Natural Light Portraiture! – March 15th Competition
Natural light portraiture, always a challenge and especially so in low light. For this competition we were fortunate to have plenty of images to admire for their ability to largely overcome the natural light challenges. These mixed with a yet again impressive array of open category photographs to admire including some members who stretched the creative boundaries with some experimentation.
Impressionist – Heather Connolly
The definition given to us for Natural Light Portraiture was: ‘No studio set-ups here, nor use of any form of man-made light source. It’s all about using natural light to produce portraits. Whether it’s outside during the day or using daylight coming through a window or even moonlight, you need to use the natural light available to illuminate your subject.’
Our judge for the evening was Peter Phillips from the Edwardstown Photography Club who once again provided us with much valued feedback and well considered advice. There was something to learn for everyone.
He spoke of such things as:
- Less is more, fill the lens.
- Flat lighting is a photographer’s challenge but use luminance in Lightroom to assist.
- Avoid front focussed direct light on subject.
- It is critical for the portrait to be sharp but be careful not to oversharpen.
- Black and white images require good tonal range.
- Numerous comments on the importance of space in the composition.
- He encouraged members to continue experimenting with such areas as abstract images.
Another enjoyable evening with plenty of good images to study.
Stasy Calm 2 – David Hancock
Landscape/Seascape on Show – February 1st Competition
Alone in the Mist – Judy Sara
Our first competition for the year was held on February 1 and was titled Landscape/Seascape and defined as: ‘An image featuring the natural scenery or terrain.’ In our programme for the year we were reminded that ‘Many people mistakenly believe taking a landscape is easy, but there are so many variables that getting that excellent landscape image can be quite challenging!’ So true.
Our judge for the evening was the affable and always welcome, David CG Smith from the Eastern Suburbs Camera Club. One of the most highly awarded amateur photographers in Australia, David’s comments are highly valued.
In the mix of feedback provided by David included:
- The importance of capturing a mood
- Considering the merits of landscape vs portrait when composing a shot
- The value of leading lines
- How shooting water with a slow shutter speed creates a soothing effect
- The need to be careful not to oversharpen images thereby creating a halo effect
- When cropping an image be careful not to make it too tight
There were many other valuable comments but this will give you a feel for where he was coming from.
We certainly had our share of high quality images in both the set subject of Landscape/Seascape as well as in the Open Section so we hope we enjoy some of the great work shown here.
31 Day Challenge – December 2017
A few dedicated club members undertook the 31 Day Challenge on Flickr for December 2017. We have done this each year since 2010 (wow – that long?). The idea if you haven’t seen it before is to take a photo a day and post it on the club Flickr page. No prizes other than a satisfaction in completing a fairly daunting task and keeping it fresh.
For me, it was certainly a challenge and I approached it in two parts. Firstly all posted images had to be black and white. Secondly, I tried to maintain a theme for a week to create a little photo essay (for later use). The second part sort of worked and I think I can get some essays together on commuting, street life and some dark imagery. But more importantly, I’ve had some fun along the way and got some shots I’m very pleased with.
The participants that managed to post a photo a day were Judy Sara, Jennifer Williams, Bruce Nankivell and myself. One notable near daily posters was club life member David Douglas-Martin. James Allen threw a few into the mix as well.
Both Judy and Jennifer tried the black and white treatment too – and the results were very good. Hopefully that means a few more monos next year in competition.
I had a look through the images and selected my top 5 – with myself excluded from that mix (conflict of interest!) and chose the following (click the image to see it full size on Flickr) with comments as to why:
How about you? What about selecting your favourite shots and telling us why? Click on this link to see the full set for the 31 days and choose your own favourites. Let the photographer know what you think as well or post here and share your thoughts.
Cheers
Chris 🙂
BPC Annual Exhibition
Blackwood Photographic Club celebrated the work of our members with our 2017 Annual Exhibition on Thursday November 23rd.
It was great to see a range of seasoned and new members enter the competition (although it would always be good to have more!). Awards were presented for Aggregate Scores for each section for the year as well as individual images in each section for the end of year Annual Exhibition.
There were many fantastic images both among the award winners and those which may not have caught the judges’ eyes. Some of the prints will be on display at the Coventry Library, Stirling, from December 31st 2017 to January 14th 2018, so please take advantage of the opportunity to check out our photography.
