2014

Sabbath by Ruby Braumann

Recently, Jessie and I spent a month in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa house-sitting for a friend. While there, we visited Jerusalem several times since it is only a one-hour bus journey from where we were staying. One evening we decided to do some night photography in the old city, and since it was Friday night, there were a large number of Orthodox Jews walking on the pathway next to the walls towards Jaffa Gate. We thought some slow shutter speed photography would best capture the sense of timelessness one gets in such an ancient city. So we spent some time photographing people coming and going using the light shining up onto the walls to give the ambience, and capturing the movement of the people going by through a slow shutter speed. During the day we’d walked through the Jewish quarter and had fun trying to photograph the Orthodox Jews in their long black coats and wide-brimmed hats without causing offense to them. There are so many wonderful architectural features in the old city and at one stage we’d photographed two Jewish men walking through an archway, with backlighting.

Back home, I just loved the photos I’d taken that evening, with my most favourite being this one:

(Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200mm lens, ISO 100, focal length 56mm, 1 sec exposure at f10, and tweaked using Lightroom)

I loved the 2 men in the middle with their hats and coats walking away from us, and the 3 men walking towards us just beyond them. Also the ghostly image of the person about to disappear completely on the right hand side. I felt I’d captured that sense of the ‘eternal city’ enclosed by high walls, and it is enhanced by the double ‘leading line’ that runs from the right hand corner and then converges with the walls in the distance on the left. This lends a wonderful perspective of depth to the photograph. I remember Dave Wimpey saying that the colour green never works in a photograph, but to me that’s one of the things that makes this photo – it breaks the neutral colours of the paving and the walls and complements the glow of the lights.

I felt that this photo needed something focussed, so I used the photo I’d taken earlier in the day :

(Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200mm lens, ISO 200, focal length 120, 1/60^th of a second at f8)

This time I used Photoshop elements to select the 2 men, then I had to add another ringlet to the man on the right as here he is looking to the left and so his ringlet is hidden from view, but it looked unbalanced to me. I then pasted them onto the first photo, deliberately cutting off their feet so that they were ‘walking out of the photo’ as it were. They stand out so well against the light on the wall and their silhouettes are so distinctive and unique – there can be no doubt that these are Orthodox Jews. With their being in focus yet silhouettes they fitted into the photo perfectly, and they draw the eye and create a point of focus and interest. At the same time, the shadowy figures behind them add to the story and breathe life into the photo.

I was pleased with the printing of this picture onto canvas as it maintains it’s ‘other-wordly’ atmosphere, and thrilled to bits when it won first prize in our print exhibition last month.

REPORT TO ALL CLUBS – GAUTENG NORTH FROM CONGRESS 2014.

Since coming back from Congress I have been asked by some members and clubs in this Region how Congress went plus various aspects on certain other matters of concern. I decided to give you a summary to date. There will be images and a report in the next edition of “Image” as well as being kept up to date with all changes on our Web site which is always kept up to date on a regular basis.

Congress went very well with very exciting speakers and presentations both from our local people and from overseas presenters. I was privileged to be in charge for part of the time of Praveen and Prakuti Kumar (father and daughter) from Indian. They really enjoyed the Kruger Park, so much so that I had, in the way into the Park to stop for every Impala on the way (ha ha), we get so blasé about our Impalas and we know they do produce some lovely images when captured at the right moment and in the beautiful light.

There were two interesting speakers from SanParks, the one especially on the Rhino Poaching which is a huge problem in SA and it is not getting any better unfortunately so we must all do what we can in the efforts to “Save the Rhino”. One event happened the day I chose to take myself off and sit at Sunset Dam near Lower Sabie. The SanParks helicopter flew overhead quickly, then the police drove past very quickly in their vehicle and when we all looked over to the right, the vultures were flying around in abundance. This was confirmed later to me that an incident had actually happened that day.

The Exhibitions of the various prints were really superb and Hein Washchefort’s needs a very special mention – it was something completely different but was presented very professionally and please if you get a chance to see it, please make an effort to do so as Hein will be exhibiting in various places around the country.

The Workshops presented were as always very informative and interactive and practical.

