Ok – I’ve been tardy in posting about the last two workshops!
Yes – I’ve been a very bad boy. I should have posted the updates on the last two workshops but other things got in the way! So here we go – complete with YouTube slides for you to read!
The first workshop (held on 15-Mar-2012) about Low Light was prepared and presented by James.
James led us through an array of low light situations – and importantly, got us to try out some of the techniques with our own equipment and the lights turned out in the club rooms. A few of us ventured outside to create ghostly images in the spirit of Darren Siwes whilst others shone torches through wine bottles to paint light, took photos by candlelight and generally had a good time experimenting!
Rather than include images, I’ll just link you to James’ PowerPoint presentation (on YouTube) and wait for the images in the Low light competition later in the year (27-Sep-2012 to be precise)
The second workshop (held on 12-Apr-2012) was meant to be a session on Print Making – but due to unforseen circumstances we had to find a quick presentation.
The night was fairly well attended, with 3 guests – Peter, Trevor (from Noarlunga & Southern Districts Camera Club) and Chris (a long time follower of this blog) – welcome gents!
Fortunately, Matt & I managed to shift our workshop on Selective colour, put yourself into history and image stacking together fast enough for everyone to have a go at these techniques. It looks like the night was a success from the number of stacked and altered perspectives of history that have surfaced on the club’s Flickr page. Anyhow, rather than rehash the methods, check out the slides and see if it helps.
For those in search of references, have a look at the following links:
Selective Colouring
Selective Colouring – highlights
Fake Histories
Swap your face with someone else
Cheers
Chris 😉
Man vs Nature – 1-Mar-2012
Man vs nature – a tricky topic!
The night saw new members and guests – swelling our numbers a little for the evening. We welcome Henk, who attended our Natural Light Portrait workshop and liked what he saw!
A few visitors attended the evening as well:
- Robert – and exchange student from Germany staying with James
- Terry – an ex-ABC cameraman (and friend of our new member Henk)
- Howard – who also attended our Natural Light Portrait workshop and told me afterwards he’ll probably join us regularly
Before I get on to the nights competition, a reminder of several important bits of news:
- We noted the passing of Barbara Mullins, a leading figure in photography and the SAPF for many years. As a mark of our respect, we made a donation to the Cancer Council of SA as requested by the family in lieu of flowers. Barbara will be missed by many people in the SA photographic and AV community!
- Jenny will be retiring as Treasurer at the next AGM – so if you believe you can take on this role, please have a chat to her about it and see if you can step in to help. Training will be provided!
- James is seeking more articles for Camera Clips – new things you have tried, what inspires you, how you’ve changed as a photographer. Please have a think about how you can add to this valuable resource for our members and talk to James.
So on to the evening of Man vs Nature. We had 84 entries for the night – not all in the set subject, but interesting regardless. Due to some timing miscalculations, our SAPF judge for the night could not attend. Fortunately, Ray Goulter (who has also trained judges) was able to step in and take up the challenge of judging our work and both judge and provide constructive criticism. Ray prefers to judge on the merit of the individual image rather than normalise the range to the best image of the night in a section. He certainly had his work cut out for him at times and some superb images were displayed – there were 10 images in the Colour Prints section that gained 9 or 10 points!
Once again, we’ve posted as many of the top prints of the night as well as the top digital images for you to view (as well as those pesky Editor’s choice images :lol:)
Cheers
Chris 😉
Natural light portraits workshop – 16-Feb-2012
What a great evening! Instead of the usual BPC club meeting at the Memorial Hall, Jenny & Mark Pedlar invited us to hold a workshop on Natural Light Portrait Photography at their house. A cloudy start to the day had turned into a lovely clear evening, and more than 15 BPC members attended – most with cameras. We also had 2 prospective member visitors – Howard & Henk, and as an added bonus, Julie & Ray’s grandson Jase, and Jeremy Watson with his model colleague Anna.