Annual Exhibition Awards
Projected Images
Hutt Street Photos Award
Good Morning Mum – Ron Hassan
Ron receiving his award from BPC President, Mark Pedlar
WEA Australiana Landscape Award
Fall in the Forest – Helen Whitford
Helen receiving an award
Monochrome Prints
I’ve Been Framed Award
White Naped Raven – James Allan
James receiving one of his awards
Colour Prints
Fotoswift Award
Variable Sunbird – James Allan
Album Prints
Edge Malpas Award
Yellow Rumped Thornbill – James Allan
Click here for the complete Projected Images slideshow
Awards
2017 Aggregates
Projected Images – Photographic Wholesalers Award
1st James Allan, 2nd Chris Schultz, 3rd Kerry Malec
Projected Images Novice
1st Liliana Prucha, 2nd Al Falah Dhanji, 3rd David Hancock
Monochrome Prints – Blackwood Times Award
1st Mark Pedlar, 2nd James Allan, 3rd David Hancock
Mark receiving his award from Julie Goulter, BPC Secretary
Colour Prints – Blackwood Photographic Club Award
1st Jenny Pedlar, 2nd Mark Pedlar, 3rd Howard Seaman
Jenny receiving her award
Album Prints – JV Spick Award
1st James Allan, 2nd Howard Seaman, 3rd Helen Whitford
2017 Annual Exhibition Awards
Projected Images – Hutt Street Photos Award
1st Ron Hassan – Good Morning Mum
2nd James Allan – Purse Slipper Nest
3rd Helen Whitford – The Three Faces of Moyo
Merits – James Allan – Jewel Bug, Jennifer Williams – Kuitpo
WEA Landscape Trophy – Helen Whitford – Fall in the Forest
Monochrome Prints – I’ve Been Framed Award
1st James Allan – White Naped Raven
2nd James Allan – Zebra and Young
3rd James Allan – Stints
Merits – Helen Whitford – Blue and Gold Macaw, Mark Pedlar – Port Willunga Shower
Colour Prints – Fotoswift Award
1st James Allan – Variable Sunbird
2nd Chris Schultz – Antony and the Guitar
3rd Eric Budworth – Match Point
Merit – Eric Budworth – Lake Maligne
Album Prints – Edge Malpas Award
1st James Allan – Yellow Rumped Thornbill
2nd James Allan – Web
3rd Helen Whitford – Malabar Parakeet
Competition: Straight from the camera – 16-Mar-2017
This month’s set subject was “Straight from the Camera” and the top print and digital images from the competition have been available on the website for some days. What is significant about the set subject entries, most of those posted on the website, is that they have been subject to absolutely no modification after the shutter button was pushed.
For some time now there have been members in the club who have expressed concern that many images in our competitions have been edited post exposure. Also of concern was that some judges spend a lot of effort describing the various software techniques available for post exposure work that would have improved the images. So with this push to see more images that have not been enhanced post exposure this month’s set subject was included in the programme.
The rules were simple. No alteration to images was allowed post exposure. All images to be printed had to be shot in a printable format, not RAW. Images to be presented monochrome had to be shot that way. All photos had to be displayed full frame, no cropping: nor any changes to exposure, contrast, dodging, burning etc. Sounds like a return to 1970s slide competitions and a very good exercise in getting it right the first time. The only deviation from these rules was that those presenting projected images were allowed to reduce pixel numbers to levels that could be accommodated by the projector.
Judge for yourself – as did our judge for the evening – SAPF Judge Coordinator Keith Seidel.
There are still many photographers who can get it right without the software. Software is not a cheat or a magic wand; it’s just another tool.
Mark Pedlar
Straight from the Camera shall be the whole of the law or, is Photoshop for cheats?
Mark Pedlar has been doing some work on the rules that will apply to the Straight from the Camera competition. So to get you up to speed, I’m going to reproduce what he’s sent.
Let’s start with that supposed evil – Photoshop – and Mark’s view on image processing today compared to the days of film.
Straight from the camera shall be the whole of the law or, is Photoshop for cheats?
At the age of 12 I bought my first camera, a Kodak Brownie 127 – black and white, processed by the chemist. Only three years later I spent all of my first pay packet on a 35mm Halina 35X and I was into colour photography.
For four decades and through a series of cameras the vast majority of my images, family records, fun shots, as well as entries in national and international salons, were colour slides. In all of this there was one constant. Once the shutter button was pushed my images were pretty well set in stone. Whether I waited for Kodak’s yellow box or Agfa’s blue one to appear in the mailbox, or whether I processed my own in the kitchen, from 100 foot rolls of Ektachrome, the image on the celluloid could not be altered. The exposure, contrast and sharpness were inviolable. Composition could be modified somewhat by masking portions of the slide with aluminium foil. However, this was obvious since the projected images were smaller than others in the salon. So, over these several decades more than 90% of competitive colour slides, worldwide, were “Straight from the camera”.
Of, course this did not in any way mean that everybody was operating on a level playing field. Those using a ‘top of the range’ Nikon with a battery of excellent lenses would be able to capture some images simply not available to my $50 East German Praktika: multiple exposures on one frame for example.
Today’s ‘top of range’ cameras similarly offer rafts of pre-exposure adjustments simply not available to the user of a basic ‘point and shoot’ camera. The playing field was never level. Further, the greatest unevenness always has been and will be the way in which the operator uses the human brain he or she puts up close to the viewfinder.
‘Straight from the camera’, then, has long been the accepted practice of slide producers. However, that’s not true of users of negative film and prints. Again decades ago I bought a whole darkroom from an ageing amateur/professional photographer from Brewarrina. I used it for monochrome exclusively. Colour printing was way outside my budget. However, printing from negatives was exciting for a range of reasons; not least of all the ability to modify (and hopefully improve) the image originally captured before it became a print.
