Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc.

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Movie Stills – 31-Jul-2014

Inspired by the movie “Blowup” – A 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Movie Stills. We’ve all seen them – those classic images that entice us to the movies, inspire our photography, fire our imagination and lead us to into another world. The challenge arose after some of us recalled some brilliant work from Cindy Sherman’s book entitled “Untitled Film Stills“. These were not real movie stills, but images that could have been inspired by film noir, and Italian neo-realism (see the reference in Wikipedia)

Well sadly, it seems not many people at BPC understood the brief! The complaint came from the floor that it was too hard. Que? No matter – we still had a few interesting images pop up on the night. Cindy may even have liked some of them!

Judge Keith Seidel helped us out enormously in several ways. First, he was a last minute judge as the original judge couldn’t attend. Thanks so much Keith – we appreciate the effort.
Then, Keith did a superb job of judging the works on offer with constructive, well thought out commentary and criticism. It was a pleasure to stand out the front hanging the images for Keith to evaluate – and having a bit of banter with him along the way (something our little band of renegades is noted for).
As he commented to me afterwards, our work was good, and he was forced to hand out more 10s than usual.

So what about the movie stills? Well there were only two prints in that category (and I’ve put one of them here). There were a few more in the digital section (just 7), including a clever Lego version of Jaws by Dean Johnson. As for the rest – some great Open category images including Helen Whitford’s “A Screeching Halt” triptych and Jo Tabe’s “Just a Short Tail”.

Head over to the Top Prints and Top Digital section to see who scored well.

Chris 😉

Posted by ChrisS | 15/08/2014 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News, Competitions | Comments Off on Movie Stills – 31-Jul-2014

Les Peters: The Bird Man of Aldgate – 22-May-2014

Les Peters at BPC on 22-May-2014 with part of his bird photography set up

On the 22^nd May I had the pleasure of introducing Les Peters as guest speaker to the Blackwod Camera club. Les is a keen bird photographer living not far from me in the Adelaide Hills. I became aware of Les’s photography when he gave a similar talk to the Birds SA group some 18 months ago. Speaking to him after this meeting, he encouraged me to step up from the small Panasonic I was using and buy a Nikon. As it happens I did buy a Nikon and within weeks he was loaning me his Nikkor 300mm lens. Les took me out to some of his haunts, Laratinga wetland and Browns road reserve. I was fascinated by his depth of bird knowledge which is equally matched by his knack for photography.

His presentation was no less intriguing, saturated with his passion for bird photography. He talked almost without interruption for 90 minutes and showed over 200 excellent bird photographs (a small selection is in the slide show below). It is hard to comprehend the range and quality of the photos when they come so quickly and intensly. Les however chatted away, keen to tell the story of each photo. The birds, as Les describes them, have purpose and personality. This youngsters learning to fly, this one is making a nest, this one hiding from the camera, this one thought I couldn’t see it. Some of the birds were common, yet beautifully captured. Others were uncommon or rare birds and would take great luck and skill to capture.

As he talked he described his techniques. Sometimes he will stalk the bird with the camera in hand. However his preferred technique is to sit and wait for the bird to acclimatise to his presence and photograph them as they relax and begin to behave more naturally. He said it often takes around 20 minutes. Les often uses a tripod and a flash with a “better beamer”. Certainly these shots had much stronger detail than the ones he took by hand. The sharpness and detail of his shots was breath taking. Occasionally he would enlarge a shot 3 or 4 times and I admit I could not see any less detail in the cropped image. He also described how he photographed birds by remote control.

It was a packed house with over 40 in attendance. Talking to various people after the meeting, Helen and Jo said they felt inspired, and were looking for an opportunity to hone their skills. Jo was impressed by Les’s kit. “That Gimbal head on the tripod is worth a heap.” Ashley although admitting that Bird Photography was not his thing, learnt much from the evening, especially from the explanation of the techniques. He was amazed that it only took 20 minutes to familiarise yourself to the birds. Richard found useful Les’s advice to get to know the behaviour of the birds in order to take better photos of them. Ray lamented that there were too many images that he wished he had taken. “There is one common theme though. The best images are taken closer to the subject. Even if you use a long telephoto lens a small bird is still a small bird and you can’t fill the frame even with a 1,000mm lens.”