Yvonne had been in contact with Jeremy earlier in the year through a UK ex-pat network and had invited him to attend the workshop as he had relevant experience. Jeremy is a professional photographer who also runs workshops and has a passion for portraiture (you can visit his website or his Facebook page), whilst Anna is a full time model who works with Jeremy and others (having done shoots and promotional work around Australia). We were very fortunate to have them with us, as they helped us to learn new (or hone established) skills in portrait photography with our willing (and unwilling 😉 ) models.
Jeremy’s helpful suggestions (such as spot metering, using the light, large apertures, the classic inverted triangle of light, close cropping, directing the model etc) were a valuable lesson. In concert with this information, Anna’s skill at picking whose shutter was flicking helped provide perfect expressions for images of her on a window seat, in a doorway, and in the back garden gave almost instant success for the budding portrait artists. For those not focusing on Anna, Jase also had his fair share of images recorded too. A few surreptitious shots of members were taken as well as one of the President and a visitor 😆 . Club visitor Howard even managed a few images of Anna in doors after the shoot as we had tea & coffee – now that’s thinking about natural light.
Having fired off a stack of images, and our light fading, we retired indoors to have a drink, a nibble and a chat. Jeremy was asked to tell us about his work and answer questions, to which he willingly obliged. The discussion was certainly wide ranging and fascinating, with tips and insights on breaking the (photographic) rules, street shooting, photographing family gatherings, black & white vs colour, introducing grain, composing in camera, landscapes, photographic safaris, wild animals, model agencies, concert and long lens photography, judging, image processing & software and lots more. We were held fascinated and fired questions back and forth as both Jeremy and Anna gave us the benefit of their knowledge and experience.
The evening wound up with a lot of very happy BPC members (I’ve had nothing but good feedback), some great natural light portraits and the knowledge that Jeremy would be back later in the year to judge at one of our competitions to share his experience and enthusiasm.
Thanks to all that attended Anna & Jeremy for their insights, Jase for posing for a bunch of strangers with cameras, Jenny & Mark for hosting (and feeding/watering) the workshop and Yvonne for the inspired invitation of Jeremy. Apologies to those that didn’t get images to me fast enough for inclusion in this post – but I’ve included a selection that represents the evening including some unexpected (and rather good) natural light portraits!
Cheers
Chris 😉
Mitcham – 02-February-2012
AND we are off and running for 2012! The first competition for the year was themed ‘Mitcham’ – Images from the City of Mitcham.
The night was judged by Edwardstown member, Chris Carter, who had to contend with a smaller than usual entry list of 84 images (17 Album, 3 slide, 24 digital, 30 Colour Prints and 11 Mono prints). Don’t forget to check out our gallery to view our top digital entries and (new for 2012) our top print entries.
Also new for 2012 was the re-appearance of the Peoples Choice award, sponsored by The Blackwood Pizza Bar. This week, the Peoples Choice was taken out by Jo Tabe with her Lenswood Ruin image.
It was also good to see a few visitors on the night. Peter, Gloria, Sue & Barbara from the newly formed Adelaide Hills Photographic Club made an appearance, to see how we do things. We wish them all the best on their venture. It was also good to see another visitor, David, who saw our images at the Stirling library and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
Anyhow, looking forward to seeing you all again on Thursday the 16th of February at Marks and Jennys for the natural light portrait night
Cheers, Ashley
Welcome back
I hope you’ve all had a good break and are ready for a new year of photography fun!
We’ve kicked off the New Year with an AudioVisual night. It was good to see so many faces return for the first meeting, and even a couple of visitors – Theen (who is posting some interesting images on Flickr in the club site) and Vicki’s friend Alison – welcome. We hope you can come back and share.
The night was the first outing for our newly colour calibrated computer/screen/projector (thanks Ashley) and let us have some AV fun.
I started things rolling with Shades of Red – a photo essay about the colour red – ranging from people to machinery, to flowers & fruit, macros (photo stacks) and light.
This was followed by Mark Pedlar presenting what he found in a 40 minute shoot around the garden. He also filled in some time while we waited at one stage with the trip he & Jenny took to Paris last year. Brilliant images from that too (though there were a lot of bars). I think a club outing here would be perfect!
