussion going on around the world about this, and situations where people try to forbid you to take pictures (eg security guards) may not be a problem after all – but check the situation. Have a look at the 4020 and Arts Law web sites for more information – there is quite a bit about it.
Jeremy then asked if we’d do a questionnaire to help him frame workshops for groups such as ours – and talked about getting the most out of your images as we answered his questions. Things like:
- understanding your camera
- photograph what you love
- change your white balance
- use different view of your subject (low/high/left/right/above/below etc)
- shoot to a brief to test yourself
- Shoot wide angle
- use Photoshop to try tilt & shift for correcting architecture
The discussion moved on to some images that Jeremy brought in of his work – ranging from product shots, to portraits, multiple prints on one sheet (that reduces cost), adding grain to images (gives it that film feel) and some tasteful human form studies in various environments. He noted that digital photography has affected professional business (as everyone’s a photographer now!) and this is now reduced, and so value has dropped. Interestingly, darkroom prints have become more valuable.
So after a wide ranging discussion, Jeremy went away with his questionnaire, and we went away with some ideas about what professional do and how they survive in a cut throat world.
Oh – and before I forget, welcome to new member Peter (who’s also in Edwardstown – but we won’t hold that against him :lol:)
For those that missed it, Jeremy has organised a portrait workshop (at a cost of course) – which filled quickly – and 8 of us will be taking part. Others will occur if there is sufficient demand.
Cheers
Chris 😉
Seen Better Days – 24-May-2012
Another competition to try out our skills and test the judge! A cold, wet night had a good gathering present to compete and enjoy some fine images. We also had two visitors – Antoinette & Howard and two former visitors decided they liked what they saw – welcome to Chris and Peter. Hope you get involved in the workshops and competitions soon!
On the subject of judging, when you get a chance have a read of James Allan’s piece on St Peter in the latest Camera Clips – it will make you think about what the judge has to do.
Before I get into the evenings competition, a few house keeping items:
- 7-Jun-2012: Will now be Jeremy Watson (of the Natural light portraits evening!) talking about his work and what people would like at workshops
- 17-Jul-2012: Edwardstown interclub – get your images organised soon. We will want final image names at least 1 week before the event
- 2-Aug-2012: Now the AV night with John Hodgson
- 30-Aug-2012: Now the Antarctica talk (and possible Astrophotography too!)
Outings
- We are working on a Queen’s Birthday outing – I’ll send out an email with the plan, but if your free on the Monday we should have something for you. If not, James Allan will be in Whyalla swimming with the Giant Cuttlefish and your invited to join him.
- We are also finalising the October Long Weekend outing – more soon.
Exhibitions
- The SAPF Annual Exhibition
Venue: United Eastern Association Masonic Complex
1 Fisher Street , Tusmore, SA, 5065
Exhibition Dates:
Saturday 14th July 2012, 12.00 noon through to the Official Opening at 7.30pm
Sunday 15th July, 11.00 am – 5.00 pmWe have now sent off the images to the SAPF exhibition. The club aims to exhibit an images from each member who submits an image (we are limited to 2 by the rules), but we are only allowed to exhibit 10 images in total. We were actually oversubscribed on this occasion, with more exhibitors (and images) than we were allowed, so we had to choose the best of each potential exhibitor, and then reduce that to 10 out of that group. Selection was based on a vote by the 9 committee members present.
Our apologies to those that missed out on this occasion – all of you were in there, and only missed out by small margins
After a careful evaluation of the images submitted, we selected 10 different club members – and will also post them here later. - Lindsay Poland and 11 other professionals will be exhibiting at SALA this year as Skrambled Eggs. We’re all invited to have a look and see what the pros do when they aren’t shooting for a client. They’re web site shows previous years – and it looks quite good. More details when I have them.
Now on to our competition – the theme was Seen Better Days – a chance to photograph those old, decaying objects and show how interesting they could be. Tonight it was immediate past President of the SAPF – Peter Phillips – judging our work. As Peter pointed out, the opinions he gave were his own – although the author might feel they were unfairly scored it was only an opinion on the night. Even Peter had experienced images that scored 7 when he was sure they were worth a 10! Peter pointed he judged more on impact than technical aspects, and his comments reflected that – once again good critique of the art of the image (one of those things we like!) with less focus on the technical rules. After the competition, he commented that the standard of the club images was very high – probably better than his last visit, and some great work was being displayed.
We had 120 images for Peter to judge (including Eric’s used toothbrush above – is that a Colgate or an Oral-B?) – mainly prints on this occasion, with 38 projected images (9 slides!). The range of images was fascinating with rusty cars, aged doors, worn toothbrushes, a dead bird, decaying houses, lots of the 12 Apostles (on the Great Ocean Road), encrusted ovens and broken pipes. That these things are around us constantly and we don’t really notice them is an interesting discussion in it own right.What struck me was the diversity of decaying objects. As Arthur pointed out in his talk a few weeks ago, decaying objects make fascinating compositions – not just photographs. Well done everyone!
Head over to the Top Print and Digital pages to see what did well, and a few more.
Chris 😉
Photography – my Passion (10-May-2012)
The theme for tonight was a presentation by 3 club members about their photographic passion. When planning the evening we decide to encompass different areas of photography – slides, image manipulation and something we rarely see – underwater photography. We also had a few visitors this evening – Trevor from Noarlunga Club, Peter on his second visit, and Audrey – acting as Arthur’s driver.
Thankfully (thankyou Audrey), our slide expert Arthur Farmer was able to attend, despite his difficulty with travel at the moment – and it was worth the effort.
