Survival – Saved by a pocket camera

As an ex Air force member I was selected to work in the South African Embassy in Bern, Switzerland from 2007 to 2009. During that time I bought a small Pentax pocket camera. During that time my ex-wife and I got caught in a point of no return situation deep in the mountains when I tried to take some photos during fall of 2009 of the beautiful trees and colours deep in the mountains. Those photos nearly cost us our lives. We ran out of time and got caught in the dark which ended up that we had to prepare ourselves for the worst. It started to snow heavily and we hid under a rock with just jeans, “tekkies” and thin windbreakers against the cold wet and snow. We have already said goodbye and prayed etc. when late that night I heard a vehicle somewhere. It turned out that it was three brothers who hunt together every three years in that area. I ran and saw them driving far away in a valley towards our mountain area. As an ex-military member I immediately made a plan and ran to my wife who had that small camera in her jacket pocket, but due to the extreme cold we could not feel or open the small zip, when I decides to tear the pocket open and ran to the side where they might see me. Needless to say, I could not get the camera to work as my fingers were frozen etc. after which I eventually pressed the buttons with my front teeth and got the flashlight working. I sent three flashes towards them and saw the vehicle stop. They flashed back three times. We did the same once more and I saw them returning to the small towns direction where we came from. Not long after that I heard a helicopter in the distance and again used the flash to guide the pilot to our position.

All went well saving our lives on the mountain and the pilot showed me the outside temperature was minus 22 degrees. With that background you can understand why I am interested in photography and am so glad that I have found a club like CCC.

A few years ago I bought a cheap Sony compact camera and took these two photos which I entered, in the “manual” mode with that camera. I have very little knowledge of camera settings, but am working on that.

The photo of the lion attacking the leopard was taken at Afsaal water point in the Krugerpark. I had to zoom in past the optical zoom to electronic zoom and took the photo with no tripod aid. It was a wonderful experience and I saw the splashing of the water for the first time, when I placed it on my PC.

Photo no 2 was also taken a few years ago during our visit to Yosemite National Park in California. With the angle of the lake from our car I saw no reflections. I stopped and walked down the valley until I saw this wonderful reflection and was very lucky that there was no wind blowing at that time. That photo was also taken in the “manual” mode

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Focus Greetings

Jackie Bosch
(1* Centurion Camera Club)

	EXIF Data
Description	Photo 1	Photo 2
Make	Eastman Kodak	Casio
Model	Z740	EX-Z750
F-stop	f/3.7	f/4
Exposure time	1/500 s	1/320 s
Focal Lenght	63 mm (380 equiv 35mm)	8 mm (38 equiv 35mm)
ISO	80	-
Club Competition Feb 2012	COM - 1* Winner	COM

Together through deep waters – Danie Loots

This photograph is a good example of how a picture can tell a little story. A story that is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the true events, but a story created  within the frameworks of my artistic freedom.

The original RAW image was captured at 10h08 on a bright sunny day on the South Coast. The two subjects, who are brother and sister, were both very unsure of themselves playing in the shallow surf. This feeling of not being too safe was confirmed a minute earlier by a wave that knocked both of them off their feet and had the little girl running to her dad in tears. Her brother was also a bit stunned by the wave, but it was obvious how concerned he was for his little sister. The children’s father is actually at this stage just out of picture to the left and the little girl is about to reach out to him again, not quite comfortable with just her brother supporting.

I obviously could have told another story or two with those pictures as well, but chose to tell this one of these two little ones on their own in these threatening waters, clinging to each other.

I did a couple of important things right in creating this image. I think the first one was that I was in the sea with my camera. So many pictures get taken on the beach, but most of them will be taken from the beach towards the sea. I try to always get a different perspective than the normal one. This immediately adds interest for the viewer. The next thing I did right was cropping the picture the way it is. All the viewer can see is what contributes to the story. The famous French born American landscape photographer Alain Briot says in his book Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity and Personal Style, that everything you put in a picture either adds to the picture or takes away from it. He says “A strong image is one in which nothing detracts. Remove all the elements that are distracting to the viewer’s eye.” This image does not include anything that does not add to the story this played a major part in its success.

Another very important contribution to the success of this picture was made in the post processing of the RAW picture. The original photograph was much too bright and lacked contrast as a result of the time of the day it was taken. This did not fit in with the story I wanted to tell, so I used Photoshop to first add contrast to the picture and then de-saturate and  darken the colours. This had the effect of adding detail to the water and making it look far more menacing. (see the original image)

Original Image Data:

• Make: Canon
• Model: EOS 5D Mark II
• Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
• F-Stop: f/4.0
• ISO Speed Rating: 100
• Focal Length: 200mm
• Lens: EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
• Club: Best of Event February 2012

Article provided by:

Danie Loots

(2* Centurion Camera Club)

Competition Theme–February 2012