April brings the sweet spring showers...

Flanders and Swanne have a great deal to answer for; and in the same breath, to be thanked for as well.



Here it is not so much sweet spring showers, as promised autumnal downpours. It is the continuing story of an La Nina summer; warm, wet and windy. Perhap that is what has gotten into the ol’ probligo brain and growed a fungus that has brought all of these together at the one time.



F’rinstance, the judging of set topic competitions. I eventually caved in to the pressure and posted a minor rant on the club Flikr page. There are no replies as yet, nor do expect that any will take up the glove.



CT was very fair on my two efforts. I got the HC and M that I expected; merit for the wave, HC for the cold morning. The interesting things came out of his comments.



For example, he saw the wavebreak as including quite a bit more than it needed. The before and his idea of what it should have been cropped to is shown. In view of the Merit score, I am not going to argue that one.







The Taupo cold morning went the same way. Before and after are below. Perception is a deceptive rather than constructive mental force. There is recent research reinforcing the idea that the normal brain spends a good deal of its time telling fibs to the rest of itself; this most particularly through memory and recall. The idea behind the original frame was to push the depth of field to the limit by getting the rock (bottom left) and boats in focus. I reckon that was achieved, so I am fairly happy on that score. I don’t think that the image lies entirely with the boats. It is the relationships; boats, distance from shore, coming fog… But, as I said, perception is a cruel mistress.














Set topic this month is “reflections”; some very good efforts were presented in Prints Monday night. I spent some time over the weekend seeking out the reflection of trees in a mud puddle taken down Whangamata way last spring. It was a vague attempt to replicate the Escher drawing of a puddle with tyre tracks and footprints. Very poor in that light and the more I look at the original frame, the less that survives the crop tool.



There was a series of images that I took some years back in Cornwall Park; autumn leaves sitting in the road channel with water. One or two of those would go close so I am going to try and get out there in two weeks to repeat the exercise. Not sure that SWMBO would appreciate sitting around whilst I go puddle jumping. But there y’go.



I think this month is when I shall submit the “Buddha brings Enlightenment to Chaos”. Time I got that one off my chest. That kind of implies that I expect my reflections image to be weak. I hope not.

...mber

And so another month drifts quietly to a close. Actually, I have to admit, it turned out to be not half bad in some respects. Primary among the reasons for the good part was the birth of Kath’s twins. That resulted in yt having the house to himself for about 8 days of total self-determination. That status started with the drive back from New Plymouth, which was interrupted along the way by a number of “unscheduled” stops. The remainder of the week was accompanied by watching a bit of rugby. One of the highlights was the U20 and NRL second Minor Finals with Old Dark in one hand and rum in the other. The Sydney league semi was not broadcast or nothing would have got done on Sunday either.



The Awakino Head was probably the highlight of the trip back. There is potential there for some spectacular coast scenery – but very little else truth be told. The beach at Mokau similarly.



Thought about heading up the old timber road from Mokau to Kawhia and Raglan. Dropped the idea when leaving Mokau as the belly was calling for lunch. Tried The Fat Pigeon in Piopio – it was OK but Bosco’s in Te Kuiti is better.



The last Sunday of freedom was mis-spent on re-shooting some of the old attempts at art. I now have a 3m x 1.2m “infinity sheet” in the form of a very nice piece of cotton duck. Next thing to purchase is a 1.2m rod on which to roll it so I do not have to borrow the SWMBO’s flatteninghotter. I used only natural light in the family room.



Which leads into the competition for this month. Judge was another of the senior members – I will stay with my protocol of “No names…”. I had to try and find out just where he was coming from before I started writing this. Interesting cove he is; high-powered member of the club, and in the IT world as well. He is a very respectable photographer as one might imagine.



The pyramid was given “acceptance”, mainly because it did not grab him. He was very up-front; the type of image that it is lies completely outside of his personal taste. Can’t argue with that.

Poor Leo. He was recognised as “large”. The wording fitted the image. The very big defect was that the back of the chair was in focus. Never mind… not all of us have studio soft-boxes that we can trot out at a moment’s notice for that perfect candid shot of a comparatively bad-tempered cat.

The evening ended with a totally unexpected and very unusual experience. I got “chatted up” by a 60-something lady (a member). It was quite un-nerving in some respects. Oh, there was never a hint of anything untoward but the flirting was apparent; even to this old numbskull. Sadly, she is not really my type.


Going back to the pyramid and the mask for a bit, and my re-shoot of the mask.

The image out left is (from top to bottom); test and control for print, f5.6, 1/10; f5.6, 1/20; f5.6, 1/45. This was shot indoors, ambient light only. The three frames are on a single scan, no modification or treatment.

