February 2013 Thru The Lens Our website Newsletter email www.parklandsphotoclub.org.au [email protected]

Hello All, Welcome back to our first competition night. It was a big turn out with some truly diverse images. A quick reminder too- Don’t forget that that next month’s meeting will be on a Tuesday.

Sydney Road Street Festival is coming up. Keep an eye out for an email with details and roster information. It’s a great promotion for our club and also a great day for street photography.

Thanks to Clem for updating our website ready for 2013. It looks great. We have a fantastic team of volunteers at Parklands which is how we are able to have such a dynamic program.

Keep Snapping, Paula [email protected]

PRINT – Novice – Open

1st – ‘Brunswick Sunrise: 05:41am’ – Steven Lankshear

2nd – ‘Happy Mel’ – Susan Martin

3rd – ‘Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away’ – Steve Lankshear

HC – “Melbourne or Paris” – Katriona Fahey

HC – ‘Fairy Wishes’ – Susan Cashin

PRINT – Experienced

1st – ‘Fill’er Up’ – Charles Scicluna

2nd – ‘Mickey’ – Clem Warren 3rd – ‘Bichno’ – Mathew LaSala

HC – ‘Flinders Street Station’ – Clem Warren

HC – ‘Awaiting a New Dawn’ – Paul Grinzi

DIGITAL – Novice

1st – ‘Odaiba Ferris Wheel’ – Ben Cippa

2nd – ‘Lotus Glow’ – Susan Martin 3rd – ‘Christmas Treats’ – Rachel Rutkowski

HC – ‘Me and My Taj’ – Kath Kelly HC – ‘Jingu’ – Ben Cippa

HC – ‘Come On In’ – Susan Martin HC – ‘Rosary’ – Emi Taylor

HC – ‘Fire Dancers’ – Rodney Wee

Club News

Mini Workshop – 28th Feb – 7:30pm This month we will be looking at what makes a good Black and White photograph. Please bring a B/W image that you like for discussion.

Club Meeting – TUESDAY 12th March Next month’s meeting is on Thurs 12th March, 7:30 in the library as usual. The theme is ‘Liquid’. Don’t forget to correctly label your prints. Prints are due to Sharon by Sunday 3rd March, but ideally you could bring submit them at the ‘mini-meet’ next week.

Don’t forget you can also submit your entries for the following month ‘Street Photography’ –at the next meeting.

Some monthly theme definitions for 2012:

Low Angle/ 50cm Maximum height The image has to show the low aspect from which it was taken. The camera must be no more than 50cm above ground level at the time of capture.

Street photography After much discussion, the following definition was approved. Street photography captures people and places within the public domain. More specifically, ”un-posed, un-staged photography which captures , explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings”.

Special competitions held on a mini-workshop night

B/W The May comp will be to produce a black and white image in print form, ie one that has no colour.

Triptych The October comp will be to produce a triptych, in EDI format. As this is a new concept there will be a mini workshop on how to create a triptych beforehand.

URGENT 2013 VAPS Interclub Competition – call for entries

Don’t forget – VAPS is coming up, so start getting those images ready! We have seen some fantastic photos in our club meetings over the last year. It would be great to see them entered for VAPS. Each club is allowed to enter 15 prints and 15 EDIs per club. We try to submit a range of entries from across our membership so please submit one you love.

VAPS sizes:

For prints, there's no minimum size, max size mounted is 40 cm x 50 cm (16 in x 20 in). For EDIs, the dimensions need to be 1400 x 1050 pixels.

Please hand in prints to Sharon and upload your EDIs for the interclub by the monthly comp meeting on Tues 12 March.

Naming Digital Files

Just a friendly reminder: Saved image files should be lower case and contain the "Title" followed by "Underscore" and the maker’s "Membership Number". "a d Ex example of file naming: ay a The_Races_34.jpg

Membership Fees Membership fees are due in Feb, please give the cash to Fiona on meeting nights, or email Anna for bank transfer details. As per the decision by the club at the AGM, Parkland’s membership fees for this year will be:

$40 per adult $25 per child (under 18) - must have guardian $60 per family

2011 Work Steward Details

For this year, please get your photos for each month’s meeting to Sharon, deadline specified the previous month – usually about a fortnight beforehand: Sharon McDowall, 25 Florence St, Coburg.

