Page 3 - Cape-Camera-May-June-2021

Cape Camera May/June 2021

News from the Council

I have been extremely fortunate (together with quite a few of bled the editing of jpgs as if they
our other members) to being completely immersed in pho- were Raw images. Wow –saved!
tographic events and opportunities these past two months. I Something I never knew. And
personally feel that my growth in photography has been ex- then the mystery of why my Raw
ponential, simply by being exposed to venues and my fellow images changed colour when I
photographers. It brings home to me the educational value of opened them in Photoshop was
outings and our sharing of knowledge. solved by collaborating with an-
Firstly, 13 of our members did a trip of a lifetime up to the little other member – after last calibrat-
town of Rhodes in the Southern Drakensberg. I was away for ten ing my screen it had been set on
days and enjoyed the opportunity of photographing The Valley ‘graphics’. Changing the setting to
of Desolation in Graaff Reinet, the Owl House at Nieu Bethesda, ‘User’ mode solved what had been
the incredible scenery at Rhodes, the people in the township a problem for months for me.
at Rhodes, Hogsback, the Addo Elephant Park and the scenery What I am saying above is that ‘the more you put into anything,
around Prince Albert. The value was in watching how, and of the more you get out of it’. In these times of Covid we are all
what, other photographers took photos during this time. Much holding back, but once we are through this pandemic, please
emphasis was put on multiple shots in camera, together with come out and support our outings. At present it is mainly your
camera movement and odd tricks like the ‘Pep Ventosa’ method Council members who are the support group, the rest are miss-
of taking multiple images of trees whilst walking around them ing out. Council has decided that with the third wave upon us,
and then combining all the shots in a multi-layered final image. all meetings will continue to be held on Zoom. The scheduled
A few weeks later we were off for our weekend outing to Agul- July Print and Evaluation evening at the hall is thus cancelled
has, which we extended to another night at Arniston. This time it and instead we will have another overseas speaker (see E & D
was more about ‘ticking off’ the well-known images of that area, News).
the Meisha Mara wreck and the Cauldron at Arniston. Many of Our umbrella body, the PSSA, has been the topic of discussion
us had never been to those sites and although they are consid- in the Council of late. We have decided not to enter this, our
ered over-photographed, I saw it as a pilgrimage to take photos brilliant Cape Camera magazine in the annual magazine com-
of them myself. Kim Stevens kindly acted as a guide down to petition once more after entering last year and not doing that
the Cauldron, and showed us how nimbly she managed the ‘b’ well, and yet it was voted last year to be the best club magazine
grade rock climb down onto the slippery wet sea-level rocky in the Western Cape. Our problem is their judging criteria. We
platform. What I noticed was the different approaches we all are communicating with them in an attempt to get changes
have towards photographing. I, and others, run around trying made and to engage professional judges and not amateurs
to get as many different images from all vantage points, whilst Members who are members of more than one club have also
all the good photographers suss out the scene and spend the been the subject of discussion. The problem arises when clubs
majority of their time taking only one or two perfect shots. enter their images into the PSSA monthly and annual Interclub
Amongst other things I learnt was I kept getting dust spots on competition. To obviate this we have decided to only enter im-
my lens. It was because the lens cap was dirty and static elec- ages from members who have stated that CTPS is their primary
tricity transferred the dust across from cover to the glass. Soap, club.
water and a toothbrush solved that problem. Finally, I would like to warmly welcome the new members to
The Kalk Bay Harbour at sunrise outing provided more images, our society, namely Ken van Wyk Janice Ashby and Mariana
as did the attendance at a Portrait workshop run by the Paarl Visser, as well as congratulating Sally Anne Spooner for being
club, with real live models out in the vineyards! Needless to promoted to Intermediate, Mike Pace and Kumar Paramasivam
say the processing of all these images at home also provided to Advanced and Trudi du Toit to Salon. We also have five new
more learning. Due to some finger trouble on the Rhodes trip Masters, namely Crighton Klaasen, Jacoba van Zyl, Jeanette du
my last two days images were all mistakenly taken as Jpegs. Toit, Lesley Parolis and Nicol du Toit. Heartiest congratulations
A disaster! Saved by advice from one of our sages, that under to all!
‘filters’ in Photoshop, there is a ‘Camera Raw’ option which ena- Richard Goldschmidt
President

Art implies control of reality, for reality itself possesses no

sense of the aesthetic. Photography becomes art when cer-
tain controls are applied. So, a fine art photograph must go

beyond the literal representation of a scene or subject.
Ansel Adams

Cape Town Photographic Society 2