2013 - Year End Awards

Best members

On 16 November 2013 we had our year end function and awards ceremony. As all who attended will attest, it was an awesome day.

Other than the great photo opportunities that was had we also had a nice lunch and awards ceremony. See below the different awards that were presented:

Best junior: Club Points Johan Bester Beaunard Grobler Pieter Van Der Merwe	Best junior: Salon Points Jan Potgieter Pieter Van Der Merwe Gerry Steyn
Best Senior: Club Points André Norris Maruet Norris Evelyn Gibson	Best Senior: Salon Points Evelyn Gibson André Norris Helouise Mulder
Photo of the year: Juniors Dogfather by Roald Nel Reflective flight by John Mosdell Singapore skyline by Roald Nel	Photo of the year: Seniors Kobus de Kock jnr in action by Helouise Mulder Day becomes night by André Norris Train ride to work by Nico Strydom
Photo of the year: Overall Dogfather by Roald Nel CCC member with most PSSA Impala Trophy Points Bennie du Plooy	CCC member with most PSSA Monochrome Challenge Points Eddie Everson 2013 Chairman’s Trophy awarded to Andre Norris
Dogfather	Kobus de Kok (Jnr)  in Action
Reflective Flight Singapore Skyline	Day becomes night Train Ride to work

Congratulations to all the winners and even those that followed close behind. May this be an inspiration to everyone for 2014. The winners that did not attend the function collet get their medals and trophies at the first club evening of 2014.

Regards

André Norris

Chairperson – Centurion Camera Club
082 801 2810

Andre Norris – My best club photos for 2013

I was very fortunate and blessed to have received a few Certificates of Merit at the club.

As with all “good” photos, there has been a good amount of hard work and a lot of luck. I am however of the same opinion as Gary Player who said: “The more I practice, the luckier I get!”. I do take a lot of photos and I also believe in the 10,000 hour rule. You can read more about this in the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. But in short Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

Three of the photos I have had success with at the club are “Labstar Geekman”, “Mud Warrior” & “Ouma’s cousin”.

Labstar Geekman was shot at an event in the Old Snowflake mills in Potchefstroom. It is a day organized by a professional photographer, Emil Wessels. He creates little teams of 3 or 4 photographers and then gives some ideas where after the team has to figure out the shots! You are then rotated every 40 minutes or so and as a team get another setup. My team was allocated to a dance group called The Studio and this shot was taken as from that session. The gent in the photo real name is Francois, but his stage name is Labstar Geekman.

Once I determined the correct positioning for the lighting and the correct shutter speed it was easy. I also took a few shots where I tried to capture some movement but this shot seemed to be the best. Very little post processing was done (The makings of a good photo). I did a bit of cropping as I had to shoot at a wider angle to ensure I got everything in. The dancer only freezes for a fraction of a second at the top, or is that bottom? I also sharpened it a bit and bumped up the vibrance. Technical: Shot with a Canon 7D @ 24mm, F9.0, 1/160 sec, ISO100.

Mud Warrior was shot at one of the Warrior races (www.warrior.co.za) earlier in the year. The meeting was held in Midrand at the Red Barnhouse. Individuals and teams tackle an obstacle course which consist of anything between 6 and 30 obstacles and stretches over a distance of 5- 29 kilometers. The competitors participate in classes Rookie to what is called Black OPS, for the real serious guys, and gals.

The second last obstacle on this VERY cold winter’s day was a mud pit. What made it worse was that the mud was made with ice. The ice was refilled later in the morning to ensure the pit styed ice cold. The competitors had to go through the pit and one basically only have part of your head not in the mud. With the mud being ice cold, it is not a place for under 18’s as some of the competitors’ language wasn’t the best when they emerged from the pit.

Mud warrior was one of the few gentlemen who had a grin on his face while he was waiting for his team mates to emerge. I only cropped this image and upped the clarity a bit. Technical: Shot with a Canon 7D @ 300mm F5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO500.

Ouma’s cousin was shot during a trip to Vietnam earlier this year. This country has countless photo opportunities! In the North of Vietnam lies the Sapa province. Many of the ethnic Hmong people (These are the people that came from South China during the 18^th century) stay in this region.

On most days but mostly on weekends there are regional markets all over the province where the people then come to trade.

The various Hmong (Black-, green-, flower Hmong, etc) groups have different traditional colours. The ladies all dress up in traditional clothes when coming to the market. Each market will only be attended by one type of group as they are regional. The lady in the picture is from the flower Hmong and I took the picture after she packed up her goods to leave for home. They carry quite a bit and walk very long distances.

