Laratinga Wetlands Outing – Sept. 16
It was chillier than expected so after adding extra layers or thicker jackets eight of us headed into the wetlands. The birds at Laratinga seem to be more tolerant of people which was great as it enabled us to get quite close to many of the birds. The group soon split up as different birds caught their attention.
The great thing about photography is that it slows you down and enables you to concentrate on the behavior of the birds. You need to watch the birds carefully to enable prediction of that special moment to get the great photo. Or you hold your finger on the shutter and hope that moment is captured somewhere in the burst!
The blaze of blue from the Superb Fairy-wrens captivated everyone. These birds flitted from the ground and into the shrubs feeding themselves and finding food for their begging young.
The Willie Wagtail flew out and came back with tiny sticks and cobwebs to build its nest.
The Red Wattle bird foraged in the litter and probed the tree bark for insects. I thought they were nectar feeders!
The Australian Spotted Crake scuttled across the path to the muddy shore then disappeared into the reeds.
The Mallards thrilled us with brilliant flashes of colour as they moved their wings.
As the Australasian Shovelers dived their tails rose up and their feet paddled.
The synchronized swimming of bird pairs was great to watch.
The freshwater tortoises sunned themselves on the fallen log.
We finally moved our eyes from our cameras and enjoyed a picnic lunch together. But was great to peek onto someone else’s camera screen to see what they had captured!
JUDY
GREG
DI
KERRY
BRUCE
Breaking the boundaries in Strathalbyn
On Sunday August 12 a happy group of seven club members met in historic Strathalbyn. Our mission? Simple really, have fun together taking photographs. The bonus would be to try and take some images that would fit with the upcoming club competition entitled ‘Break The Boundaries’. In other words looking through the view finder it was an opportunity to break the rules and challenge our own comfort zones.
It was an alive township with plenty of weekend activities taking place. In amongst it all apparently there was a back of the truck wine sale complete with tastings and apparently the wine was quite ok. 🙂
After a couple of hours of roaming the historic streets and picturesque park areas in search of the “perfect” images we all enthusiastically joined the queue at the local bakery and enjoyed our health food with coffee. An enjoyable morning in excellent company.
What happened at our 30th Anniversary High Tea!
30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS HELD AT MITCHAM CULTURAL VILLAGE INSTITUTE HALL ON SUNDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER 2013.
On a beautiful spring day we celebrated 30 years of our photographic club with 65 members, family and colleagues in photography.
The afternoon began with a digital presentation of fabulous images that have been entered in interclub and competitions by our members over recent years.
A scrumptious High Tea was served, including cakes, slices and scones, along with a selection of teas and coffee. We then stepped back in time as I read a brief but interesting history of the club. Later a series of images were shown and many interesting and often amusing stories were told about days gone by. An insight into the people and events that established the club and its reputation as a very social and different club who don’t just want to take photographs, but want to have fun doing it.
Alberto Giurelli, the President of SAPF and his wife Katy and John and Maureen Mack, past and long-time proprietors of Photographic Wholesalers in Hutt Street were our special guests. A message was also read from the Mayor of Mitcham, Michael Picton, apologising that he was unable to attend and wishing us continued success in the future.
It was a great opportunity for new and old members to meet and for everyone to see the images of those who have since passed away.
The afternoon concluded with Ray Goulter getting all club members together, past and present, for a group photograph, taken with his Arca Swiss 4” x 5” View Camera.
Yours in photography
Julie Goulter
Secretary
Blackwood Photographic Club of SA Inc.
But wait – there’s more! There is a President’s address:
Firstly from the Immediate Past President (Chris Schultz):
Before I give you the address from our current President, Ashley Hoff, I’d like to make two thank yous.
Firstly, I want to thank Julie Goulter, who has worked hard and almost completely single handedly (with special thanks to our caterers too) to make this 30th Anniversary event happen. Without Julie we wouldn’t be enjoying our afternoon as we are now. Thank you Julie!
Secondly, the club itself needs to be applauded. We are a diverse group of people who come together to enjoy a passion. In doing so we work at sharing our knowledge, giving advice and embracing a community spirit which may seem lacking in the wider world. As a group we aren’t overly competitive, we value art as much (if not more) as technique, we like to share & help, we like being different from the mainstream photography clubs. While those things remain we will continue as a club for many years. For those reasons I feel that Blackwood Photographic Club as a gestalt entity needs to be thanked.
