14 Monday May 2012
Posted in Reminder
Shona
Brave the weather and come along this evening to hear all about the convention that took place a few weeks ago in Invercargill. Candid photos of some of the goings on are available online, including our new PSNZ President, Shona, weighed down by the burdens of office.
As we’ll hear, there’s lots to learn and do at these conventions – start thinking now about attending next year’s one – Positively Photography Wellington.
10 Thursday May 2012
There are four opportunities coming up very soon for you to show off your images.
Entries are due in the usual way by Monday 14 May for our autumn salon, which will be judged on 28 May by Tony Whincup. Please use the online system to provide your entry details and digital images, and bring prints along to the meeting on Monday evening.
There’s only a few more days to submit your entries for consideration for this – they are due with us by 15 May. Details are in this blog post. Please help out – we need a lot more to be able to do a club entry.
The 16th Laurie Thomas Landscape Competition is accepting entries until 18 May. You can enter up to four digital images for the cost of $20, and it can all be done online.
Entries are open until 25 May for the 2012 North Shore Salon of Photography. Check out the full details at their salon website.
06 Sunday May 2012
Posted in Reminder
Ever been faced with a photographic opportunity and wondered what lens you should use? Telephoto? Super wide? (The images below are for the same scene at 17 mm and 300 mm.)
Our KCPS Development Group meeting on Monday night 7 May at 7:30 pm will cover the use and characteristics of various focal lengths. Come along, and learn, and share your experiences.
28 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in News
Greetings from the convention which is underway at Invercargill. We have four KCPS members here, all enjoying the fellowship and learning experiences. Southland is doing a great job of hosting us. And there’s oysters too.
Here’s Shona delivering her first address as the newly elected President of PSNZ at this morning’s AGM. I’ve also been elected to the PSNZ Council, so KCPS is well represented.
There’ll be a lot more about what happened at the convention in our meeting on 14 May.
25 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in News, Uncategorized
The Monochrome Film Users Group caters for those interested in capturing images on black and white film of different formats and darkroom techniques for processing and printing. This year the group has welcomed 5 new members, to bring their membership to 12. They meet once a month on the third Thursday evening in Waikanae. Contact the organiser of the group, Michael Martin, if you’d like more information. They have a lot of fun, and value humour!
The topics in the first two meetings this year included learning about printing filter grades, lens focussing errors, hypo-clearing agent, resurrecting faded old prints, and matting and mounting. Members are encouraged to take along at least one print each to share and critique, and they sometimes have members sharing mini-portfolios – thanks to Herman Visser for his presentation to the March meeting.
Michael emails a newsletter to all members after each meeting, and the following excerpts and images are from the February one – thanks Michael.
New Products
Harman Technology Ltd., in association with Walker Cameras (who make the Titan range of large format cameras), are marketing a 4×5 inch large format pinhole camera kit which comes with the Harman Titan pinhole camera, 10 sheets 4×5 film and 4×5 direct positive paper.
Some suppliers reportedly sold out their stocks within 48 hours of the kits release.
This is great news for us 4×5 sheet film uses as it ensures a continuing demand and supply of 4×5 sheet film.
It can be purchased from, amongst others, Silverprint U.K. for £125 exc. VAT. So I urge you to all go out and purchase one so I can continue to buy sheet film.
This Month’s Image
Parakaunui River, Catlins, captured with a tripod mounted Bronica ETRSi 645 camera, standing in the mud. Film used was Kodak T-Max 400 rated at 320 and developed in SPUR HRX-3. The image was captured late in the afternoon. I was attracted to the late light coming through up river in what was otherwise a dark and foreboding scene. For me it had a spiritual feel to it.
Food for Thought
“Understand what you want to say.
Understand how you want to say it.
Then say it without compromise.
Now you are thinking in terms of creative photography.”
From Bruce Barnbaum’s book “The Art of Photography”
Look, See, Compose, Capture and most of all Enjoy.
Michael Martin.
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted in News
First a bit of news from your KCPS committee. We meet around once every six weeks to plan and manage all the society’s activities. The most recent meeting was last night.
We accepted, with regret, two resignations from the committee – Stephen Massey and Murray Woolcock. Both of them are finding it difficult because of other commitments to be engaged with KCPS and the work of the committee. We are very grateful to them for their contributions – to Stephen in particular for all the work for the successful KCPS Exhibition last year, and to Murray especially for getting the Development Group up and running this year.
