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December 31-day challenge

This is a challenge!  I got the idea from Flikr some time ago from a Flikr group called 365 Days. Members of the group pledged to take a self portrait every day for 365 days. You can view the results by searching under the tag “365 days”

Blackwood Photographic Club has a quiet month in December – no meetings, and no competitions – so here is the idea:

Take a photo every day for 31 days and post it on the club site with the tag “31 days”.

The photo need not be a self portrait. I expect that the pictures will create a journal of life over the month of December. There are no topics and no themes.

With this in mind, a few of us have already agreed to participate in something similar, so if your interested, we will run a 31 day challenge through the club Flikr group. You don’t have to post the photo on the same day – but please put in one photo for each day. I proposed the idea to Chris Schultz and he agreed (along with me) to take up the challenge. Ashley has also agreed.

So keep an eye on this web site and our Flickr pages to check out the results.  Why not take up the challenge for yourself and join in?

Refer to the last edition of Camera Clips for details on how to set up a Flikr account and how to post images on the club site.

James Allan (edited by Chris Schultz from an email for inclusion here)

Addendum – If your after last minute inspiration for the challenge, have a look at PhotoChallenge.org

Posted by  |  07/11/2010 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News | Tags: | Comments Off on December 31-day challenge

Life on the streets competition

An interesting night On the Streets!

We had 130+ entries – including one from new member Alex Zapcev, and a number from those attending the photographic course being run by Ray Goulter & James Allan. Well done folks – and welcome to the club! We also had a few extra attendees to see how it all worked- some signing up on the night.

The images ranged from simple observation to social commentary and everything in between.

A sad story - Theo Prucha

Helter skelter passed luxury - Chris Schultz

 Full credit must go to our judge – Don Brooks from Eastern Suburbs Camera Club who worked hard through many images to tell us what was good and what was not quite there. Don told a few of us afterwards that the set section colour prints were all of a very high standard, and it was difficult to pick the best. Many thanks for your constructive words. 

The colour prints resulted in three 10s (James Allen, Eric Budworth and myself), and John Vidgeon again produced a stunner in the open colour with his image of a boat travelling across the water.

The mono prints had some interesting shots, with a 10 from Gary Secombe of a tree against the sky in the open section.

Slides are not dead – they live on tenaciously as Arthur Farmer and Ursula provided us with some more brilliant images – including some great portraits in the open section. As one of the few clubs left in the state with a film slide section, we’ll need to see if we can scan them in and show them to the rest of the world at some stage…… 💡

The digital section produced some more suberb images, with Ursula Prucha’s Sharing and Eric Budworth’s The Waiting Game each scoring a 10 in the Set subject. Eric also scored a 10 with Christies Creek at Dawn along with Matt Carr’s Crab spider and meal. Matt uses image stacking to produce stunning depth of field (have a read of this Wikipedia article – it has links to some free software). Matt is becoming a master of this – and hopefully he’ll run a workshop on it – or write a piece here 8) . And our newest member Alex Zapcev put in an entry in the set subject and scored 7 – well done!  

 

Gary Secombe - Hanging Around

So another night over. Check out the gallery of digital 10’s and give us your thoughts.

By the way – we have added some extra images in there – call it Editors Choice – the ones that the web masters think deserved a mention (perk of the job :lol:).

Finally – please visit the Mitcham Council Chambers foyer to view our exhibition if you get a chance – it runs until 29-Nov-2010 on weekdays from 9am to 5pm.

See you all at the Annual Exhibition Judging on 4-Nov-2010

Chris 😉

Posted by  |  25/10/2010 | Categories: Competitions | Tags: | Comments Off on Life on the streets competition

Welcome To Our New Website!

Hi, and Welcome to the Blackwood Photographic Club of SA Inc’s new website!

DANGER!Broken RockParrot Orchid 2Superb Wren - FemaleBlue flower

After many hours of work, we are finally live with our fresh new look.  For those of you who have visited our website before, you will find lots of new content.  If you are a regular visitor, you will also find that changes under the hood have enable us to more readily keep this content dynamic.   We have incorporated new galleries (including links to our clubs Flickr group, where the above pictures come from) and lots of information for both old, new and prospective members.

Thanks to all who have assisted in getting this site up and running, especially Chris, who had many bright new ideas and ways to get them to work!

Welcome And Enjoy!