As Arthur pointed out, slides have a two of useful advantages – they have longevity and are quite easy to store.
In his work, he now uses Velvia and also creates his amazing black & white slides with normal black & white film, then sends it to the US for processing into a slide. We were told about a passion for studying decay (odd for a surgeon), which produces some fascinating composition which lends itself to both colour and B&W. He has found that simple structures & textures lead the eye. Also utilising low light (early and late in the day) and getting in close to create a composition means that its not just a photograph of the subject – an important point.
In many respects, this philosophy is inspired by the great artists such as Heysen and Titian, who used out of focus areas to draw the eye to the focus of the image. Whatever the inspiration, we can always be assured that Arthur will produce images that make us think!
Our next speaker was Eric Budworth who told us how, as a film spooler in London, he was bitten by the bug – although he was also a train spotter!
In 1958 he bought his first camera at the Brussells World Fair. Then in Spain, he bought a Voigtlander camera with a 50mm f2.8 lens. He later sold it, but got it back when the purchaser said it didn’t work – it just needed some film.
Eric also entered the digital world early, with a Nikon D1 – a 2.7Mpixel camera that produces some great images. Though it was a bit large, it had the advantage of a 1/6000s shutter speed and access to great glass. He still uses a Nikon digital, but points out that he stores his old slides digitally by photographing them – just need a bellows and a slide holder.
Photographically, Eric like to play around – no special subject for him – although he does like still life. He enjoys the way digital lets him manipulate things, and subscribes to the UK magazine “Digital Photography” from which he gets many ideas and tries them out. The advantage of this magazine he finds is the clear step by step explanations provided.
Eric is inspired by things around him as well, getting ideas from the magazines and trying them out. He gave many examples of how he took the images displayed in the video at above, including bolting a camera and flash in his car whilst driving, how he created the image of the jigsaw using a template and perspective translation tool in photoshop, and the penwash of the two prints – turning a fairly uninspiring image into something special as I’m sure you’ll agree.
The final set of images are a template Eric obtained to create calendars to share with his friends overseas – a pretty impressive set of images.
Personally, I find Eric produces many great images that challenge us (and the judges) – and coupled with his ever present wit is an inspiration to try new things.
The final speaker for the evening was Richard Wormald. Unknown to many of us, Richard is both a keen photographer and a diver. He has coupled these two hobbies into one – although he admits his diving is less freqent than it used to be. He even spent time as a diving instructor with the motto “no conditions were too bad!“ . His inspiration for diving came from the TV program Sea Hunt (does that show his age?) – you can see the similarity between Richard and Lloyd Bridges can’t you? By the way, I had to rope him into this talk at short notice, but Richard dutifully scanned many of his slides in and shared them with us – apparently reviving many good memories (as his wife Jenny told me!)
So onto Richard’s presentation which firstly described some of the difficulties in underwater photography including refraction, object magnification (making focusing even harder), particle scatter (clouding the image), colour absorption (ever notice that blue cast? Red has been lost!) making it necessary to use a high power flash, and importantly that fact that you can’t change lenses – so is going to be a macro day or not?
Still, he obviously overcame a lot of those issues with some superb images of corals, filter feeding animals, nudi banks, anenomes, clown fish (Nemo!), feather stars and basket stars. Wow! Amazing creatures and so colourful and textured! Richard told us stories of trips to the Great Barrier Reef – 70km off shore and swimming with the risks of white tip sharks (not aggressive in the area they went to but they are elsewhere), sea snakes (like the Olive snake – super venomous – but with short fangs thankfully), using the anchor line to get back as divers tire, infection from the warm humid environment (don’t cut yourself on the coral). He also shared the story of Humphrey – the Groper, and that image of the giant clam they staged (check out the slides above).
We also heard stories of cave diving, including the need for dry suits (it’s mighty cold down there), safety lines (visibility is minimal if you stir up the silt – 120 feet is usually the maximum distance), and the categories of cave. Not to mention more snakes, and the tiny spaces divers squeezed through – pushing air tanks ahead of them.
But the take home memory here was Richard descending into a hole on a ladder into a huge cave! Many of the cave images were stunning – and I’m glad Richard shared them with us along with those great images of the Great Barrier reef dive.
So a fascinating night – seeing what fires the passions of some of the clubs photographers. Many thanks to all three of you for sharing your work – and we look forward to seeing some more!
Chris 😉
Transport – 26-Apr-2012
We traveled to BPC via some form of transport to see what methods could be used to get there. Two of our visitors from the last meeting – Chris and Peter – returned for another look too.
Our judge for the evening was David Smith who is a member of Eastern Suburbs Camera Club and has been involved there since 1987 entering at the local, SAPF and International level. A former Mitsubishi engineer, he cast his eye over our transport methods and found a few he wanted to take home!
There were some quite amazing images which you can see on the Top prints and Top digital entries pages. I’m going to indulge myself a little here and put up two images I liked (and have access to) from the night. My own Personal Transport Only (the Ferrari above) and Matt Carr’s Apocalyptic Future which you can see on the clubs Flickr page. Matt’s is particularly interesting as its a composite of several images with some strong elements that you need to look for – its not just a picture, but a short story.
A couple of reminders before I finish up:
- We need your entries for the SAPF club set now – entries must be in by 1-Jun-2012 with SAPF!
- Don’t forget the SAPF exhibition at the Parade Ground – Darkroom to Digital
See you at the next meeting
Chris 😉
Book Title – 29-Mar-2012
Yes – I know…..why have we had to wait this long to hear about the Book Title competition? Life folks – this little black duck has been occupied with many other things 😉
Anyway, on to the competition night.
