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July 2017

Welcome

Welcome to the July edition of the Parklands newsletter. This

has been a very cold winter so far, but it also provides a few

good opportunities to get outside for weather photography.

The recent SPORTS / ACTION competition exhibited a great

variety of images. Members have been out to a range of

interesting and exciting sporting events.

Lisa Law judged this competition. She is a Melbourne based

photographer and specialises in events, fashion, weddings and

portraits. Lisa also presented a display of her photographs that

were commissioned from the Tocumwal Council, highlighting the

local area, farming and tourism opportunities.

Congratulations to the winners in the Sport / Action competition,

the images are displayed later in this newsletter.

The next workshop is coming up this Thursday 27 July.

Charlie and Nerissa will be presenting on Post Production

Techniques in Lightroom. You will find details of this

workshop below. Also, Gail shares a few of her photographs

from her trip to France and Spain.

There are a few items to take note of in this newsletter,

including new competition deadlines, the Parklands/Preston

Interclub details and the Parklands Weekend away.

You will also find some ideas of events around town and

surrounds, for either taking photographs or attending

exhibitions.

Enjoy your month!

Thru The Lens

In this issue:

A word from the President . 2

Dates for your diary ............ 4

Charlie on photography...... 6

Sports/Action: Winning

images - Novice ................. 7

Sports/Actions: Winning

images - Experienced ........ 8

What’s On around town and

surrounds ........................... 9

Parklands

Community ....................... 11

Winter warmer puzzles .... 13

And finally ......................... 15

New deadline

August OPEN Competition

submit prints and digital

images by

Thursday 27th July, 10pm.

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A word from the President

Dear members

Thanks to committee and members

First, thanks are due to all Committee members for their work in keeping the club ticking over

and advancing some great initiatives.

In particular, I should mention (with apologies to anyone I have left out):

• Gina and her contributors for another great newsletter;

• Nerissa, for keeping the website looking good and up to date;

• Matt for acting as president while I have been away;

• Sharon for taking over the responsibilities of print steward while Gail has been away;

• Peter and Nerissa for their work in relation to grant applications (more below).

Recent and on-going initiatives are:

• Grant applications for a new projector. Peter kindly took over responsibility for the application

to Moreland City Council which has now been finalised and lodged. Nerissa identified an

opportunity to apply for a grant from the Moreland Leader and prepared and lodged the

application on the Club's behalf. The council grant in particular in offered on a dollar for dollar

basis and the application would not have been possible without the generosity of members

in pledging more than $800 to match the grant we asked for. We are now waiting for the

outcome of these applications with crossed fingers;

• Publicity: Gail has sent an ad into What’s On in the Moreland Leader and we are in the

process of re-writing the Club description on the web-page and Facebook to emphasise the

Club’s strengths;

• Club night refreshments: the Committee has decided that to ensure that tea, coffee and

goodies are on offer at all club nights, there should be a gold coin donation.

Second, thanks are also due to members generally for the quality of the images submitted

to competitions and their continuing support for the Club and its activities.

Melbourne Cup weekend

As you all know, Gina and Gail found a great value house at San Remo for the long weekend in

November. There are outstanding photographic locations and opportunities around the San

Remo/Phillip Island/Westernport area, and they are now working on a programme which will be

sent around.

We have worked out that the cost for the three nights (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) will be

$194 for a double room (there are 4) and $75 per person in the shared room (which has 4 beds).

At present, the double rooms are all booked, and two spots for women are available in the shared

room. However, there may be some flexibility in how the accommodation can be set up.

If you haven’t put your name down yet, let Gina or Gail (or me) know. Payment arrangements

will be 50% due by the end of August and the other 50% due by the end of October.

If you can’t make the whole weekend, you are most welcome to come down for a day, or, possibly,

depending on availability of accommodation, one or two nights, with a pro rata cost.

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Newsletter

As you will see, the newsletter contains lots of information and ideas (and photographs!)

Highlights include:

1. As mentioned previously, the Committee has reviewed the arrangements for lodging

competition entries and made the lodging dates for the remaining competitions closer to

the competition night. In most cases, the due date will be the previous workshop night.

The calendar on the website contains the new due dates, and details for the next couple of

competitions are in the “Dates for your diary” section of the newsletter.

The Preston interclub competition is on 28 September, with entries due at or before the

workshop night on 24 August. Details below in this newsletter. We are hosting the

interclub, including catering. They put on a great spread last year, so your culinary skills

will be needed! Details to come.

2. Details of the topic for the 24 August workshop are being finalised and will be sent out

soon.

3. There were lots of excellent images in the Sports/Action competition and the HC and

placegetters are included in the newsletter.

