Learn How to Photograph Birds – Monday 1 July

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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"White Faced Heron" - Honours, Intermediate Print - ©Gavin Klee

“White Faced Heron” – Honours, Intermediate Print – ©Gavin Klee

The next Development Group meeting at 7:30 pm on Monday will be on the “Basics of Photographing Birds”.  Gavin Klee will lead the session – and he knows what he’s doing.  The evidence is in images such as this one from the recent Autumn Salon.

Plans are being made for a follow-up field trip on Saturday 6 July to the Manawatu Estuary, Foxton Beach, where you can practice your new skills. Details will be discussed at the Monday meeting. Don’t miss it.

Competition Selections

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Competitions, Meeting Report

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Wellington Interclub Print Battle

We had another good attendance of some 40 people for the Competition Selection last Monday.  A very democratic, and fun, process was used to selected which print would go forward from KCPS for each of the ten categories for the Wellington Interclub Print Battle that we’ll be hosting on Monday 5 August.  There’s a good spread of representation too, with those ten images coming from seven of our members.

Inspecting the prints, pink sticky in hand ready to cast a vote

Just some of the group, circling and inspecting the prints, pink sticky in hand ready to cast a vote

Chance and Bowron

We really only started the process of selecting images to compile KCPS sets of four images each for the Chance print and Bowron digital interclub landscape competitions.  The plan is to base each set around images which include Kapiti Island oen way or another.

Please email digital versions of images you’d like considered, by 10 July, to me at neil.d.gordon@gmail.com.

Trenna Packer

A group convened by Carol Molineux selected the set of six digital images we have now submitted to the Trenna Packer Nature Competition. I think it’s a good set –  let’s hope the judges do too!

Submit Nature Images for Trenna Packer by 7 June Please

01 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by in Competitions

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The Trenna Packer Nature Competition, run by the Nature Photography Society of NZ (based in Christchurch) is coming up again very soon. Sorry for the late notice.

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:

  • The subject matter must be nature as defined by the definition in the rules, which excludes cultivated plants, domestic animals and confined animals
  • The subject matter is restricted to New Zealand and its offshore islands.
  • Each entry is judged as a ‘set’ not as individual images (so there is no point in having six fantastic images just of birds)
  • Digital images should be saved as jpeg, sRGB colour space, with a max of 1400 pixels on the horizontal side and 1050 on the vertical side for portrait and at a file size between 400Kb and 1Mb
  • Entries are due by 14 June 2013.

Carol Molineux has kindly agreed to coordinate our KCPS entry for this competition.  We’re asking members to submit up to ten images for consideration by a group which will be convened by Carol.

Please use this online form to submit your images by 7 June 2013. Remember that we need a diverse set of images to choose from.

We look forward to receiving and considering your submissions. By way of example of what we need to strive for, check out the gallery of previous winners.

Thanks.

Autumn Salon Judging

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Meeting Report, Salon Results

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We had more than forty people last Monday night to see the Ohakune Field Trip AV, and then hear from Bruce Girdwood, the Autumn Salon judge.

Bruce has been judging for KCPS for many years, and it’s always a privilege to hear his comments on our images, as well as to see where he is going himself on his photographic journey. His judging was thorough, constructive and helpful. Fifteen images received either Honours or Highly Commended. It was especially pleasing that two of our newer members received their first honours: Chris McGinty (in his first salon entry) for his digital image “Bloom”, and Gill Mackersy for her print “Wheels for Hire”.

All fifteen Highly Commended and Honours images can be seen in the 2013 Autumn Salon Gallery which is now online.

"Bloom" - Honours, Novice Digital Image - ©Chris McGinty

“Bloom” – Honours, Novice Digital Image – ©Chris McGinty

"Wheels for Hire" - Honours, Novice Print - ©Gill Mackersy

“Wheels for Hire” – Honours, Novice Print – ©Gill Mackersy

North Shore Salon Deadline Extended to Friday

29 Wednesday May 2013

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You’ve still got a couple of days if you haven’t yet entered the North Shore Salon. Go for it!