Firstly, the news!
- We welcomed Graham Field as a new member – welcome and thanks for joining
- We also welcomed the SAPF Secretary (and Port Adelaide Camera Club member and judge), Lydia Strutton as a guest. Lydia (and the new SAPF executive) are following the mantra of engaging with clubs and this was a tangible example of just that! Matt and I attended the SAPF AGM as delegates and will keep you informed of new things from SAPF President Alberto Giurelli (Para Camera Club) and the new committee.
- A reminder that the interclub with Edwardstown is coming up on 17 July – so start getting your images and digital entries sorted
- You should also be getting together any digital images for the SAPF Annual Exhibition which must be in by 1-Jun-2012. The committee will need at least 1 image from each member to try and represent our best work. You may also enter your own entries (digital or print) – visit the SAPF web site for more details.
- The SAPF is holding an exhibition to mark 100 years of South Australian photography
“Darkroom to Digital – 100 years of S. A. Photography”
This special exhibition will be open from Wednesday May 15 till Saturday May 26 – daily from 10.00am until 4.00 pm at the Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, Adelaide - A reminder that we need to have your orders in very soon (by 10 May 2012) for the disposable camera competition!
On to the competition. After much searching, our Judge communications secretary Julie found a well read judge to examine our images in the Book Title competition. David White is a former member (and President) of BPC and visited us with his wife Jean. David has wide interests including ornithology, photography, square dancing and bridge. With that array of interests David set forth in evaluating our efforts – with some rather interesting titles if not images. Think of Puss in Boots, Eat Pray Love, Through the Looking Glass, Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, Riddle of the Sands, Steve Jobs and the Thin Blue Line and you get the idea.
You can see David’s top images in the Digital Competition page and of course some of the Editor’s choice for a different perspective 😆
Enjoy!
Chris 😉
Ok – I’ve been tardy in posting about the last two workshops!
Yes – I’ve been a very bad boy. I should have posted the updates on the last two workshops but other things got in the way! So here we go – complete with YouTube slides for you to read!
The first workshop (held on 15-Mar-2012) about Low Light was prepared and presented by James.
James led us through an array of low light situations – and importantly, got us to try out some of the techniques with our own equipment and the lights turned out in the club rooms. A few of us ventured outside to create ghostly images in the spirit of Darren Siwes whilst others shone torches through wine bottles to paint light, took photos by candlelight and generally had a good time experimenting!
Rather than include images, I’ll just link you to James’ PowerPoint presentation (on YouTube) and wait for the images in the Low light competition later in the year (27-Sep-2012 to be precise)
The second workshop (held on 12-Apr-2012) was meant to be a session on Print Making – but due to unforseen circumstances we had to find a quick presentation.
The night was fairly well attended, with 3 guests – Peter, Trevor (from Noarlunga & Southern Districts Camera Club) and Chris (a long time follower of this blog) – welcome gents!
Fortunately, Matt & I managed to shift our workshop on Selective colour, put yourself into history and image stacking together fast enough for everyone to have a go at these techniques. It looks like the night was a success from the number of stacked and altered perspectives of history that have surfaced on the club’s Flickr page. Anyhow, rather than rehash the methods, check out the slides and see if it helps.
For those in search of references, have a look at the following links:
Selective Colouring
Selective Colouring – highlights
Fake Histories
Swap your face with someone else
Cheers
Chris 😉
Man vs Nature – 1-Mar-2012
Man vs nature – a tricky topic!
The night saw new members and guests – swelling our numbers a little for the evening. We welcome Henk, who attended our Natural Light Portrait workshop and liked what he saw!
A few visitors attended the evening as well:
- Robert – and exchange student from Germany staying with James
- Terry – an ex-ABC cameraman (and friend of our new member Henk)
- Howard – who also attended our Natural Light Portrait workshop and told me afterwards he’ll probably join us regularly
Before I get on to the nights competition, a reminder of several important bits of news:
- We noted the passing of Barbara Mullins, a leading figure in photography and the SAPF for many years. As a mark of our respect, we made a donation to the Cancer Council of SA as requested by the family in lieu of flowers. Barbara will be missed by many people in the SA photographic and AV community!
- Jenny will be retiring as Treasurer at the next AGM – so if you believe you can take on this role, please have a chat to her about it and see if you can step in to help. Training will be provided!
- James is seeking more articles for Camera Clips – new things you have tried, what inspires you, how you’ve changed as a photographer. Please have a think about how you can add to this valuable resource for our members and talk to James.
So on to the evening of Man vs Nature. We had 84 entries for the night – not all in the set subject, but interesting regardless. Due to some timing miscalculations, our SAPF judge for the night could not attend. Fortunately, Ray Goulter (who has also trained judges) was able to step in and take up the challenge of judging our work and both judge and provide constructive criticism. Ray prefers to judge on the merit of the individual image rather than normalise the range to the best image of the night in a section. He certainly had his work cut out for him at times and some superb images were displayed – there were 10 images in the Colour Prints section that gained 9 or 10 points!
Once again, we’ve posted as many of the top prints of the night as well as the top digital images for you to view (as well as those pesky Editor’s choice images :lol:)
Cheers
Chris 😉
Natural light portraits workshop – 16-Feb-2012
What a great evening! Instead of the usual BPC club meeting at the Memorial Hall, Jenny & Mark Pedlar invited us to hold a workshop on Natural Light Portrait Photography at their house. A cloudy start to the day had turned into a lovely clear evening, and more than 15 BPC members attended – most with cameras. We also had 2 prospective member visitors – Howard & Henk, and as an added bonus, Julie & Ray’s grandson Jase, and Jeremy Watson with his model colleague Anna.