4. Also, Gail has contributed some pictures of our recent trip in Spain and France. (It was

absolutely fantastic, in case you were wondering).

Phil Crennan

28 September: Interclub with Preston Photographic Club

This year Parklands Photo Club is hosting the Interclub competition with Preston. There are a few things

to organise leading up to the night, starting with submitting prints and digital images for the competition.

Altogether Parklands needs 20 prints and 20 digital images.

• Digital Images need to be submitted through the club website by WEDNESDAY 23 AUGUST – 10PM

Submit your digital images in the same way you do for a competition. Select the

“PARKLANDS/PRESTON INTERCLUB” tab.

• Please bring prints along to the Workshop Night on THURSDAY 24 AUGUST (or give to Gail Crennan

beforehand).

All submissions will be collated on Thursday 24 August. If more than 20 prints and 20 digital images are submitted, there will be a selection process after the workshop. We want to include images from as many club members as possible, so make sure you get your prints and digital images in!

Parklands will also provide catering on the night, and you will receive an email with details about this shortly.

Don’t forget to get your digital images in and bring your prints along; we need….

Prints Digital 20 + 20

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Dates for your diary

27 July: Post Production in Lightroom

Loading your images into Lightroom

1. Basic processing

a. Crop tool

b. Spot remover

c. Non global adjustments

i. Graduated filter

ii. Radial filter

iii. Adjustment brush

d. Basic panel

e. Global colour adjustments

f. Sharpening and noise removal

g. Lightroom presets

2. Stitching images together (e.g panorama)

3. Copying adjustments from one image to another (one click)

4. Taking your images from Lightroom into Photoshop and/or other programs and bringing

them back into Lightroom.

5. Saving your images from Lightroom, including resizing.

6. Q&A

Those attending are invited to bring one image to the workshop and if time permits we will

have a go at processing some. Preferably unprocessed RAW images but if you shoot in jpg

and want to bring one that hasn’t been post processed, that is ok.

Workshop dates for 2017

August 10: Competition Theme – Open

Please note changes to competition entry deadlines:

For the August competitions, the NEW submission date for print entries and digital entries is

10pm on Thursday 27th July. You can bring your prints to the workshop night Thursday 27th

July, or they can be delivered to Gail Crennan. Late entries will not be accepted.

27 July: Post production in Lightroom 19 October: Lighting

24 August: To be announced 16 November: Images of the Year – Special judging evening

28 September: Interclub Competition with Preston Photographic Club

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September 14: Competition Theme – Weather

For the September competition, if you are entering a digital image through the club website, the

deadline is 10pm on Thursday 24 August, to allow time for the images to be prepared for

judging. Print entries can be brought to the workshop night (24 August) or be delivered to Gail

Crennan. Late entries will not be accepted.

If you enter a print in any of the competitions, please remember to also lodge a digital copy

through the Club website. This makes it easier to include winning entries in the newsletter. To

do this, go to the “members” section of the website, then click on “EDI upload” at the top of the

page. You will see a box at the bottom of the next page marked PRINT ENTRIES. Just click

on those words and follow the prompts.

Bureau of Meteorology Weather Photography

http://www.bom.gov.au/calendar/annual/photogs.shtml Some quick tips for weather photography by Nick Rains

https://www.nickrains.com/quick-tips-for-weather-photography/

The 2017 Ballarat International Foto Biennale

19 August — 17 September 2017

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale is a month-long festival comprising of a Core Program,

Fringe Program, seminars and workshops. The Foto Biennale Exhibition Program features

artist floor talks, seminars, lectures, portfolio reviews and workshops. The Ballarat International

Foto Biennale attracts significant International and Australian photographers as one of

Australia’s pre-eminent photographic festivals. It is a not-for-profit event that immerses the

historic town of Ballarat in photographic art.

The core program exhibits at the beautiful Art Gallery of Ballarat, The Mining Exchange, the

Minerva Room, The Observatory, Post Office Gallery and the Town Hall. The fringe program is

staged at more than 80 cafes, galleries and wine bars across Ballarat, providing the launch pad

for hundreds of new and emerging artists.

With special events planned for all five weekends, it is expected to attract an attendance of over

50,000 people. Plan your stay early, stay long enough to stroll Ballarat’s charming streets and

engage deeply with the photographic image.

Make a date with a few Parklands members to get to this event if you can.

http://ballaratfoto.org/

Photo by Nick Rains on: https://www.nickrains.com/quick-tips-for-weather-photography/

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Charlie on Photography

Understanding your camera’s shooting modes.

Most cameras have a number of different shooting modes. Auto, Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Bulb are the ones most of us probably use. Here’s the thing. All these different modes serve only one purpose and that is to achieve the desired exposure.

