A friendly, fun, supportive club on the West Rand

May 2019 West Rand Photographic Club

Photo of the Month

Best Senior Image Best 5 Star Image Pale Billed Aracari

2018/2019 Craig Morgan

— 5 star Volume 8

Best Junior Image Best 3 Star Image

Vertigo Roland Tutty 3 Star

Our Judges were:

Karen Kolozsvari—Southern Suburbs Club Martin Barber—PSSA & Southern Suburbs Camera Club

We thank them for their time and valuable input.

Inside this issue: Page Page Page Committee & Club info 2 Set Subjects 5 Aviation 8

Letter from the Chairman 2 Aviation Photography— Leo Theron Aviation Photography 9 6 Do’s and Don’t of 3 Winning Images 10-11 Upcoming salons 6 Events, Outings, Photo Ops 4 Birthdays 12 Pssa National Congress 7 Club hosted up-coming events 4 Giggle 12 Page 2

Committee Members and other things to know:

Chairman: Dave Brimson, [email protected], 081 728 0667

Vice Chairman: Mark Kupczyk, [email protected], 083 2692339

Club Secretary: Deanne Daniel, [email protected], 084 250 1392

WRPC West Rand Photographic Club Treasurer: Lesley Kearns Eastwick, [email protected], 076 184 3383 is affiliate to PSSA Website: Craig Morgan, [email protected], Canada 1437 990 0076

Emma: Dave Brimson, [email protected], 081 582 6663

New Members: Magda Pieterse, [email protected], 082 372 3748

Newsletter: Judy Hardy, [email protected], 084 798 1004

2018/2019 — Catering Magda Pieterse, [email protected], 082 372 3748

Outings and events: All of us! Volume 8

WRPC Details and info:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WestRandPhotographicClub/ “Which of my West Rand Photography Club : http://www.wrpc.co.za/ is my favorite? Formal and Informal meetings are hosted at: The one I’m Florida Lake Canoe Club, Eisteddfod Street, off Albertina Sisulu Road, Florida going to take tomorrow.” This area is closed to the general public, if you wish to visit check date and time of event and then — Imogen just wait at the gate for a member to give you access or call any of the above committee members. Cunningham

We are on Whatsapp, just mail us to be added to the group.

Letter from the Chairman: Dave Brimson

It has been an incredible month at WRPC! We have had just camera settings we learned about where to position two incredible come to give lectures to ourselves, tracking a subject and how to expose for this us, Martin Barber and Leo Theron. Each bringing with difficult but rewarding genre. We are also grateful to them and amazing amount of knowledge and experi- Martin Barber who returned to us later in the month to ence. Martin spoke to us about Photog- judge our Black and White set subject evening and we raphy and how to properly consider working in Black and are looking forward to seeing Leo again for our future White. Dispelling many myths and misconceptions we set subject judging. Members have once again worked may have had concerning the post production of images hard on improving themselves and I am pleased to hear in Black and White. Leo Theron gave us of members new to salons are venturing into a new are- wonderful insights in to his aviation pho- na as well. Well done to everyone! tography. Teaching us much more than Page 3

Do’s and Don’ts of panning—Trevor Carpenter

Several people have complimented want to be as close as you would for a shot, fast burst, medium burst, slow my panning pictures so I thought I'd non panning, high shot. burst. What I do know is that in bursts publish a few tips. I learn't much of you will often get that perfect shot in this from another UK . amongst the failures. As I said above Background is im- portant so consider it in your planning. I hope that somebody finds this use- Don't try to grab panning shots, you Do experiment with monocolour back- ful. will get many failures. Do plan your grounds and complex ones to see shot and get into position. what you like and how they impact the Recent and not so recent pictures main subject. here https://trevorc28a.wixsite.com/ Don't think those 3/4 shots will look good, they won't because getting the Don't get over ambitious with those subject in 100% focus will be next to shutter speeds. Start with 1/200 impossible. Do try to shoot from a par- (panning effect minimal) while you allel position to the action. develop that technique and get slower in increments. That 1/30 second shot is a long way away but you may get Do stand correctly, legs on that imagi- there someday, I haven't got there nary parallel line and make your apart from a few lucky shots. movement from your hips, not legs, not neck. Do expect failures you will get some. Don't take that zoom out to the end. Every extra bit will make the job hard- Understand your IS and experiment er. Zoom back and remember that the with what works best. I shoot with Du- background is important in panning al IS2 on all the time on my Pannys shots so you don't need to fill the but I wouldn't say this is necessarily whole frame with the main subject. the best solution but it works for me.