James Allan showed off his trip to Branxholm in Tasmania – complete with broken gearbox, heavy rain, some great shots of temperate rainforest and tin mines – once again highlighting his ability to see things from a different angle.
Things then stepped up a notch with the expert image manipulation of John Vidgeon – displaying firstly a series of images merged onto driftwood textures and then the Sweeps Festival in Rochester, UK. In both cases a well crafted series of images highlight both the eye of the photographer and image processing methods. John’s experience with AV is well worth seeking out.
Heather Connolly gave us two slide shows – one of Kaikoura in New Zealand to watch whales (and albatross!) and one from her sisters trip to the sub-Antarctic islands highlighting the abundant wildlife, scenery and wind! Another candidate for a club outing 😆
Helen Whitford gave us the best of summer – images of what she’d been up to so far including her nieces wedding, a trip to Werribee zoo, New Years Eve as well as shots around her garden.
The presentations methods varied a little – with PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Photo2Exe, Aperture and Windows Live Essentials Movie Maker. Whatever method was used – they all gave us some enjoyable imagery.
Well done everyone!
A bit of housekeeping news:
- Our next competition is Mitcham – images from the City of Mitcham (see these map links from Mitcham Council or the SA Council Maps sites for city limits). Images must be from the region and may be included in the calendar this year to give it more local flavour.
- Please get your money for calendars in to Jenny as soon as possible – and please return any unused calendars. We have about 40 unsold – a pretty good effort which will help the clubs coffers. Thanks again to James for preparing, organising printing and chasing us all for images!
- There may be some changes to the programme during the year – mainly dates. You’ll be emailed with the updates.
- A reminder about competition entries. We have to be a little stricter due to the large number of entries, and so:
- we will accept print entries from 7:30pm until 7:45pm on competition nights, late entries may not be entered. This is important for both the judges and our time keeping. We intend starting judging before 8pm
- all digital entries must comply with the naming and size conventions outlined in the programme. Gary has indicated that entries that don’t meet the criteria will not be considered!
Please ensure images are under 500kb in size and file names are in the format
Photographers Name_Image name_Category
(where Category is either Open or Set). Note the use of the underscore character.
eg Joe Bloggs_The Winning photograph_Set
If your not sure, ask. You can also have a read of the competition entry rules here
- I’ve updated the Camera Clips page for those that don’t receive it – with James’ latest information. Its a good read as always, and includes some useful tips about noise reduction, lightning photography and the calotype process.
Hope to see you all soon
Cheers
Chris 😉
Stirling Library Exhibition – 2011
After a few hiccups the Stirling Library Exhibition is up and running but sadly almost over!
Kelly Morris, the Community Programs and Marketing Officer at Stirling Library kindly agreed to allow us to exhibit some of our images in the library from 15-Dec-2011 to 15-Jan-2012. This has been a wonderful opportunity to display the work the club produces and raise the clubs profile as well. Kelly even mentioned us in the Library Newsletter.
A catalogue of the 29 images (see the table below) provided by Adrian, Ashley, Eric, Gary, Helen, Hilary, Jenny, Jo, Julie, Mark, Melinda, Ray and myself was provided on the display along with a short description about the club. To date, over 140 of these little sheets have left the library! Kelly also informs me that there have been a few inquiries regarding joining the club as well!
The quality of the images was again superb and that’s not from me but from people I’ve spoken to outside of the club who have seen it.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to repeat the exhibition again this year so please consider providing 2 or 3 of your best images for display.
Our thanks must go to the Adelaide Hills Council, Stirling Library, the BPC members who provided images (some at short notice) for the show and Kelly Morris.
If you get a chance, drop in and have a look.
