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 😉
Royal Adelaide Show 41st National Exhibition of Photography 2011
Our club promotions secretary Adrian has been diligently digging up interesting things for us to show off the club with and suggested the 41st Royal Adelaide Show National Exhibition of Photography. Although not a club focused event, it is an opportunity to show your skills to a broader audience! It also has Australian Photographic Society approval and is conducted under their rules – incuding gaining points towards APS honours if your an APS member.
There are 7 classes – 2 of which are novice classes (so even I can have a go! :lol:). The exhibition is open to all members of the public – with an entry fee of $12 (up to four images) in the first class, and then $8 for each class after that (up to 4 images again) and of course there are prizes to be won. Entries close at 5:00pm on Friday 1-Jul-2011.
If your interested, full details are available Royal Adelaide Show web site – and includes links to the entry form and schedule.
Chris 😉
Studio lighting workshop – 12-May-2011
On a cold night at the beginning of May there was a huge turn out for the clubs lighting workshop, with about 30 members attending. This is the second such workshop held by the club in the last few years. Ray Goulter planned the evening, organised the models and arranged a lighting set up with the club equipment as well as setting up the club’s studio flash system in the hall and introduced the evening.
Another two studio flash systems were set up in the hall by Ashley Hoff and Gary Secombe, which allowed a total of three “studios” to be used for the night. James Allan and Matt Carr also set up a tabletop studio system in the foyer, which used standard studio incandescent lights for table-top photography and used this setup to teach some of the concepts of light and how to illuminate a subject. Members were therefore exposed to many items of equipment used in studio photography, including reflectors (styrofoam and a white projector screen), umbrellas, light boxes, different coloured backdrops, snoots and honeycomb attachments.
Most studio flash heads operate by slaves, and an item of interest was the radio transmitter which attaches to the camera’s hotshoe, with the receiver plugged into one of the flash heads. This means the camera is entirely free of a sync cord.
The evening started a little slowly but everyone soon got into the spirit of things and the models, Lauren Miller, Adam Bentham and David Hopkins were in constant demand during the evening.
Most members used their DSLRs but compacts were also catered for with James’ and Matt’s light tent set-up. Ray even manhandled his Cambo view camera at the end of the evening to take four images using 4″ x 5” sheet film (Ilford FP3).
James had asked his teenage son Tom if he was interested in attending – and uncharacteristically he agreed. With his brand new Canon 550D he was snapping away at the models and came away quite enthused. In fact there was a lot of involvement from everyone who attended and many people took photos home at the end of the night. Several people mentioned how useful they found the evening. As the evening drew to a close it was hard not to feel sorry for the guys who were packing all of their equipment back into the boxes – there was so much gear!
Unfortunately we won’t be able to show you any of the final model photographs as the release did not cover publishing these photos on the web. But we have however included some of the shots from the workshop and the shoot courtesy of Eric Budworth.
To summarise some of the lessons learnt, here are a few points James learned from this and the previous lighting workshop:
- Light can be harsh or soft. Harsh light gives bright (often burnt out) accents and dark (underexposed) shadows with sharp borders. Soft lighting is preferable for model photography or macro/still life work. It gives a more pleasing range of softer tones. You can use a soft box/umbrella or diffuser to soften the light from your flash/strobe
- Shadows can be dark or light. It is often pleasing to be able to see some of the detail in the shaded areas. To lighten the shadows and show this detail you need a weaker light source shining from the opposite direction to throw some light into the shaded areas. You can achieve this simply with a reflector. Alternatively if you use a 2 light set up – remember to make one light stronger and one weaker. You can do this by adjusting the distance from the subject.
- When using a flash, adjusting the shutter speed usually has little effect on the exposure. The burst of light from a flash is strong and brief. It is so short that it can be used to freeze motion. Usually a shutter speed of say 1/125 is suitable. The exceptions to this rule occur at either extremes of shutter speed. If you set the shutter speed too fast (say 1/500s) you may have problems where the shutter is not properly open when the flash fires (the flash synchronisation speed!). This will leave you with a mere vertical band of properly exposed subject. If you set the shutter very slow (say 1/8s) you will find that the ambient light of the room will also create an image. (This is the strategy if you want to take a portrait of someone in front of night lights or a sunset.)