To help fill the gap, Carol Molineux has kindly agreed to be co-opted onto the committee, and is already helping with the Trenna Packer Nature Competition. We’re also grateful to Rod Carter who will take over managing the Development Group, no doubt ably assisted by others who have been involved in this since last year.
The KCPS competition rules (pdf) provide for a member to apply to be promoted from Novice Grade (the “default” for new members) to Intermediate Grade. The wording is:
Progression from Novice to Intermediate is based on submission and acceptance of a portfolio of images by a panel of the committee. This can be considered at any time during the year.
Congratulations to both Des Johnston and Johanna Goudsblom, who have recently submitted such a portfolio, and have now been promoted to the Intermediate Grade. Below, for example, is one of Jo’s fine images.
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted in News, Useful Links
Here’s a bit of techy fun – Google streetviews as you’ve never seen them before.
A very clever person has taken the full streetview images in every direction and warped them around geometrically so you can see the whole view as one image. And if you click and drag on the image itself you can interactively change the shape, and view and warping.
The image above came from this view from Bowen Street, Welliington, near the Cenotaph and Beehive.
But you can use Google Maps to go look anywhere. Big Ben, for instance. Have a play, and enjoy!
16 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Competitions
There’s another competition coming up that we’d like to enter on behalf of KCPS. This is the Trenna Packer Nature Competition, run by the Nature Photography Society of NZ (based in Christchurch).
We need six images. No more than two images can come from an individual KCPS member. The rules in detail are available as a pdf but the key points are:
Carol Molineux has kindly agreed to coordinate our KCPS entry for this competition. We’re asking members to submit up to five images for consideration by a group which will be convened by Carol.
Please use this online form to submit your images by 15 May 2012. Remember that we need a diverse set of images to choose from.
We look forward to receiving and considering your submissions. Here, by way of example of what we need to strive for, is the winning set in 2011 from the Christchurch Photographic Society:
Nature:
Nature Photography depicts living untamed animals, uncultivated plants in a natural habitat, geology and the wide diversity of natural phenomena. Images of animals that are domesticated, caged or under any form of restraint, as well as cultivated plants, are ineligible.
The subject must be in its natural environment. Photographs of animals and birds living freely within conservation or nature reserves are also acceptable. Naturalised subjects are allowable, providing they are photographed under natural, not domestic conditions.
Examples of naturalised subjects are deer, black swan, monarch butterfly, briar (not cultivated) roses.
Minimal evidence of human influence is acceptable for some nature subjects where they have adapted to an environment modified by humans. Some examples are welcome swallows, shags and harrier hawks. The presence of scientific bands on wild animals is acceptable.
The accurate record of the subject and the natural environment are the prime factors. All images must maintain a faithful representation of a natural form, behaviour or phenomenon as captured in the original image.
No elements within the original image may be moved, cloned, introduced, deleted, rearranged or combined. No artificial, false or substitute backgrounds are to be used. Any manipulation or modification to the original image is limited to minor retouching of blemishes and must not alter the content of the original scene.
Resizing, cropping, selective lightening or darkening and restoration of the original colour of the scene are also acceptable. Digital techniques that extend the capability of the camera may be used as long as they honestly and accurately represent the original nature story or event at the time of capture.
Images in New Zealand Nature must have been taken in the natural environment of New Zealand or its offshore islands.
For all Nature images, scientific or common names must be included in the titles.
These specific changes should be noted:
1. Previous requirements for Natural History are now included in the Nature Guidelines.
2. Titles must include the scientific or common name (including Maori) of the subject. Interpretive or descriptive names alone are not sufficient.
3. The use of artificial or substitute backgrounds is now excluded.
4. Photography within nature reserves is allowable as long as the subjects are not confined within a cage, pen or kept in an artificial environment.
14 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in Exhibitions
For the next month, works by four Kapiti Coast photographers (Peter Beddek, Neil Gordon, Katie Beddek and Shona Jaray) are on display in an exhibition at Future Framing and Gallery at Lindale, just north of Paraparaumu. Do pop in and have a look if you get the chance. Opening hours are Tuesday-Friday 10-4, Saturday 9-4, and Sunday 9-3.
05 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Gallery
"Rhododendron Bud" - Honours, Novice Digital Image - ©Gary Moncrieff
Check out the 2012 Summer Salon Gallery to see the images which received either Honours or Highly Commended in the judging last week by Bruce Girdwood.
Have a happy and safe Easter, and we hope to see many of you at our Critique session at 7:30 pm on Monday evening.