Upcoming Event –March 4th - Sydney Road Street Festival With Summer in full swing the Street Party is coming up again. This is a great local event which traditionally generates a lot of interest in our club. We will be manning a Parklands stall outside Brunswick Town Hall from 11.30 am to 5 pm, and need members to volunteer to help out for a couple of hours during that time. We will also need some helpers to set up the stall, from 10 am, and pack everything up after 5 pm. We’d simply like to tell people about our club and what we do at meetings, so don’t feel shy about volunteering.

It's a great event with plenty of photographic opportunities! Please sign up for a shift by clicking on this link: http://doodle.com/ydn5u784w6hcy92v. Your help in promoting our fantastic club is appreciated.

Upcoming Event – Workshop – 7th March – 8:00 to 9:30pm

What does this button do? .... (Know your camera!) Got a new camera? Not sure what all those buttons are for? Like to know more about it?

Come along to our mini workshop night and learn the basic parts and settings of your camera. The evening will be structured towards DSLR users but if you have a “point and shoot” that you’d like to get to know a little better, please bring it along and we’d be happy to help. Free with your 2013 membership or only $10.00 for non-members, (and remember to bring your camera). http://www.parklandsphotoclub.org.au/News/General/What%20does%20this%20button%20do.pdf

To reserve your place, contact Kath: [email protected]

Upcoming Event – March’s Mini meet is a Photowalk Our next mini-workshop, Thursday 28th March will be a Photowalk- ie we won't be using the library meeting room that night. Coburg Lake Photowalk Date: Thurs 28 March Time: 7.30 pm Meeting point: Outside the Harry Atkinson Centre, Lake Grove (off Gaffney Street), Coburg North. Car parking is available here by the Community Centre. Contact person (beforehand or on the night): Anna 0425 823412

Blurb – Ralph is taking final orders for the 2012 Parklands book. If you want a copy email him on [email protected] by 25 Feb.

2013 Program

28th Feb Mini Workshop – Black n White Photography

7th March Workshop: What does this button do? (Know your camera)

Tues 12th Mar Competition Meeting – ‘Liquid’

28th Mar Coburg Lake Photowalk

11th April Competition – ‘Street Photography’

9th May Competition – ‘Open’

23rd May Annual ‘Black and White’ Competition

25-26th May VAPS Convention – Brighton Grammar School Complex

13th June Competition – ‘Out of Place’

27th June Workshop

11th July Competition – ‘Animals’

25th July Workshop

8th Aug Competition – ‘Open’ 22nd Aug Workshop

12th Sept Competition – ‘Portrait’

13-15th Sept The Digital Show

26th Sept Workshop

10th Oct Competition – ‘Max Height 50cm’

24th Oct Annual ‘Triptych’ Competition

14th Nov AGM

28th Nov Workshop

12 Dec End of Year Dinner

DIGITAL – Experienced 1st – ‘Bark Sentinel’ - Ralph Haller-Trost –

2nd – ‘Ocean Beach Strahan’ – Peter Mollison

3rd – ‘Silent Reverie’ – Carmen Caruana

HC – ‘Singapore Nights’ – Anna Small

HC – ‘Blaki’ – Sharon McDowall

HC – ‘A Debriefing’ – Carmen Caruana

HC – ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ – Ralph Haller-Trost

Advice for preparing and submitting print images

Members, especially those in the novice category, are encouraged to submit print images for our monthly competitions. To help with the encouragement, the newly introduced “Black and White” annual competition will only accept print images (whereas the “Triptych” competition will only accept digital images). Now this may seem daunting to members that have not ventured into the realm of printing their images, but there is information on the club website about printing companies (and how to prepare your images), and the newsletter from February 2009 (check the club’s webpage) has information about mounting your prints.

Are there any questions you have about printing or mounting images? Or can you provide advice to those experimenting with prints? Head over to our Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/groups/parklandsphotoclub/discuss/72157 632830689057/ for a discussion.

