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President:

Dan Crowley

Mobile: M   0457 813 508

dan.crowley@bigpond.com

Vice President:

Sam Anderson

Mobile:

Secretary:

Bruce Williams

Mobile: 0401 065 053

willigofasta@gmail.com

Treasurer:

Barbara Reed

Committee:

Robin Pitcher

Matt Kaarma

Philomena Kaarma

Lorraine Sladden

Shoalhaven Photographic Club Inc. Blah Blah Newsletter

Assessment Night: Open (Peer Assessment) Last assessment night for the year is traditionally an open subject and the audience members get to be the judges.

As you would expect there was a wide range of subjects choices but in the end it came down to a couple of birds vying for top honours.

Round one decided which images were granted a credit or a merit. In round two only the awarded images were rejudged for the purpose of determining the People’s Choice award for the month. With several images attracting the same number of votes it was necessary to go to a third round with just two images remaining. Still they could not be separated and the fairest thing to do was award the People’s Choice jointly to the winners, Dan Crowley and Lloyd Anderson.

The winning images can be seen below with a brief description provided by the authors.

In between rounds of voting we muted and crunched our way through some delicious Christmassy nibbles. Some even brought wine. Why didn’t I think of that?

Anyway, That wraps up the clubs official program for the year. I would like, on behalf of the committee to wish each and every one of our members a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

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The technical details of Lloyd’s photo:Camera - Nikon D500, Aperture - f/8, Shutter speed – 1/1600, ISO – 8000Lens – Nikon 80 – 400, Focal length – 390mm (equivalent to 585mm on full frame)Hand held The shot is one of about 22 I took of this bird whilst visiting a friend’s property in the Myall Lakes area, east of Bulahdelah. It involved sitting in the one spot for the best part of an hour as the bird flittered backwards and forwards. Unfortunately I could not use a better location to improve the lighting as it would have involved including a messy background.

For the benefit of those who might like to know why Lloyd chose those particular settings, read on, otherwise skip to the next image! Firstly, a long lens compresses the background into that lovely blurry effect, making the bird really stand out as the “hero” of the image. Second, a fastish shutter speed - birds dash about very quickly and seldom stay still for long. The branch it landed on here would have been moving about quite a bit as well a so a fast shutter speed would be necessary to freeze the motion and make the bird as crisp and sharp as possible. Add the fact that a long lens is heavy and hand-holding can be difficult hence a fast shutter speed stops any blur caused by equipment moving. The aperture setting of f/8 gives a great trade off between desired depth of field and the amount of light coming through the long lens. A smaller aperture (f/11 or f/16) may not have let sufficient light through to the sensor or it may have interfered with the blurriness of the background, whereas a larger aperture (f/2.8, f/4 or f/5.6) may have

People’s Choice Joint Winner

“Eastern Spinebill” by Lloyd Anderson

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resulted in a much narrower depth of field. In the image above, notice how the tip of the grevillea branch is blurry and yet it’s only inches further away than the bird.Setting ISO at 8000 may sound high (and it would be for ordinary landscape or portraiture work) but when photographing birds it’s likely a sweet spot, as long as your camera can handle that ISO and these days pretty much all cameras do. A similar ISO would work for other small or skittish creatures.

Dan provided this commentary on his image. This Eastern Curlew was photographed at Shoalhaven Heads with the first light of the morning providing a soft warm tone. Lying flat on the sand to get this profile POV, the water is softened by the 500mm lens having a shallow focal point. The settings used were 1/1600 sec at f/5.0, ISO 640. The eastern curlew is the largest of the worlds shore birds found on coastal wetlands. Its impressive downward pointing bill is used to probe and dig up crabs and small creatures buried in the sand. It is only found in Australia's flyways and their numbers are declining. About 75% of the world's curlews come to Australia for the northern hemisphere winter. It has been deemed as critically endangered mostly caused by their declining habitat along their migratory path due to development, agriculture and pollution. Generally only seen as individuals or in small groups amongst the other shore birds, it is always a pleasure to find one in our local environment.

Dan has explained his choice of camera / lens setting very nicely and he also touched on the POV. Bear in mind that we will have an assessment based around POV in next year’s program.

People’s Choice Joint Winner

Eastern Curlew by Dan Crowley

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My comment: a beautiful photograph technically and artistically. The lighting of the bird’s face and left side of the body is the icing on the cake.

Next Year’s Program: Dan read out the list of next year’s set subjects and they have now been published to the SPC website, complete with a full description of what the set subject entails. Thanks to our webmaster Robin. I have included them here for those who were not at the meeting last night, but please check out the website as well because any changes will appear there.