So, I cropped the portion of the image I printed to change the composition and to remove distractions like lampposts or stray arms and legs. I held my hands between the enlarger lens and the paper making a circle of light between my fingers. By doing this during the exposure and moving my hands a bit to blur the edges I could allow extra light to a portion of the image. This meant I could ‘burn’ in details to what would otherwise have been a white area (clouds). I had a small circle of cardboard Sellotaped to the end of a piece of wire (once a coat hanger). By holding this between lens and paper (dodging) I restricted the light falling on a shadow portion of the image and allowed detail to appear in what would have otherwise have been totally black.
I chose whether I printed on matt, satin or glossy paper. I chose the paper grade to give me high, medium or low contrast. Later there was multigrade paper whose contrast was adjusted with filters. I chose exposure times to change the final result. I selected developers and their temperature to change contrast. I deleted most of the developed image before fixing using ferricyanide solution and redeveloped to convert the black and white image to sepia. My ancient photographer’s darkroom kit contained a huge range of arcane solutions including some of gold salts that enable black and white to be tinted blue.
All of the modifications described in the last two paragraphs were made after the shutter was released; after the camera had long ago been put away in its cupboard.
So, what are the take home messages? There are two.
First, excellent images can and have for ages been made without any post-exposure modifications. There really is no replacement for getting it right in the camera. However, even if we prohibit ‘post’ work like Photoshop competitive photography will still not be a level playing field.
Second, makers of prints from negatives have been modifying their images in the darkroom during the printing process for over a hundred years now. When did you last hear somebody suggest that this is unethical or underhanded or cheating? However, there is a body of opinion that makes just these sorts of suggestions about the use of software packages like Photoshop. Why? Not all users of editing software are out there winning competitions, exhibitions and salons. Software does not automatically give you great results without effort. Software is a tool and you need to learn how to use it just as was the case with darkroom techniques.
So, get your image as near perfect as you can in the camera. Then make judicious and competent use of whatever other tools are available to correct errors and finish the job.
Now for the rules (which I’ve also put into the calendar and programme)
Straight out of Camera Submission rules
During the submissions to the club’s subcommittee back in the Spring several members said they had concerns over the emphasis placed by judges on post exposure editing or manipulation of images.
Some were opposed to the concept of editing and others simply had no access to the software to edit images. There was a cry for more images to be presented “straight from the camera”, with no editing carried out after the shutter button had been pushed.
This competition’s set subject is a response to that request.
So here are the rules.
For prints, no alteration AT ALL may be made to the image after exposure and before printing.
- Printed images must be presented full frame. No cropping is allowed. If the image shot is 4:3 format or 3:2 format it must be printed in that format.
- Images must be printed from the file originally captured by the camera.
If you usually shoot in RAW you must be able to print from that RAW file. It may not be converted to JPEG TIFF or similar for printing. Or, shoot in a printable file format.
For those having files professionally printed, the file submitted to the printer must be printable without alteration. - Prints displayed as monochrome must have been captured in that form.
- The general club rules about size of prints still apply.
Digital images are allowed one alteration only. This is to allow the projected image to conform with our projection limitations
- The recorded image file may be reduced to maximum of 1400 x 1200 pixels. It must still be presented full frame.
- All the other print rules apply to projected images.
Finally, I’ve taken one of the documents Mark sent me about photography & aperture and made it a permanent link in our Resources page
Thanks Mark
Chris 🙂
A night of positive Judging – 28-Jan-2016
Our first competition for the year on Thursday January 28 was a great starter for what promises to be a busy and stimulating 2016.
Rigging – James Allan
The subject for the night was ‘Leading Lines’, which is a composition technique where the viewer’s eye is led into the image. Our judge was David Rowlands from Edwardstown Photography Club and what an encouraging and uplifting judge he was. With a significant number (115) of impressive images to work through he did so with a burst of positive and constructive feedback for every one of them. His comments were well considered, informed, concise and articulate.
Regardless of how your photograph scored you felt like you’d both learned something positive from the commentary and you were left inspired to reach greater heights.
With our constantly growing club the evening was well attended (about 45) by a welcoming and appreciative audience all very keen to learn.
First time entrant, Di Gage presented us with two inspiring images, one of a very beautiful soft Victoria River sunset and another of a fishing boat and its perfect reflection complete with bird resting obediently on a rope. A perfect start with one image scoring full marks. Another relatively new entrant, Robyn Due, was justifiably excited to score a 9 for her Port Adelaide excursion image, entitled ‘Pot’ a well spotted image of paving, posts and buildings providing interesting leading lines.
Pot – Robyn Due
Some of the excellence of our seasoned performers was on display with the likes of Alberto Giurelli, Helen Whitford, Jenny Pedlar, Ursula Prucha, James Allan and Chris Schultz
Mark Pedlar’s image (below) entitled Cornwall’s Motto captured, for those who weren’t there, the area in which the recent Port Adelaide excursion took place and plenty of Leading Lines. A quite stunning shot.
Mark Pedlar – Cornwall’s Motto
The following are more of the high scoring ‘Leading Lines’ images from the night.