First thing to note is that there is not enough difference between background and object. Simple solution to that is to add light. That will be the next attempt. That will also take out the fold shadows that are all too obvious.

The other thing is the lack of difference between frames 2 and 3. This points up something I have battled for years. If you understand your digital camera you will know that it will - if set on auto - do its utmost to turn everything it sees to an average muddy grey. Commercial printers are no different. They can take a mediocre image and make something out of it. I know. Been there...

Some many years back - over 15 years back - I spent some six months cultivating a (strictly professional) relationship with a lass in the local pharmacy who had been given the job of running the automatic film processing part of the business. We both learned a heck of a lot about how that machine worked.

I know that those three frames (and sadly the rest of the film) can not be rescued.

But ... they can be re-taken.

septe

Been a busy month, this. As something of proof, daughter sent us this of the latest additions to her family and the ol' probligo's (now probbly completed)small host of grandchildren.



That took a week or so out of the beginning of the month, if only because the missus was stressed out from the last week of August until the event was over. Then the stress level rose to extreme until packing and travel had been sorted. I got a small number of frames on the way back that might be mildly interesting. I have the coming weekend available for project work before the missus gets back Monday.

So, I have been able to sort adequate entries for club this month -


Set subject this week is "domestic pets". I was tempted by a photo of a rock but decided that tempting judges had gone far enough for the while. Stick to the menu lad.





On the other side, however, I turned this out of the library last week. It is in the same mould as the mask...








I wish I could work out how Frank does his virtual masques and frames.


Oh, the cat? No, he wants it known that he is not fat.

Just big!

All 6.5 kg of him.

Not so august?

I have to say that “White on White” is definitely not easy. Attached are before and after of the attempt I put in to club. Confession – the after is “temperature adjusted”, screwed up on the brightness scale by about 60% and converted to black and white, then taken down for the print by 2 stops.




Does it work? We will find out next week.











Went to the final installation of the Grade 2 course the club has been running. Lying around was a print fairly similar to the idea I have been following. Spoke to one of the notables who promptly claimed ownership and said that it had got rubbished at the print night competition the previous night. Oooo-K! Good start that is. I did not press on the point, but if the print was as submitted I can think of two very good reasons why – not the least of which was the cropping as it was marked on the print I was looking at. Given that, my attempt will be lucky to get Acceptance, pushing hard for Merit.



For the open I am beginning to get a bit desperate. At this stage the breaking wave is winning – I might crop that to a 19:6 or thereabouts to take out all but the wave itself. Looking at that on-screen with the blinkers on it might just work for a HC.







The course final night was quite a good evening. In most respects. Out of the ten or so taking part most were a pretty good crew; a police forensic photographer, a retired lady whose husband has very bad Parkinson’s, a lass who is almost blind (and takes a mean photo), a couple others who are better than I am, and the rest. Well, let me limit the rest to just one gentleman. Best illustration of his attitude came toward the evening. There had been a discussion on bulb exposure for fireworks – up to 30 secs. I could not recall if the Lumix had a bulb setting so I tripped through the “snow” to the car and took it inside. No, it does not have a bulb setting; maximum exposure is 8 secs. I was just ruminating this with the person I had been talking to and a voice behind gives a sniff and says “You could not get a decent image with that. Buy a proper camera.”

UPDATE -

The two entries - both Merit. Well, not as bad as some that were rejected as not meeting "White on white" requirements.

The major objection to the vases was "over-exposed". The judge was one of the tutors from the classes and I have to say that he is right. It was not in the camera though as comparison of before (I must find out what caused the white balance to go that way...) and after. There was an intermediate which I rejected because it was too clear; the idea I had was to get the vases to "disappear". Strange.

Image of the night was without doubt presented by another C Grader. Absolute perfection as a product publicity shot; good enough for Vogue even. It will be up on the club site next month.

Starting Au-gust..

I am in a quandary.

The set topic for this month is “White on white”. The print competition was last week, and I did not go to club that night. I have this horrendous joke about “monthlies” that would go right over the heads of some senior executives (especially if they have worked for EMA) but which even SWMBO appreciates even if she doesn’t like the tone of the humour one bit. In my case the monthlies strike, without fail, in the last two working days of every month and the following three working days. It is not driven by glands but the need to report to powers-that-be at higher levels of the company by whom I am employed. This need results in emotional and hormonal responses that take out the best part of that week.

As I said, the print competition was last week, and I was not there to see what was going on. I had a brief natter with another member on Tuesday night and was given a rough description of white flowers over white background; kind of thing.