Exhibitions, Events & Competitions

Competition – ARTFOTO 2013 Sections: A) LIFE B) BEAUTY OF FACE AND BODY C) LANDSCAPE D) FREE Closing date: 2nd April 2013. Exibition date: 10th – 25th May 2013. http://asocijacija-artfoto.com/artfoto/

Competition – 2014 Weather Calendar The Bureau of Meteorology and Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society runs an annual weather photography competition. Entries must be of a meteorological theme, such as clouds, lightning, rainbows, thunderstorms or tornadoes. Entries st close 31 March. For more details: http://www.bom.gov.au/calendar/contest/

Looking for more competitions? This is a useful resource for competition announcements: http://photocompetitions.blogspot.com.au/

Lightroom

Lightroom 4 Workshop

Firstly, a big thanks to Paul for running a great workshop on Lightroom.

Lightroom is a quick and intuitive program that was designed particularly for photography. It can take the user all the way from downloading, clever cataloguing, good post processing features and exporting to printing. I know Lightroom is now on my wish list. Especially when considering the future. I’m only going to take more photos, and having an efficient library system is such a good idea. I was also impressed by the ease of using the ‘Develop’ mode (this covers exposure, colours, cropping, etc). Obviously Lightroom does not have as many nuances and options as other photo manipulation programs, but it’s pretty impressive – especially for those who are overwhelmed by the complexity of other programs.

A couple of key points from the workshop

– Download the trial and give it a go. The trial lasts 30 days – but do it when you know you will have the chance to play. Pick a photo, then just start pressing buttons to see what happens. Start Left to Right and Top to Bottom.

– A big key feature of Lightroom is that it does not change the original file. It references the image, then applys a set of instructions. You can also create several ‘snapshots’ of instructions. This stops you from having multiple copies of the same image with slight changes eg: Tree 1; Tree 2; Tree B/W; Tree crop etc. A valuable feature for saving disk space.

– When organising your library – Don’t move the files around. Very important. Once an image has been uploaded to lightroom, keep it in its place otherwise Lightroom won’t know where to find it.

Paul also said he is happy to follow up the workshop if anyone has more question. He also recommended the how to book ‘Lightroom 4: Book for Digital Photographers’ by Scott Kelby.

Links for Lightroom:

More info or to buy: http://www.adobe.com/au/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

Lightroom Vs Photoshop: http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/01/lightroom-vs-photoshop/

Tips for new Lightroom users: http://scottkelby.com/2009/10-things-i-would-tell-new-lightroom- users/

Lightroom set up and Catalogue creation: http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/06/getting- started-right-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-3-setup-and-catalog-creation/

Tips on using Lightroom to convert images to black and white: http://digital- photography-school.com/3-tips-for-better-black-and-white-conversion-using-lightroom

Websites of the month

 For all the camera lovers out there: http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-girl-with-the-say-cheese-tattoo-turns-arm-into- camera/story-e6frfro0-1226538189330

 Though it doesn’t feel like it, autumn is fast approaching. Some tips for capturing the beautiful colours. http://digital-photography-school.com/autumn-fall-photography- capturing-colours

 For some great tips on taking portraits: http://digital-photography-school.com/our-14-best-portrait-photography-tutorials-of-2012

 Stuck for inspiration for the black and white annual competition?- check these images out: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/06/09/beautiful-black-and-white- photography/

 Manipulating white balance in portraits http://digital-photography-school.com/stunning-portraits-manipulating-white-balance

 Photoshop: How to create a vignette http://www.all-things-photography.com/create-a-vignette-effect.html

 Want to know more about our Feb judge Robert Groom: http://robertgroom.com.au/

Photographer of the month- Ashley Gilbertson

Ashley Gilbertson (born 22 January 1978) is an Australian photojournalist. He is a photographer with the VII Photo Agency and is best known for his images of the war (for which he won Time Magazine’s Picture of the Year) and the effects of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on service personnel and their families. His work has encompassed a number of socially driven photo essays including drug addiction in Melbourne, war zones in South East Asia and the South Pacific, and refugees. He has won a number of awards including the for his photographical reportage on the Battle for Fallujah and the National Magazine Award for his series “Bedroom of the Fallen”, published as a work in progress in the New York Times Magazine and published as a book in 2012.

Website (warning-confronting images) http://www.ashleygilbertson.com/index.php

Quote of the month

“A camera didn’t make a great picture, any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel” Peter Adams