- When using studio lighting, the automatic mode of the camera will not work. In automatic mode the exposure and perhaps the focus are set with a preliminary flash and the photo is taken on a second flash. This is fine with your on-camera flash, but the studio lights will only fire once (the first time) so that you are left with a dark underexposed photo a split second after the studio lights fired.
- It is best to set your camera on manual mode. Getting the correct exposure is not too hard. In daylight photography the exposure is determined by setting the shutter speed and aperture for a set ISO setting. In flash photography you are left altering just the aperture to get the correct exposure for a given ISO and flash intensity. You can use a light meter to give you this setting, or as James’ son did, you can do it by use trial and error. He took a shot, reviewed the result in the playback mode and adjusted the aperture up or down until he got it right. Beware some modern cameras will automatically adjust the ISO even in manual mode. You need to turn this function off, or your adjustments will make little effect.
- The subject has to be directed. To get the shot you intend you have to tell the subject what you want. You can’t just sit back and let it happen as you would with candid family shots or street photography. You have to be forward, bossy, funny, whatever it takes to create some interest in the subject.
The evening finished with the usual tea, coffee and biscuits and testimony to the fact it was a popular evening was the lateness in finishing.
Members are reminded to print two of their best shots in A4 to be given to the models, and to provide a CD of their best shots, also to be given to the models. Ray will compile the images into a single CD for each of the models, as well as arrange for them to be given their prints.
The club thanks those who organised the evening and those who gave assistance during the workshop, and all the members who participated.
And if you want a little more information, you can download Ray’s BPC Studio lighting Workshop primer in PDF format or use Ashley’s studio lighting primer to view some interesting internet content.
If you have any comments about the night please share them with us – all feedback is greatly appreciated!
Ray Goulter and James Allan
Nature Competition – 28-Apr-2011
Firstly my apologies for the late posting of the competition writeup…..life seems to have got in the way of blogging…….
An interesting evening of Nature photography again showed our clubs strength in this area with many fine images – in fact the set subject entries far exceeded the open entries in every category with over 112 entries in all for the evening and of those more than 2/3 being nature!
Our judge Geoff Smith carefully spent time examining each image and commenting in detail. Unfortunately for Geoff the large number of entries made his task difficult and I dare say tiring, but he did well to comment constructively on each image. Many of the prints entered scored 10, but I can’t show many you those (although I have included one of my own here since its at hand :lol:) – but I have included the top digital entries in set and open. Apologies also for not including any Editor’s Choice images – there were so many good images I’d have to post almost all the entries!
So enjoy the images and please post a comment.
Chris 😉
Corrugations competition – 31-Mar-2011
An interesting night of observation of corrugations around us. Judge Chris Carter examined our efforts and surprised some of our newer members with 10’s for the night. There were some outstanding images overall, and many were pleased with their efforts.
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Special mention must be made of the effort made by Jo Tabe who managed to get a stack of 10s in almost every category – well done Jo!
David Tulloch also put in some great images, and his Corrugated Drip Line (far right) deserves a place in this blog post along with Jo’s Corrugated Reflections (at right). |
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| Exhibition Dates: | Saturday 9th July 2011, 12.00 noon through to the Official Opening at 7.30pm Sunday 10th July, 11.00 am – 5.00 pm |
| Venue: | United Eastern Association Masonic Complex 1 Fisher Street, Tusmore, SA, 5065 |
| Entry closing date: | 13-May-2011 |
| Contact: | secretary@sapf.org.au |
| Entry form: | 2011 Entry Form (PDF) |
Full details of the exhibition conditions, categories, judges etc are in the entry form.
We only have a few weeks to get ourselves organised, so look through your images and find the absolute best! Unfortunately, slides will not be accepted at this exhibition 😦 , but prints and digital projected images are.
Chris 😉
Food Glorious Food competition – 3-Mar-2011
No need for much comment here – I think a few of us were numb after the evening! I’ll let the very few top images and extensive editor’s choice selections speak for themselves.
Please read Jame’s fine post on judging to assuage your feelings.
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. |
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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! |  |
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| 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! | 
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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. |  |
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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. |
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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 😉
Web site header
Hello everyone!
You may recall we started a small comp to get new designs for a web site header.
Well after a very small amount of entries, I have decided to just change the headers on a semi-regular basis.
If you still are interested in submitting one – feel free. They need to be 950×200 pixels maximum size, and kept fairly small in file size (100-150kb)
Oh, and the current header has been submitted by Erica – well done, it looks great!
Matt
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. |  |
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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! |  |
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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
Postcards competition – 3rd of February 2011
We had a filled room for the first competition night for the year on what was a very warm night! A slowish start as we welcomed new members Jane, Jo and Yvonne along with visitors Helen and Mark.
It was great to see some new members and even visitors entering images – hopefully we will see more of their work in the near future – well done. In all, there were over 140 images entered on the night (even with the new limit of 3 images per section) and the scores ranged from a spattering of 10’s and 9’s awarded to a broad range of members – many of us got into the post card theme with enthusiasm!
Our judge, Keith Siedel of Edwardstown Photographic Club, did a great job, offering constructive criticism and pointing out both the good and the bad points of our images regardless of score. Every image received a comment which was appreciated by the photographer and those present.
The album prints did well, with Kookaburra (9), Cape Borda Lighthouse (9) and Pictures of Spain (10) taking out the Set section, with Ring Necked Parrot scoring a 10 in the Open.
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In the colour prints, Whale of a Tale from Wellington (9) scored highest in the Set section, whilst Winter Falls (9), Hills Cottage (9) and Port Lincoln Marina (9) were the best in the Open. |
| The monochrome prints were well represented and Adelaide Botanic Gardens achieved a 10 in the Set section, whilst Sea Lion, Faith and Gone Fishing all scoring 10s, and Ingallala scoring a 9. |  |
The projected images saw slides and digital combined into one section. In the slides the set sections top images were Tangled (9), whilst in the digital set section, Remarkable Rocks (9), Torrens Lake – Adelaide at Night (9), Mount Cook (9), Onkaparinga Outlet (10) and the witty Postcard Darwin (10) (the crocodiles with the comment – Darwin – at least the beer is cold) scoring highly in the Set section. In the Open section we had four 9s – Blue Lotus, Collecting Pollen, Yellow Rose and The Battle – well done. Have a look at the 2011 Digital Competition Top images for the 9s and 10s.
Our judge commented that majority of the postcards were great – well done to all!
Please note that the next meeting on the 17th of February will be an outing at Henley Beach – bring you camera and tripod.
See you there.
Matt & Chris
A Morning At The Nelumbo Pond
Lotus Flower - Matt Carr
Ahhh, the serenity. Nothing like a morning walk through the Botanical Gardens. The birds chirping. The wind whistling through the branches. The rapid click of a camera shutter. The desperate cry of a distressed photographer. “Damn Duck Poo….”
Saturday morning saw the first (informal) outing of the year for members of the Blackwood Photographic Club. Matt, Chris, James and Ashley all ventured to a very quiet Adelaide Botanical Gardens, to see whether they could get some worth while photo’s of the Flowering Lotus. I don’t know whether it was the bike race or simply a Saturday morning, but it was blissfully quiet!
Anyhow, you be the judge to see whether they shot anything worthwhile! (Click on the pictures to open them)
If you want to check out some more of our images from the morning, make sure that you check our flickr group – Blackwood Photography Club On Flickr
Don’t forget that if anyone has an idea for an outing, please let any of the committee members know.
Cheers
Ashley
Uncle Arthur’s slide night
What a great night!
Uncle Arthur’s slide night saw a large turn out of BPC members (include two new members – welcome Erika and Kevin) and visitors (at least 4 from my count) at our first meeting of the year.
We started a bit late, but in honour of the evening’s title, Arthur started proceedings with a wonderful recount of his recent trip to Italy in slides – mainly Venice, Florence and Rome. As he pointed out, the art was in travelling light, with only one lens on each of his two Nikon camera bodies (and a tripod). That meant more considered compositions, but the images were worth it. Once again, Arthur demonstrated the art of composition and simplicity in many of his images – both colour and monochrome – and in fact some images were recorded in both forms (the advantage of two camera bodies when you don’t have digital). A salient lesson for all of us in how to create the image rather than take a picture.
John presented some really fascinating slides, describing how he captured (with a net), cooled (in the fridge) and photographed butterflies in his light box (seemed to be has favourite tool) – 20 seconds is all you get! The picture of the dandelion seeds blowing in the wind – or at least stuck to a glass plate – demonstrated the art of illusion (Photoshop before we had Photoshop!). There were some interesting shots, and ideas for all of us. He also demonstrated how you can obtain different effects by mistreating your slides with flame – lovely bubbles! We might need to get James to request an article on both these topics for Camera Clips
We then had Ashley give us a new point of view. Ashley has only started taking slides in recent times – a slide newbie and loving it. There is a passion there that we all know and sometimes lose. We all know he likes angles and converging lines like bridges and buildings as well as some fascinating street life (no model fees to the buskers normally). He certainly had some good images, full of colour and interest. If we can only convince the judges of their merit…….but then thats another discussion. Whatever you do Ashley, don’t stop experimenting!
I presented a historical sequence of images (for me), starting with one Kodachrome image taken on an old Kodak Instamatic in January 1975 – square format, rounded corners, and holding up pretty well. When I got my first SLR in 1982 I shot a lot of Kodachrome over the years (mainly 64) and learnt much of my photography from the ground up, experimenting with things I liked to look at. The images presented ranged from plants (taken at low angles) to bugs landscapes (the 12 Apostles) to people (my wedding day 😀 and my eldest daughter at 1 year old) to events (like the first modern Adelaide Grand Prix in 1985 and the world Expo in Brisbane in 1988). The thing that emerged was that I evolved as a photographer, and that Kodachrome still had brilliant colours!
Jenny and Mark presented us with yet more ancient history – Mark in red speedos (is a certain politician channeling Mark?) and lots of hair (yes – its true!!!), Jenny with lots of fuzzy hair and bikinis (I see a red theme emerging here), their children, their houses (in the UK and NSW), their passions (Jenny and her home made kilns) and some interesting shots as they both experimented with photographic styles they’d seen (back lighting of people stands out) and a family growing up (there son on a playground horse)! This set of lively images brought home the fact that the pictures we take are record of our lives as well as representing our attempts at art.
Of course, our hobbies don’t always last, and Richards hobby of diving showed us how he spent a lot of time underwater capturing caves, fish, marine invertebrates and having fun – as well as taking risks (like going beyond the limits of your ropes, playing with sea snakes or trying to attract sharks). The image of his friend pretending to be caught by a giant clam was quite clever – but the thing that sticks in my mind is that his passion for photography and diving lived together beautifully – and produced superb images of a world we don’t see. We also saw that Richard still has the beard those slides recorded 🙂 – can you imagine him without it?
Julie and Ray presented an interesting set of slides that, like Mark and Jenny, showed both their family and their passion for photography. Julie gave us a selection of club photos from the early 90’s that included club outings – some memorable shots of weekend away outings which had a few long time club members in the mix. Of course, there were some images of a family growing up (including a young Ray), and some cute grand children (including a son who to me was a dead ringer for Ray!). Julie also showed us some attempts at close ups and nature, and despite her protestations, they were pretty good first efforts! Ray gave us some great images of life across the country – including Queensland and NSW. He also showed us that slides are not a dead end. There were quite a few images of the recent trip around the eastern states! On the historical side, there was even an image of the Sydney Opera House (not the Harbour Bridge as he said – your not that old Ray :D) under construction – now that dates him! It was interesting to note some of the older slide films that Ray had tried did not stand up well to the test of time – they had become almost monochrome.
As a young medical student, James did a stint in New Guinea. On the way out, he was handed and SLR and slide film by an uncle. The images he gave us were fascinating in many ways. Firstly, we saw a culture that was starting to move on from that frozen in time for centuries. The thatched houses were changing in their construction, the peoples clothes were changing from the loin cloth (on the women) and gourd on the mens genitalia (the ultimate cod piece – one size fits all according to James) and James interacting with the people (including some rather nice portraits and Dr James taking blood). The second fascinating part were the places – few of us have the chance to travel to remote mountain villages and interact with unique cultures now – let alone 30 years ago. The third was (as James said) that his pictures demonstrated that he was learning how to take pictures with a completely new device – his images looked a bit underexposed to me – and according to James, he also had lots of pictures heavily under or over exposed. Still – for us it showed us part of a journey in his life and evolution as a photographer, and that’s what it was all about.