Yvonne had been in contact with Jeremy earlier in the year through a UK ex-pat network and had invited him to attend the workshop as he had relevant experience. Jeremy is a professional photographer who also runs workshops and has a passion for portraiture (you can visit his website or his Facebook page), whilst Anna is a full time model who works with Jeremy and others (having done shoots and promotional work around Australia). We were very fortunate to have them with us, as they helped us to learn new (or hone established) skills in portrait photography with our willing (and unwilling 😉 ) models.
Jeremy’s helpful suggestions (such as spot metering, using the light, large apertures, the classic inverted triangle of light, close cropping, directing the model etc) were a valuable lesson. In concert with this information, Anna’s skill at picking whose shutter was flicking helped provide perfect expressions for images of her on a window seat, in a doorway, and in the back garden gave almost instant success for the budding portrait artists. For those not focusing on Anna, Jase also had his fair share of images recorded too. A few surreptitious shots of members were taken as well as one of the President and a visitor 😆 . Club visitor Howard even managed a few images of Anna in doors after the shoot as we had tea & coffee – now that’s thinking about natural light.
Having fired off a stack of images, and our light fading, we retired indoors to have a drink, a nibble and a chat. Jeremy was asked to tell us about his work and answer questions, to which he willingly obliged. The discussion was certainly wide ranging and fascinating, with tips and insights on breaking the (photographic) rules, street shooting, photographing family gatherings, black & white vs colour, introducing grain, composing in camera, landscapes, photographic safaris, wild animals, model agencies, concert and long lens photography, judging, image processing & software and lots more. We were held fascinated and fired questions back and forth as both Jeremy and Anna gave us the benefit of their knowledge and experience.
The evening wound up with a lot of very happy BPC members (I’ve had nothing but good feedback), some great natural light portraits and the knowledge that Jeremy would be back later in the year to judge at one of our competitions to share his experience and enthusiasm.
Thanks to all that attended Anna & Jeremy for their insights, Jase for posing for a bunch of strangers with cameras, Jenny & Mark for hosting (and feeding/watering) the workshop and Yvonne for the inspired invitation of Jeremy. Apologies to those that didn’t get images to me fast enough for inclusion in this post – but I’ve included a selection that represents the evening including some unexpected (and rather good) natural light portraits!
Cheers
Chris 😉
Welcome back
I hope you’ve all had a good break and are ready for a new year of photography fun!
We’ve kicked off the New Year with an AudioVisual night. It was good to see so many faces return for the first meeting, and even a couple of visitors – Theen (who is posting some interesting images on Flickr in the club site) and Vicki’s friend Alison – welcome. We hope you can come back and share.
The night was the first outing for our newly colour calibrated computer/screen/projector (thanks Ashley) and let us have some AV fun.
I started things rolling with Shades of Red – a photo essay about the colour red – ranging from people to machinery, to flowers & fruit, macros (photo stacks) and light.
This was followed by Mark Pedlar presenting what he found in a 40 minute shoot around the garden. He also filled in some time while we waited at one stage with the trip he & Jenny took to Paris last year. Brilliant images from that too (though there were a lot of bars). I think a club outing here would be perfect!
James Allan showed off his trip to Branxholm in Tasmania – complete with broken gearbox, heavy rain, some great shots of temperate rainforest and tin mines – once again highlighting his ability to see things from a different angle.
Things then stepped up a notch with the expert image manipulation of John Vidgeon – displaying firstly a series of images merged onto driftwood textures and then the Sweeps Festival in Rochester, UK. In both cases a well crafted series of images highlight both the eye of the photographer and image processing methods. John’s experience with AV is well worth seeking out.
Heather Connolly gave us two slide shows – one of Kaikoura in New Zealand to watch whales (and albatross!) and one from her sisters trip to the sub-Antarctic islands highlighting the abundant wildlife, scenery and wind! Another candidate for a club outing 😆
Helen Whitford gave us the best of summer – images of what she’d been up to so far including her nieces wedding, a trip to Werribee zoo, New Years Eve as well as shots around her garden.
The presentations methods varied a little – with PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Photo2Exe, Aperture and Windows Live Essentials Movie Maker. Whatever method was used – they all gave us some enjoyable imagery.
Well done everyone!
A bit of housekeeping news:
- Our next competition is Mitcham – images from the City of Mitcham (see these map links from Mitcham Council or the SA Council Maps sites for city limits). Images must be from the region and may be included in the calendar this year to give it more local flavour.
- Please get your money for calendars in to Jenny as soon as possible – and please return any unused calendars. We have about 40 unsold – a pretty good effort which will help the clubs coffers. Thanks again to James for preparing, organising printing and chasing us all for images!
- There may be some changes to the programme during the year – mainly dates. You’ll be emailed with the updates.
- A reminder about competition entries. We have to be a little stricter due to the large number of entries, and so:
- we will accept print entries from 7:30pm until 7:45pm on competition nights, late entries may not be entered. This is important for both the judges and our time keeping. We intend starting judging before 8pm
- all digital entries must comply with the naming and size conventions outlined in the programme. Gary has indicated that entries that don’t meet the criteria will not be considered!