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Les’ hints for success

Know your birds
You’ll be better able to predict where they might go and set yourself up in the right place.
After watching them for a while, you’ll also be better able to able to follow them at the right distance.
Know your camera
Play with it until you know it well. You don’t want to be thinking about how to use it when you have only a fraction of a second in which to get your shot.
Watch the quality of the light
You may want to move around your subject to find the best angle for the light. Add flash at -1.7 stops if needed. Watch for any reaction.
Choose a suitable camera height
Being level with the bird’s eye often makes for the most engaging picture.
Try to capture a clear catch light
It adds a great deal of vitality to the image.
Use a shutter speed that suits the action
Remember to have fun

I’d like to thank Les for taking the time to share his remarkable hobby and passion with us. In the car on the way home he agreed to lead an excursion to the Laratinga Wetlands later in the year. I will speak to Graham and finalise details later. I can personally say it is worth going out into the field with Les.

James Allan

Posted by ChrisS | 30/05/2014 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News, Opinion, Speakers, Workshops | Comments Off on Les Peters: The Bird Man of Aldgate – 22-May-2014

Self portraits : 8-May-2014

Selfies – they are all the rage. Everyone has a camera in their pocket and the opportunities to record your own face in any number of settings abound. Kids, your neighbours, celebrities of every flavour, actors, wannabe stars, the family dog, unwanted politicians – you name them, the selfie is there to fill gigabytes of internet storage.

The problem is are they of any artistic merit? Can the self portrait be made creative and interesting again? BPC members gave it a whirl with some creative and amusing attempts.

Judge Suzanne Opitz came along to check out our work and dealt with the images quickly and effectively and gave out a lot of high marks in the process – although being a vignettaholic and cropaholic 😀 (her words – not mine) did extend some of her critique of the 88 images on offer. Keep in mind that its difficult to judge a self portrait when you can see the subject in the room too. We certainly appreciated her candour and input, and I think a lot of club members went away with some new ideas and some good marks.

Pop over to the Top Digital and Top Print pages for the top images that were presented, along with a few Editor’s choices (I have to indulge myself sometimes).

Finally, I’ve put what I consider one of the most important, high impact images of the night in this blog entry. It demonstrates creativity, honesty and a sense of self we should all aspire too.
As Jenny said “I am happy for my portrait to go on the web page. If it helps anyone else to come to terms with breast cancer I will be very happy.” That says it all doesn’t it?

Chris

Posted by ChrisS | 19/05/2014 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News | Comments Off on Self portraits : 8-May-2014

Nature photography – an interview

James sent me this musing on Nature photography – with all due respect to Messrs Clarke and Dawe.

Good morning Clarke

Good morning Brian

I understand that you have been on holidays Clarke

Yes, Brian, I took holidays with my camera. We went to Kakadu – my camera and I. We photographed the wilderness.

So you went on a tour.

Well actually no.

But you were there.

You don’t understand Brian – there were no people there. No it was just the swamps and the birds, and the crocodiles in a wilderness without people.

But you just said that you went there on holidays.

But that’s the point. I wasn’t there. See look at these photos, not a person in sight. No cars, buses, tour guides, campgrounds or information signs. Nothing. Zip.

But how did you take these pictures Clarke? You must have been there.

The camera doesn’t lie Brian. It was just like it was a million years ago, before the flood.

Look at this photo Clarke, I can see your shadow. You’re standing with your legs apart holding the camera up to your face.