For those interested in who displayed what here is the list of photographers and titles:
Photographer |
Image title |
| Helen Whitford | Wisteria |
| Ray Goulter | Moss Rocks Pastoral |
| Gary Secombe | Heron in flight |
| Eric Budworth | Christies Creek at dawn |
| Melinda Hine | In the spotlight |
| Gary Secombe | Got my lunch |
| Julie Goulter | Flowers |
| Jo Tabe | Forgotten Memories |
| Mark Pedlar | Boulevard de Courcelles |
| Adrian Hill | Glass on a post |
| Helen Whitford | A quiet drink |
| Hilary Thompson | Camellia |
| Ray Goulter | Woolshed after storm |
| Chris Schultz | Dartmoor Cross |
| Eric Budworth | Time to reap |
| Gary Secombe | Port Willunga jetty at sunset |
| Jo Tabe | A reflective moment |
| Chris Schultz | Two red poppies |
| Jo Tabe | Searching for Water |
| Jenny Pedlar | Blackwood forest mist |
| Adrian Hill | Oodnadatta wreck |
| Ray Goulter | Heysen Remembered |
| Jo Tabe | The Stand Off |
| Eric Budworth | Blue lotus |
| Adrian Hill | Clinging to life |
| Jo Tabe | Still Standing |
| Helen Whitford | The Kiss |
| Jo Tabe | Days End |
| Ashley Hoff | Leaf in the water rill |
Chris 😉
2011 Annual Exhibition & Awards Night (& a little bit of news)
As Ashley mentioned in the last post the Blackwood Photographic Club Annual Exhibition has been run and won.
We had a great selection of entries in all categories, and once again, members entries were of the highest standard. Its a pleasure to view the work that is submitted each year from such a talented group of people. Many thanks to our judges for their great effort, and of course thanks to our scorers, collaters and Mark Pedlar for putting together the award booklet.
Without any further ado, here are the winners and the awards.
Firstly, the Bill Templar Award for 2011 has been awarded to Julie Goulter. Julie’s contribition to the club over many years has been far beyond the call of duty, always with a smile, and this award salutes her enormous contribution to the club. Congratulations Julie!
The slideshow below documents the awards ceremony (thanks to Ray Goulter for taking the photos). Oh – and the guy in the blue shirt that seems to be in every image is just me…. 😆
Over the year, we see many outstanding images – and those with the highest scores in each category are rewarded with the following awards.
Aggregate points awards
Album prints – JV Spick Chemist Award |
||
| 1st | Jo Tabe | 220 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 211 points |
| 3rd | Heather Connolly | 197 points |
Colour prints – Blackwood Photographic Club award |
||
| 1st | John Vidgeon | 242 points |
| 2nd | Jo Tabe | 231 points |
| 3rd | James Allan | 227 points |
Mono prints – Blackwood Times Award |
||
| 1st | Jo Tabe | 235 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 209 points |
| 3rd | Theo Prucha | 191 points |
Projected images |
||
| 1st | John Vidgeon | 241 points |
| 2nd | James Allan | 225 points |
| 3rd | Ursula Prucha | 223 points |
After our Annual Exhibition night, our best images were:
Annual Exhibition Top images
Album prints – Edge Malpas Award |
||
| 1st | Helen Whitford | Wisteria |
| 2nd | Heather Connoly | Banged up |
| 3rd | Helen Whitford | Antenna up |
Colour prints – Mal Klopp Blackwood Pharmacy Award |
||
| 1st | Jo Tabe | Night Quarters |
| 2nd | John Vidgeon | Blown away |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Searching for water |
Mono prints – I’ve been Framed Award |
||
| 1st | Helen Whitford | White Cheeked Gibbon |
| 2nd | Helen Whitford | Wild Dogs |
| 3rd | Mark Pedlar | Louvre observed |
Projected images – Fotoswift Award
|
||
| 1st | John Vidgeon | Young Owl |
| 2nd | Chris Schultz | Iceland poppy detail |
| 3rd | Jo Tabe | Busted |
Latest news
- The awards night also had a bonus. The Mayor of the City of Mitcham, Michael Picton, attended our awards night and saw the many images we produce. We also were informed that we were successful in our Community Development Grant application with the City of Mitcham for the purchase of a Spyder3 Pro calibration device to correctly calibrate our digital projector and laptop. On 5-Dec-2011 Ashley & I attended a Civic Reception in the Mayor’s Parlour at the Mitcham Council Chambers to receive the award. We sincerely thank the City of Mitcham for their support and will utilise this device to improve the presentations both within the club and with visiting speakers and within the community. This has already started, as on the night of the reception a number of groups also receiving awards approached us about photographic opportunities and education within the community. We’ll keep you informed.