Similarly, do step back, you may not The one I'm not sure of is single

Five Right—Mark Kupcyk—3 Star

Creating a dust storm—Bertie Baard - 4 Star Page 4

Events, outings and Photo Opportunities

Saturday 4th May—SAAF Museum Airshow—Airforce Base Swartkop (This is presented the first Saturday of every month)

Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th May—Gino Cup Dragon Boat Event @ Florida Lake

West Rand Photographic Club Saturday 11th May—Kishugu Lowveld Air Show—Nelspruit Airport

Saturday 22nd June—Vintage Air Rally—Krugersdorp Airfield

4th - 6th July—AERO South Africa—Wonderboom Airport

Sunday 18th August—Rand Airshow—Rand Airport

2018/2019

Saturday 31st August—Festival of Ales—Greensleeves Medieval Kingdom, Hekpoort Road, Sterkfontein —

Saturday 7th September—Grand Central Fun Rally—Grand Central Airport

Volume 8 Saturday 14th September—Vans RV Fly-in to Kitty Hawk—Kitty Hawk

22—27th September—PSSA National Congress 2019—Sabie.

PLEASE INFORM US OF ANY EVENTS YOU’D LIKE THE CLUB TO BE INORMED ABOUT.

Club Hosted up-coming events: CATERING: • 14th May—Social Evening— Photography. You will need your camera, , remote trigger if Madga is arranging the “Character, like a you have one and your fastest lens with a very catering for the club. high . (e.g. 50mm 1.8) Please contact her to reserve , develops your plate on the social evening, in darkness.” • 28th May—Formal Meeting at a cost of R25.00 • — Yousuf Karsh • 11th June—Social Evening—To be decided Please RSVP • Magda Pieterse, • 25th June—Formal Meeting [email protected], • 082 372 3748 • 9th July—Social Evening—To be decided SMS or Whatsapp • • 23rd July—Prize Giving

On the run

Deanne Daniel 5 Star C.O.M.

Page 5

Set Subjects:

May 21st: Planes, Trains and Automobiles Inspired by the presentations done on the 9th April. Leo will be Judging! :) June 25th: “Water of life” Display how water is crucial to living things…. Either by showing lack of water and it’s effects or more water. July 23rd: Year End—your Best 4 images of the year, look out for the categories and further info on page 8. Planes, Trains and Automobiles Ideas for the next set subject:

DIGITAL SIZING MAXIMUM FILE SIZE: 2MB SRGB Colour Space

LANDSCAPE: Maximum 1920 on Horizontal Axis PORTRAIT: Maximum 1080 Pixels on Celebrating Vertical Axis Cinco de Mayo

Gaby Grohovaz 5 Star Page 6

Technical Evening Report Back—LEO THERON Aviation Photography—and all fast stuff!

I have taken the liberty of extracting information from various articles written by Leo Theron to help all the

guys that could not attend. West Rand Photographic Club With winter approaching, it is airshow season again. Airshows are held all over the country – mainly in the winter months. Why Winter? Temperatures are more reasonable and participants can safely return home in the late afternoon without worrying about the adverse

weather. 2018/2019

— Where is the sun? The direction of the display line, normally off the main runway, dictates where the sun will be during the show day. An east/west display line Get a program – failing that – listen to the commenta- will have the sun on your back the whole day. A Volume 8 tor and keep a keen eye out to see what is taxing out North/south display line? Are you east or west? – that will be your next display. For example at Air Force Base Swartkop you shoot Not flying? There is a myriad of non-flying subjects against the light in the morning – in the late afternoon that present themselves at an airshow. Aircraft start- the low light shots in the Golden Hour will be very re- ing up and belching smoke and barking flames. His- warding. Rand Airport rewards shooters with an east/ torical planes taxing past and out and pilots preparing west runway – but normally further away from the to fly. Spectators are wonderful to shoot – as they are action. normally so engrossed in the displays, that they hard- ly notice a camera being pointed at them. Camera? The most desirable camera is a DSLR – by no means essential – as the right technique is more – PRACTICE. Practice. Practice. A friend said I was important than the right camera. My camera of choice lucky with the shots I had. The surprise in his eyes is a Nikon D3, but I have made it into a magazine with when I told him that I practice panning by shooting my point and shoot camera – so do not despair. On cars at the local mall before I go to an airfield was the lens front: If I can get close enough – 70-200, not something to behold! Yes – prepare yourself by prac- close enough 300 – or the 70-200 with a 2x convert- tising before the airshow. er as a last resort. Focus, , shooting mode and ISO variables What’s flying? There are individual aircraft that you and settings must be set – otherwise, you will get may want to shoot as the pilots show off their lines – home and will be highly disappointed. Let us prepare from fast jets to big, slow transport/recce aircraft and and go through them: helicopters. The helicopter might be displayed hover-

ing head-on to the crowd. Then there are formation Exposure? Shooting and exposing aircraft in the air displays with smoke, where you might even use a present some unique challenges. So many shooters, standard lens to include the aircraft and the smoke so many techniques. It might be beneficial to meas- trails. ure a grey(ish) subject and manually set exposure accordingly. I dial in depend- ing on the lighting conditions – for example, positive compensation is called for if white clouds are present in the background.