Kelp – Heather Connolly
Port River Dolphin – James Allan
Nestled Farmhouse – Judy Sara
Blue Moth on Sunflower – Ursula Prucha
Nation Ridge – Chris Schultz
Fishing – Jenny Pedlar
Arches of Light – Bruce Nankivell
Follow the Leader – Helen Whitford
To see more great ‘Leading Lines’ images visit the ‘Top Projected Images‘ and ‘Top Prints‘ pages.
It seems to me that photography is one of those games where just when you think you’ve nailed some small part of it you are instantly reminded via someone else’s display of skill that you really haven’t and there is a long way to go. I’m convinced it is a never ending story of learning and I guess that’s why we all love it.
Makes you wonder what kind of fabulous circles we can create with our next competition, entitled ‘Circles’, of course.
Bruce Nankivell
The 31 Days of December 2014 are over – did you like it?
A dedicated bunch of BPC members took up the challenge again this year. It’s been a fun ride and most of the participants managed the full 31 days.
If you look through our flickr group it looks like Heather, Jen, David, Eric, John, James and I managed to post at least an image a day. Kerry came close, and we had a few images from Gloria, Ann, Helen, Terry, Howard and former member Hilary.
So what did we see? Well first we had a huge variety of images, following of themes, a bit of image manipulation, some of our photographers rediscovering their photographic passion, and a bit of repartee between us in the comments. I’ve picked what I think are the best of each members images and a comment on what they gave us. You may not agree with my choices, but you’ll probably agree it’s been fun and entertaining for the observer.
Sticks and Bits
Let’s start with Heather, who gave us a selection of wildlife, birds, travel photos, Christmas food and drink (love that Quinta Ruban!) and observation. No theme per se, but Heather looks to have had fun. What’s more, Heather didn’t confine herself to her dSLR, but use her iPad and a compact as well. For me, the image above was quintessential Heather – simple and effective imagery.
Figure to ground relationship
Next we had Jen exploring themes of photographic composition, often using simple objects and simple lighting. There were some powerful images in there that merit a serious look – like the 3 rocks and the almost monochrome sea urchin on a black background. Jen has a very good eye for composition – so watch out in this years competition everyone! Jen I think takes out the award for comment discussions. I direct you to one image as an example and you be the judge!
Kerry took part for most of the 31 days (actually, all of them I think, but she didn’t post them all on the BPC flickr page), and seemed to explore a lot of food! Not a problem really, as we all like it, and I was half tempted to visit and inspect the pantry! You’ll have to look at her photo stream to see her images as I can’t embed the images here directly. Never the less check out her Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars and her Dump Trucks to see what I mean.
Father and Son
David worked at giving us an image a day from his secret hideout south of Adelaide (we can’t tell you where or he may have to silence us!). David presented us with an fascinating array of still life, images from the hideout, and garden images, often manipulating the images to add something new. For me, Father and Son, (although not fully representing the body of work) showed us David’s wit and talent. But don’t overlook his artistic work either – Argive Abstract is one not to miss.
Year End
Now on to Eric. Never stuck for a word or a witticism, Eric produced some excellent work demonstrating clever manipulation in camera, around the camera, in processing and outside the camera. Check out Friction Grater as an example. That’s comes from lots of practice and experience. But for me, Year End was a stunner that should not be missed.
Hindmarsh Old and New
Our newest club member, John, participated in the process enthusiastically – both as commenter and photographer. Although a long time photographer, he commented to me “This challenge has whetted my appetite for photography again. Until it started my camera would have been lucky to have been out of the house more than once a month or so”. John’s stream of images shows his new enthusiasm with some great images of his favourite architecture (like the one above), but also exploring other ideas like panos (which he does very well – have a look at Base Running),macros and some clever textures. I’m glad you had a good time John and look forward to lots more images from you.
Bus Shelter 2
James again enthusiastically took part in the Challenge, even incorporating a Best of 31 Days commentary on his new Camera Clips page. His images of course show his experimental and strong visual style. The image above is one that is shows a powerful awareness of that style. It has shades of Robert Capa’s “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”. How many of you see beyond the obvious? James of course gave us his bird and insect shots, but I think his abstracts are some of his best images.
Coffee!
Finally, there was me. I spent a bit of time trying different things like only using one prime lens a for week (I succeeded), experimenting with mono treatments of images (like the one above – check out it’s colour cousin), wide angles, abstracts, and memories of lost relatives. It was hard work at times – as work and other things again got in the way. But the capture of a daily image or two to share was very satisfying in the end.
So there you have it – an interesting journey for all of us. Please visit the club Flickr page and see what we’ve done. We’ll probably hold another mid-year just to try something new.
Chris 🙂
The 31st BPC Annual Exhibition – 20-Nov-2014
Hasn’t the year flown by? Here we are about to finish up and another BPC Annual Exhibition has been run.
It’s been a busy year, with competitions, critique, some memorable workshops, outings and a new calendar. Full credit to all those who get stuck in and make every evening happen – the folk who set up chairs, the tables, the screen, the supper, the print stands – and then tidy it all up afterwards. Without your involvement it wouldn’t happen every fortnight and maximise our enjoyment.
So on to the Annual Exhibition. Like last year, we took the judging out of the meeting programme, collated the numbers and presented the results. Our thanks to our 3 panel judges – Joy Lee-Archer, Gary Secombe and John Williamson who carefully and efficiently scored our best images. Our thanks also to Jenny & Mark Pedlar for hosting the judging (and a great supper to go with it). Mark Pedlar then organised the certificates (again – thanks Mark) and a programme whilst Julie Goulter had trophies engraved.
On the actual awards night, we had an excellent turnout (I counted 43), with judges Gary Secombe and John Williamson in attendance along with several guests (like an ex-President, a few former club members and a partner or two) and many members filling the room comfortably. John Williamson liked us so much he joined our merry band as a member. Welcome!
President Ashley Hoff and Secretary Julie Goulter officiated to hand out the awards – Ashley getting RSI from signing all the award certificates and spots in his vision from the flash 🙂
So – who won what (you can peek at the winning images on the Top Digital and Top Prints page)? Starting with the aggregates for the year, our trophy winners were:
JV Spick Chemist Award for Album Prints
| 1st |
James Allan |
164 |
| 2nd | Gloria Brumfield | 126 |
| 3rd | Heather Connolly | 117 |
Blackwood Photographic Club Award for Colour Prints
| 1st |
Helen Whitford |
184 |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | 174 |
| 3rd | James Allan | 167 |
Blackwood Times Award for Mono Prints
| 1st |
Jo Tabe |
165 |
| 2nd | James Allan | 137 |
| 3rd | Alberto Giurelli | 103 |
Photographic Wholesalers Award for Projected Images
| 1st |
Chris Schultz |
167 |
| 2nd | James Allan | 156 |
| 3rd | Ashley Hoff | 135 |
Congratulations to everyone who participated – and challenged each of us to try that little harder over the year.
The Annual Exhibition itself had some inspiring images to stimulate us. The full selection of digital images are presented below – click on any one to go into the slide show for a full size view.
![[01] James Allan - Leafy Seadragon](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/01-james-allan-leafy-seadragon.jpg?w=404&h=271&ssl=1 "[01] James Allan - Leafy Seadragon")
![[02] James Allan - Moon Rise](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/02-james-allan-moon-rise.jpg?w=178&h=133&ssl=1 "[02] James Allan - Moon Rise")
![[03] James Allan - The Plunge](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/03-james-allan-the-plunge.jpg?w=178&h=134&ssl=1 "[03] James Allan - The Plunge")
![[04] Rivers of memory 2](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/04-graham-brice-rivers-of-memory-2.jpg?w=188&h=167&ssl=1 "[04] Rivers of memory 2")
![[05] Rivers of memory 3](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/05-graham-brice-rivers-of-memory-3.jpg?w=188&h=132&ssl=1 "[05] Rivers of memory 3")
![[06] Rivers of memory 4](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/06-graham-brice-rivers-of-memory-4.jpg?w=394&h=303&ssl=1 "[06] Rivers of memory 4")
![[07] Heather Connolly - Elder Range](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/07-heather-connolly-elder-range.jpg?w=227&h=119&ssl=1 "[07] Heather Connolly - Elder Range")
![[08] Heather Connolly - gentle morning](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/08-heather-connolly-gentle-morning.jpg?w=227&h=126&ssl=1 "[08] Heather Connolly - gentle morning")
![[09] Heather Connolly - train to Belair](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/09-heather-connolly-train-to-belair.jpg?w=166&h=249&ssl=1 "[09] Heather Connolly - train to Belair")
![[10] Ray Goulter - Day's End](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/10-ray-goulter-days-end.jpg?w=185&h=123&ssl=1 "[10] Ray Goulter - Day's End")
![[11] Ray Goulter - Harbour Dusk](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/11-ray-goulter-harbour-dusk.jpg?w=185&h=122&ssl=1 "[11] Ray Goulter - Harbour Dusk")
![[12] Ray Goulter - Rural Peace](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/12-ray-goulter-rural-peace.jpg?w=380&h=252&ssl=1 "[12] Ray Goulter - Rural Peace")
![[13] Ashley Hoff - Mother-And-Child (Fotoswift-award)](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/13-ashley-hoff-mother-and-child-fotoswift-award.jpg?w=202&h=252&ssl=1 "[13] Ashley Hoff - Mother-And-Child (Fotoswift-award)")
![[14] Ashley Hoff - ...Not-The-Messiah... (3rd)](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/14-ashley-hoff-not-the-messiah-3rd.jpg?w=245&h=156&ssl=1 "[14] Ashley Hoff - ...Not-The-Messiah... (3rd)")
![[15] Ashley Hoff - War of the Worlds](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/15-ashley-hoff-war-of-the-worlds.jpg?w=337&h=156&ssl=1 "[15] Ashley Hoff - War of the Worlds")
![[16] Dean Johnson - Hamsterley Forest](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/16-dean-johnson-hamsterley-forest.jpg?w=237&h=158&ssl=1 "[16] Dean Johnson - Hamsterley Forest")
