Page 6 - Cape-Camera-Jan-Feb-2022

January/February 2022 Cape Camera

Important changes to Salons Rules Other & additional changes &
requirements
Nicol du Toit, in his capacity as PSSA Western Cape Re-
gional Director, urges everyone who enters Salons to read There are also several administrative issues that could affect
the notice about the salon rule change currently on the your Impala Trophy points – and if there are any mistakes on the
PSSA salon page, namely that all potential COM and medal log, please contact Simon Fletcher via the “PSSA Management”
winners in categories where no manipulation is allowed (e.g. page on the PSSA website.
Nature, Wildlife, Photojournalism, Sport, Street Photogra- For example, carefully check the spelling of your name when
phy, Travel) will be asked to provide RAW files with the EXIF you register on Photo Vault Online, including upper and lower
data intact to the salon director. Once the salon director is case, because if you change it later on you will be logged as two
satisfied that the image was not manipulated, the medals different people.
or COMs will be awarded – but if it shows that the image
was manipulated, it will be disqualified. In cases where you belong to two or more clubs, the club you
Therefore make sure your EXIF data and RAW file is avail- selected for your first entry of the new Impala Year (starting on
1 July of each year) will remain as your club on the Impala Log.
able when you enter. Please also familiarise yourself with But, this will, change when the club points are calculated for the
what constitutes manipulation – e.g. adding dust, darken- club Premier awards. There, your points are awarded to the club
ing or blurring backgrounds, removing grass, etc.
you selected with your salon entry.
Also from 1 January 2022 the definitions of Nature and Wild- In cases where you act as a salon judge, please note that you are
life will include the following: only allowed to judge six salon sessions (categories) per year.
Nature: “images must convey the truth of the scene that Please advise salon directors if you reached your limit. Remem-
was photographed. A well-informed person should be ber, you may only earn judging points (four for a national and
able to identify the subject of the image and be satisfied eight for international sessions) if you have acceptance points
that it has been presented honestly and that no unethical for that category – Open, Mono, Nature or Prints. Otherwise you
practices have been used to control the subject or capture lose the judging points.
the image. Images that directly or indirectly show any hu-
man activity that threatens the life or welfare of a living
organism are not allowed. The most important part of a
Nature image is the nature story it tells. Women in Astrophotography share their
“Objects created by humans, and evidence of human knowledge
activity, are allowed in Nature images only when they Our very own Kim Stevens was featured recently in an article
are a necessary part of the Nature story. Photographs of where the editor of the Space magazine, Jo Plumridge (Septem-
human-created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral ani- ber 2021 issue), interviewed a group of female photographers
mals, domesticated animals, human-created hybrid ani- on their passion for astrophotography.
mals and mounted or preserved zoological specimens are
not allowed. This is what he wrote about Kim “… based in Cape Town, South
Africa Kim Stevens is primarily a fine art photographer, regularly
“Complete conversion of colour images to greyscale mon- adjudicates honours panels for the PSSA (Photographic Soci-
ochrome is allowed. Partial conversion, toning and infra- ety of South Africa) and runs long exposure workshops. She is
red captures or conversions are not allowed.”
also passionate about capturing the night skies. “Living in Cape
Wildlife: in addition to the restrictions in nature photog- Town, one only has to drive for approximately three hours to
raphy, wildlife organisms must live free and unrestrained access almost dark sky reserve type conditions, with little or no
in a natural habitat of their choosing. light pollution. Our Milky Way season in the Southern Hemi-
They recommend, for example, that nature images that sphere is from March to October, so we have lovely crisp winter
contain the following should be disqualified: skies to photograph the galactic core. I use the PhotoPills app to
• Where animals were baited, killed, stressed, re- assist with planning beforehand and on site. I love the natural
strained or removed from a nest or their natural habi- look of single Milky Way shots as well as capturing what the eye
tat and controlled by humans to get a better image; cannot discern.”
• Images staged to be photographed, including live Kim shoots with a Canon R5 and 15-35mm f2.8 RF lens, as well
feeding or using “feeding posts” or reducing the tem- as a Canon 1DX Mk II with a 18mm Zeiss lens. She’s also a fan of
perature to slow down reptiles and insects to photo- the Sigma 20mm f1.4 Art lens. Two Gitzo tripods and a Canon
graph them. intervalometer to use a remote release, make up the rest of her
• Images of domesticated animals that have gone feral kit.
– including feral horses, pigs, camels, goats etc that To read the entire article, go to: https://www.space.com/wom-
are descendants of animals that were previously do- en-in-astrophotography?fbclid=IwAR03CHK6sNTQqRXVWeV5l
mesticated. QtFqV_TxBaFwJidPjgj1wMlMe4Xe2Cfk0zH9U4

5 Cape Town Photographic Society