Although the clothing looks very colourful and makes for great pictures, the people are very poor. Although they are very friendly a lot of them are very camera shy. The lady seems to be smiling on this photo but I think I just caught her at the right time. She was kind of telling me to go away. The photo was taken from quite a distance as you have to “steal” a lot of these. You will see from my focal length below and the fact that this is about a ¼ crop that I was quite a bit away.

I took quite a few shots across Vietnam of the different Hmong people and a few of these were of the older generation. The eldest lady I took a photo of was 97 (apparently) and I called that photo “Ouma”. From their I called some of the others “Ouma’s sister” and so on and hence the name “Ouma’s cousin”, trying to create a “family” of pictures. Technical: Shot with a Canon 7D @ 214mm F5.0, 1/16 sec, ISO100.

 

Andre Norris 5*

Foto afdrukke – Gala aand

Centurion Kamera Klub se afdrukke uitstalling begin een van die dae en ons wil jou graag daar sien.  Die Gala openingsaand is 30 September om 7nm by Nikon House, Midstream Business Park, Erasmus rd (ingang grey Owl winkelsentrum). Almal is welkom om by te woon - bring gerus jou familie en vriende saam. Kom besigtig 70 van die klub se beste foto's hier uitgestal.

Hierdie uitstalling bly oop vir die publiek van 8vm tot 5nm deur die week en sluit Saterdagoggend 5 Oktober ( oop tot 11vm)

Eet & drinkgoed word gratis verskaf - moenie die geleentheid misloop nie! Laat weet asb vir Helouise per epos hoeveel mense sal bywoon. Haar epos adres is secretary@centurioncameraclub.co.za

The Bone Hunter

It was day three of our quest to capture the essence and soul of the elusive and oh-so-scarce-to-see Bearded Vulture in the Drakensberg of South Africa. We were gloomy, as the fog was thick and there was no sign of sunshine or any shadows around the hide at Giant’s Castle in the Northern Drakensberg and I was not sure that I would even see any of these magnificent birds in the sky.

Gelukkig het die koffiefles en warm beker my vingers en hande van vriespunt weerhou en my genoeg krag gegee om te bly kyk en hoop vir tog net een verbyvlug. Die vorige twee dae was omtrent aasvoël-loos maar daar was genoeg vermaak van die Jakkalse wat die bene probeer wegdra en die Kraaie of Rawe wat senuagtig gepik het aan die vleis-slierte wat nog aan die bene gesit het.

Die mis het begin lig en ek het amper van my stoel afgeval toe ek die donker kol sien verbyswiep minder as 5m bo die ‘hide’…..I glued my hands to my camera, waiting almost with bated breath for another fly-by! Much to my relief the Juvenile Bearded Vulture was very curious (or perhaps it was on entertainment-duty that morning?)  to see what scraps of bone were ready for the taking and it passed by several times. It was difficult to fathom whether it was checking out the bone-strewn feeding space, or these curious figures haunched behind those strange-looking objects that clicked ever so often when it flew past.

Wonder bo wonder het die mis begin wegbrand voor die son en binne ‘n uur was daar sonlig en skadus! Verskeie volwasse Aasvoëls het sporadies hulle nuuskierigheid gewys en wonderlike geleenthede gebied vir in-vlug foto’s van hierdie pragtige voëls.

Na my mening is die onontbeerlike voorvereistes vir goeie voëlfotografie dat daar aksie of beweging moet wees, asook dat die foto nie “cluttered” moet wees nie. A background that blends and does not distract the eye of the viewer away from the subject is essential. Thus, a shallow depth of field (a large f/stop), high shutterspeed (probably in excess of 1/2000 sec) and keeping your subject in focus are all non-compromisable factors that contribute to (but not necessarily guarantee) a great image. Always ensure that your subject makes eye-contact and that the eye is in focus!

Apart from all the photographic kit you may own or borrow, never, ever, ever leave home without a bucket of patience! As I said earlier, we spent the best part of three days in the hide, fired almost 500 shots and returned home with fewer than 10 really great images.

For the techno-phobes, I used a Nikon D700 with a 500mm f/4 lens, set on f/6.3, with a shutterspeed of 1 / 800 sec and ISO 400 on a Lexar Ultra XG CF-card to capture this beauty. Of course, I go nowehere without my 2kg-homemade-PVC-beanbag! Don’t despair if you don’t get a killer-shot on your first outing, it is all about practising, so keep shooting and push your own limits!