Set Subjects

Feb: Nightscapes (must be taken at night)It may seem obvious, but night time is when there is no light from the sun in the sky and for this to be the case it must be before morning twilight or after evening twilight. In practical terms, this means at least an hour before sunrise or after sunset when the only sources of light will be the moon or the stars or artificial light eg city lights, vehicles, ships etc. By the way, the auroras will qualify if you are lucky enough to have seen them. The subject lends itself to the milky way, star trails, light trails from moving objects, light painting etc. The “scape” part means you should look to include some sort of landscape (rural or urban), or seascape in the background setting.

Mar: close up/detail (not macro)In this assessment we are specifically NOT talking about macrophotography. You can get close up to a subject by zooming in with your lens or your feet, Think in terms of highlighting a part of a scene such as interesting door handles rather than the whole door, part of an engine rather than the whole car etc. The detail shown should allow the viewer to recognise the subject without seeing it as a whole.

Apr: wheelsThis subject is open to as many different interpretations as there are different types of wheels. Large, small, single, multiple, rubber, steel, timber, stone, old, shiny and new etc. Try close-up, look for patterns, textures etc

May: texture (digital)Think of surfaces where the light comes from the side and highlights patterns or irregularities on that surface. Peeling paint, leaves on the ground, bark on a tree to name just a few. Beware of direct front light which will hide rather than emphasise the texture. Strong side lighting will definitely help here.

Jun: low contrastLuminance contrast is the interplay between different levels of light. Colour contrast is the interplay between different colours. You have probably heard, especially in the context of black and white photography, that a good B&W image must have the full range of tones from pure black all the way to white. That is simply NOT true. In this assessment we are looking for low contrast images. In monochrome this a similar level of light throughout the image. It could be mostly

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dark (a “low-key” image) or mostly light (a “high-key” image). It could also be mostly gray with no blacks and no whites. For colour it should have harmonious, even colour distribution without jarring colour opposites adjacent to one another (i.e red next to green, orange/yellow next to blue. Check out early masters of painting like Rembrandt for a good example of low colour contrast.

Jul: near and farThe challenge here is have objects in the foreground and the background equally sharp. We want you to use you camera settings or, if possible, choice of lens to capture the image with near and far both in focus and not rely on software stacking or other tools. In simple terms, using a high f-stop number such as f/16, will give you the desired result. a wide angle lens naturally has a deep depth of field and may also be a good choice. A telephoto lens might give you a great close up but it’s not what you need for this assessment. Suited to a landscape but a more intimate scene with closer subjects, one or more near and one or more far could work.

Aug: ShapeThe challenge is to make your subject identifiable from its two dimensions of width and height and not from depth cues. This is likely best achieved by placing your camera directly in front, behind or to one side of the subject and avoiding an angled view. Bright backlighting may help to hide depth or 3D information by under-exposing the surface of the subject facing the camera. A portrait for example, where the ‘shape’ of the subject, its profile, will be highlighted. Ideally edge details like eyebrows, nose, chin and perhaps stray hairs will be highlighted but the form (i.e. the roundness or 3D aspect to the subject will not be shown.

Sept: wildlife: any non-domesticated animalWildlife in this case fevers to any non-domesticated animal but it does not have to be in the wild. In other words, we encourage images of animals in zoos as well as in the wild. Please try to compose your image to hide obvious signs of captivity. Any subject from the animal kingdom qualifies: birds, reptiles, fish, sharks, mammals, insects etc. If you can take a stunning macro of a spider’s eyes then this could be your moment of glory!

Oct: A different POVPOV = Point of view. Not your opinion but the angle between your camera and the subject. So often we see images taken from shoulder height or from a tripod with the legs fully extended. They are a bit stereotyped. Please try to get out of the habit of doing just that. We marvel at images taken from a plane or a drone or half-in and half-out of the water because they are giving us a different point of view. Try a ladder or a tree, lie down on the ground, step to the left (or right), bend down or bend over backwards. Take several shots from all these POVs and see which you like best.

Nov: WetThere are endless possibilities for this one. The subject is not the liquid itself but an object that has had contact with liquid, is wet or shows the result of being wet,

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either accidentally or deliberately. We are not looking for a scene that is predominantly water based such as seascapes, with or without boats, waterfalls etc. Think a hand dripping water, rain on a window pain, a sodden subject having been caught in the rain.

Dec: OpenAt last, no more being told what to photograph. Anything goes. Show us your favourites. Judging will be by peers only. Bring a plate and have some fun!

Workshops

As always, these are harder to organise as they require interaction with other venues and/or presenters from outside our club. Details will be posted as soon as they are finalised. Keep an eye on the web and the Facebook page.

Now is the time to take a break and refresh those creative juices. Don’t forget the Photography Section at the local Agricultural shows in Berry, Nowra, Kangaroo Valley and Milton starting in February.

Finally, on behalf of the committee I would like to wish you all a very enjoyable and safe Christmas and New Year.

Bruce Williams