President’s address: Ashley Hoff
“Greetings from Singapore! I’m sorry I couldn’t make it today.
Firstly, thank you to all our invited guests for coming today and helping to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Blackwood Photography Club.
I am a strong believer that the strength of any club lies solely with the people that make and have made it all happen.
Initially, I wasn’t sure about being involved with a photography club. I must admit I had heard not too flattering stories from a few friends who had been to various meetings with a few different clubs (not ours mind you!), that I just wasn’t sure. Also, being part of the internet age, surely I would be able to engage online?
But with a little persistence from my good friend Matt Carr, I decided to give Blackwood a try.
Now, I don’t know whether it was dumb luck, or whether Matt was really onto something, but this club, just so happened to dispel my initial concerns. Straight away, I could feel it was a good fit – it was (and still is) a club that is very accepting of anyone who has a passion for photography, regardless of their experience, their style or equipment they use. Very rarely have I heard a ‘mine is bigger/better/more expensive’ conversation within the club (which is a blessing, considering how gear obsessed this hobby can be).
There are other strengths as well. When it comes to imagery, as a club, we challenge what might be accepted as ‘good photo club’ photography. We accept that sometimes what makes a good image that is engaging may not necessarily score a 10 (or even a 2…don’t I know it) in a competition. With the re-introduction of peer based review nights, we have given our members another outlet that can be used to explore their own individuality as photographers, without the apprehension of being judged.
The biggest strength, though, of our fine club is it’s membership, both past and present.
I would like to thank all our past members. You input over the last 30 years has gone a long way to forge a club I am proud to be the current President of.
Also, I would like to thank all our current members. Without you, we would have no club. Your attendance, efforts, good humour and willingness to help and be involved each meeting makes this club operate with minimal stress and concern.
Your efforts each meeting to keep the tradition alive puts us in good stead to hold our values well into the future.
Now, I probably feel a bit old fashioned doing this, can I ask for 3 cheers for the Blackwood Photography Club?
Thank you and have a fine afternoon.
Ashley”
BPC goes hunting for orchids! 8-Sep-2013
It is an amazing thing the Adelaide Hills orchids. The tiny little flowers, no larger than your fingernail are intricate, precise and exquisite. It is a special thing to find these small beauties.
My Uncle Bob had told me to look for orchids on the October long weekend. But I have discovered that this gives only a small part of the whole picture. There is a progression of species that starts in mid winter (July) and extends all the way through to early summer (December). What you see depends upon what time of year you go looking. First there are the helmet orchids and greenhoods and mosquito orchid followed by the yellow sun orchid, the waxlip and the donkeys, the spiders then the various blue salmon and white sun orchids and lastly the hyacinth orchid. Thrown in amongst these are rarer species that I don’t see very often – bearded orchids, duck orchids and fire orchids.
So we planned this trip in early September. What happened? There was only a small group who met for this excursion. Kim and Glori had photographed them in Western Australia. Heather and Reg have been walking the trails of Belair national park and had a good idea where to look. Mark and Jenny have been volunteer weeders in the park for a number of years and were also aware of where the orchids could be found. Alan seemed to be quite familiar with them also. Jo, although she didn’t attended this excursion, had driven along the Sheoak road boundary to photograph them a day or two previously. You can see from the attached photographs what a wide selection we encountered.
Earlier on in the excursion Kim felt disappointed that we would see only 1 or 2 species. Mostly the donkey orchids. Heather however proved extremely valuable in adding to this number with a lot of discoveries. I had to leave early. As I departed, Alan arrived, adding further to the number of species encountered. Kim and Glori had brought black and white backing screens to help isolate the flowers in the picture. It is a funny thing seeing everyone getting down onto their haunches to train their macro lenses on the tiny flowers, a mere 5-10cms above the ground. It is amazing how a tiny breeze comes out of nowhere and starts to move the flower around, just as you thought you had it focused. Although a small group, we were passionate and enthused and it was an enjoyable excursion for all.
James Allan
BPC goes Trainspotting : 21-Jul-2013
Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy about drug dealing directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. I know this because it is one of my son Tom’s favourite movies.