- Our 31 day Challenge is running running – and there are lots of great images popping up – keep putting them in and watching!
- We also have an exhibition of 29 images from a number of club members at the Stirling Library, Mount Barker Rd, Stirling. If you’d like to pop in and see what we look like framed 😆 the exhibition runs until mid-January. I’ll pop an image of the display in here when I get a chance
Finally, I’d like to wish all club members and regular readers of our little missives a Very Happy & Joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
See you next year (unless we meet up for a shoot!)
Cheers
Chris 😉
The 31 Day Challenge is back……
Yep – the 31 Day Challenge is running again.
After last years successful run, and with Blackwood Photographic Club having a quiet December the idea is to Take a photo every day for 31 days and post it on the club Flickr site with the tag “31 days”.
Topics can be as varied as you like. Last year I tried windows – and it was hard. James is having a go at landscapes, but then you don’t need a topic – just an image a day! As James said last year “I expect that the pictures will create a journal of life over the month of December. There are no topics and no themes.”
So if your interested, we will run the 31 day challenge through the club Flikr group.
Just a note : You don’t have to post the photo on the same day – but please put in one photo for each day.
If you’d like to see what we did last year, just search for “31 Days” in the tags and see what pops up.
For those without a Flickr account, refer to the October 2010 edition of Camera Clips for details on how to set one up and how to post images on the club group.
And one more thing – Yvonne & I set up another challenge – the BPC Photo Chain. We start with one image, then everyone post up to 2 images per month that are related to the original, but varied from it. We vote over the month and the top image set the theme for the next month. Its a private group, but all BPC Flickr group members will be invited (most have been). If your interest and have received an invitation, sign up and see how you go.
So start snapping and get some images together.
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!
An Afternoon With Steve Parish
Steve Parish Meets Members From The Blackwood Photography Club
By James Allen
Last Sunday I was jammed tightly into a car with a mixed crowd. Chris Schultz, and his wife Janet, had elected to take myself, Matt Carr and Ashley Hoff to the Marion Community Centre to hear Steve Parish talk on his photography. Ashley had secured five extra tickets and advertised the event to club members. I had accepted. At the venue we were met by Yvonne, Adrian, John Duckmanton and Helen Whitford.
It is hard not to be aware of Steve Parish, whose images have graced the postcard stands and souvenir shops for over 2 decades. He has a penchant for capturing iconic images. Not just a koala, but the koala shot that you remember for years later, a kind of moody soulful archetypical koala. John tells me that he can recall Steve peddling his unique images in the streets of Brisbane back in the 1980’s. My wife’s parents have 2 of his prints, an egret and a lemon flycatcher on the walls of their house for as long as I can remember
I personally picture Steve from a photo in one of his books. He is a slim man with dark curly hair and a beard, up to his armpits in a swamp with an improbably large telephoto lens aimed upwards. In reality Steve is an introspective quiet man, rounded out into late middle age, grey haired, who loves to speak in a personable, almost a self mocking manner. He is passionate about nature, and about his photography. He weaves his story with a home grown mysticism and a sense of self discovery, with many joyous recollections but also marred by 3 divorces and a period of financial difficulty.
His story is of a journey where he meets one key person after another, who introduce and encourage him to explore the natural world. In his teen years as a navy diver and spear fisherman he was encouraged to take up underwater photography by Igor Oak. Later working for Parks and wildlife, Raol Slater introduced him to the techniques of bird photography. Likewise he tells of encounters with microbats, possums and gliders, of plants and lizards, and in the last few years he has become interested in insect photography.