The tributes paid to Barrie Wilkens by various members and presenters was special and I am sure meant a lot to his family and close friends at Congress. For me I really enjoyed some of his Avs which many of us have never seen before. As we know his Wildlife Avs have always been great but the ones that stood out for me were his ones “A Tribute to Diana” and of his Granddaughters which he called “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” – maybe I am a bit biased as I was a great fan of Diana and I have two lovely granddaughters.

The food, the camaraderie and the meeting of old and new friends is always very special about Congresses and in many ways makes Congresses gel so much.

I am sure the Organising Committee and those heavily involved in the organising of the whole Congress have enjoyed this past week just chilling out and trying to get back to normal. They certainly did a great job.

HONOURS CERTIFICATES AND BADGES

All outstanding certificates and badges for my Region will be couriered to me by Helen Wilkins ASAP and I will make sure that you all receive them.

The Inter Club – results will be coming out soon where you will see where you as a Club came overall plus the individual results per image. Bloemfontein won overall.

Web site – AFO was the winner – well done to AFO

E-Newsletter – was won by Vanderbylpark.

Hard Copy – was won by Boksburg.

Anne d’Oliveira is working hard on getting them all together and I am sure they will be published in this coming week.

Salons – 2016 – there will be less salons in the year as it was felt that there are too many salons scheduled per year. Also you are now only allowed to have 5 acceptances of an image both in colour and mono entered into salons. Once you have had 5 acceptances per image you must not enter it again into another salon in that year. (These matters came out from the AGM and Forum at Congress) All info in this regard was posted on PSSA’s FB page recently. Francois Rousseau is still the coordinator for Salons. Outstanding medal winners who are still waiting on medals from the various Salons over the years due to them having gone lost in the post etc., must contact Laeticia Kenny as she is preparing a list to get this matter solved as soon as possible. As she is our FB coordinator, this notice was also put on PSSA’s FB page recently.

JAP will be going forward very soon – Francois Roux ia now heading up this Committee, I also will be serving on this Committee.

Many of the delegates really felt that Wildlife Congresses should be considered more often which was certainly noted.

This was PSSA’ 60^th Congress so the 61^st Congress will be held in Swellendam from 10-15 August which is the canola season in that part of SA. Put these dates in your diary now but as always updates will be continually updated on our web site..

That is as much as I can give you at this time on some of the Congress feedback, we certainly got a lot of positiveness about the Congress from the delegates who attended.

With regard Regional News – we will be sorting out Gauteng North Inter Club very soon – this will be AFO’s responsibility as they won it last year.

I will be visiting the relatively new club at Hartebeesport Dam on 7 October as I have been invited to judge there and Bosveld on 2 December for their AGM and hopefully will get visits in to all the other clubs in the not too distant furture all circumstances permitting.

Please also diarise 30 Oct-2 Nov – Photo and Film Expo at the Coca Cola Dome as PSSA is having a stand there again as always when many of the images that were on exhibit at Congress plus the winners of the various competitions will also be displayed.

On a more serious note from me, I would like all you guys to start identifying and looking for someone who could take over my job from next year when nominations for the Regional Directors come into play which I think is around May/June as I wont be standing for re-nomination in this position. I will serve you to the best of my ability to the end of my term of office which is next year but feel it is time for a much younger person with new approaches and new ideas to take over this job. Please feel free to discuss this with me at any time.

Thank you as always for your support and help – I do think this is a great Region with great photographers in it and I certainly would love to see it continue in that vain and going forward even further for the benefit of photography in all aspects.

Please do not hesitate to call me, send me a mail if you need assistance in anyway but hopefully we will see you all or as many as possible at our Region’s Inter Club evening which will be communicated to you soon.

Regards

EVELYN

REGIONAL DIRECTOR – GAUTENG NORTH.