Exposure is the amount of light that gets into our camera and onto the sensor to create a photo. This is controlled in the camera by a combination of 3 things, aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This is known as the Exposure Triangle.

The different shooting modes have no impact on focus, composition or any of the other things we need to consider when taking photos. All the other elements of photography are managed by other settings in our camera or by choices made by the photographer.

I’ll say it again. The only function of the various shooting modes is to allow the photographer different options for how the camera is going to EXPOSURE our photo.

Auto Mode In Auto mode, the camera arbitrarily selects a combination of Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO depending on the ambient light. The photographer has no input into the selected combination and so has little if any creative input into the exposure of the resulting photo.

This is a quick and safe mode and will result in correctly exposed photos most of the time. Probably not ideal for moving subjects or where the photographer wants to have some control over depth of field. Also, in this mode some cameras will default to auto ISO and are unable to under or over expose (for creative effect). Refer to your user manual

Aperture Priority Mode In this mode, the photographer selects the desired Aperture and depending on the ambient light the camera will select the corresponding Shutter Speed to achieve correct exposure. It should be noted that the photographer also has control over their choice of ISO in this mode.

Having control over the Aperture gives the photographer some creative influence over the resulting photo because Aperture has a direct bearing on “depth of field”. The bigger the aperture the shallower the d.o.f. and correspondingly, the smaller the aperture, the greater the d.o.f.

Generally speaking, in a Landscape photo, a greater d.o.f. is desirable and in a portrait, a shallower d.o.f. is desirable.

Furthermore, in this mode, it is possible to use exposure compensation to under or over expose your image for creative effect.

Shutter Priority Mode In this mode, the photographer selects the desired Shutter Speed and depending on the ambient light the camera will select the corresponding Aperture to achieve correct exposure. It should be noted that the photographer also has control over their choice of ISO in this mode.

This mode is preferable when shooting sport, action or moving subjects. It allows the photographer to choose a fast shutter speed to freeze the action or to lock in a desirably slower shutter speed in a panning situation. Panning is when the photographer follows a moving subject with the camera, keeping the subject in focus while blurring the background, giving a sense of movement to your photo.

It is also possible to use exposure compensation in this mode.

Manual Mode In manual mode the photographer has control over all 3 elements of the exposure triangle. That is, the aperture, shutter speed and ISO. As such you have maximum control over your exposure creativity.

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While this mode might seem daunting to some, it is not as difficult as you would think and with a little perseverance and practice you could become proficient shooting in manual.

The thing to remember is that the camera’s light meter still indicates whether your selections would result in correct exposure or not. You can strictly follow your camera’s direction or use it as a guide only and vary it for creative effect.

In this mode some cameras are unable to utilise exposure compensation. Refer to your user manual

That said, you are still able to control whether to under or over expose and by how much, simply by the settings you choose.

“B” Bulb Mode This mode is a specialized mode which allows the photographer to take photos with shutter speeds of any duration. Generally, you wouldn’t need to use this mode for shutter speeds less than 30 seconds because your camera will give you shutter speeds up to 30 seconds in all the aforementioned modes.

This mode is ideal for long exposure photography of durations over 30 seconds, such as night photography or when using ND filters. A good tripod and remote control are essential when using this mode.

Whatever mode you choose to use, if there was one piece of advice I could give, it is to review your photos in camera after every shot where possible and as often as you can otherwise. By reviewing your images, you can make adjustments to your setting if necessary.

SPORTS / ACTION: Novice winners (July)

1st Place digital: Determination Paul Scacco

2nd Place digital: Sport of kings Paul Scacco

3rd Place digital: Lean angle Paul Scacco

HC digital: Pulling Gs Simon Haber

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SPORTS / ACTION: Experienced winners (July)

1st Place Print: Giddy up

Charlie Scicluna

1st Place digital: Smokin’ Nerissa Turner

2nd Place print: Racing the shadow of a champion Nerissa Turner

2nd Place digital: Young monks

Lynne Yeaman

3rd Place print: Cut back Mathew La Sala

3rd Place digital: Simply the best

Charlie Scicluna

HC digital: Prepare for landing Charlie Scicluna

HC print: The happy surfer Gina Auciello

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What’s on around town and surrounds….

Photo competition—2018 Australian Weather Calendar

Submit your vision of Australia’s diverse weather to the Australian Weather Calendar photo competition, and your image could feature in Australia’s bestselling weather calendar! If your photo is selected it will be hanging in around 70 000 homes and offices around Australia and across the world.