![[17] Dean Johnson - Selfy](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-dean-johnson-selfy.jpg?w=105&h=158&ssl=1 "[17] Dean Johnson - Selfy")
![[18] Dean Johnson - Wildlife](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/18-dean-johnson-wildlife.jpg?w=236&h=158&ssl=1 "[18] Dean Johnson - Wildlife")
![[19] Kerry Malec - Dutchman's Stern Panorama](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/19-kerry-malec-dutchmans-stern-panorama.jpg?w=586&h=141&ssl=1 "[19] Kerry Malec - Dutchman's Stern Panorama")
![[20] Kerry Malec - Eremophilia](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/20-kerry-malec-eremophilia.jpg?w=192&h=285&ssl=1 "[20] Kerry Malec - Eremophilia")
![[21] Kerry Malec - Pacific Coast Iris (Merit)](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/21-kerry-malec-pacific-coast-iris-merit.jpg?w=390&h=285&ssl=1 "[21] Kerry Malec - Pacific Coast Iris (Merit)")
![[22] Chris Schultz - Cherry](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/22-chris-schultz-cherry.jpg?w=155&h=233&ssl=1 "[22] Chris Schultz - Cherry")
![[23] Chris Schultz - Lyrup river bend panorama](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/23-chris-schultz-lyrup-flats-river-bend.jpg?w=427&h=233&ssl=1 "[23] Chris Schultz - Lyrup river bend panorama")
![[24] Chris Schultz - Sacred lotus dessicated](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/24-chris-schultz-spent-lotus-head.jpg?w=345&h=521&ssl=1 "[24] Chris Schultz - Sacred lotus dessicated")
![[25] Howard Seaman - Contours](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/25-howard-seaman-contours.jpg?w=237&h=178&ssl=1 "[25] Howard Seaman - Contours")
![[26] Howard Seaman - Last Laugh](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/26-howard-seaman-last-laugh.jpg?w=237&h=177&ssl=1 "[26] Howard Seaman - Last Laugh")
![[27] Jo Tabe - Poison Fruit](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/27-jo-tabe-poison-fruit.jpg?w=237&h=158&ssl=1 "[27] Jo Tabe - Poison Fruit")
![[28] Jo Tabe - River Contrasts (2nd & WEA)](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/28-jo-tabe-river-contrasts-2nd-wea.jpg?w=145&h=219&ssl=1 "[28] Jo Tabe - River Contrasts (2nd & WEA)")
![[29] Jo Tabe - The Burra House](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/29-jo-tabe-the-burra-house.jpg?w=437&h=219&ssl=1 "[29] Jo Tabe - The Burra House")
![[30] Helen Whitford - From the Other Side](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/30-helen-whitford-from-the-other-side.jpg?w=375&h=263&ssl=1 "[30] Helen Whitford - From the Other Side")
![[31] Helen Whitford - The Munster's House](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/31-helen-whitford-the-munsters-house.jpg?w=207&h=120&ssl=1 "[31] Helen Whitford - The Munster's House")
![[32] Helen Whitford - Tree 'n' Vines](https://i0.wp.com/blackwoodphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/32-helen-whitford-tree-n-vines.jpg?w=207&h=139&ssl=1 "[32] Helen Whitford - Tree 'n' Vines")
And now for the Annual Exhibition Award winners – drum roll please………
Edge Malpas Award for Album Prints
| 1st |
James Allan |
Bee Eater |
 1st: James Allan – Bee Eater |
| 2nd | Helen Whitford | Parrot Fashion | |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Strike a Pose | |
| Merit | Helen Whitford | Fun with Pebbles |
Mal Klopp Award for Colour Prints
| 1st |
Helen Whitford |
Longing |
 1st: Helen Whitford – Longing |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | A Quick Snack | |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Left to the Weather | |
| Merit | Jo Tabe | Mixed Emotions |
I’ve Been Framed Award for Monochrome Prints
| 1st |
Jo Tabe |
The Opening |
 1st: Jo Tabe – The Opening |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | Standing Proud 2 | |
| 3rd | Helen Whitford | Going for It | |
| Merit | Helen Whitford | Let’s Stick Together |
Hutt Street Photos Award for Projected Images
| 1st |
Ashley Hoff |
Mother and Child |
 1st: Ashley Hoff – Mother and Child |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | River Contrasts | |
| 3rd | Ashley Hoff | Not the Messiah | |
| Merit | Kerry Malec | Pacific Coast Iris |
WEA Australian Landscape Trophy
Jo Tabe |
River Contrasts |  |
This time, even though the awards were dominated by those with a J or H as their first initial, other letters of the alphabet made an appearance! Well done to K, G and A for getting in the mix.
I’ve created a summary of the final scores from the big spreadsheet that you can download for those that like numbers. For those who prefer it, we also have Mark’s official BPC Annual Catalogue.
So what of that other award – the Bill Templar Award for services to the club over the last 12 months? It came down to a secret ballot vote between two people – Julie Goulter and Chris Schultz and was awarded to…….. Chris Schultz…. Hey! That’s me 🙂 . I’m pretty humbled by that and appreciate your support. Thank you all.