Sabbath by Ruby Braumann

Recently, Jessie and I spent a month in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa house-sitting for a friend. While there, we visited Jerusalem several times since it is only a one-hour bus journey from where we were staying. One evening we decided to do some night photography in the old city, and since it was Friday night, there were a large number of Orthodox Jews walking on the pathway next to the walls towards Jaffa Gate. We thought some slow shutter speed photography would best capture the sense of timelessness one gets in such an ancient city. So we spent some time photographing people coming and going using the light shining up onto the walls to give the ambience, and capturing the movement of the people going by through a slow shutter speed. During the day we’d walked through the Jewish quarter and had fun trying to photograph the Orthodox Jews in their long black coats and wide-brimmed hats without causing offense to them. There are so many wonderful architectural features in the old city and at one stage we’d photographed two Jewish men walking through an archway, with backlighting.

Back home, I just loved the photos I’d taken that evening, with my most favourite being this one:

(Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200mm lens, ISO 100, focal length 56mm, 1 sec exposure at f10, and tweaked using Lightroom)

I loved the 2 men in the middle with their hats and coats walking away from us, and the 3 men walking towards us just beyond them. Also the ghostly image of the person about to disappear completely on the right hand side. I felt I’d captured that sense of the ‘eternal city’ enclosed by high walls, and it is enhanced by the double ‘leading line’ that runs from the right hand corner and then converges with the walls in the distance on the left. This lends a wonderful perspective of depth to the photograph. I remember Dave Wimpey saying that the colour green never works in a photograph, but to me that’s one of the things that makes this photo – it breaks the neutral colours of the paving and the walls and complements the glow of the lights.

I felt that this photo needed something focussed, so I used the photo I’d taken earlier in the day :

(Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200mm lens, ISO 200, focal length 120, 1/60^th of a second at f8)

This time I used Photoshop elements to select the 2 men, then I had to add another ringlet to the man on the right as here he is looking to the left and so his ringlet is hidden from view, but it looked unbalanced to me. I then pasted them onto the first photo, deliberately cutting off their feet so that they were ‘walking out of the photo’ as it were. They stand out so well against the light on the wall and their silhouettes are so distinctive and unique – there can be no doubt that these are Orthodox Jews. With their being in focus yet silhouettes they fitted into the photo perfectly, and they draw the eye and create a point of focus and interest. At the same time, the shadowy figures behind them add to the story and breathe life into the photo.

I was pleased with the printing of this picture onto canvas as it maintains it’s ‘other-wordly’ atmosphere, and thrilled to bits when it won first prize in our print exhibition last month.

Monochrome Processing Presentation

Nico Strydom kindly provided us with his presentation:

Here is the presentation that was given on Monochrome Post Processing:

The Nik Software, Silver Efex Pro 2 can be found here:

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

The OnOne Perfect Photo Suite can be found here:

http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/suite8/

Submitting HD photos to CCC Salon

We have noticed that some authors, that wish to submit photos to the CCC Mono salon, are unable to enter the photos in the salon via Photo Vault.  The potential key to the problem is that this is a HD salon and your existing photos are not in the HD library on Photo Vault.  Once you have uploaded the photo to Photo Vault in the HD section, you will be able to submit the photo to the salon.

You can follow the steps below:

1. Go back to your original image and resize for 1920 (width) X 1080 (height) with max size 1.2MB.  That is the HD size we mentioned in the salon brochure.
2. Upload your image on Photo Vault Online by selecting Upload photos on the CCC Salon selection.
   
3. Upload the images by selecting Upload New Photo
   
4. Ensure that HD is selected for the upload
   
5. Now select these images for upload to the Salon

I trust this will help.  Please feel free to contact the salon director if you

need further help, uploading your photos. ( salon.director@centurioncameraclub.co.za )

Regards

Bernard Richard
CCC

Doko Village – ‘n Verassende wenfoto

Dit is seker baie selde dat ‘n fotograaf dink sy foto is ‘n wenfoto en ek vermoed, die meeste wenfotos is ‘n verassing vir die outeur.  ‘n Mens weet as jy ‘n goeie foto het, maar die kompetisie is baie sterk in die klub en jy kan nooit seker wees of die beoordelaars van jou foto gaan hou nie.  Hierdie maand het ‘n foto my aangenaam verras en baie beter gedoen as wat ek verwag het.  In die proses het ek ‘n hele paar dinge geleer.