Hoe dit werk: jy bespreek maande vooruit jou dae vir die ‘hide’ by KZN-Wildlife se sentrale besprekingskantoor – jy mag maksimum 3 dae in ‘n ry bespreek – en dan hoop jy die weer speel saam.  Die koste is per persoon met ‘n minimum van 3 persone per dag in die ‘hide’ en jy bespreek die ‘hide’vir jou en jou groepie –eksklusief! Bespreek ook sommer blyplek by Giant’s Castle, want daar is nie tyd om van buite af in te ry na die ‘hide’ in die oggend nie. Jy meld aan by die kantoor die vorige aand, kry jou sleutel tot die ‘hide’ en ook jou emmer vol bene. Moet liefs NIE die bene in jou oornagplek berg nie, geen veearts sal hierdie koei kan red nie! Natuurlik betaal jy vir die dag, al spandeer jy een uur of heeldag in die ‘hide’en al sien jy niks, of al reën dit.

Had I been unlucky enough not to have seen a single Bearded Vulture on this trip, the experience of being in Nature, surrounded by the total silence of the Berg and breathing only clean air, makes every trip to the Vulture Hide at Giant’s Castle worth the effort and time!

Erna Liebenberg

MY ARCTIC EXPEDITION IN SVALBARD

July 2013

When my husband and I booked for this Photographic Experience last year, I think I was thinking it was going to be a cruise on a ship with some great opportunities to take images of Polar Bears, nice landscapes and of course other species of wildlife found in this part of the world. Maybe I had still in my mind our wonderful trip we had to the Antarctica in 2007. This was certainly different – this was an expedition, not a photographic holiday or tour. Not for the faint hearted or for the unfit person. If asked would I do it again my answer would be “Yes if I was 20 years younger” having said that, it is something that will live in our memories for many years to come and we will continue to talk about it also for a very long time. AN EXPEDITION OF A LIFETIME.

Did I prefer this trip to the Antarctica trip? Yes. Why? It was a very small ship, only took 24 people on board, which included the crew so the opportunities to go on land were more frequent. In fact we had at least two landings per day on the zodiacs for as long as it was necessary compared to one landing per day in the Antarctica and then we were only allowed on land for one hour – this is the difference of going on a cruise liner compared to a small expedition ship.

So does one give up the luxuries of a cruise liner – almost definitely to experience this part of the world and capture the beauty, feel the spirituality as you cruise in among the glaciers, pass the icebergs with different species of bird life all around you.

The Arctic is Polar Bear country albeit with global warming, they are moving further north due to the ice melting. Did we see Polar Bears, yes but only six and not on the floating ice as I think many photographers would like to capture. You are not allowed on land if the Polar Bears are near so all our sightings were taken from the zodiacs, albeit we were only 50 metres away from them and had of course the water between us which was our safety factor. One image that I managed to capture (attached for you to enjoy) was the one of mother and child having some loving moments together – I call this one “The Dancing Bears” – as I pressed the shutter, the tears were running down my cheeks, it was a very special moment. Unfortunately one of the photographer’s memory card ran out a few seconds just before this happened and he did not get his new one in on time to get this moment, he was very sad and upset. He offered to buy mine (ha ha), still waiting on his price offer.

There is plenty bird life, walruses, we did not see many seals, (perhaps this is also the reason we did not see as many polar bears as seals are their prey) some of the photographers saw the arctic fox and we saw one reindeer.

The beauty of the landscapes for me was very very special, perhaps due to my passion and forte with landscapes. I have attached a couple of landscapes hopefully showing you that beauty.

Camera equipment I used mainly the D800 with wide angle lenses for the landscapes and the D4 with an 80-400 lens for the wildlife. Tripod was used mainly from the ship or on land when photographing, as it was very difficult on the zodiacs to use a tripod. I also used various graduated filters for the landscapes.

It was a bit rough at times on the ship and we had to pop the pills every now and again for the nausea. The temperature was never below zero at anytime but the wind chill factor plays a role and yes I did feel very cold some days out in the zodiac and wondered if I had any fingers and toes still belonging to me.

I hope to be able to share with you at some stage the presentation that my husband and I are putting together on this wonderful trip. Yes it was expensive and our children are still worried that we spent their inheritance!!! The Expedition was organized and run by ODP in conjunction with Vega Expeditions (a Swedish company) and the ship Origo is a Swedish owned ship.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share at this stage a part of this wonderful challenging experience.