Please ensure images are under 500kb in size and file names are in the format
Photographers Name_Image name_Category
(where Category is either Open or Set). Note the use of the underscore character.
eg Joe Bloggs_The Winning photograph_Set
If your not sure, ask. You can also have a read of the competition entry rules here
- I’ve updated the Camera Clips page for those that don’t receive it – with James’ latest information. Its a good read as always, and includes some useful tips about noise reduction, lightning photography and the calotype process.
Hope to see you all soon
Cheers
Chris 😉
Stirling Library Exhibition – 2011
After a few hiccups the Stirling Library Exhibition is up and running but sadly almost over!
Kelly Morris, the Community Programs and Marketing Officer at Stirling Library kindly agreed to allow us to exhibit some of our images in the library from 15-Dec-2011 to 15-Jan-2012. This has been a wonderful opportunity to display the work the club produces and raise the clubs profile as well. Kelly even mentioned us in the Library Newsletter.
A catalogue of the 29 images (see the table below) provided by Adrian, Ashley, Eric, Gary, Helen, Hilary, Jenny, Jo, Julie, Mark, Melinda, Ray and myself was provided on the display along with a short description about the club. To date, over 140 of these little sheets have left the library! Kelly also informs me that there have been a few inquiries regarding joining the club as well!
The quality of the images was again superb and that’s not from me but from people I’ve spoken to outside of the club who have seen it.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to repeat the exhibition again this year so please consider providing 2 or 3 of your best images for display.
Our thanks must go to the Adelaide Hills Council, Stirling Library, the BPC members who provided images (some at short notice) for the show and Kelly Morris.
If you get a chance, drop in and have a look.
For those interested in who displayed what here is the list of photographers and titles:
Photographer |
Image title |
| Helen Whitford | Wisteria |
| Ray Goulter | Moss Rocks Pastoral |
| Gary Secombe | Heron in flight |
| Eric Budworth | Christies Creek at dawn |
| Melinda Hine | In the spotlight |
| Gary Secombe | Got my lunch |
| Julie Goulter | Flowers |
| Jo Tabe | Forgotten Memories |
| Mark Pedlar | Boulevard de Courcelles |
| Adrian Hill | Glass on a post |
| Helen Whitford | A quiet drink |
| Hilary Thompson | Camellia |
| Ray Goulter | Woolshed after storm |
| Chris Schultz | Dartmoor Cross |
| Eric Budworth | Time to reap |
| Gary Secombe | Port Willunga jetty at sunset |
| Jo Tabe | A reflective moment |
| Chris Schultz | Two red poppies |
| Jo Tabe | Searching for Water |
| Jenny Pedlar | Blackwood forest mist |
| Adrian Hill | Oodnadatta wreck |
| Ray Goulter | Heysen Remembered |
| Jo Tabe | The Stand Off |
| Eric Budworth | Blue lotus |
| Adrian Hill | Clinging to life |
| Jo Tabe | Still Standing |
| Helen Whitford | The Kiss |
| Jo Tabe | Days End |
| Ashley Hoff | Leaf in the water rill |
Chris 😉
2011 Annual Exhibition & Awards Night (& a little bit of news)
As Ashley mentioned in the last post the Blackwood Photographic Club Annual Exhibition has been run and won.
We had a great selection of entries in all categories, and once again, members entries were of the highest standard. Its a pleasure to view the work that is submitted each year from such a talented group of people. Many thanks to our judges for their great effort, and of course thanks to our scorers, collaters and Mark Pedlar for putting together the award booklet.
Without any further ado, here are the winners and the awards.
Firstly, the Bill Templar Award for 2011 has been awarded to Julie Goulter. Julie’s contribition to the club over many years has been far beyond the call of duty, always with a smile, and this award salutes her enormous contribution to the club. Congratulations Julie!
The slideshow below documents the awards ceremony (thanks to Ray Goulter for taking the photos). Oh – and the guy in the blue shirt that seems to be in every image is just me…. 😆
Over the year, we see many outstanding images – and those with the highest scores in each category are rewarded with the following awards.
Aggregate points awards
Album prints – JV Spick Chemist Award |
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| 1st | Jo Tabe | 220 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 211 points |
| 3rd | Heather Connolly | 197 points |
Colour prints – Blackwood Photographic Club award |
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| 1st | John Vidgeon | 242 points |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | 231 points |
| 3rd | James Allan | 227 points |
Mono prints – Blackwood Times Award |
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| 1st | Jo Tabe | 235 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 209 points |
| 3rd | Theo Prucha | 191 points |
Projected images |
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| 1st | John Vidgeon | 241 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 225 points |
| 3rd | Ursula Prucha | 223 points |
After our Annual Exhibition night, our best images were:
Annual Exhibition Top images
Album prints – Edge Malpas Award |
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| 1st | Helen Whitford | Wisteria |
| 2nd | Heather Connoly | Banged up |
| 3rd | Helen Whitford | Antenna up |
Colour prints – Mal Klopp Blackwood Pharmacy Award |
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| 1st | Jo Tabe | Night Quarters |
| 2nd | John Vidgeon | Blown away |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Searching for water |
Mono prints – I’ve been Framed Award |
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| 1st | Helen Whitford | White Cheeked Gibbon |
| 2nd | Helen Whitford | Wild Dogs |
| 3rd | Mark Pedlar | Louvre observed |
Projected images – Fotoswift Award
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| 1st | John Vidgeon | Young Owl |
| 2nd | Chris Schultz | Iceland poppy detail |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Busted |
Latest news
- The awards night also had a bonus. The Mayor of the City of Mitcham, Michael Picton, attended our awards night and saw the many images we produce. We also were informed that we were successful in our Community Development Grant application with the City of Mitcham for the purchase of a Spyder3 Pro calibration device to correctly calibrate our digital projector and laptop. On 5-Dec-2011 Ashley & I attended a Civic Reception in the Mayor’s Parlour at the Mitcham Council Chambers to receive the award. We sincerely thank the City of Mitcham for their support and will utilise this device to improve the presentations both within the club and with visiting speakers and within the community. This has already started, as on the night of the reception a number of groups also receiving awards approached us about photographic opportunities and education within the community. We’ll keep you informed.