So, why the problem? I know what I want to do. I have had a couple of goes at it and it has not quite worked for me as yet. Yes, it involves white on white; white crockery on white table to be exact. Well, I want the crockery to “disappear”, blend with the tabletop, leaving the tea/coffee, toast and poached egg – with hollandaise if SWMBO wants it. Place the cutlery so that the outlines of the crockery are hinted but not seen… It can work, if I can get sufficient blend between crockery and table without burning the image out by pushing the white too far up and without excessive reflection from the cutlery. So the problems are –

Finding sufficiently white crockery
Removing all shadows and retaining a semblance of depth
Removing the reflections from the cutlery
Interrupting Sunday breakfast long enough to set up the photo.
Not taking so long that SWMBO's egg gets cold

For the open competition? I haven’t really given that any thought. There are a couple of half decent images from Niue I could test the water with. There is a portrait of a senior club member which might go – taken at the last “class” evening when we were playing around with studio and lighting. There are a couple of architecturals which might fit the bill. None of them grab really the goulies.

I have a m-lemma.

The rest of July...

A week in the tropics is all that is needed to get the ol’ probligo over the edge of troppo. Came back from Niue absolutely convinced that the Tuesday week was competition night at club. Worry lines crumpled the probligo countenance when the email revealed no evidence of an acknowledgement of his two entries for competition. Come the next Thursday when entries close and still no mail!!!! Panic!!!

What a silly old duffer I am. Wrong week; the competition was last night, a week later than I thought.

Now. How do I put this. Judging started with C Grade Open. A quick flick through the entries first, and the mask is the last of some 10 entries. Tenterhooks!!! The last three before mine earn Honours. Good images, too. The mask flicks on-screen; and the judge says “Only one word – Honours.” I must retake that image, if only to prove to myself that I can do it again; that it was not a fluke. Besides I need to set myself up with an infinity sheet – a good one - as well.

Then on to Set Subject. Same process, except that mine is about 5th of 8 or so entries. “Good to see someone thinking outside the square.” The difference between Highly commended and Honours? The little one on the end “looking” to the side. Thanks SWMBO, good idea and worth the effort.

End of the night comes and those present are starting to get restless after an exposition from worthy judge on flash; interesting ideas but how do I get a Sony system flash?? Thought required – mainly how to rob banks. Hang on, we forgot to nominate the night winners. C Grade image of the month – the probligo’s mask.

So, there y’go. In the club for six months and a winner already… Hard act to follow, that one.

Niue was a joy. Innumerable challenges. From caves including stalagmites and stalactites to hard tropic midday, deep shadow to early morning and late evening colours, HDR to soft monotones.

The rest of June -

There are only a few days left in the month, and next month will be fairly busy so I will wrap June up here and now.

There was club last night, with the competition for projected images; set subject for the month was “contre jour”. For those who know, please ignore the next para while I try to explain exactly what that means…

“Contre jour” means “against the light”. A good c-j image will combine three essential elements –

Strong back light.
Visibility of detail in the subject (not a silhouette).
A measure of halo around part, or all, of the subject.

Judge for the night was a (high-standing and well qualified) club member. I give her credit for being fairly gentle with those who submitted entries in C Grade and missed the boat. The B Grade entries had made a quite better effort, I think that only two out of the eight entries were “accepted” due to not meeting the requirements of c-j images. When it came to the A Grade entries, she did not quite have the gumption to follow through on an initial comment that a person at this level should be able to correctly meet the requirements of a c-j image. To award “acceptance” to a disqualified image at the top level is almost dishonest. To make matters worse, it was not a single entry that failed the compliance test but almost half of those eight or so images presented.

The real disappointment about last night’s competition came in the Open section and centres on two, perhaps three images.

There is a fashion in these recent times for a whole raft of image types – yes I have been here before – that in the past might have been classified as “out of focus” through to “very bad camera shake – should use a tripod” to be lauded as “Impressionist” images. The other euphemism, one which is somewhat more tightly defined now, is “Minimalist”. I gave a brief report on a local exhibition, an ex-member of the club, that we went to take a look at earlier in the month. The standard of his– as “Impressionist” – images was several blocks ahead of the efforts at last night’s meeting. Given what was presented last night I could actually consider his as praiseworthy.

