Astrophotography – Competition 7th May 2026
This competition requires images depicting stars, the moon or the heavens as the main subject.
The Judge for this competion was Susanne Opitz.
The following are Suzanne’s comments and feedback on the top scoring images.
Projected Colour – Set Subject
Meredith Retallack scored highly with two of her photos. Of ‘Salute to the Cosmos’, Suzanne loved the portrait aspect. The Milky Way is very clear and the windmill helps to balance it.
The Judge loved the foreground of the below image as well as the composition. The night sky contrasts well with the desert colours.
Helen Whitford’s ‘With a Touch of Green’ has a beautiful aurora and a good composition as the trees frame the aurora.
‘Icelandic Lights’ by Duart McLean is a good composition showing the reflection of the Northern Lights.
‘Nature’s Display’ by Heather Connolly is a beautiful photo of the Northern Lights.
The below image by Cathy Freestone is also a lovely photo with good composition and a nice reflection in the water.
Projected Monochrome – Set Subject
Once again Meredith Retallack scored well in this section. ‘Heaven and Earth’ is a very pleasant image and is well composed. The tree works well, is not over exposed and has good detail.
Also scoring highly, ‘ Barossa Night’ by Michael Selge was appreciated by the Judge. Suzanne liked the composition with the building on an angle, it is a very different view.
Projected Colour – Open Category
Top scores were given to Paul Rix for ‘Mungo Sunset’ and ‘Tyre Smoker’, Sam Savage for ‘Confined Flight’ and ‘Sunset Walk’ by Michael Selge.
The Judge said ‘Mungo Sunset’ was a particularly beautifuly photo. The clouds are in an ideal position and the colours are beautiful.
‘Tyre Smoker’ has a feeling of speed with a blurred background and tyre smoke.
This is an amazing shot, with the bird in flight. It is a lovely composition and is completely in focus.
‘Sunset Walk is a beautiful shot.
The following also scored highly in this section.
Suzanne loved the colours in this image and the expression of the Galah.
‘On the Move’ has a bland background which emphasises the colours of the lizard.
Angela Cogman’s ‘After the Fire’ has beautiful lighting, it brings out the textures and colours.
‘Parrot’ is beautifully in focus with lovely light on the wings.
‘Morning Flight’ is a lovely composition with good light on the bird.
The birds grab attention and are highlighted by the plain background.
Projected Monochrome – Open Category
Meredith Retallack’s ‘What’s in in for Me’ has quite stark lighting on the side of the subject’s face, but on this type of portrait it helps to bring out the subject’s character.
Suzanne loved the simplicity and shapes of ‘Wind Directions’. The diagonal lines of weeds and the texture of the sand add interest.
The Magpie lark looks as though it has posed for the photographer with his puffed out chest. The light coming through the feathers is lovely.
Michael Selge’s ‘Helmet’ is a perfect shot and he has controlled the lighting well. The viewer can feel the musician’s beat.
‘Visiting Arles’ is a lovely shot of Arles. The wharf bending around towards the bridge and the dramatic clouds in the background are well composed.
Print Colour – Set Subject
‘Aurora Arc’ is a really good, clear, nicely coloured photo.
Suzanne loved the earthy tones of the Milky Way in ‘Just Across the Road’.
Print Colour – Open Category
A well taken photo of the Pardalote with a lot of clarity throughout the bird. The feathers are clear all the way through from front to back.
‘Please Love Me’ is very sharp in beak, eye and feathers.
‘Strummin’ is a lovely coloured photo with good light.
Print Mono – Open Category
The close crop on ‘Morning Darlin’ ensures that the viewers eyes are on the tigers. It is a good, very clear composition.
Michael has done well to to avoid getting a lot of light in the glasses of ‘Just Tex’. The centering of the subject in this case is good and the plain background brings him out.
Silhouette – Competition 9th October 2025
An image using backlighting to present the main subject as a black shape against a much brighter background.
The following are the images that achieved the highest scores in the competition and the Judge’s comments.
In the projected colour set subject the top images were from Kerry Malec and Judy Sara.
The Judge loved the simplicity of this image and pointed out that it was well composed technically, with the vertical item intersecting the foreground, the mid ground and the background, tieing the whole image together.
Judy Sara’s ‘Elephants on the Move’ is an example of a perfect silhouette with the elephant and calf in motion.
Also by Judy Sara, ‘Running Along the Beach’ has good composition with interest in the foreground, mid ground and sky.
Meredith Retallack’s ‘Sunset Dreaming’ is also a good demonstration of a silhouette of the main subject with a beautiful sky. The lighting in the foreground makes the subject pop.
‘Sunset Dreaming’ by Vicki Kramer has captured the clouds as part of the silhouette and they pop against the bright sky. Plus it is a nice beach scene.
In the Silhouette set subject mono section Meredith Retallack’s ‘Leaving the Mount on Foot’ scored well. The image is defined well, the viewer can see the sunlight shining through the tower. The image has a fantastic sky and foreground interest with the reflection on the water, sand corrugations and the person giving mid ground interest.