- Our 31 day Challenge is running running – and there are lots of great images popping up – keep putting them in and watching!
- We also have an exhibition of 29 images from a number of club members at the Stirling Library, Mount Barker Rd, Stirling. If you’d like to pop in and see what we look like framed 😆 the exhibition runs until mid-January. I’ll pop an image of the display in here when I get a chance
Finally, I’d like to wish all club members and regular readers of our little missives a Very Happy & Joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
See you next year (unless we meet up for a shoot!)
Cheers
Chris 😉
The 31 Day Challenge is back……
Yep – the 31 Day Challenge is running again.
After last years successful run, and with Blackwood Photographic Club having a quiet December the idea is to Take a photo every day for 31 days and post it on the club Flickr site with the tag “31 days”.
Topics can be as varied as you like. Last year I tried windows – and it was hard. James is having a go at landscapes, but then you don’t need a topic – just an image a day! As James said last year “I expect that the pictures will create a journal of life over the month of December. There are no topics and no themes.”
So if your interested, we will run the 31 day challenge through the club Flikr group.
Just a note : You don’t have to post the photo on the same day – but please put in one photo for each day.
If you’d like to see what we did last year, just search for “31 Days” in the tags and see what pops up.
For those without a Flickr account, refer to the October 2010 edition of Camera Clips for details on how to set one up and how to post images on the club group.
And one more thing – Yvonne & I set up another challenge – the BPC Photo Chain. We start with one image, then everyone post up to 2 images per month that are related to the original, but varied from it. We vote over the month and the top image set the theme for the next month. Its a private group, but all BPC Flickr group members will be invited (most have been). If your interest and have received an invitation, sign up and see how you go.
So start snapping and get some images together.
Chris 😉
Thoughts on the Noarlunga Expo – 2011
The Expo was held at the Port Noarlunga Arts Centre on the 17th & 18th September. The layout was similar to previous years.
This year for the first time the Port Adelaide Photographic Club was also exhibiting some of their work along with
- Hallet Cove School
- South Coast
- Edwardstown
- Murray Bridge International
- Marion Church of Christ
and of course our club – Blackwood. Each club displaying 20 images.
During my attendance on the Saturday morning the number of people passing through was not very high (Saturday morning shopping!) but this did however increase I was informed and Sunday’s attendance during my time there was very good.
Apart from the clubs display there were 11 commercial stands ranging from photographers and printing to camera sales and processing. There was also a digital projected slide show in a small room at the rear of the building.
We compared favorably with the other clubs, however Hallet Cove School’s display was very good and I think the future of photography is in good hands for the years to come.
A great deal of thanks needs to go to the Committee and members of the Noarlunga Photographic Club for the hard work and dedication for running this Expo each year. Please have a look at the slideshow above to see some of this excellent event.
Eric Budworth
A result from the Royal Adelaide Show 41st National Exhibition of Photography 2011
At least 1 member of our club submitted entries into the Adelaide Show Photographic Competition which was an APS approved Competition.
Jo Tabe entered 4 entries into the Novice Section (for people who have not previously had success at a National Competition).
Approximately one third of the entries gained acceptances and Jo was lucky enough to have all 4 of hers accepted with one of them, Night Quarters (we originally saw it as Vintage) gaining 3rd place with a score of 15 out of 15.
Well done Jo.
You can download the Photography results at the Royal Adelaide Show web site – or view all Royal Adelaide Show results
Gary Secombe
Aesthetic Choices – a readers survey
I have often noticed that people will have a range of aesthetic values that they apply when judging the quality of their images. If an image is lacking in one quality, say sharpness, often it may still be acceptable if it is strong in other qualities, like colour saturation or a sense of movement. This summing up of an image is an intuitive process and can be understood as the impact of an image. Of course there is a wide range of individual tastes. However it surprising how a large group of people will often choose the same images, albeit for different reasons.
With this in mind I am interested to discover what aesthetic values guide our choices. It is quite obvious that there is considerable discussion after our competitions and dissent from the choices of the judges. Sometimes this is merely the frustration of not achieving the scores that we feel reflects the merit of our own works. Some of it could be a schism between the values of the members and the judges. Whatever the case, it would be nice to understand what aspects of our photos we rate most highly.
I am interested to do a survey of the club members – which has also been published in Camera Clips for September. However, for those of you with an online mentality, you can also do it here.
I have listed 10 different criteria or values that can be applied to a photograph. All I ask is that you number the list from 1 to 10 in order of how important you consider each of the criteria. Also I would like you to add one criteria to the list.
Click this link to start the survey…..(you have until midnight on 31-Oct-2011 to complete it)
I hope to publish the results in future editions of Camera clips, so that you can see how your choice compare with that of your peers.
James Allan
The Blackwood Photoclub 2012 Calendar has arrived!