“Impressionist” as a descriptive term has a very well defined meaning in the world of fine art. It is a classification that centres on the work of a comparatively small number of people over a similarly short period of time in the mid to late 19th and very early 20th centuries. Names such as van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Manet spring immediately to mind. I read some while back, a book or article concerning the sight problems that some or all of these artists suffered. Van Gogh for example suffered from glaucoma. The internal pressure that distorts the eyeball creates focus problems and this has been used to explain the “Starry starry night” as just one example. He also took digitalis as a control for the epilepsy he suffered. Looking at Wiki it seems that digitalis causes a persistent yellow coloration to the sight. The original article (from far-off recollection) listed about six of the Impressionists) all of whom had a problem with vision – possibly including such rarities as synaesthesia. Just how accurate these interpretations (and my recollection) are, is of small importance.

I give credit to those who tried to create "Impressionist" images, and their efforts were rewarded with “Merit” and one “Highly Commended”. One image which did deserve the tag of “Impressionist” had as its subject the reflection of two people having a conversation. The reflection was on the side of a brewing vat with consequent distortion of the scene; the whole image being very well managed indeed. It was not until the image was explained that the full impact of the technical side became apparent. It surely deserved the accolade of “Honours”.

I can but wonder what might be thought by a competition judge of an image, badly out of focus or using an astigmatic lens with a yellow filter. Perhaps that is worth a try – title “After van Gogh”.

The more formal part of the evening over, one of the senior members gave an exposition on the topic of depth of field and focus. Those with mathematical bent might find some interest here if google is prepared to play ball. I have looked through that and the eyes glazed over after the first para or so. As did the majority of those present last night at club. No question that the presenter knew exactly what he was talking about, and trying to explain. His explanation was simple enough but would have left many floundering in the shallows. One thing that I did work out - why a pinhole camera has infinite (or very near) depth of field. It has to do with the length of the lens, its focal length and possibly one or two other things. A pinhole has close to zero length - decimals of a millimetre in a good one. That seems to be (from what I could make out last night) why a pinhole is so... Oh, and I might try and get a copy of that "Focus Encyclopedia".

April already...

Quite an interesting month thus far.

Went to the first of the club "workshops" Tuesday week ago. A lot of faffing about, but one or two interesting bits. The four taking the course spent about the first 90 minutes introducing themselves. There was no opportunity given for the participants to introduce themselves - a pity that because I might now have the names but putting faces to them? Impossible.

Got "homework, due Thursday this week, and I flubbed about and got half of it in. There were ten frames required that I did not submit - two landscape subjects with POI shown in each of the four "thirds" corners, "golden square" corner and central. Could not find a bloody thing to fit the requirement. Submitted eight other frames that (I hope) meet the requirements of the remaining exercises... using different focal lengths etc. Examples shown...
...using different focal lengths...


... frame which works better as landscape rather than portrait presentation.



Set topic for the month is "Privacy". Could not make up my mind about either of the two below. The bowlers won for set topic and the dandelion is in for open.
The bowlers was taken at Clevedon last year. The Mrs probligo enjoys walking and decided to enter one of the SUB (Sarah Ulmer something; and look SU up in the cycling press from about 6 years back) 10km walks. Did very well, first in the 65-70 group. Ol' probligo hung around for photo ops and noticed the old codgers playing bowls next door. The catch took a bit of patience - three ends to be precise - before chance and a fair bit of sidling got everything in the right places. There is one clue which shows that it was cropped. See if you can pick it :).


The dandelion was taken on a Sunday drive not long after. Again out Clevedon way. There is a disused silo in the middle of a paddock which had some interesting colour and texture. I was walking back to the car and the dandelion caught my eye... Two frames later and the cat got up and walked away in disgust.


On the matter of "there ain't nothin new"...

Went to the library this am. Picked up a copy of a Brit photography magazine with an article about 1 minute plus exposure landscapes. Uses a ND10 filter. What was I saying? Still, there is unending possibility. Most of the ideas revolve around the "minimalist" ideas of moving water and old jetties. The ol' probligo has a few of his own. Experimentation at Easter in Opo.

Oh, May sees the first of the club special comps. I am going to put the foggy estuary in for digital image, and this one for the Maslen Cup (black and white landscape). Evil grin...

March so far...

Well, the month is half gone.



I went to club for the first meeting of this month. There was another couple of new members :D This is getting to be quite uproarious. But as I said in the previous post the test will be when my next set of entries goes in. I am tossing up between the Tank photo I submitted last month and another which I might put into a later category.



If I use the Tank photo, I need to dodge the background somewhat. I NOW HAVE PS ELEMENTS 9 so it should be a breeze, right?



Yeah. Right! That battle will continue. The original is in fact on film, printed to cd, so I am not sure of the quality at that level.



I spent this weekend digging through the old files. There were a number of quite important frames I have been missing. In the course of that search I found at least three of the lost ones plus a "perfect" image for the Sports next week. I have also dug out a frame for Open so here goes ...