Evaluative? Centre-Weighted? Spot? Spot or Centre- Weighted metering only when you measure the light and manually set your exposure. Evaluative when you use auto exposure mode. Compensation – consider what you need. Exposure Mode? Aperture, Shutter, Manual Mode? This argument will continue till the cows come home. Page 7

Congress is all about having fun, learning something new, being inspired, taking or making great photos, reconnecting with old friends and making new friends and that is exactly what we were doing!

Twenty Seven to Eight Upcoming Salons: Martin Brimson 3 Star 11th May—Brandpunt PDI Salon

25th May—Tygerberg PDI Salon

31st May—CTPS Ntional AV Salon

1st June—Camera Club of Johannesburg

8th June—Sandton PDI Salon

15th June—Youth Division Salon

5th July—Worcester Fotografieklub

20th July—Pretoria Photographic Society

3rd August—On the Rocks Camera Club

17th August—Vereeniging Photo Soc. Reflection Magda Pieterse 31st August—Krugersdorp PDI Salon 3 Star Page 8

Technical Evening Report Back—LEO THERON Aviation Photography—and all fast stuff!

My camera is set on Aperture mode. The camera will You get home, sunburnt, tired and ready for a meal, a now calculate a shutter speed for correct exposure beer and then bed. But, as soon as I get home, I with the given and set ISO. So – I change the aperture download my shoot for the day and make the back- to get the desired shutter speed. ups. I also have a quick peep at some of the shots! West Rand Photographic Club Although I shoot RAW + JPEGS with the JPEGS on ISO? As the sun goes down and the light slowly chang- their own card as a back-up, only the RAW images are es, you need to adjust your ISO to assure your shutter downloaded for processing, and the first keywords speed and f-stop combination are still where you want (e.g., Airshow, Swartkop) added during the download them. Remember: With noise, you can deal, but a stage. blurred image is totally useless and will have to be binned immediately. Some shooters are set on Auto When you are ready to start, the first order of busi- ISO, but on my camera, I manually set the ISO as I 2018/2019 ness is to mark all the out-of-focus, miss framed and

— require it. obviously bad images for later removal. Then, the images to be processed are marked. If there is some- Shutter Speed? Shooting a fast moving jet, I want as thing especially good, that is marked as well. fast a shutter speed as possible. To render a prop as Volume 8 a disk on a Harvard flying past, your shutter speed will It is important to note that images of aircraft are nor- have to come down to 1/125 of a second. At this mally high in contrast, and it is important to be careful speed, your panning technique must be top notch, or with those sliders – as it is very easy to end up with the plane will be soft or even blurred. over-processed images that are actually worse than

Focus oh Focus! Since we will mostly deal with moving out-of-camera JPEGS. aircraft, it would be necessary to set your camera to Editors and processors continuous focusing. And you better understand how When you use the tools supplied by your camera man- YOUR camera manages high frame rates and what ufacturer – Nikon NX-D, Canon DPP etc, the settings focus and/or release priority means. Then – do you on your camera embedded in your RAW image will be focus using the shutter or via the back button? Action used to open the image – rendering it exactly like the shooters who know when they want to use the back camera JPG images when you open it on your comput- button to focus, but many successful photographers er. However – other tools, like DXO, Adobe Camera focus via the first detent on their shutter release. Raw and Lightroom will not apply those settings – and you must start from scratch. Non-Photographic Kit? Long sleeved shirt, sunblock, big hat, comfortable shoes, a big bottle of water and a folding chair. Take your partner along so that you can continue shooting and not waste time standing in line at the food stalls. Better still, take your own lunch or buy food before the masses descend on the food stalls. Note: I do not take any responsibility if you fol- low the advice in this paragraph! And do not chimp, you will miss the real action! What not to miss: The late afternoon departures.

SAFETY FIRST: If you are lucky enough to be in an air- show shooter group and wearing a bib – stay in your group and do not wander off. Aircraft are very difficult to manoeuvre on the ground and visibility from the cockpit is usually limited. Then – That invisible chop- ping blade in front of an aeroplane makes mincemeat of camera bearers – and the camera as well.