Theo presented a number of quite interesting images mainly from Ursula that showed her studio shots (many detailed portraits of people) and some fascinating desktop shots. Its amazing how a coloured slinky spring, a bit of backlighting, and even the effect of ultraviolet light can change how we perceive an object. Perhaps we need a night of desktop shooting……
For those with an interest in remote Australia, Heather and Reg presented some inspiring images of their travels around Australia – many in the desert regions and remote regions of the country. We live in a stunning part of the world, and there is no doubt that the Connollys have experienced and recorded it. There were some stunning sunsets (sorry – but I’m a sucker for a good sunset 😉 ), images of the camps they set up, and even the ship where they met! One of the things you realise is that these images recorded for personal pleasure and a record are also very good images that we can all enjoy.
Eric showed us some of his travels to Spain – and gave us a history lesson at the same time. Eric’s knowledge of the history of the places he visited was impressive. The images of cathedrals that had been mosques that had been cathedrals were stunning, there were also fantastic walled castles, Roman aqueducts 4 and 5 stories above the ground, huge ships under construction in docks (in Gothenburg I think), and even a young Eric in his swimming trunks were fascinating. One of the images that really impressed me was of a building by Antoni Gaudi. For those that don’t know of this brilliant non-conformist architect, his buildings have Gothic and natural influences, resulting in complex rounded forms that challenge the way we think – a bit like some of the photographs we see at competition nights. For those interested, Eric shot a lot of his images with Fuji Sensia.
After the slides, we had plenty of nibbles and a chat……and you could see that it had been and enjoyable night from the discussions.
So, all in all, a great night of sharing our lives and passions. Its not the sort of images that we’d normally see – but interesting to find out how our fellow club members have evolved as photographers and people. The other thing is that slides are not dead – Ashley and Ray showed that! We still have a slides in our competition (one of the few clubs left that do).
Personally, I’m all for another slide night with Uncle Arthur!
BTW – for those that saw the abridged version of this – apologies – I hadn’t finished it and someone hit the publish button 😦
If anyone would like to scan their slides, we’d love to include a few if you can find the time.
Cheers
Chris 😉
Web Page header competetion!
Although I do confess to being quite proud of my creation of the header for our web page 🙂 , I would like to see what our talented members can come up with! After all if I can create what I did, I am fairly sure you can come up with something equal, if not better than my effort.
The header needs to be 950×200 pixels, and should incorporate our logo – which I can provide (both a monochrome and colour images) if you email me at blackwoodphotoclub@gmail.com
This is only open to all Blackwood Photography Club members, and will run for 2-3 weeks, or until we have enough entries. Feel free to submit as many entries as you like. Please send them to me on the above email address – we may even run a poll (I am sure Chris knows how to do this!) to pick the winner.
Cheers and good luck,
Matt
The 31 Day challenge – over but not out!
Happy New Year!!
For those that weren’t involved in the 31 day challenge – and didn’t review the images, its worth a quick look at what was a challenging and very enjoyable month.
James, Jim, David Tulloch (DavidT) and I managed to put in an image a day (at least – some were more prolific than others ;)), along with some less frequent, but we also had very good images from Erika, Ashley, Matt, Ray and David Douglas-Martin.
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Jim and James produced some stunning macros, as well as a range of other quite interesting captures and even abstract. Jim’s image of Wandering Jew was selected as the DailyQi’s on line magazines image of the day – well done! |
DavidT spent a the month providing what probably amounts to a travelogue of South Australia (maybe TourismSA needs to have a chat), with a few truly memorable images at different times of day and some interesting places.
I focused on windows – not an easy task to make something fresh daily given a long lasting lurgi and the narrow scope – you live and you learn.
Ive included a few of what I think were 2 or 3 images with the most impact from each contributor below – and as you all know, I’m not a judge…….but I do have opinions 😛
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What the challenge also achieved was to make us think about what we were going to photograph and share – a bit of planning and thought produced some great images from all even though not every image was a 10 😀
More importantly, it gave us the chance to stay in touch over the month, exchange idea and comments, and as James put it in one of the last replies to a comment My wife gives a sigh of relief and is glad it’s all over. I think I’ll miss the daily repartee. This is really just like face book isn’t it.
Some of the other ideas that came out of our discussions, apart from what we thought competition judges wouldn’t like (eg Maybe for Christmas we can all get together and build a judge who understands Ashley’s work?) :lol:, was that we could use our group page as:
- a test bed for images for the monthly competitions. Admittedly that might give some an unfair advantage, but on the other hand it would also create discussion and lift our skills
- use it as a challenge like the disposable camera night
- have general discussions and repartee – a bit like facebook for photo nuts too old to play at facebook!