 The low resolution sample above contains a watermark which will not appear on the calendar you purchase |
Its here! The Blackwood Photographic Club has again produced its superb calendar. The 2012 calendar, like its predecessors, it is filled with mostly local, all Australian, colourful, and stunning images from our talented members. The price remains the same as last year – just $15. Let it adorn your wall or office, give someone a memorable Christmas gift, or send one to that overseas friend or relation! You can obtain a copy from any club member, email us, or write to the club via snailmail. We accept cash, cheques & money orders (payable to Blackwood Photographic Club of SA) and Electronic Funds Transfer (details available upon request) as payment for this great calendar. Please add $2.90 for tough bag postage/packaging mail delivery. Get your copy now and enjoy our Australian sights! |
Abstract – 18-Aug-2011
| A good roll-up of members attended the competition on Thursday night 18th August. The set subject matter was “Abstract”, and many members submitted set-subject entries. Judge for the evening was David Smith, an experienced and successful landscape photographer with many photographic awards and honours under his belt.
It would be fair to say the subject matter created some interpretation problems for both entrant members and the judge. How should “abstract” be judged? If it’s an abstract, well, it’s an abstract, so it’s then possible to claim that any image that successfully fell into the category would be worth 10 points as it has succeeded in being an abstraction. Here’s some definitions: “Separated from matter, practice or particular examples; not concrete; ideal, not practical; abstruse; .. the ideal or theoretical way of regarding things.” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 5th Edition 1966) “1. conceived apart from matter and from special cases 2. theoretical; not applied 3. of or pertaining to abstract art.. etc.” also “Abstract Art: a 20th century concept of art which rejects the function of art as portraying perceived reality; non-representational art.” (The Maquarie Concise Dictionary 2nd Edition 1995) Our own definition was: So, with expectations the judge is to award more points to images he/she interprets as “better” abstracts than others (otherwise no point to having a competition), some “normal” photograph elements could then apply to differentiate between images falling within the interpretation. Impact was certainly one of the elements used, presentation (print matt boards and digital projection borders) was another, and also composition. The result? Well, you can’t please everyone and David conducted his judging in accordance with his interpretation. This may not have pleased everyone, but in the final analysis judging was conducted expeditiously and members like myself were grateful for this. Judging which drags on creates boredom and David certainly kept the pace rolling. I feel that, if the club includes “Abstract” as a future set subject (and why not!), we should ensure the judge is well-instructed about the subject matter when first engaged to judge. As always, I feel any subject which puts members (and judges) outside their “comfort zone” is conducive to expanding our knowledge of photography as a fine art. Ray Goulter The Abstract competition digital high scorers are on the Digital Entries page – along with a collection of Editor’s Choices. Two of my favourites prints from the night are featured here. Chris 🙄 |
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Atkins Technicolour outing – 4-Aug-2011
A wet, miserable night was brightenned for many BPC members with a memorable outing to Atkins Technicolour on Fullarton Road. Paul Atkins showed us around his families excellent facilities, describing how Atkins had developed from a company producing images of horse race winners and aerial photographs to a colour processing laboratory to the current multimedia service.
We were shown the preview room, where photographers can check their images on colour calibrated equipment at no charge (but there is a time limit). As we wandered through the front of the premises, a fridge stocked with film got Matt and Ashley a bit excited – funny that.
Moving to the working areas we saw the locally built classic C41 dip and dunk film developer tank (with full manual control in the event of failure – a crank handle!). The smell of the chemicals brought back some fond memories for this little black duck :lol:. This was custom made for Atkins in 1970 and still works today, though with less frequency than in it heyday. A Danish Refrema dip and dunk E6 slide processor completes the film system, carefully tended by the highly experience John Clarke from Duckpond. As we moved through I noted a lovely poster size image of Venice – and immediately thought of Arthur…..those who know of Arthur’s frequent visit there will appreciate the comment.
In the printing/colour correction room Paul explained how printing with the Kodak Pegasus (Peggie) and a Noristu 3203 (Sue) allow silver halide prints to be produced efficiently in a range of sizes and formats. The colour correction for the images is, interestingly, performed by women. It seems that colour blindness issues and the skills required aren’t up to the mark in the male population.
As we left the printing room Paul pointed out the stacks of CDs and hard disks that stored all the images they had printed from digital. It was a reminder that digital storage technology is changing – and we need to have secure, backed up storage that will be readable in the future.
The lamination equipment demonstrated led to a discussion about printing on other media – with Paul telling us he is looking into a print system that can print on any shaped surface – including corrugated iron!
We also saw some fascinating equipment, including Atkins BetterLight slit scanner for reproducing fine art images. This device uses a 4″x5″ back on a view camera with a scanning slit of over 10000 pixels in a 72mm width that scans the image – producing over 100 megapixel images in either 8 or 16 bit colour. Time to throw out the dSLR I think. It certainly had Ray excited!
An examination of the large format Epson printers (which allows enormous prints to be produced) completed the review of printing equipment. This can work in 16 bit colour, and Epson claim a life expectancy for their prints of 200 years (theoretical of course – if anyone is around in 200 years we can check that!). The difference with inkjet printing is that light colours are generated by printing fewer dots on the white paper – a bit like newprint. Regardless of the method – it still looked good.
We finished back at reception with a look at the photobook business that Atkins now offers. This certainly looks like the way to go with digital images – rather than leaving them lying around on hard disks or CDs waiting to be lost.
So all in all, a great night. Many thanks to Paul for his time and sharing his wealth of knowledge. The visit was well worth the effort – it generated a lot of discussion afterwards (despite the rain). And don’t forget to check out Paul’s blog and the Atkins web site for more details.