This however was not the theme of our latest BPC excursion. It was all about the trains. More specifically a steam train, the 620 class steam locomotive – 621, The “Duke of Edinburgh“. This is a 4-6-2 locomotive, one of 10 fast passenger engines originally intended for the Adelaide to Port Pirie “East-West” route. 4-6-2 refers to the arrangement of wheels, the middle number “6” referring to the number of large drive wheels that propel the train. The first and last numbers refer to the smaller wheels fore and aft .
The Duke of Edinburgh was scheduled to leave Mt Barker at 10.00am to arrive at Strathalbyn by 11.00am and Goolwa by 12.00pm. We arranged to meet at Mt Barker at 9:15 to witness the coupling of the train prior to departure. This however was too early for some, who were concerned about road conditions. There had been a pile up on the freeway the previous morning when it had iced over. Regardless we had a good turnout with around 8 keen trainspotters, (and one that we acquired). We befriended Nigel from the Edwardstown camera club who was out with his wife and nephew.
The magic of the steam trains is in all that steam. The 140 ton steel monolith comes alive when it belches out steam from its various orifices and lurches backwards and forwards along the tracks. No one failed to be captivated. Just have a look at the photos. Standing on the low ground we were enveloped in dense white steam as the “Duke” whistled then tugged it’s carriages out of the station up towards the Wistow highland.
We had a plan. I had a map of the train line showing the location of the 11 level crossings between Mt Barker and Strathalbyn. In our cars we drove ahead of the train and parked near a crossing in order to photograph it. This was quite exhilarating and a lot of fun. On a few occasions I arrived too late, seeing the train chug past as I was parking the car. My fellow photographers however were nicely positioned and have excellent photographs. At Strathalbyn we parted company. Some drove home, others carried on chasing the train. Ken unfortunately had to take his wife to hospital after she developed knee pain.
The photography was interesting. With the stationary train at Mt Barker it took some discipline to step back and look at the scene more analytically. Once I had a photo of the train at the station I needed to move around and look at new angles to improve the mood and the intensity of the subject matter. However once the train started moving it was a different story. Waiting at a crossing it was easy to get bored. Finally as the train rounded the corner and first came into view I wanted to fire of a salvo of shots. It was however too far away and as the train neared the focus was lost and it was easy to get blurred photos. I felt like a fusilier in Zulu dawn. There was a risk of shooting too early and missing the target entirely. I needed a gunnery sergeant to tell me when to hold and when to fire.
Overall it was a well rated and enjoyable outing. Fortunately the predicted bad weather came on later in the afternoon.
James Allan
21-Apr-2013: Gorge Wildlife Park – Photographing Wet Animals
I had received a lot of in coming mail from people excited to be going on the club excursion to the Gorge Wildlife Park. It looked to be a big event – perhaps bigger than the outing to old Port Willunga. Saturday was quite sunny and a delightful day. On the Sunday morning however I awoke to torrential rain. It had set in a big way and was not letting up. The weather radar showed wave after wave of rain as a depression had settled in over the Adelaide region. Reluctantly I conceded that it was all over. I sent out an e-mail advising all to give the excursion a miss.
Later that afternoon I drove over to the gorge in case any had missed the e-mail and foolishly set off. To my amazement there was a contingent of 4 or 5 eagerly paying their entrance fee, cameras at the ready. “Hadn’t you got my e-mail?” “Oh yes, we got the e-mail, but we thought it might blow over and so we turned up anyway”. This was going to be a weird kind of day. I went in with Ron and Howard, meeting Kim and Ken and his contingent inside.
How do you photograph animals in the rain?
I suggested we retire to the shelter of the covered aviary, a large tin shed where we sheltered from the worst of the rain for over an hour or more. It was hard taking shots in the gloom. The birds however were interesting. Eventually it cleared a little and we were able to venture out and get a few photos. Despite the difficulty everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge of the difficult conditions.
One of the skills was in making the bars of the cage disappear. This is not too hard with a telephoto lens when you stand close to the cage and the animal is in the centre of the enclosure. However if the animal is large, standing close to the wire and the wire is lit up by sunlight, you might as well forget it. Sometimes it can make you swear. It seemed that a lot of learning was taking place as we mimicked each others style and tried different shots.
Eventually the rain let up, just as it was time to head home. It was hard to believe that they were telling me what a successful outing it had been. Needless to say I did enjoy interacting with the animals.
James Allan
Crossing Of Paths – A Meetup with Tea Tree Gully Camera Club – April 7th 2013
Part of the fun of being involved with a Photography or Camera club is the enjoyment you get sharing your passion with others who feel the same. Can you imagine how much more fun it is when 2 clubs get together?