Finally, after all the awards, celebration of our work and sharing in the fun, the evening finished with a supper of assorted goodies, viewing of the all the images, a lot of chat and supplemented again by Ron’s pizza!
Here’s a few photos of the award winners to finish (and yes – some faces just keep coming back 😀 )
Thanks again to our sponsors and everyone for taking part.
Next year promises to be interesting again with a new Novice only competition, some changes to the Peer Review nights and more interesting speakers.
Oh – and while you’re waiting for 2015 – anyone interested in the 31 Day Challenge for December? It’ll be on again – just post your images with the day number in the Flickr group.
Roll on 2015!
Chris 🙂
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 😉
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 😉
Once more into battle we went – the BPC/EPC interclub – 4-Jul-2013
Yes – its that time of year again. The annual duel between Blackwood Photographic Club/Edwardstown Photographic Club. On this occasion we held it at our club on a night when the heavens opened. I can attest to that – I kept stepping in a puddle as I moved the selected prints, projection hardware and El Presidente paraphernalia between my car and the club rooms.
Despite the weather we had a good turnout, with 15 EPC members in attendance and about 30 from our club. For a change this year we did the scoring on 2 computers (ours and theirs). Judge Derek Mikolaj & I had joked earlier in the week about scoring with fractions. Oops – that got Derek going and he used just that system – Nine and a half, Six and three sixteenths, 8.95 – you get the idea! The scorers had a chore keeping up, but computers and spreadsheets can cope with these things – as long as you can convert a fraction to decimal (actually, you can do the calculation too – 7 and 3/8 is just that 7 plus 3 divided by 8). Anyway, we had a very good selection of prints (mono & colour), and 50 digital images to see. Derek worked efficiently through the images, giving constructive criticism along the way. These were the best images from both clubs – so marks were generally very high with eleven full 10s (not fractions). The competition proceeded with some wows, some not so wows and some witty remarks from both the judge and the audience. Who said we can’t have fun with the judge?
In the end, despite our best efforts (with images from 25 BPC members – every one gets an image in if they submit), Edwardstown won on the night. The scores? Well here is a little table:
| BPC | EPC | |
| Digital images | 220.1 | 226.9 |
| Monochrome images | 127.25 | 130.8 |
| Colour prints | 120.275 | 124.275 |
Total |
467.625 |
481.975 |
Once again, not a lot in it, but EPC took out every category, even though we had more full 10s on the night (7 vs 4) – but who’s counting? EPC have kindly allowed us to show all of their digital images on this page as well as ours, so rather than carry on any more about competitions, just look at the images and see which ones you liked the best. We’ve put the top scorers from our club in the Top Digitals page, and the slide show here of all the digital images.
To finish the night, BPC members laid on a great spread of supper (which seemed to go down well) whilst everyone checked out the prints still around and had lots of chats about the images. It was great to see the best from both clubs. Bring on next year – where we are going to propose some changes to open up the competition and level the playing field some more 😆 Chris 😉
29th Annual Exhibition wrap up – 2012
The BPC Annual Exhibition has been run, judged, awarded and examined!
Yep – all over. Thanks to everyone for their entries and efforts.
Judging night saw the well oiled BPC machine (with some minor hiccups) displaying a great range of images – album, colour & mono prints, along with the projected images, which this year did not include any slides. Thanks must go to Mark Pedlar for collating the prints in order ready for display, and Ray & Julie Goulter for their picture hanging skills 😆
Our judges, Lydia Strutton (Port Adelaide Camera Club and SAPF Secretary), Suzanne Opitz (Adelaide Camera Club) & Lindsay Poland (Photographic Wholesalers) worked their way through:
- 18 Album prints
- 39 Colour prints
- 19 Monochrome prints
- 35 Projected images
Of course being a panel judging, there was no feedback, and the scorers (Ashley & myself) diligently recorded the numbers whilst the audience sat admiring the work of their fellow club members.
Next years Annual Exhibition judging will be not be a club meeting to help reduce the no-doze consumption 😆
Two weeks later, after a bit more work, we were ready for the exhibition. Awards were engraved, certificates and the Annual Exhibition booklet printed, copies of everyones scores prepared, and Ray’s camera was fired up ready for recording the great event.
Many club members toiled to put up the images – with labels, so we could see who did what and have a chat about how images were captured and admire the creativity of our fellow photographers. On top of that a range of food was laid out for all to share whilst we surveyed the images – courtesy of our members! As one member pointed out, it was good just to have a relaxed evening talking about the images with each other. We were also honoured to have Lydia return to view our awards night and share in the fun.
So on to the results!