Posted by  |  10/10/2010 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News | Tags: | Comments Off on Welcome To Our New Website!

DISPOSABLE CAMERA COMPETITION (7-Oct-2010)

A total of 64 small prints were submitted from 12 members. It was obvious from the various subjects portrayed that at least one member had travelled far, as several images submitted were taken in Sydney.

Most images were captured within the Adelaide and Adelaide Hills area.

Three teams each comprising six members were arranged. Each member scored individually then each team captain consolidated their team member’s scores to produce an aggregate for their team. Each of the three aggregates was then totalled in the spreadsheet to produce the average aggregate per team. The scores reproduced in the table below are the total points, the average team aggregate points as well as the average score for the print.

Once again we had a clear winner with James Allan’s image no. 51 (image at left). Second place was a little cramped with three members scoring the same points; these being Mark Pedlar’s print 22, Ray Goulter’s print 45 and James Allan’s print 50. Matt Carr followed with his print 61.
Member Image number Total Points Teams Aggregate Average Points awarded Placing
James Allan 51 72 24 4 1st
Mark Pedlar 22 69 23 3.833 Eq. 2nd
Ray Goulter 45 69 23 3.833 Eq. 2nd
James Allan 50 69 23 3.833 Eq. 2nd
Matt Carr 61 67 22.333 3.722 3rd (5th?)

Another interesting exercise was incorporated into the spreadsheet this year and this was to extract the members with the highest average points awarded for all the prints each submitted.

James Allan, on average, was awarded 3.574 points per image. He was followed by Ray Goulter with 3.213 and Chris Schultz with 3.102 average points. Then followed Mark Pedlar (3.065) and Ashley Hoff (3.056).

All in all a fun evening was had by all, which augers well for this odd competition being included in following year’s programmes.

Ray Goulter

Posted by  |  08/10/2010 | Categories: Competitions | Comments Off on DISPOSABLE CAMERA COMPETITION (7-Oct-2010)

Fleurieu Peninsula club outing

Well, another outing, another good day, a bit of sunburn (ouch ) and some great photo opportunities! James, Richard, Jenny, Mark, Heather, Reg & I met at Ashley’s then headed on to Julie and Ray’s in McLaren Vale.

Given that daylight saving started today, it was a pretty good turnout for 9am (read 8am) on a Sunday morning.
A shortish trip to Sellicks Beach and we were off! Lots of shots, close ups, long lenses and toilet stops later we moved on to Sellicks Hill (after a false start due satnav error!). A few shots here, but the sun was too high!

Assume the pose

Yellow Flower

At Sellicks
On to Myponga Reservoir (the back way) to view the wall, bees and motorbikes, along with a chat to some interstate visitors. Then down to Carrickalinga (drove through) and Normanville for lunch. That bakery is great! I can recommend the caramel slice 😉

On the road

Ray and Julie capture the scene

Walking On The Jetty

Walking On The Jetty
A few shots of signs (Ashley….), water, jetties, birds, sand and walking people, and we decided to head for the Ingalalla Waterfall via a very dusty Hay Flat Road (sorry Julie & Mark) – where a few intrepid souls (James) climbed to the top, and other climbed the rocks (Ray). Lots of shots of flowing water! A novelty after the drought the last few years.

Ingalalla waterfall
Then to Second Valley via Delamere. Had to stop on the way to photograph some pine logs on Range Road – some wishing for a 15 from the judges (the logs were numbered). A chance for those wide angle lenses to shine again.

I'm a Lumberjack!
Second Valley was absolutely lovely as usual – but no boat shacks :(. On the other hand, there were hundreds of visitors, plenty of water (the tide was in), and we spent a lot of time wandering around, using polarising filters, tripods, climbing rocks and exploring caves. Sadly no coffee and cake as it was a tad late by the time we gathered together again.

Old winch - Second Valley

Headlands

Second Valley - framed!
So, after a full day – and it was already 5pm, we headed home – tired but happy….!

Sellicks Hill

Heading home, the lads (Richard, James, Ashley & I) finally got a good shot or two of Sellicks Hill – the sun was at just the right angle. A few other opportunities were passed up – we were tuckered out.

Here’s the Google maps link – enjoy! And check out the gallery as well for more images.

Chris 😉

Posted by  |  03/10/2010 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News, Club outings | 2 Comments