He travels the country in his landcruiser, three cameras with different lenses perched precariously on the front passenger side seat wating for the right moment to come along. It sound like Steve encounters the right moment quite frequently. (There was also an unfortunate anecdote about leaving ½ million dollars of camera equipment in a backpack at a bus stop. I guess that was the wrong moment)
He talked at length about entering that mental state of play, of exploration where he will try one new trick after another, exploring the possibilities of an image. He likes an image to express an element of the meaning of the encounter with nature, the soul of the experience. He has never found that photographing captive animals gave him an uneasy conscience. I’m not a purist. It has certainly never affected my sales. However what did sell is eye contact. “Animal parks” he noted “offer people an encounter with wildlife that can inspire a love affair with nature, help to create the next generation of conservationists.”
He uses a Hasselblad medium format camera, shooting in Raw with a tripod. “If you are using a half frame camera or a compact – you’re not serious, you’re just playing with a toy”. He assures us that no matter how sage the advice to the contrary by the self proclaimed experts, he has found that film is not better than digital. There is no question about it. No comparison. After losing an archive of film images in the recent Queensland floods, he has had the pleasure of re-shooting his portfolio in digital. Compared to diving with two film cameras each with a total of 6 exposures, he can now take 1000 images in one dive and still have room left on the memory card.
The advice went on and on, from colour theory to composition, engaging wildlife, achieving images, handling the light and even writing a business plan and marketing your work. The content of his talk was encapsulated in a series of 4 books for sale after the talk on the technique of photography.
At the book signing Steve was beset by his admirers, me included. I think I saved him from a rather serious looking, non-astute photographer trying to palm off steam train photos in a manila folder. He signed my book. Although he didn’t remember by parents in law, he could recollect the poster of the lemon flycatcher. He agreed to a group photo with the camera club after the signing. I offered him a discount membership to the club and Matt suggested a $15 travel allowance if he wanted to judge one of our competitions. He was very gracious with us, unfortunately he couldn’t find the time in his busy schedule.
Verdict – I think we all enjoyed the day and learnt something to go with it.
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
Thoughts on the Noarlunga Expo – 2011
The Expo was held at the Port Noarlunga Arts Centre on the 17th & 18th September. The layout was similar to previous years.
This year for the first time the Port Adelaide Photographic Club was also exhibiting some of their work along with
- Hallet Cove School
- South Coast
- Edwardstown
- Murray Bridge International
- Marion Church of Christ
and of course our club – Blackwood. Each club displaying 20 images.
During my attendance on the Saturday morning the number of people passing through was not very high (Saturday morning shopping!) but this did however increase I was informed and Sunday’s attendance during my time there was very good.
Apart from the clubs display there were 11 commercial stands ranging from photographers and printing to camera sales and processing. There was also a digital projected slide show in a small room at the rear of the building.
We compared favorably with the other clubs, however Hallet Cove School’s display was very good and I think the future of photography is in good hands for the years to come.
A great deal of thanks needs to go to the Committee and members of the Noarlunga Photographic Club for the hard work and dedication for running this Expo each year. Please have a look at the slideshow above to see some of this excellent event.
Eric Budworth
A result from the Royal Adelaide Show 41st National Exhibition of Photography 2011
At least 1 member of our club submitted entries into the Adelaide Show Photographic Competition which was an APS approved Competition.
Jo Tabe entered 4 entries into the Novice Section (for people who have not previously had success at a National Competition).
Approximately one third of the entries gained acceptances and Jo was lucky enough to have all 4 of hers accepted with one of them, Night Quarters (we originally saw it as Vintage) gaining 3rd place with a score of 15 out of 15.
Well done Jo.
You can download the Photography results at the Royal Adelaide Show web site – or view all Royal Adelaide Show results
Gary Secombe
Aesthetic Choices – a readers survey
I have often noticed that people will have a range of aesthetic values that they apply when judging the quality of their images. If an image is lacking in one quality, say sharpness, often it may still be acceptable if it is strong in other qualities, like colour saturation or a sense of movement. This summing up of an image is an intuitive process and can be understood as the impact of an image. Of course there is a wide range of individual tastes. However it surprising how a large group of people will often choose the same images, albeit for different reasons.