On Sunday the 7th of April, BPC were invited to enjoy an afternoon of photography at Port Adelaide with the like minded people of the Tea Tree Gully Camera Club. Approximately 6 BPC members were in attendance and approximately 10 from Tea Tree Gully.
It was a very pleasant afternoon, exploring the treasures around the Port, Capped off with an interesting sunset (dare I say, enhanced with a massive Jet contra trail, which I failed to capture!).
Tea Tree Gully seem to be our cross town kindred souls, who seem to share similar values when it comes to photography and photography/camera clubs. If you would like to find out more about there club, you can view their website @ http://ttgcamera.blogspot.com.au/
Needless to say, I think a return invite will be very much in order for the spring!
Ashley
Edwardstown – Blackwood Interclub – 17-Jul-2012
The annual competition – this time at Edwardstown’s rooms at Glandore. We had a good turnout from BPC members (14 in all – plus a few apologies) which was very pleasing. The judge for the night was Des Berwick, from Adelaide Camera Club, who evaluated our images efficiently, with generally constructive comments to help the assembled photographers.
A total of 110 images were presented by both clubs – our digital selections are below:
The results
Blackwood |
Edwardstown |
|
| Colour prints | 117 | 116 |
| Monochrome prints | 101 | 114 |
| Digital images | 186 | 195 |
So we didn’t win, but we weren’t embarassed either. Congratulations to Edwardstown – but as we both said – its not about the competition but about having some fun.
For the benefit of BPC members, here’s a list of our top scorers in each category:
Digital |
Colour prints |
Monochrome prints |
| Port Augusta sunset – James Allan (9) |
Mother and child – Helen Whitford (9) (Also an SAPF award & Trophy winner) |
Floating Clipper – Eric Budworth (10) |
| Jaguar reflection – John Vidgeon (10) |
Gap in the fence – Hilary Thompson (10) |
|
| Cat and mouse – John Vidgeon (9) |
Giant Cuttlefish – James Allan (10) |
|
| Eye for detail – Chris Schultz (10) |
||
| Giggly squirt – Helen Whitford (9) (Also an SAPF Trophy winner) |
Edwardstown also put on a very pleasant supper – thanks for that! We had a look at the images, chatted to a few folks including the judge (no – James’ swimmer did not have a crooked horizon & my guitarist did have a fret board that was discontinuous :lol:), and had a good look at all the images. Regardless of the outcome, a pleasant evening was had by all, and we look forward to returning the favour next year at our place.
Before I sign off, I will register a small note of protest here – Des had judged at the SAPF Annual Exhibition and a number of the entries were exhibited at that event – so perhaps the judging was slightly compromised (in which direction I can’t say). Des himself admitted that it made his judging more difficult. Perhaps both clubs need to think about a change in scheduling or judge selection for the evening to help both the judge and the clubs.
Chris 😉
Just A Wee Update – Things We Have Been Up To! September To November
Wow, time fly’s when you are having fun! Anyone guess from the lack of news here, that all we have been doing over the last few months has been nothing but competitions…. How wrong can you be! Below is a quick recount of what we have been up to.
September 1 – Guest Speaker – Darren Siwes
Darren very graciously spent an evening with us in early September. For me, especially, it was a very informative insight into how a Photomedia artist works and his inspiration behind his art. He touched on most aspects of his Photography work, from his earliest long exposure work, through to his ‘Bronze Coin’ representations of 2010. It was certainly an honour to have an artist who has been exhibited world wide as a guest to our club.
For more information on Darren, check out the excellent write up by James Allen in our September Camera Clips (LINK)
September 15 – AGM
Our Annual General Meeting was held on the 15th of September, with the following offices being decided:
President: Chris SchultzVice President: Ashley HoffSecretary: Yvonne SearsTreasurer: Jenny PedlarEx-officio: James Allan, Matt Carr, Adrian Hill, Mark Pedlar, Richard Wormald
September 17 – Informal Outing, Goolwa Cockle Train
On the same weekend as the Noarlunga Photographic Exhibition (please follow the link to Eric’s write up), a group of us decided to venture to Goolwa, to catch the Cockle Train to Victor Harbour.