Chris 😉
The Concept is Three – 21-Jul-2011
Three of a kind, something to do with three or just three in the image – that was the concept for the competition. Judge Des Berwick gave us brief, constructive & effective comments on the 36 set subject and 52 open subject images with high efficiency. A few new members, such as Hilary Thompson, added to the mix of 10s seen in the print section – well done Hilary!
You can check out the 9s and 10s (along with the Editor’s Choice) on the 2011 Digital Competition page
Chris 😉
BPC vs EPC Interclub – 7-Jul-2011
Last Thursday the Blackwood Photographic Club hosted the annual Interclub with Edwardstown Photography Club.
In all three formats – colour prints, monochrome prints and projected images it was a close match, but at the end of the night Edwardstown were victorious by a small margin.
The results were:
Mono Prints: Blackwood 97 Edwardstown 107
Colour Prints: Blackwood 111 Edwardstown 112
Projected: Blackwood 179 Edwardstown 189
Aggregate: Blackwood 387 Edwardstown 408
Congratulations to our 18 entrants in the competition. All BPC members submitting entries were represented. Overall the scores were good and everyone who took part should be proud of their contribution.
Our judge, Lou Marafioti, provided some amusing quips throughout the night and also offered what he felt were constructive comments and suggestions. We will never agree with everything a judge says, but overall it was quite enjoyable.
Edwardstown was represented by a small number from their club who braved a very cold and bleak winter’s night to join us.
Thanks to those Blackwood members who provided a wonderful selection for supper. A hot cuppa and something tasty to eat was a fitting end to the night.
We look forward to next year’s event, so start thinking about what you can contribute. The committee may tap you on the shoulder at meetings in the coming months to suggest you submit one of your images for the Interclub. Don’t be bashful, if someone else likes your image, have a go.
And for those that missed the night – the slideshow below shows you all of the BPC projected images entries!
Julie Goulter
Secretary Blackwood Photographic Club
Smaller than a breadbox competition – 23-Jun-2011
Interesting title – and some interesting close-up and macro images tested our judge as a result. There were 42 prints and 34 digital images to judge – some simple, and some cleverly creative. Once again, Jo Tabe scored a bunch of 10s – with some potentially scoring an 11 (our judges words!) – particularly that print of the mouse in the bread box you can see here! 😆 Never-the-less a few of member such as Helen Whitford are keeping close. Overall, there were quite a few high scores in the prints from many club members. We are certainly good at close up work!
Our judge Peter Mastrenko gave detailed and constructive comments and reminded us that light was our best friend – or not!
Please check out the Digital Entries page for our projected images 9s and 10s in both the Set and Open categories – along with a few editor’s choice of course!
Chris 😉
Queen’s Birthday long weekend in the city – 13-Jun-2011
A cold, cloudy long weekend bordering on dreary – but some intrepid BPC members went into the city on Monday afternoon and tried to capture some images as the afternoon turned to dusk around the Central Market area.
Ashley, Shelley, James, Mark, Richard, Yvonne & I wandered down Grote Street from Victoria Square in search of inspiration. Its interesting to note how much goes on around this area, even on a public holiday. Chinatown is quite busy, families arrive for dinner, people walking around, and the endless traffic.
James sadly had another camera incident – a flat battery and no spare. Being the trooper he is, he rushed home and came back. Fortunately, we hadn’t gone that far, and at dusk he rejoined us. We continued around the block toward Gouger Street, fascinated by the doors and artefacts in the windows.
As dusk fell, new opportunities arose with the lights of the city appearing around us. There were so many opportunities on the street as darkness fell, that we really must have a night shoot.
Afterwards, as we wandered back to our cars – James wandered off to the fountain and the St Francis Xavier Cathedral. Shelley commented to me as she left how she’d enjoyed herself in chatting with everyone, learning a few new tricks and the opportunity to try new things. I’m sure we’ll all be back for another session down here.
I’ve put the images sent into the slide show above – and a Flickr! link to one of Yvonne’s images (can’t import them here due to licence issues)
Chris 😉
PhotoShop workshop – 9-June-2011
Having given many a taste for image manipulation in the GIMP workshop earlier this year, and having covered a few of the PhotoShop basics last year, we felt a few advanced techniques should be covered.
Ashley & I had prepared a workshop based on the manipulation of layers – so armed with some images, a bunch of laptops and a few helpers we set to work .
Ashley started proceedings and established the basics effectively by covering blurring of backgrounds with layers, the clone tool and Gaussian (not Goozean :lol:) filters along with a swag of shortcut keys……which will make life a lot easier if your in Photoshop a lot.
I followed with a presentation covering adjustment mask and layer masks – with a way to remove/replace backgrounds using simple masking tools (or if you wish to be more complete exploit the Alpha channel) and then replace with your own sky. Replacing a boring cloudy background with a brilliant blue or firey sky if done well can lift an image. There are a few club members who use such techniques already – and are often rewarded with 10s by the judges.
The image above shows this sort of layer selection and merger – although its a bit extreme as the light is coming from two directions and I haven’t taken care to blend the image edges well – but you get the idea…..
Mark Pedlar then demonstrated the use of layers in creating a whole new image – his clever Heligan Apples.
Remember though, when you alter your image be very careful in how you blend them, choose the light direction carefully as the image will appear as a cut out rather a seamless merge and don’t work on the original image (use a copy).
Ashley & I have created PDF notes of the presentations you can download – just click on the links below:
We hope you got some useful tips out of the workshop and look forward to some interesting backgrounds – keep a stock of interesting skies as Mark does!
Chris 😉
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 