Let me see that Brian. No that’s a mistake, that shouldn’t be there. That’s not meant to be there Brian. We’ll just throw that one out. Either that or I’ll go and work on it in Photoshop. But you can see Brian from the other photos that it was a real wilderness, like the garden of Eden. Not a single human being.

What about this bird Clarke? It’s got a band on it’s leg. Someone must have put that there. Who put the band on the birds leg?

Oh no Brian I gave you the wrong version of that photo. Look at this one. You can clearly see that there is no band on the bird’s leg. It’s remarkable for the complete absence of a band.

But it’s exactly the same bird Clarke. It has it’s wing up in exactly the same pose with the same background. Exactly the same. You just made it look like it hasn’t got a band.

No Brian. You obviously don’t know anything about nature photography do you. There are often two versions of the same thing, like parallel universes.

But surely only one of those versions is true. The other has been altered.

Yes Brian only one version is right. See the bird without the band looks so much more right than the bird with the band. This one with the band is rubbish, utter rubbish. It’s not a nature photograph at all. We’ll just throw it out.

But Clarke you can’t do that. You are changing reality. You’re making it look how you want it to look. You are not taking photographs of the real thing.

No Brian. These little things are important. You have to get it right. Otherwise it wouldn’t be natural. After all this is nature photography. Have you seen all of the rules? There’s a lot of rules. I’m merely correcting the little mistakes.

Who made the mistakes Clarke?

Not me Brian, I fix the mistakes.

So who made the little mistakes Clarke?

I’ve been wondering that thing myself Brian. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I read a quote from a photographer named Ansel Adams. I think he said they are the mistakes made by God.

Important work Clarke.

Yes, Brian, vital. Us photographers have an important job making corrections, tidying up the mess left by God.

So where are you going for your next holiday Clarke?

Thought we might go to the orient and see some villages untouched by modern civilisation.

Hopefully there won’t be any mistakes.

Bound to be Brian. But you can trust me, I’m onto it.

It’s a good summary of the broader camera club view of any photography in many ways. I feel that Photoshop gets a bit too much attention and emphasis at competition nights etc. Less art and more perceived perfection according to their rules. Think about it!

Thanks for the contribution James

Posted by ChrisS | 11/05/2014 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News | Comments Off on Nature photography – an interview

Shades of purple – 27-Mar-2014

Another competition – and this time returning to a favourite theme – colours! We’ve had Yellow. We’ve had Red. This time Purple.

Our judge for the night, Peter Phillips, steadily and constructively worked through the 98 images. Despite his best efforts to pick the best of the night, he still managed to hand out nine top scores of 10.

If I may jump on my old hobby horse of judging, Peter’s effort is what photography clubs seek in judges – a balanced, constructive, positive experience where both new and old members can learn something. He firstly explained that the opinions he gave were his subjective view – and that if the photographer thought it was better than the mark he gave then they were also correct. Peter gave criticism when it was due, managing to give the appropriate level of feedback to both enlighten and entertain. The high scoring images were also given critique that explained how they scored the points. As a bonus, Peter finished in about 90 minutes – giving us time to discuss the images with each other. Thank you Peter – we truly appreciated your work.

The images were again of a high standard – with some interesting takes on The Colour Purple, including James Allen’s effort in showing the purple sheen in bird feathers, the details in many a purple flower, purple furniture and furnishings, people in purple, along with assorted purple fruits (Ray Goulter’s Pashing Fruit was a nice tongue in cheek image). The Open competition also produced some great images, including new member Howard Seaman’s Diptera – a great macro of a fly. Gloria Brumfield also ventured into competition and pulled off two 9’s and a 10 in the Album prints (they’re in our Top Prints page) – well done! It was also a pleasure to see Ashley Hoff return to competition with More Like a Hurricane.

So all in all, a good night of purple passions, with a fine sprinkling of ideas in both open and set subjects. Check out the Top Digital and Top Print pages to have a good look at our top scorers.

Keep it up – I can see we are going to go through a purple patch at BPC! Its going to be a fun year!

Chris 😉