With this in mind I am interested to discover what aesthetic values guide our choices. It is quite obvious that there is considerable discussion after our competitions and dissent from the choices of the judges. Sometimes this is merely the frustration of not achieving the scores that we feel reflects the merit of our own works. Some of it could be a schism between the values of the members and the judges. Whatever the case, it would be nice to understand what aspects of our photos we rate most highly.
I am interested to do a survey of the club members – which has also been published in Camera Clips for September. However, for those of you with an online mentality, you can also do it here.
I have listed 10 different criteria or values that can be applied to a photograph. All I ask is that you number the list from 1 to 10 in order of how important you consider each of the criteria. Also I would like you to add one criteria to the list.
Click this link to start the survey…..(you have until midnight on 31-Oct-2011 to complete it)
I hope to publish the results in future editions of Camera clips, so that you can see how your choice compare with that of your peers.
James Allan
The Blackwood Photoclub 2012 Calendar has arrived!
 The low resolution sample above contains a watermark which will not appear on the calendar you purchase |
Its here! The Blackwood Photographic Club has again produced its superb calendar. The 2012 calendar, like its predecessors, it is filled with mostly local, all Australian, colourful, and stunning images from our talented members. The price remains the same as last year – just $15. Let it adorn your wall or office, give someone a memorable Christmas gift, or send one to that overseas friend or relation! 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. Get your copy now and enjoy our Australian sights! |
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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Atkins Technicolour outing – 4-Aug-2011
A wet, miserable night was brightenned for many BPC members with a memorable outing to Atkins Technicolour on Fullarton Road. Paul Atkins showed us around his families excellent facilities, describing how Atkins had developed from a company producing images of horse race winners and aerial photographs to a colour processing laboratory to the current multimedia service.
We were shown the preview room, where photographers can check their images on colour calibrated equipment at no charge (but there is a time limit). As we wandered through the front of the premises, a fridge stocked with film got Matt and Ashley a bit excited – funny that.
Moving to the working areas we saw the locally built classic C41 dip and dunk film developer tank (with full manual control in the event of failure – a crank handle!). The smell of the chemicals brought back some fond memories for this little black duck :lol:. This was custom made for Atkins in 1970 and still works today, though with less frequency than in it heyday. A Danish Refrema dip and dunk E6 slide processor completes the film system, carefully tended by the highly experience John Clarke from Duckpond. As we moved through I noted a lovely poster size image of Venice – and immediately thought of Arthur…..those who know of Arthur’s frequent visit there will appreciate the comment.
In the printing/colour correction room Paul explained how printing with the Kodak Pegasus (Peggie) and a Noristu 3203 (Sue) allow silver halide prints to be produced efficiently in a range of sizes and formats. The colour correction for the images is, interestingly, performed by women. It seems that colour blindness issues and the skills required aren’t up to the mark in the male population.
As we left the printing room Paul pointed out the stacks of CDs and hard disks that stored all the images they had printed from digital. It was a reminder that digital storage technology is changing – and we need to have secure, backed up storage that will be readable in the future.
The lamination equipment demonstrated led to a discussion about printing on other media – with Paul telling us he is looking into a print system that can print on any shaped surface – including corrugated iron!
We also saw some fascinating equipment, including Atkins BetterLight slit scanner for reproducing fine art images. This device uses a 4″x5″ back on a view camera with a scanning slit of over 10000 pixels in a 72mm width that scans the image – producing over 100 megapixel images in either 8 or 16 bit colour. Time to throw out the dSLR I think. It certainly had Ray excited!