In my voorbereiding vir die Mei kompetisie het ek aanvanklik besluit om nie in te skryf nie omdat ek doodeenvoudig nie geskikte fotos gehad het om in te skryf nie.  In my soeke na ‘n tema foto, het ek afgekom op ‘n paar fotos wat ek met ‘n Sony mik en druk kamera geneem het tydens ‘n werksbesoek aan die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo.  Die area is baie afgesonder en om daar te kom is so ‘n beslommernis, dat ek nie eers die moeite gedoen het om my gewone SLR kamera saam te neem nie.  Ons was een middag laat op pad en het die kans gebruik om ‘n paar fotos te neem.  Die omgewing is baie ruig en daar is verskeie klein dorpies langs die pad waar die inwoners kan handel dryf of die pad gebruik om hulle produkte na ‘n groter dorpie te vervoer.

My beplanning was om met HDR te werk en ek het stelle van drie fotos met verskillende beligting geneem, maar ek was nie tevrede met die resultate nie en die HDR het onnatuurlik gelyk.  Die spesifieke foto was baie besig en die fokuspunt was nie vir my sterk genoeg nie.  Dan was dit ook geneem met ‘n “swakker kamera” en ek het die fotos in die argief gelos waar dit waarskynlik sou verdwyn het.

Vir die kompetisie het egter besluit om uit nood weer te probeer.  Hierdie keer het ek voor begin en die HDR verwerking baie afgskaal en net die drie fotos na ‘n 32 bit TIFF formaat verwerk.  Hierdie stap doen nie die normale HDR verwerking soos ons gewoond is nie, maar gee baie meer detail inligting vir verdere verwerking van die foto.  Die verwerking is in Photoshop CS6 gedoen.  Ek het die hele foto eers donker gemaak en met layers selektief lig terug gesit in die foto.  Op die manier kon ek die fokus plaas op die huisie en selektief op die bome.  Verder het ek aandag gegee aan die wolke om die lig te beklemtoon.  Die foto het dadelik baie sterker gelyk en al wat gepla het was ‘n paar bossies in die voorgrond wat ek uitgekloon het.  Die laaste stap was natuurlik om terug te keer na JPG formaat

Die resultaat was ‘n aangename verassing vir my.  Hierdie foto het weer vir my bevestig dat die nie help om ‘n foto te forseer nie.  As die verwerking eers op die verkeerde pad is kan jy maar net sowel stop.  Indien jy dink daar is potensiaal, laat die foto eers rus en probeer later weer met ‘n vars aanslag.  DIe kwaliteit van die kamera maak in sekere omstandighede ‘n groot veskil, maar as jy goeie lig het, verdwyn hierdie voordeel vinnig.  As jou goeie kamera by die huis lê omdat hierdie kamera te groot is om rond te dra het hy natuurlik ook geen voordeel bo die mik-en-druk kamera nie.

HDR verwerking het ‘n definitiewe plek in fotografie, maar die tipiese HDR resultaat waaraan ons gewoond geraak het is nie altyd ‘n gepaste resultaat nie.  Dit wil vir my voorkom dat in die meeste landskap en natuur fotos, HDR verwerking baie subtiel aangewend moet word.

Kamera	Sony DSC-HX10V
Lens	4.3-68.5 mm f/3
Lensopening	f/3.3
ISO	100
HDR Reeks sluiterspoed	1/125, 1/250 (-1 EV), 1/60 (+1 EV)
Formaat	JPG
Toekenning	COM, Beste van kompetisie (Mei 2014)
Titel	Doko Village

Hier is die drie fotos waarmee ek die verwerking begin het, elkeen veskil 1 EV van die volgende foto en is gebruik om ‘n 32 bit TIFF leêr te skep.

0 EV	-1 EV	+1 EV

Die enigste probleem met die foto is dat enige regverdiging om ‘n nuwe lens te koop waarmee ek drie soortgelyke mik-en-druk kameras kan koop, nou net bietjie moeiliker word, maar ek is seker ek sal ‘n gepaste motivering kry wanneer ek in die toekoms voor die probleem beland.

Groete

Bernard Richard (LPSSA 5*)