In the open colour section, the top scorer was Sarah Bailey with “A Stroll in the Garden’. Sarah’s image was creative, and the contrast between the colours is very good.
In the open mono section Michael Selge’s ‘Victory’ is a great concert shot, the singer has been captured in an interesting pose and the lighting has been photographed well.
In the colour prints set subject category, Duart McLean scored the highest mark with ‘Palm Morning. This is a beautiful scene, with soft colouring and good gradation in the sky.
In the mono prints set subject category the highest scorer was Judy Sara for ‘Elephant on the run’. The Judge found this to be a fantastic image, the rim lighting shows the texture on the trunk and in the corrogations. The image is dynamic with action and movement.
Following the set subject categories are the open categories. In the colour prints Duart McLean’s image impressed the judge the most with ‘River Reflections’. This is a beautiful image, the lighting shows it was taken at the right time of day, it shows the texture on the cliffs and has lovely contrasts. The lines lead the viewer into the background. The ripples add interest to the photo as does the sky.
Lastly in the mono open category Judy Sara’s ‘Trees in the Storm’ is a superb image, with an interesting foreground and wonderful trees. Nice lighting shows the curve of the branches. It has a lovely background with the diagonal lines contrasting with the vertical lines on the ground.
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 😉
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 😉
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
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!
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 
Birds and Animals – Competition 9th April 2026
Birds and animals will be the main feature for this competition. This subject is not reliant on the ‘Nature’ definition, so ‘the hand of man’ can be present.
The following are the comments from Judge Geraldine Hough.
In the Print Colour section Judy Sara’s ‘What did I Tell You?’ tells a lovely story, the left hand animal has his eyes closed and is not listening to the other. Geraldine said it is a beautiful image, well taken with good catchlights in the eyes.
In the Print Colour Open section, two images scored equally.
Michael Selge’s ‘Bruges” is a lovely photo showing very distinctive architect. Michael has captured beautiful reflections.
‘Wentworth Punt’ from Duart McLean has demonstrated a particular effect, almost like a water colour. It was well seen, with soft colours.
In the Print Monochrome Set category, ‘Just Fledged’ by Helen Whitford is a stunning image. The detail is in the mouth. The image is sharp from front to back, with beautifully clear wing feathers. The photo was taken from a great angle.
Also from Helen, ‘Where’s Mum’ is a lovely shot. It is clear that the bird is upset and is waiting for food. There is nice clear detail in both face and open mouth, you can even see inside his mouth. There is good detail in the eye with good catchlights.
The next category, Print Monochrome Open, had one top scorer. Michael Selge submitted ‘Columns and Lights’. The Judge could not see anything that could improve this image.
There were five top scorers in the Projected Colour Set category.
‘Hands off my Dinner’ by Susan Bell is a beautifully taken photo, with a lovely head and eye detail. The inclusion of the fish is nice.
‘I Remember’ by Michael Selge has captured a lovely expression in the Orangutan’s eyes. The detail aroud all the edges of the fur is very clear in spite of the blurred background. The animal has a half smile. It is a really nice portrait shot.
Paul Rix captured ‘Four Tawnies’. It is a very nicely taken shot. The angles of all the heads is very good with the closest bird looking up and each bird then having a slightly different angled head and all the tails in a row adds great interest to the photo.
‘Searching’ captured by Michael Selge is a lovely minimalist photo. The detail under the bird is very clear as well as the eye. It is a difficult shot.
Kerry Malec has presented ‘Pied Butcherbird’ as a triptych. It has a nice aspect with the birds all looking different ways.
Moving on to Projected Colour Open section, ‘Remarkable Rocks’ by Susan Bell was the only top scorer. Geraldine said that the light did Susan a great favour, giving dramatic shadows. The sky is also pretty and adds to the photo.
‘Sylvaine’ and ‘Grace’ were both the top scorers in the Projected Monochrome Open section, both by Michael Selge. Of Sylvaine, Geraldine said it was a well taken concert shot. The light on the face is beautiful as well as the detail on the guitar area. The face and expression is lovely. The Mic is needed in the shot as it is part of the story.
Grace has a nice expression. The Great detail in the clothes is interesting. The eyes are soulful and the photo has more impact in monochrome than it would have had in colour.
The final category, Projected Monochrome Set Subject had two good scorers.
‘Leopard’ by Judy Sara is a lovely shot, and so lucky for Judy to see it in it’s own environment. The leopard has lovely eyes and detail on the body.
This is a nice little Devil. Tasmanian Devils don’t have a very interesting colour, so it works well in monochrome. Background is a bit bright, but as the Devil is black he still has good definition. The Devil has beautiful expression on it’s face and good catchlights in the eyes.
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13/04/2026 | Categories: Blackwood Photography Club News | Tags: Competition comments, nature, Photography, Photography Clubs | Leave a comment