An examination of the large format Epson printers (which allows enormous prints to be produced) completed the review of printing equipment. This can work in 16 bit colour, and Epson claim a life expectancy for their prints of 200 years (theoretical of course – if anyone is around in 200 years we can check that!). The difference with inkjet printing is that light colours are generated by printing fewer dots on the white paper – a bit like newprint. Regardless of the method – it still looked good.
We finished back at reception with a look at the photobook business that Atkins now offers. This certainly looks like the way to go with digital images – rather than leaving them lying around on hard disks or CDs waiting to be lost.
So all in all, a great night. Many thanks to Paul for his time and sharing his wealth of knowledge. The visit was well worth the effort – it generated a lot of discussion afterwards (despite the rain). And don’t forget to check out Paul’s blog and the Atkins web site for more details.
Chris 😉
The Concept is Three – 21-Jul-2011
Three of a kind, something to do with three or just three in the image – that was the concept for the competition. Judge Des Berwick gave us brief, constructive & effective comments on the 36 set subject and 52 open subject images with high efficiency. A few new members, such as Hilary Thompson, added to the mix of 10s seen in the print section – well done Hilary!
You can check out the 9s and 10s (along with the Editor’s Choice) on the 2011 Digital Competition page
Chris 😉
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 😉
Queen’s Birthday long weekend in the city – 13-Jun-2011
A cold, cloudy long weekend bordering on dreary – but some intrepid BPC members went into the city on Monday afternoon and tried to capture some images as the afternoon turned to dusk around the Central Market area.
Ashley, Shelley, James, Mark, Richard, Yvonne & I wandered down Grote Street from Victoria Square in search of inspiration. Its interesting to note how much goes on around this area, even on a public holiday. Chinatown is quite busy, families arrive for dinner, people walking around, and the endless traffic.
James sadly had another camera incident – a flat battery and no spare. Being the trooper he is, he rushed home and came back. Fortunately, we hadn’t gone that far, and at dusk he rejoined us. We continued around the block toward Gouger Street, fascinated by the doors and artefacts in the windows.
As dusk fell, new opportunities arose with the lights of the city appearing around us. There were so many opportunities on the street as darkness fell, that we really must have a night shoot.
Afterwards, as we wandered back to our cars – James wandered off to the fountain and the St Francis Xavier Cathedral. Shelley commented to me as she left how she’d enjoyed herself in chatting with everyone, learning a few new tricks and the opportunity to try new things. I’m sure we’ll all be back for another session down here.
I’ve put the images sent into the slide show above – and a Flickr! link to one of Yvonne’s images (can’t import them here due to licence issues)
Chris 😉
PhotoShop workshop – 9-June-2011
Having given many a taste for image manipulation in the GIMP workshop earlier this year, and having covered a few of the PhotoShop basics last year, we felt a few advanced techniques should be covered.
Ashley & I had prepared a workshop based on the manipulation of layers – so armed with some images, a bunch of laptops and a few helpers we set to work .
Ashley started proceedings and established the basics effectively by covering blurring of backgrounds with layers, the clone tool and Gaussian (not Goozean :lol:) filters along with a swag of shortcut keys……which will make life a lot easier if your in Photoshop a lot.
I followed with a presentation covering adjustment mask and layer masks – with a way to remove/replace backgrounds using simple masking tools (or if you wish to be more complete exploit the Alpha channel) and then replace with your own sky. Replacing a boring cloudy background with a brilliant blue or firey sky if done well can lift an image. There are a few club members who use such techniques already – and are often rewarded with 10s by the judges.
The image above shows this sort of layer selection and merger – although its a bit extreme as the light is coming from two directions and I haven’t taken care to blend the image edges well – but you get the idea…..
Mark Pedlar then demonstrated the use of layers in creating a whole new image – his clever Heligan Apples.
Remember though, when you alter your image be very careful in how you blend them, choose the light direction carefully as the image will appear as a cut out rather a seamless merge and don’t work on the original image (use a copy).
Ashley & I have created PDF notes of the presentations you can download – just click on the links below:
We hope you got some useful tips out of the workshop and look forward to some interesting backgrounds – keep a stock of interesting skies as Mark does!
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. 