Big Birthday, and Upcoming Events

25 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Calendar, News, Reminder

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Happy Birthday Peg

A very happy birthday to our oldest member – Peg Griffin, who is now 109!

There was a very nice story on her in the Dominion Post.

Upcoming Events

Some changes have been made to the website to make it clearer what events are coming up.  If you look in the left-hand sidebar of http://kcps.org.nz you’ll see details for the next five events.  If you click on EVENTS in the top menu, you’ll see an embedded calendar with the current month (which is very configruable to show other months, etc.) as well as a full list of upcoming events beneath it.

These events change from time to time, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for any changes.  You can also subscribe to the calendar of upcoming events using the instructions that were posted when it was originally set up. Then your own calendar system will always be up to date.

Speaking of upcoming events ….

Meeting Monday 27 May

The next event is, of course, the meeting on Monday 27 May when our regular judge Bruce Girdwood will be judging our Autumn Salon. We’ll also be showing a short AV with photos provided by many of those who went on the field trip to Ohakune last weekend. We had a blast, and made some great images, as you will see.

No Development Group Meeting 3 June

Because it is Queen’s Birthday, there won’t be a Development Group meeting. So you’ll have more time to get organised to bring along prints and images for the following week …

Competition Selection Night – Monday 10 June

Our main task will be to select ten prints for the Wellington Interclub Print Battle. Our club will be hosting it at the Otaihanga Boating Club on Monday 5 August (in lieu of a Development Group meeting), so it’s important we do well! The ten topics are:

  1. Beams
  2. Contained
  3. Eggs
  4. Eye
  5. Feathered
  6. Movement
  7. Mysterious
  8. Skin
  9. Reaching
  10. Terraced

You’ll need to bring along prints that could be suitable.  They need not be matted at this stage, but should be large enough to have a good look at (at least around A4 – not 4 by 6).  We’ll use the whole club to review and select the best print for each topic in turn.

On that night we’d also like to review digital images and prints and digital images that could be entered as part of two club sets for the Bowron and Chance interclub landscape competitions. We need four images for each set.  Again, prints need not have been matted just yet.  It’s proposed that we try to build sets around a “Kapiti Coast” theme so that each Kapiti Island does appear in each image, so you still have time to make some on that theme if you haven’t already.

Ohakune Field Trip Up the Mountain

18 Saturday May 2013

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16 of us are spending the weekend in Ohakune. Here’s a group up the mountain overlooking and photographing a beautiful waterfall.

20130518-095112.jpg

And Carol perilously close to the edge!

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Natex Last Steps – Autumn Salon Entries Due for Monday Meeting

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Calendar, Exhibitions, Reminder

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Karyn Packing Natex

Karyn Packing Natex packages

Our Natex project is almost all over, although there’s a lot of tidying up of finances and reporting now.

Support from many KCPS members for Natex through its many phases has been fantastic. We had another long day yesterday at the Te Horo Hall to repack all the prints into 109 boxes and packages, for dispatch back to the entrants. Thanks to Hugh, Karyn, Jo, Gary, Alan, Peter Ellis, and Jenny for helping out on this phase, as well as all those who helped mount the exhibition last Wednesday and then dismount it on Sunday.

Monday Meeting

Ou regular meeting at 7:30 pm at OBC next Monday 13 May will cover what happened at the PSNZ Convention last week. For a bit of a preview, you can see my seven “running commentary” blog entries at blog.photography.org.nz. Don’t forget that entries for the Autumn Salon are also due – go to this link on our website. The judge for this Salon is Bruce Girdwood.