It was quite a fortunate outing, as we were able to experience Steam Travel in both directions, including the Steam Rangers “Duke OF Edinburgh” on the way back. For someone as young as myself, it was certainly great to experience an era that my parents had only told me about 😉 (sorry, couldn’t resist).
Victor Harbour was also hosting a Rock and Roll Festival, which gave us plenty of photo opportunities.
October 13 – Practical Workshop
The October workshop was a walk out and about the local Blackwood area, with the emphasis on low light photography.
Some may see it as a blessing, others a hindrance, but the moon was out with in all it’s glory. Combine that with some broken cloud, saw some awesome dramatic shots (all we needed were some bat’s!)
As per always, check out our flickr group to see what people shot on the night (click on the image to your right, should head you in the right direction!).
October 16 – An Afternoon With Steve Parish (Marion Cultural Centre)
While not an official BPC event/outing, a few of our members managed to attend the Marion Cultural Centres ‘THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHING ANIMALS, PLANTS & LANDSCAPES’ workshop with Steve Parish.
Please follow the link to read James Allen’s writeup (LINK)
October 30 – Outing, Wellington To Hindmarsh Island
After our aborted effort to get an outing organised duing the long weekend, we finally managed to get out and about again on the 30th of October.
The outing took in such highlights as the Arboretum at Wellington, Milang, Clayton Bay, Finnis and Hindmarsh Island. There was a decent turnout, with up to 4 cars in convoy taking in the sites (but watch out for those Gary Secombe abrupt stops!)
The weather was nice, the company good and the pictures plentiful. Again, click on the picture to your left to head to our Flickr page
BPC on the Shores of Lake Alexandrina
November 10 – Annual Exhibition Judging
Well, our Annual Exhibition Judging has been run and the top prize getters have been decided by our three fantastic judges (David Douglas-Martin, Lindsay Poland and SAPF President, Peter Phillips).
The winners are…….you didn’t think I’d let the cat out of the bag that easy! You’ll just have to turn up to our Annual Exhibition on Thursday the 24th of November to find out!
Cheers
Ashley
An Afternoon With Steve Parish
Steve Parish Meets Members From The Blackwood Photography Club
By James Allen
Last Sunday I was jammed tightly into a car with a mixed crowd. Chris Schultz, and his wife Janet, had elected to take myself, Matt Carr and Ashley Hoff to the Marion Community Centre to hear Steve Parish talk on his photography. Ashley had secured five extra tickets and advertised the event to club members. I had accepted. At the venue we were met by Yvonne, Adrian, John Duckmanton and Helen Whitford.
It is hard not to be aware of Steve Parish, whose images have graced the postcard stands and souvenir shops for over 2 decades. He has a penchant for capturing iconic images. Not just a koala, but the koala shot that you remember for years later, a kind of moody soulful archetypical koala. John tells me that he can recall Steve peddling his unique images in the streets of Brisbane back in the 1980’s. My wife’s parents have 2 of his prints, an egret and a lemon flycatcher on the walls of their house for as long as I can remember
I personally picture Steve from a photo in one of his books. He is a slim man with dark curly hair and a beard, up to his armpits in a swamp with an improbably large telephoto lens aimed upwards. In reality Steve is an introspective quiet man, rounded out into late middle age, grey haired, who loves to speak in a personable, almost a self mocking manner. He is passionate about nature, and about his photography. He weaves his story with a home grown mysticism and a sense of self discovery, with many joyous recollections but also marred by 3 divorces and a period of financial difficulty.
His story is of a journey where he meets one key person after another, who introduce and encourage him to explore the natural world. In his teen years as a navy diver and spear fisherman he was encouraged to take up underwater photography by Igor Oak. Later working for Parks and wildlife, Raol Slater introduced him to the techniques of bird photography. Likewise he tells of encounters with microbats, possums and gliders, of plants and lizards, and in the last few years he has become interested in insect photography.
He travels the country in his landcruiser, three cameras with different lenses perched precariously on the front passenger side seat wating for the right moment to come along. It sound like Steve encounters the right moment quite frequently. (There was also an unfortunate anecdote about leaving ½ million dollars of camera equipment in a backpack at a bus stop. I guess that was the wrong moment)
He talked at length about entering that mental state of play, of exploration where he will try one new trick after another, exploring the possibilities of an image. He likes an image to express an element of the meaning of the encounter with nature, the soul of the experience. He has never found that photographing captive animals gave him an uneasy conscience. I’m not a purist. It has certainly never affected my sales. However what did sell is eye contact. “Animal parks” he noted “offer people an encounter with wildlife that can inspire a love affair with nature, help to create the next generation of conservationists.”