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Go over to the Flickr group to catch all of them – and maybe leave a comment about what you think are the best images!
Cheers
Chris 😉
A safe and happy Christmas
I would just like to wish all our members a safe and happy break over the Christmas period, and I hope Santa fills your stockings with lots of photographic equipment!
Looking forward to see you all back on the 20th of January 2011, if not sooner!
Cheers,
Matt
31-day challenge is up and running
Just a quick note to let you know the December 31-day challenge is up and running. We only have a few contributors, but then you don’t have to contribute images as James says in the FlickR discussion:
If you don’t want to submit, it’s enough to keep an eye on the website and enjoy the unfolding of the month. Perhaps you could join in by making a few comments to encourage us all on. Your chance to do some judging.
So go on, pop over, have a look and contribute in any way you like.
Chris 😉
Blackwood Photo Club 2011 Calendars now available
 The low resolution sample above contains a watermark which will not appear on the calendar you purchase |
That’s right! After the success of the 2010 calendar, Blackwood Photographic Club has once again produced its superb calendar. The 2011 calendar, like its 2010 predecessor, is filled with fantastic and stunning images from our members. We have kept the price the same as last year – just $15 – and with Christmas just around the corner these will be a guaranteed pleaser for young and old alike! You can obtain a copy from any club member, email us, or write to the club via snailmail. We accept cash, cheques & money orders (payable to Blackwood Photographic Club of SA) and Electronic Funds Transfer (details available upon request) as payment for this great calendar. Please add $2.90 for tough bag postage/packaging mail delivery. Do your eyes a favour and get one! |
The 2011 programme is out….
The 2011 programme is now on line – for those that missed the booklet at the Annual Exhibition & Awards night. Looks like a good year ahead with lots if interesting competitions and content!
There have been some competition rule changes in case you missed them – given the large number of entries each competition:
- only 3 images per section
- Slides & Digital have merged into Projected Images – so only 3 entries in total for that one
Please read the Competition Entry Rules for more details.
I’ll be posting the Annual Exhibition and Awards results later this week along with the winning digital entries. Congratulations to all the winners!
If any winners in the print section would like their images displayed here, feel free to email the images to the bpcdigitalentries@gmail.com account (in the standard 72dpi 1024×768 format) for inclusion. I will watermark them for you if you don’t.
In case you missed it, the next 10 club events are displayed in the RSS feed in the right column of the page – in case you don’t want to view the whole programme. Hover your mouse over the event to get a description, or subscribe to the feed. We’ll put club outings in there too when they occur.
Don’t forget the Annual Picnic – contact Julie Goulter for details if you missed the handout…..see you there!
And finally, remember the December 31-day challenge – get those shutters clicking on a daily basis.
Chris 😉
December 31-day challenge
This is a challenge! I got the idea from Flikr some time ago from a Flikr group called 365 Days. Members of the group pledged to take a self portrait every day for 365 days. You can view the results by searching under the tag “365 days”
Blackwood Photographic Club has a quiet month in December – no meetings, and no competitions – so here is the idea:
Take a photo every day for 31 days and post it on the club site with the tag “31 days”.
The photo need not be a self portrait. I expect that the pictures will create a journal of life over the month of December. There are no topics and no themes.
With this in mind, a few of us have already agreed to participate in something similar, so if your interested, we will run a 31 day challenge through the club Flikr group. You don’t have to post the photo on the same day – but please put in one photo for each day. I proposed the idea to Chris Schultz and he agreed (along with me) to take up the challenge. Ashley has also agreed.
So keep an eye on this web site and our Flickr pages to check out the results. Why not take up the challenge for yourself and join in?
Refer to the last edition of Camera Clips for details on how to set up a Flikr account and how to post images on the club site.
James Allan (edited by Chris Schultz from an email for inclusion here)
Addendum – If your after last minute inspiration for the challenge, have a look at PhotoChallenge.org
Welcome To Our New Website!
Hi, and Welcome to the Blackwood Photographic Club of SA Inc’s new website!