Summer Salon Gallery – and Natex in Wellington

26 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by in Gallery, Reminder, Salon Results

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Summer Salon Gallery

The 19 images which were rated Highly Commended or Honours by Tony Whincup when he judged our Summer Salon on 25 March are now available. I’m sorry it’s taken so long – things have been rather busy with Natex.

Either go to the GALLERIES menu on our home page where from a drop-down you can access all galleries, or you can get to them directly here.  Enjoy.

Natex

Deciding on Natex Prints Layout

Deciding on Natex Prints Layout

Thanks once again to all those who have been helping with various tasks for Natex.  One of the recent jobs was to look at all the accepted prints in the Te Horo Hall, and decide on the exhibition layout.

The Exhibition will be mounted in the West Gallery of the Wellington Town Hall next Wednesday.

If you weren’t able to register for the PSNZ convention, you can still see the Exhibition.  Best times for public viewing are on Friday and Saturday 3 and 4 May, from 9 am to 5 pm.  Do check it out if you can.

News from the Darkroom

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

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The following newsletter is kindly provided by Michael Martin.  While intended for the members of the Monochrome Film Users Group, it should be of wider interest to others, including prospective members.

News from the Darkroom

The Monochrome Film Users Group

This group caters for those interested in capturing images on black and white film of different formats and darkroom techniques for processing and printing.

Meetings are normally held on the third Thursday of the month.

The next meeting is on Thursday 18th April at the home of Bill Harris, at 12 Kohekohe Road, Waikanae at 1930.

 Meeting Reviews

This is the first newsletter for 2013 and we have had two meetings covering a variety of topics which included:- keeping FB prints flat; pre-exposure; different prints from the same negative; using hypo clearing agent; comparison of different printing method; Rodinal Special developer examples; print and negative critiquing and discussion of our own and other exhibitions.

Exhibition

And mentioning exhibitions I think our group should be rightfully proud of our “Monochrome X 10” exhibition held at the Odlins Gallery from 16th to 27th of January. It was Odlins gallery most successful exhibition to date and we have been welcomed back to hold another one which we have agreed should be in approximately two years.

Many thanks to Iris and the Odlins Gallery supporters and all who helped, including ourselves, who made it work.

A lot of work but all agreed a worthwhile and rewarding result.

We now need to get into the darkroom and start on a fresh portfolio for the next exhibition.

Group Outing

Four of our group, Arthur, Brian, Fred, myself plus Tanya my daughter, met on the Wellington waterfront early Saturday morning March 16th for a photo shoot. An enjoyable couple of hours spent photographing the waterfront with just the right amount of cloud cover to make it interesting. I tested out my recently acquired 6×12 medium format back for my 4×5 Linhof, a format which I like and will spend more time pursuing. Our shoot was concluded with a cuppa and chat in a local cafe and then off home to develop the mornings results one of which is shown in this month’s images.

New Products

Fred brought to our attention a recently developed film developer called Spursinn HCD by SPUR from Germany. This can be used as a single or two bath developer and suitable for a wide range of films allowing push / pull development with a full range of tones and fine grain. There is an interesting Internet article about it on: – www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2013/03/the-lowdown-on-spursinn-hcd.html

This Month’s Images

This month’s first image was captured with a Nikon 35Ti on 35mm Kodak 400 TX film developed in Agfa Rodinal Special.

Peter Bush Opening the Monochrome X10 Exhibition - by Michael Martin.

Peter Bush Opening the Monochrome X10 Exhibition – by Michael Martin.

The second image was captured on 120 medium format Kodak TMY 400 T-Max with a 6x12cm back, attached to a 4x5inch Linhof camera and also developed in Agfa Rodinal Special.

Port Nicholson Marina

Port Nicholson Marina – by Michael Martin.

Food for Thought

“I do not object to retouching, dodging, or accentuation as long as they do not interfere with the natural qualities of photographic technique.” – Alfred Stieglitz, 1864 – 1946, American photographer.

Look, See, Compose, Capture and most of all Enjoy.

Michael Martin.