The judges will be on the lookout for photos that capture weather in a unique, spectacular or visually appealing manner. Previous winning images have shown the rich diversity of Australian weather in a huge variety of ways—including creative interpretations of frost, lightning, rainbows, sunshine, clouds, rain, wind, snow and ice.

Each year, the competition starts on 1 July and ends at 5.00 pm (AEDT) on 31 March (Promotion Period).

http://www.bom.gov.au/calendar/contest/#coe

Free Lunchtime Seminars

Cnr Elizabeth & Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne

Designed to inspire and educate, Michaels Media School delivers FREE Thursday Lunchtime Seminars covering a variety of subjects to help improve your skills and get the best results from your photography.

Benefit from tips, tricks and advice from our expert Media School instructor Alwyn Hanson, along with prominent local and international photographers presenting special event seminars on their respective areas of expertise.

Every Thursday - 1:10pm to 1:50pm - No Booking Required

Please check this site regularly as the schedule is subject to change.

https://michaels.com.au/pages/free-lunchtime-seminars

Walhalla Vinter Ljusfest 1 to 27 August, 2017.

The Valley of the Gods shines in August with special lighting, moving images and sound. The display occurs every night starting at 6.30pm through to 9pm. It's FREE to view for all visitors to Walhalla. Our theme for 2017 is "VIVA Walhalla". Be prepared for some great times during the Ljusfest.

http://www.visitwalhalla.com/index.php?EXP=1

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Blossom Season at Rayner's Orchard

Woori Yallock, Victoria

12 August

During the months of August and September, the Rayner's Orchard

farm changes from a barren looking farm with lots of bare dormant

stone fruit trees to an eruption of colour as the peach, nectarine,

apricot and plum trees slowly open their buds and burst into different shades of pink and white

flowers.

This time of year, the farm is a photographer's paradise, creating hundreds of opportunities for

the budding happy snapper to take some beautiful memories of a visit to the orchard. Peak

times to experience the blossom at its best are from mid August to mid September.

All visitors that take a Fruit Tasting Tour during Peak Blossom Season get a complimentary tour

through the blossom trees.

Blossom Tours also run on their own, prices starting from $12 for children and seniors.

https://www.raynersorchard.com.au/

Street Photography 101

2nd August: 6.15 to 7.30pm

Laneway Learning Central, CBD

We will be going outside to take photos so please bring a camera.

This lively, interesting and hands-on class is perfect for beginners to

pros alike. Maybe you’ve tried street photography and want to

sharpen your technique or learn new tricks. Perhaps you’ve never tried, but want to learn what

it’s about. Or maybe you just want to get better at taking spontaneous, candid photos. If so, this

class is for you. Cost $16

http://melbourne.lanewaylearning.com/classes/street-photography-101-3/

Australians in PNG

12 August to 8 October

Monash Gallery of Art – 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill

Eric Bridgeman | Stephen Dupont | Sonia Payes

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is Australia’s closest neighbour, with less than four kilometres separating the two territories at their closest point. The geographical proximity of Australia and PNG has precipitated a long history of joint military operations, aid programs, commercial enterprises, and research projects.

Australians in PNG highlights the ongoing importance of PNG as a subject in contemporary Australian photography. Eric Bridgeman, Stephen Dupont and Sonia Payes have each come to engage with the landscape and customs of PNG from radically different perspectives.

These three exhibitions testify to the unique and vibrant land of PNG, and acknowledge the complexity and significance of Australia’s ongoing involvement with its closest neighbour.

https://www.mga.org.au/exhibition/view/exhibition/217

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Parklands Community

Places I’ve been….

France and Spain

By Gail Crennan

Phil and I have just come back from 3 months away, mostly in

France. We began with 10 days in Barcelona, then spent 2

months cycle- touring in France, finishing with 2 weeks in Paris.

We took our own bikes, carried a tent and stove and camped

for about 2/3 of the cycle-touring time. We used Lonely Planet’s

‘Cycling in France’, and took trains to get from one ride to

another. The scenery was really spectacular - it was a

wonderful trip!

Apart from being a beautiful city to look at, Paris is chock full of wonderful museums (D’Orsay, Rodin, Louvre, Pompidou Centre …) and there are 26,000 Velib city bikes to cruise around on!

Gaudi’s awe-inspiring Sagrada Familia is now almost finished inside. A church like no other, its interior is radiant with blue/green and orange/red light. ‘Trunks’ and ‘branches’ soar up to its beautiful canopy.

La Roque St-Christophe is a 900m-long series of terraces and caves carved into a limestone cliff-face. First occupied by Neanderthal people, it has been employed as a natural fortress for almost 50,000 years. Very atmospheric to ride beneath it.