He uses a Hasselblad medium format camera, shooting in Raw with a tripod. “If you are using a half frame camera or a compact – you’re not serious, you’re just playing with a toy”. He assures us that no matter how sage the advice to the contrary by the self proclaimed experts, he has found that film is not better than digital. There is no question about it. No comparison. After losing an archive of film images in the recent Queensland floods, he has had the pleasure of re-shooting his portfolio in digital. Compared to diving with two film cameras each with a total of 6 exposures, he can now take 1000 images in one dive and still have room left on the memory card.
The advice went on and on, from colour theory to composition, engaging wildlife, achieving images, handling the light and even writing a business plan and marketing your work. The content of his talk was encapsulated in a series of 4 books for sale after the talk on the technique of photography.
At the book signing Steve was beset by his admirers, me included. I think I saved him from a rather serious looking, non-astute photographer trying to palm off steam train photos in a manila folder. He signed my book. Although he didn’t remember by parents in law, he could recollect the poster of the lemon flycatcher. He agreed to a group photo with the camera club after the signing. I offered him a discount membership to the club and Matt suggested a $15 travel allowance if he wanted to judge one of our competitions. He was very gracious with us, unfortunately he couldn’t find the time in his busy schedule.
Verdict – I think we all enjoyed the day and learnt something to go with it.
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 😉
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 😉
Club outing – Hallett Cove – 13-Mar-2011
| Sunday – the Adelaide Cup long weekend – a dreary, cloudy afternoon had many of us in fear of poor photographic opportunities for our outing to Hallett Cove. Only 6 hardy souls met at a windy and cloudy Hallett Cove Conservation Park around 6:45pm – Adrian (our man on the ground who gave weather updates by SMS over the afternoon), Yvonne, Eric, James, Matt and myself. |
 |
|
As we trekked along the board walk and up the hill to Sugarloaf, the clouds merging into the horizon split enough to suggest our evening would not be in vain! |
| Eric, James & I stayed on Sugarloaf and were rewarded with not only the golden glow on the hillside and a frying pan beetle I found but also a rainbow! |  |
 |
|
| Meanwhile, Yvonne and Matt had headed down to the cliffs and were catching the low sun (and salt spray) over the waves whilst Adrian wandered the hillside in search of inspiration. The rest of us slowly caught up and managed to get the setting sun – exactly on time! | 
|
 |
 |
 |
As dusk settled, Matt’s earlier email suggestion of painting with light became a reality. We used Eric’s torch on a string whilst Eric, Matt and Adrian took turns in spinning the light and themselves to create what my wife described as a “ball of wool”. James tried another trick of lighting up the rocks around the spinning light with another torch – with limited success. |
| Then James came up with another great idea – shining the torches we’d brought inside coloured water bottles to create colours which we could photograph by wildly swinging them around. “Darth Vader” (aka Matt) and “Luke Skywalker” (Chris) had a mock light sabre battle declaring that neither of them was their father 🙂 whilst James painted the rocks around them. A bit of running around made some interesting patterns too. And then Matt finished with BPC painted with a torch. |  |
|
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to try James’ suggestion of spinning burning steel wool on a string to make a spark show – as sadly, during our frolicking with light, James had a bit of a disaster with his camera/tripod falling into the sand – hopefully the repair guys will be able to salvage the camera quickly and give us more of James inspiring images. |
|
 |
Despite that unfortunate incident, a good night of photography was had by all. Hope you enjoy the images! There are a few more on the Flickr group too.
Chris 😉
Club Outing – Henley Square – 17-Feb-2011
An overcast and grey evening met our large group of members gathered for a sunset shoot, and alas the clouds did not co-operate to produce a dazzling sunset.
| However this did not stop people from getting into the spirit and finding alternate subjects – an exercise well worth doing. |  |
||
 |
As darkness enclosed us, most retreated to the comfort of the local cafe for a warm coffee or a cold beer, but a few determined individuals stuck it out and managed to eek some colour from the very last of the light – with some great results too! |  |
|
 |
 |
It was good to see so many members attend – I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!
A few more images are on our Flickr page – check them out!
Matt
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 |
| 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 😉
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 