News from the Darkroom – July 2013

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

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News from the Darkroom

Here’s the latest newsletter by Michael Martin, from 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 15th August at the home of Bill Harris, at 12 Kohekohe Road, Waikanae at 1930.

Meeting Reviews

July’s meeting was the sixth for this year and topics covered included; developing FP4 plus film in Adonal; the pros and cons of using a quick developer; further thoughts on print development; accurate measuring in the darkroom; and critiquing prints and negatives.

Group Presentation

Tuesday July 16th saw five of our group give a presentation to the Kapiti Camera Club. This involved showing the various film format cameras we use with a commentary and show of some of our work. Feedback from Kapiti Camera Club has been very positive with members been impressed with the different film formats and cameras presented and the quality of the images shown. Our group enjoyed the hospitality of KCC and the opportunity to share what we do.

Thank you to all involved.

Group Outing

This coming weekend will see seven of us on a photographic trip to Castlepoint from Friday to Sunday. The weather forecast promises to be challenging so watch this space in our next newsletter.

New Products

SPUR have announced another new developer, Acurol-N, which they believe when used with Rollei Ortho 25 film (which is a rebadged MACO made film), will redefine sharpness. Read about it at The Online Darkroom at http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2013/06/spur-more-exciting-developments.html

It is great to see a company like SPUR pushing the boundaries with new products.

Not a new product but an opinion on trying out different films while still available. The article titled “12 Films Worth Shooting With Before They’re Gone” can be found on   http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2013/07/12-films-worth-shooting-theyre-gone written by Stan Horaczek.

While we are onto web sites one our members, Des Johnston has a blog with some of his photos and other items. Check out http://desmondjohnston.wordpress.com

This Month’s Images

This month’s images were captured on my Nikon 35Ti on 35mm Kodak 400 TX film developed in Agfa Rodinal Special and show members of our intrepid group showing off at the Kapiti Camera Club.

The Presenters. (L to R – Fred Wotton, Michael Martin, Brian Smith, Arthur Wong, Herman Visser).

The Presenters
(L to R – Fred Wotton, Michael Martin, Brian Smith, Arthur Wong, Herman Visser)

Brian with Linhof Technica 4x5

Brian with Linhof Technica 4×5

Fred with Leica 35mm

Fred with Leica 35mm

Herman with Pentax 645

Herman with Pentax 645

Arthur with 8x10

Arthur with 8×10

.

Food for ThoughT

“The production of a perfect picture by means of photography is an art; the production of a technically perfect negative is a science“.
– Ferdinand Hurter, [1844 – 1898] Photographic scientist and researcher.

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

Michael Martin.

Frank Hinchcliff Result

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

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hinchcliffCongratulations to Gavin Klee for his well-deserved win of the Frank Hinchliff Trophy, for his image “Ratana Church”. Here he is receiving the trophy from judge John Boyd.

Gavin also took third place in the competition!

The top three images are shown below.

Thanks to all who entered, and to John for his very insightful comments on the prints, as well as for showing us his own work, and some fascinating historical images from the PSNZ Permanent Collection.

Ratana Church

First – “Ratana Church” by Gavin Klee

Second - "Rice Terrace Country" by Neil Gordon

Second – “Rice Terrace Country” by Neil Gordon

Third – “Bald Eagle” by Gavin Klee

Frank Hinchcliff Judging Monday Evening

21 Sunday Jul 2013

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Frank Hinchcliff

Frank Hinchcliff

Come along for our meeting tomorrow evening at 7:30 pm to hear from the esteemed John Boyd Hon FPSNZ Hon PSNZ APSNZ, who will once again be judging the print entries for our annual Frank Hinchcliff Award.

You can read all about Frank Hinchliff here:

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

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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

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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

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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

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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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