Lascaux IV in the Vezere Valley is the digital recreation of the original Lascaux cave and its extraordinarily beautiful prehistoric paintings from 20,000 years ago. The painter had no-one to learn from yet could convey perspective and 3D. Amazing!

Phil looking across to Rocamadour. That’s my bike!

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The Perimeter

The Perimeter is a photography project by Quintin Lake based on walking 10,000km around the

coast of Britain in sections. The journey started on 17th April 2015 at St Paul’s cathedral and

follows the coast clockwise. The journey will take around 5 years.

https://theperimeter.uk/about/

The photography is a mix of landscape, architecture and a variety of quirky details.

The village of Lastours is in a beautiful tiny, winding river valley running down (Yes!!) from the Montagne Noir to Carcassonne. We stayed in the (renovated, medieval) double house on the left. It is one room wide and built into the cliff-face. The owners gave us a grand tour of the house and terraces, on which were the remains of a 4-room medieval house of a lord. (His master lived in the castle above.)

The Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain, is … surreal. A shiny black car with a broken window sits in the courtyard and people peer into it curiously ‘see above.’

If a euro is put in the slot, it rains!

In our tent in Rocamadour where it got down to -4. I wore everything warm I possessed but was cold all night! (The next night was spent under a hotel's doona.)

Perigord/Quercy region. We are getting close to

St Cirq Lapopie here.

On this ride in the Alpes Maritimes above Monacco and Nice, we ‘met’ Chris Froome and two other members of Team Sky going the other way. Unfortunately, we were walking and pushing our bikes up when they flashed past!

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Winter Warmer Puzzles

Photography Gadgets…can you guess what this is?

1. 2. 3

4. 5. 6.

APERTURE OVEREXPOSURE

BALANCE PANNING

BELLOWS PANORAMA

BLOW UP PARALLAX

CAMERA PHOTOFINISHER

CLOSE UP POSITIVE

COLOR PRINT

CONTRAST PROCESSING

CROPPING RANGEFINDER

DARKROOM RETOUCHING

DEVELOPER SAFELIGHT

ENLARGEMENT SATURATION

ENLARGER SHUTTER

FILTER SLIDE

FIXING BATH STOP BATH

FLASH TELEPHOTOLENS

FOCAL LENGTH TINT

FRAME TONE

HOT SHOE TRIPOD

LIGHT METER UNDEREXPOSURE

LIGHTING VIEWFINDER

NEGATIVE ZOOM LENS

Photography Word Find:

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Photography Quiz questions:

1. Which late actor played the baddie in the film One Hour Photo?

2. Which painter is associated with portrait lighting effects in photography?

3. Which famous movie coined the term “paparazzi” to denote news photographers?

4. In image editing, what does an S-Curve do?

5. Which lenses are often used to compress perspective in a scene?

6. How many pixels are in a megapixel?

7. When would you normally activate Bulb mode?

8. Why would you fit a gimbal head onto your tripod?

9. What did actor Hugh Grant allegedly hurl at a paparazzo?

10. The first successful photograph required how long an exposure time?

11. Who was the world’s most photographed woman?

12. What is most commonly regarded as the smallest unit of digital images?

13. Changing the cameras ISO setting alters what?

14. What is often a side effect of using a cameras highest ISO setting?

15. To what capability does “FPS” refer?

Camera Gadgets Answers:

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are on again

for 2017

If you have a funny picture to submit the deadline for entries is

30th September 2017. Otherwise, have a look at their website for

a laugh!

https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/

Inflatable photo studio Trilens Holster – for when you need to

carry more than one lens

The level camera cube: Widow Spider Camera Holster Soloshot tripod - keep your camera

pointed at you from up to 2000'

away, without the need for a camera

operator.

Nubrella – for those rainy days

Overall winner 2016 Angela Bohlke

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And finally….

Which one of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.

Imogen Cunningham

Keep smiling…

and happy snapping!

Answers Photography Quiz: 1.Robin Williams 2.Rembrandt 3.La Dolce Vita (one of the characters is

called Paparazzo) 4. Boosts contrasts by lightening highlights and darkening shade 5.Telephoto lens

which makes subjects seem closer to the background 6.One million 7.To keep your shutter open for as

long as you wish 8.To make it easier for your tripod to support and turn a big, heavy lens 9.A container

of baked beans 10.Eight hours 11.Princess Diana 12.Pixel 13.The cameras sensitivity to light

14.Digital noise 15.Frame Per Second

Contributions to Thru The Lens are very welcome and a great opportunity to share with the Parklands

Photo Club community. Please send any details, photographs and articles to Gina at:

thruthelens@parklandsphotoclub.org.au