Evelyn

Centurion Camera Club Prints Exhibition 2013

“A picture is worth a thousand words; A fine art print so much more.”

30 September –5 October 2013

Centurion camera club proudly presents our annual showcase photo exhibition at Nikon House, Louwlardia. For directions from the Nikon site click on: "contact us" or Click here for a map

As club members you are invited to make use of this occasion to exhibit your best works of the year - simply upload your images and we do the rest.

The rules briefly are:

• You may enter up to 4 images, of which we guarantee to print and exhibit at least 3 depending on available display space and provided the images are of good quality.  Only full resolution files will be accepted (ie. Not resized) and in any case not less than 5 Megapixels per image. We prefer TIFF or alternatively JPG saved at the highest quality setting.
• Prints will be A3 sized and mounted ( it is ready to be framed as is ).
• Cost is  R100.00 per mounted photo. Payment is by way of direct bank deposit into the camera club account – please use your club membership number as reference, followed by “PRINT” ie 04020022PRINT.
• Photo's should be uploaded to the file sharing website utility: Dropbox (see entry form spread sheet for details) before midnight, 9th September 2013. (This is a regular club evening event)
• Detailed instructions are available on the downloadable Excel file on the website or directly from this link.

What do we do for you?

• Photo's are printed on heavyweight A3+ Premium Luster paper using the best of inkjet technology.
• Photo's will be mounted on 5mm foam core presentation board with surrounding 5cm border area.
• Author name and picture title will be embedded as part of the printed image in the lower right corner.
• We will set up a complete display of all prints at Nikon house.
• Pictures will be judged at the event and a bronze, silver and gold medal will be awarded.
• Pictures will be posted to an on line gallery, accessible from the camera club website
• Pictures will be exhibited at Nikon house for one week.
• A gala opening evening will be held on 30th September at 7:00 pm. The exhibits will be judged at this event and prizes awarded.
• The exhibition will be open to the public from 8am to 5pm during the week and closes on October 5th around 11am.
• There is no cost for this event – catering will be provided by facilities at Nikon house.

Direct all enquiries to:  Arnold Theron  arnold.theron@gmail.com
See you there!
Arnold

Verbyvaart – Beste voorgeskrewe onderwerp.

Ons was in November 2012 vir so 9 dae in Thailand met vakansie. Ons het die Sondagoggend ongeveer 06h00 in Bangkok aangekom en was so teen 09h00 by die Ibis Bangkok Riverside hotel waar ons 2 nagte oorgebly het. Die hotel is geleë op die oewer van die Chao Praya rivier. Ons het die middag verskeie tempels besoek en was nogal moeg met ons aankoms laatmiddag terug by die hotel aangesien ons maar min rus gekry het op die vlug na Bangkok wat so 11 ure deur die nag geduur het en ons die hele dag aan die gang was. Ek het uit ondervinding geleer dat as daar ‘n fotogeleentheid is moet jy dit dadelik aangryp want more is die geleenheid dalk nie weer daar nie. Ook maar goed so want die volgende dag het ons eers laat by die hotel aangekom na ‘n dagtoer en was die weer nie na wense nie en dit was ook al te laat vir nagfotos. Daar word in die algemeen gepraat van nagfotos maar die beste tyd vir nagfotos is egter net na sononder sodra die stadsliggies aangeskakel is. Later in die aand is die kontras te hoog en die lug kom swart uit i.p.v. blou wat beslis nie mooi is nie.

Ek het verskeie fotos geneem na sononder toe die stadsliggies mooi aangeskakel was. Daar het bote op die rivier heen en weer verbygevaar en ek het gedink dit sal dalk mooi wees om ook van hulle in die foto te laat beweeg behalwe vir fotos sonder bote. Dis altyd goed om alles te probeer en hierdie foto het toe goed uitgewerk. Die kamera was ‘n Pentax K5 met ‘n 18-250mm. Pentax lens op 35mm. teen f11, sluiterspoed 8 sek. en ISO 160. Ek het in RAW geneem met die witbalans op “Auto” alhoewel dit nie saak maak nie want jy kan in “RAW Editor” weer die kleurbalans verstel soos jy wil.

Redigering in Photoshop Elements 11 was “levels” verstel, met “skew” die geboue vertikaal gemaak “saturarion” so 10, hier en daar donkerder en ligter gemaak waar nodig en ook die kleur van die foto verstel sodat dit meer natuurlik lyk.

Maartin Coetser Meester – Goud APSSA

Klubinskrywing 8 Julie 2013 Goud - Beste voorgeskrewe onderwerp