By Gayle Tout - 2nd March, 2020 filed in Shoot Reports
The first day of autumn saw 16 club members and families head out to the Blue Lotus Water Garden, Yarra Junction.
It has been about nine years since we have been out to the Farm as a Club and those of us who had visited it before noticed a big change with several new areas.
The weather was kind to us, heating up later in the day. Lots of photos were taken of lotuses and water lilies as well as other plants; also looking for birds in the wetland area. All the attendees seem to enjoy the day - well worth the 1½-hour drive!
The Blue Lotus Water Garden is found at 2628 Warburton HWY, Yarra Junction, Victoria 3797, Australia. OPEN December 26 - April 13.
By James Troi - 26th February, 2020 filed in Meeting Notes
At our meeting last night we were joined by Michael from Kayell who took us through the tech-strong topic of Colour Management, Colour Profiles, and the Printing Process.
Not being a big self-printer I took a lot away from Michael's talk and may just think more about printing my own images now. We probably should see it as part of our process in creating our works in camera, to computer, and then to final output on print media.
Apologies, the notes are a little all over the shop; but hopefully you'll understand what I'm saying.
Congrats to all who entered our End of Year awards: our images of the year, our aggregate winners, and to those who have been promoted from Grade B to Grade A, you have all produced exceptional work throughout 2019 and we look forward to seeing so much more in 2020.
By James Troi - 27th November, 2019 filed in Meeting Notes
A few notes from last night's meeting on Time Lapse Photography.
Time lapse photography is a way of compressing time. The amount of compression depends largely on the interval between images and in moving time lapse videos, the frame rate we choose to present the images.
Time lapse is largely used to show changes and movement over time. We might find it used for the following:
Capturing landscapes/cloudscapes
The growth of plants and opening of flowers
Progression of construction projects (massive buildings or Lego builds)
Movement studies and animal behaviour
Astrophotography
As cinematic b-roll, extra footage that may appear between shots to imply the passage of time between scenes or to compress a series of events
By James Troi - 14th November, 2019 filed in Meeting Notes
Our Tuesday night meeting welcomed the annual Paper Bag Challenge. A night where members are presented with a mystery item and are asked to create an image with that item. Over the years members have become wise to the madness and bring along props that may or may not work with the mystery item. It's a great night that tests our abilities to think on the spot and make images with the presented item, props brought in, and found items and locations around us.
By James Troi - 13th November, 2019 filed in How To
Most have probably already heard of SLR Lounge, they offer a great range of tutorials and editorial for photography.
I recently came across two of their videos from the Lighting 101 course that I think would be extremely valuable to our members, and may be an enticement to take a look at their full course.
These are simple set-ups that will cost you a lot less than getting fancy studio lighting. You can get reflectors pretty cheaply on AliExpress or Ebay. Search for "Collapsable Reflector". Just note that they can both have long lead times on delivery, sometimes up to 60-days so order early! If you're working alone, you may also want to grab a few reflector holders too.
Our judge for this competition was Jean-Philippe Weibel (JP), a member for the Caulfield Photographic Society since 1987. Jean-Philippe has been a judge for CPS, VAPS, and is a Licentiate-accredited member and Vice-President of the APJA.
By James Troi - 15th September, 2019 filed in Shoot Reports
What a day! The weather was divine. The members showed up and so did all of Williamstown! The good weather brought out people en masse and our original venue was flooded with humans, so a last minute change in venue was required.
Thankfully, our members have better knowledge of Williamstown than I do, David Male directed me to a hidden spot behind Seaworks and it was decided we'd move to there, abandoning our initial venue, Commonwealth Reserve.
I remained for a short time to redirect late-comers while our members explored our new location and found areas they'd like to use for the shoot. Our new location had plenty to offer. At around 3pm we started to work with our location, checking the settings we might require once the models arrived.
Our set subject this round of competition made for some great images, even if people found "Domesticity" a little hard to pronounce. Our judge Lisa Law was intrigued by the subject. Our open images also stood out this round. Our members producing some beautiful work.