The winners of the awards & certificates……
Album Prints
Annual Aggregate
- JV Spick award – Helen Whitford
- 2nd – James Allan
- 3rd – Heather Connoly
Annual Exhibition
- Edge Malpas award – Jo Tabe : Beachport Jetty
- 2nd – James Allan : Fern frond unfurls
- 3rd – Adrian Hill : Kanyaka Ruins
Colour Prints
Annual Aggregate
- Blackwood Photographic Club award – Helen Whitford
- 2nd – John Vidgeon
- 3rd – James Allan
Annual Exhibition
- Mal Klopp award – John Vidgeon : It wasn’t me
- 2nd – Joe Tabe : Days end
- 3rd – James Allan : Common Brown Butterfly
Monochrome Prints
Annual Aggregate
- Blackwood Times award – James Allan
- 2nd – Heather Connolly
- 3rd – Jo Tabe
Annual Exhibition
- I’ve Been Framed award – James Allan : Lone Surfer
- 2nd – Jo Tabe : Lenswood Ruin
- 3rd – Jo Tabe : Something in the air
- Merit – Helen Whitford : Two of a kind
Projected Images
Annual Aggregate
- Photographic Wholesalers award – John Vidgeon
- 2nd – James Allan
- 3rd – Helen Whitford
Annual Exhibition
- Hutt St Photos award – John Vidgeon : Cat and Mouse
- 2nd – John Vidgeon : Balloons in grain
- 3rd – Jo Tabe : Wanna
- WEA APC Landscape Trophy – Jo Tabe : Wanna
I can see a pattern here – certain names just keep appearing! But seriously, all of you exhibited some great images, and although there are official judged winners, its not about the competition but about sharing and having a bit of fun.
So there you go – another Annual Exhibition over, another year over. All of the images from the digital section are in the Top Digital Images page – pop over and have a look.
Sincere thanks must go to Mark Pedlar for collating and organising the Annual Exhibition material (including certificates, the book, the score sheet etc etc etc), Helen Whitford for collecting/collating all the scores over the year, Yvonne Sears for organising the trophy engraving, doing those club secretary things etc, Ashley Hoff for running around and chasing things up, the scorers, image hangers, chair stackers etc, and all of you for participating, sharing your images and making the club function. If I’ve left a name or two out its just the lateness of the hour and I apologise in advance (check the post time – its after 1am!)
Have a great holiday break, relax with family and friends, keep those shutters firing, collecting images and enjoying your art. And don’t forget that next year we’ll be having those critique sessions – so collect the images you want to talk about.
Cheers
Chris 😉
Water with movement – 16-Aug-2012
Despite the cold and rain Thursday August 19th saw a good turnout and a high number of entries in all sections of the competition, with the Set Subject of Water with Movement well represented. Thanks must go to Kym Farnik, an experienced photographer and judge who filled in at late notice and judged in a fairly consistent and positive manner whilst acknowledging that judging is always subjective and that people may not always agree with him. (And of course, we sometimes didn’t!)
Scores covered a wide range with Kym choosing a single top image in each section to receive a 10. He seemed particularly impressed by James Allan’s Spoonerism and Ursula Prucha’s Dolphin. He complimented the club on a high overall standard, while giving constructive criticism and suggestions for each image. Once again tighter cropping was a frequent suggestion!
It was good to see a number of entries from new members to the club!
Cheers
Helen
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 😉
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 😉
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 😉
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
Reflections – 27-October-2011
October saw another guest judge viewing our ‘Reflections’ competition, with Chris Schultz’s daughter Emily providing scores and comments for the night.
Again, it was a pleasure to see our work from a different point of view. Emily is a Graphic Artist by Profession (and quite an accomplished one), which meant that she provided an insight that we may not necessarily see from our regular judges.
It was also encouraging to see new names gracing the scoring sheets, with new member Nicky Mellonie scoring a few 9’s
As per always, please check out the top digital entries from the night, as well as a couple of my favourites, via our digital entries page!
Illusion – 29-September-2011
Our September competition night has been run and won. For something different, we had a guest judge – Lindsay Poland from the City Cross Camera House.
What makes Lindsay different? While he has vast experience in the photographic industry worldwide, this was his first night judging at a club meeting (in South Australia at least!). I for one enjoyed his enthusiasm and different view on certain aspects (such as print presentation) .
As for the theme of the night, it was Illusion (as the dictionary says: unreal image, deceptive appearance, trick or fallacy – all in this image is not what it seems). We had an excellent set of images on display for the night, with the scoring close. To check out our top Digital images, be sure to check out our Digital Entries Page
Cheers
Ashley
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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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 😉
Yellow to dominate competition – 26-May-2011
Talk about Mellow Yellow. We had an interesting and quite varied collection of yellow images in all categories with 105 entries in all, including 1 monochrome effort in the set subject – good thinking there!
Our judge Trevor Bower gave us useful comments on our efforts and used a pretty full range of scores in judging those efforts. Trevor also remarked that the set subject images all fell well in category.
A few useful comments to note were:
- that when doing macro or close up work good detail is required across the whole image
- backlighting can be useful in close up
- when photographing limited colour images take advantage of patterns and try to break them up
Once again, Jo Tabe set the standard in the Set competition prints with a clever use of a garden hose on a window – well done Jo (I’ve posted the image above)! It was good to see the other club members trying to follow Jo’s lead – and many are not far behind!
Please have a look at the images in the Digital Entries page – as well as the Editor’s Choice 😆
Chris 😉
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 