After many hours of work, we are finally live with our fresh new look. For those of you who have visited our website before, you will find lots of new content. If you are a regular visitor, you will also find that changes under the hood have enable us to more readily keep this content dynamic. We have incorporated new galleries (including links to our clubs Flickr group, where the above pictures come from) and lots of information for both old, new and prospective members.
Thanks to all who have assisted in getting this site up and running, especially Chris, who had many bright new ideas and ways to get them to work!
Welcome And Enjoy!
DISPOSABLE CAMERA COMPETITION (7-Oct-2010)
A total of 64 small prints were submitted from 12 members. It was obvious from the various subjects portrayed that at least one member had travelled far, as several images submitted were taken in Sydney.
Most images were captured within the Adelaide and Adelaide Hills area.
Three teams each comprising six members were arranged. Each member scored individually then each team captain consolidated their team member’s scores to produce an aggregate for their team. Each of the three aggregates was then totalled in the spreadsheet to produce the average aggregate per team. The scores reproduced in the table below are the total points, the average team aggregate points as well as the average score for the print.
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Once again we had a clear winner with James Allan’s image no. 51 (image at left). Second place was a little cramped with three members scoring the same points; these being Mark Pedlar’s print 22, Ray Goulter’s print 45 and James Allan’s print 50. Matt Carr followed with his print 61. |
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| Member | Image number | Total Points | Teams Aggregate | Average Points awarded | Placing |
| James Allan | 51 | 72 | 24 | 4 | 1st |
| Mark Pedlar | 22 | 69 | 23 | 3.833 | Eq. 2nd |
| Ray Goulter | 45 | 69 | 23 | 3.833 | Eq. 2nd |
| James Allan | 50 | 69 | 23 | 3.833 | Eq. 2nd |
| Matt Carr | 61 | 67 | 22.333 | 3.722 | 3rd (5th?) |
Another interesting exercise was incorporated into the spreadsheet this year and this was to extract the members with the highest average points awarded for all the prints each submitted.
James Allan, on average, was awarded 3.574 points per image. He was followed by Ray Goulter with 3.213 and Chris Schultz with 3.102 average points. Then followed Mark Pedlar (3.065) and Ashley Hoff (3.056).
All in all a fun evening was had by all, which augers well for this odd competition being included in following year’s programmes.
Ray Goulter
Fleurieu Peninsula club outing
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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 😉
Judy Sara -Trees in a Storm 
Judy Sara - Elephant on the Run 
Duart Mclean - River Reflections 
Duart Mclean - Palm Morning 
Michael Selge - Victory 
Meredith Retallack - Leaving the Mont on Foot 
Sarah Bailey - A Stroll in the Garden 
Kerry Malec - Teepee 
Judy Sara - Elephants on the Move 
Vicki Kramer - Sunset Silhouette 
Meredith Retallack - Sunset Dreaming 
Judy Sara - Running Along the Beach
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 
Life on the streets competition
An interesting night On the Streets!
We had 130+ entries – including one from new member Alex Zapcev, and a number from those attending the photographic course being run by Ray Goulter & James Allan. Well done folks – and welcome to the club! We also had a few extra attendees to see how it all worked- some signing up on the night.
A sad story - Theo Prucha
Helter skelter passed luxury - Chris Schultz
The colour prints resulted in three 10s (James Allen, Eric Budworth and myself), and John Vidgeon again produced a stunner in the open colour with his image of a boat travelling across the water.
The mono prints had some interesting shots, with a 10 from Gary Secombe of a tree against the sky in the open section.
Slides are not dead – they live on tenaciously as Arthur Farmer and Ursula provided us with some more brilliant images – including some great portraits in the open section. As one of the few clubs left in the state with a film slide section, we’ll need to see if we can scan them in and show them to the rest of the world at some stage…… 💡
Gary Secombe - Hanging Around
So another night over. Check out the gallery of digital 10’s and give us your thoughts.
By the way – we have added some extra images in there – call it Editors Choice – the ones that the web masters think deserved a mention (perk of the job :lol:).
Finally – please visit the Mitcham Council Chambers foyer to view our exhibition if you get a chance – it runs until 29-Nov-2010 on weekdays from 9am to 5pm.
See you all at the Annual Exhibition Judging on 4-Nov-2010
Chris 😉
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25/10/2010 | Categories: Competitions | Tags: Competition comments | Comments Off on Life on the streets competition