Page 8 - Cape-Camera-January-2024

January 2024 Cape Camera Cape Camera January 2024

LESLEY PAROLIS is not only one of our best photog-
raphers, she also plays a major role in keeping CTPS

running smoothly. Apart from her official roles as Vice-
President and Competition Convenor, she is respon- Photo by Joyce Goldschmidt.

sible for assisting with keeping the website updated,
selecting member images for competitions, proofread-

ing Cape Camera ... amongst the many other tasks she
willingly performs. DAVE GORDON asked her to tell us

more about herself.

Lesley Parolis

talks about her photographic journey

I have always had some form of camera in my life. As a Chemical Engineering at UCT. I worked in the Minerals
child I loved to take photographs on our family holidays Processing Research Unit (now Centre) for 9 years and
and at social events, recording special moments. Grow- sadly, photography took a bit of a back seat with most
ing up in Pretoria meant that we were lucky enough to photography only happening on trips, holidays, and
be taken to the Kruger National Park (the Game Reserve) family occasions. I retired from UCT at the end of 2008 as
once a year and here was a great opportunity to record Lambe was then 70 years old and we wanted to spend
the wonderful scenes I saw. time together and do some more travelling.
I left Pretoria in 1977 to start my degree in Pharmacy Now I had the time to really get deeper into my pho-
at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Two years later I tography and in 2009 I did my first digital photography
met my husband to be, Lambe Parolis, and was thrilled course, DSLR1, at the Cape Town School of Photography.
to be able to share in his passion for photography. He I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was stimulated to do the
knew all about cameras and lenses and I learnt a great next phase, DSLR2. The people I met at the school and
deal from him. the exposure I had to new ways of “seeing” the every-
During our years at Rhodes, we were able to travel inter- day world around me was tremendous. I also learned
nationally every year to conferences and would always to move to the Manual setting on my camera and got
tag on some sightseeing afterwards. We visited many deeper into the technical side of photography.
wonderful places, and our cameras were always with us. Full Spectrum Photographic Club
We moved to Cape Town in 1999 as Lambe had decided It was at the School of Photography that I met Anna
to take early retirement from Rhodes and in 2000 I took Engelhardt and Kathy Priday. After some discussion the
up a position of Scientific Officer in the Department of three of us and five other students Continued p9

This image image of a babobab tree was captured during a Botswana trip. Above: Another successful ballet image.

8 Cape Town Photographic Society