You are thirsty, hungry and as you arrive home you just want to see what that shot actually looks like on your computer. Leo Theron takes you through the final step of your airshow experience. Page 9 Technical Evening Report Back—LEO THERON Aviation Photography—and all fast stuff! OVERCOOK it at this stage. Important to un- derstand that a blue sky will easily show up noise, so you will have to handle the sky with kid gloves. Also important to note at this stage that there are special procedures to smooth the sky – however it is outside the scope of this article. • Lens Corrections. When shooting air- craft against a bright sky, lens aberrations show up easily – purple or green edges, for example. If your editing application handle lens profiles, use it. If your lens is not in the list, use the manual settings to remove the colour fringing – if there is any. So, how do I process? • Dust Bunnies. While we are against a smooth back- Here are some basic pointers – not editor specific – to ground – and shooting with smaller to get get you going. Let’s assume we have a reasonable im- some movement into those propellers, telltale sensor age, well exposed, no washed out areas or dark. marks that normally disappear in the detail of normal images will show up. Temporarily increase contrast so • Histogram. Set the markers “ON” so that you can see that you can see offenders and remove them – and do the under- and overexposed areas. not forget to set that contrast back! • White Balance. Check carefully that the WB is correct • Crop. If you did not get the composition right during and adjust accordingly. In camera, I selected the WB – shooting, now is the time to make adjustments. Make usually SUNSHINE or CLOUDY – never Auto WB, because sure your craft/centre of interest is placed in a strong the blue sky and will fool the camera. position and has space to “move”. Some photographers • Highlights and Shadows. This highlight slider is near- crop before they start processing – for others it is a final ly always pulled back quite a bit – to make sure that no activity. area is washed out. Again – check that no shadow area Then the most important part – output, save (or export) a is blocked up. final copy and review it carefully. Go back and make those small adjustments. • Black Colouration. Carefully move the black slider to the left (more black) to assure that the image is not “dull” but has good contrast. Check that histogram. • Exposure and Contrast. At this stage move back to the exposure and contrast slider to assure that the important part of your image has the correct bright- ness AND that the histogram covers the area from left to right. If it is far out (contrast to high) you will find that the over and under ‘indicators’ in the histo- gram will be “illuminated”. • Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation. I usually add a small bit of clarity and decide if the vibrance is enough. Saturation is normally not adjusted. • Sharpness and Noise Reduction. You will have to study your application to know how best to sharpen and reduce noise in your images. Critical – DO NOT

IMPORTANT This is the official monthly in-house magazine of West Rand Photography Club. By virtue of submitting any entry, the image author permits W.R.P.C. to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for inclusion in the monthly magazine, local press or W.R.P.C. Website, unless otherwise stated by the author. All other images are courtesy of Google Images and remain the property of the original Image Author. Credit given to Image Authors where possible. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written consent of the existing chairman. This magazine is free of charge and may not be sold. ALL QUERIES MAY BE RAISED WITH THE CLUB CHAIRMAN. Page 10

Overview of Winning Monthly Images—The very best!

Best Set Subject—Black and White

Girls just want to have fun Judy Hardy 4 Star

Best 1 Star

One special day Kevin Reddell

Best 3 Star Image Best Junior Image Vertigo Roland Tutty Page 11

Overview of Winning Monthly Images

Best 4 Star Image Baboon Spider Lance Nel

Photo of the Month Best Senior Image Best 5 Star Image Pale Billed Aricari Craig Morgan

Best 5star Image

Broad Billes Motmot Craig Morgan 5 Star

Member Birthdays April 2019

January Magda Pieterse—12th September Katherine Lutge—8th Pieter Louw—13th Candice Perry—1st Luis Chin—12th Rudy Biesbrouck—20th Warren Krynie—3rd Judy Hardy—18th Tony Helfrich 26th Renier van Niekerk—19th Phileen Lutge—20th June October February Carmen Landy—6th Gareth Norman—18th Dave Brimson—14th Louis Jordan—18th Kevin Tutty—27th Helen Brimson—18th Antoinette Nel—26th Gaby Grohovaz—27th Janine Biesbrouck—19th November Michael Daniel—29th Jean Dick—19th Mike Swart—1st

Bertie Baard—23rd July December Mark Hardy—8th March Alan Goldschmidt—16th Roland Tutty—13th Mike Perry—3rd Sylvia Loraine-Grews—21st Nadia Mills—18th Craig Morgan—21st Brenda Mashaba—27th Deon van Niekerk—22nd Grant Helfrich—27th Keven Reddell—28th Elise Naude—28th Maurice Pretorius—30th Lesly Kearns-Eastwick—30th John Shorten—29th Martin Brimson—31st Kittie Groenewald—29th April

Lara Bonetto—5th Happy Birthday to Bruce Hepburn—30th August each and every Lance Nel—5th Deanne Daniel—7th one of ya! May Johanna van Niekerk—26th Hettie Halliday—5th Roy Mann—29th Mark Kupczyk—5th John Truter—31st

Joke of the month: