Karori Camera Club

Inside This Month’s Newsletter…

• Subscriptions
• February 6: Waitangi Day field outing
• February 20: Club outing downtown
• December’s events
• Exhibitions in Wellington
• PSNZ stuff
• Bill’s summer holiday

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Newman Centre is undergoing extensive renovations, which probably won’t be finished until mid March. If the weather stays like it is now (i.e. perfect), this is a good opportunity to have outdoor meetings, and of course also to be out in the mornings/evenings to take photographs.

Subscriptions

As in previous years, it costs $25 to join the Arts & Crafts Centre and an additional $10 to join the camera club. Treasurer Heuchan says he’d prefer that the Centre's fee was paid directly to them and not through him or the club's account, and that he just collects the $10 from each member.

February 6: Waitangi Day field outing

Waitangi Day is being celebrated at Waitangi Park from 10 am to 4 pm. “Many different cultures are to be hosted by tangata whenua in a colourful and diverse mix of entertainment, stalls and food on our national day. There are kapa haka, drumming, dance, multicultural acts and much more in a day that can be enjoyed by the whole family.”

“Starting at 10.00am, the Capital's annual free Waitangi Day celebration begins with a blessing ceremony followed by musical performances from Congolese musician Sam Manzanza, The Wellington Pipe Band and Batucada, a community based percussion group who specialise in the Samba.
At midday, the Wellington Tenths Trust, supported by the Waka Uru kapa haka cultural performing group, will conduct a powhiri to formally welcome the public on behalf of the Council and the Tangata Whenua. This will be followed by traditional kapa haka performances by Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Nga Mokopuna and Ngawari Hauora, Wellington East Girls College and Rongotai College.
The remainder of the afternoon continues with contemporary Maori and Irish music by Toni Huata and Toku Reo, and the Shenanigans, the African Rhythm Band and salsa music from Grupo Salson and dance by Salsa Bomba. The celebration finishes with a 60 minute set from Soul Cake, a seven-piece covers group.”

There seems plenty of scope for photography throughout the day. Our suggestion is that Karori Camera Club people will meet up just before the powhiri at midday, and could then work together in groups or individually, whatever suits you. Closer to the day, Stella will email a meeting place and cellphone number.

There’s more information about the celebrations on http://www.wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=2827

February 20: Club outing downtown - practice for street photography and low-light photography

Some confusion here – the Cuba Street Carnival is a biennial event, so won’t be held this year. This will need some re-thinking.

DECEMBER’S EVENTS

December 5: Photographic challenge followed by drinks/coffee.

A busy evening to finish the year off with. First of all, we were sent off round the neighbourhood with our cameras, and one hour to get the most interesting photos possible for each of these categories (winners in brackets):

• worm’s-eye view (Dave)
• fast food (Bill)
• people (Bill/Duncan & Bruce Pool)
• pattern (Heuchan & Bruce P)
• shadow(s) (Helen)
• outrageous (Duncan & Heuchan)
• shot of the night (Bruce P)

Back at the Newman Centre, we downloaded our images and Stella judged them (as above).

Then we viewed a CD from the PSNZ Central Regional Interclub competition. You’ll remember that we sent off eight images to the Gisborne Camera Club for this competition, heard nothing for months, and then out of the blue received a letter and CD. The sets of images were excellent, and although we came at the bottom of the pack (fifth equal), we were up against stiff competition. Supper and drinks rounded off the evening.

EXHIBITIONS IN WELLINGTON

Photospace Gallery

1st flr, 37 Courtenay Place (above Sahara Cafe)
Hours: 10am-4.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-3pm Saturdays.
6 December 2007 - 10 February 2008: Peter Black - Public
13 February – 3 March: Lucien Rizos - Fringes & backgrounds

Te Papa - Cable St, Wellington

Toi TePapa - includes photographers Aberhart, Richard Collins, John Johns, Noble, Peryer & Len Wesney, but also worth seeing for the Maori art and European paintings, sculpture and ceramics.

Treehouse Gallery, Botanic Gardens, Thorndon

Herbarium Amoris - Edvard Koinberg's photographic tribute to the sexual nature of plants. from 14 Dec.07 to 10 Feb.08 (10 am – 4 pm).

Dowse Art Museum - Laings Rd, Lower Hutt

Zeitgeist becomes Form - German fashion photography 1945-1995 until 3 Feb 2008

Pataka - Cnr Parumoana/Norrie St, Porirua

Nicola Dove - Observance - 1 Dec.07 - 6 Mar.08
Hamish Tocher - Unknown Renaissance Portraits - to 6 February

Thanks to the Photospace website, www.photospace.co.nz, for the above information.

PSNZ STUFF

These are bits and pieces — also refer to the club liaison letter forwarded last week.

The Wiltshire and Bledisloe Cup 2007/08 competitions for sets of six images will be organised by the Waikato Photographic Society. Entry information will be circulated in October/November and entries close in mid February. This year the Wiltshire Cup is for sets of six projected digital images only - it is no longer a slide competition. The Bledisloe Cup is for sets of six prints and its charter requires that each of the prints must be derived from images taken in New Zealand.

The closing date for PSNZ Honours submissions is 28 February.

I noticed a few changes to the PSNZ website since I last looked (our Mark Berger is now the webmaster – good on ya, Mark). There are links to PSNZ members websites, including several past or present KCC members – Bruce Girdwood, Cliff Threadgold, Ann Worthy.

BILL’S SUMMER HOLIDAY

After a year with 140 days working away from home, I was determined to have time off over Christmas – New Year, so by December was able to stand back and watch bemusedly as the other members of the firm squabbled over who would have to work over the holidays. I took my family camping at Nelson Lakes and Mount Cook, and we spent time in Christchurch, and swam with/photographed dolphins at Kaikoura.

At Christchurch we went to the exhibition celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Ilam Art School, and I was overawed by the sheer presence of the paintings. The few photographs in the exhibition seemed quite dingy by comparison, and I went away with the feeling that photography wasn’t in the same league in the “real art” world. Also I’d been reading Justin Paton’s book “How to look at a painting”, where, intentionally or not, he seems thoroughly disparaging about photographs. (JP’s key piece of advice also applies to photographs: How do you look at a painting/photo? – Slowly).

I found new inspiration in an article in the New Zealand Geographic issue 88 (Nov-Dec 2007) on Tom Ives, a photographer living on Waiheke Island. His images are abstract, brilliantly coloured and, apparently, created while moving the camera during the exposure. The text of the article, and one of the pictures, is on http://www.nzgeographic.co.nz/articles.php?ID=222

During the holiday, I made full use of my new Digimate II USB storage device, which has a variety of camera memory card slots. As I filled up my memory card, I could transfer the files to the Digimate, and free up the card for the next day’s shooting. Although you can’t view the images on the device, the ability to back up images without needing a computer saves needing to purchase multiple memory cards.

Something I noticed about my camera, that probably applies to yours too, is a function called Pixel Mapping. The manual says: “The pixel mapping feature allows the camera to check and adjust the CCD and image processing functions. It is not necessary to operate this function frequently. Approximately once a year is recommended.” I looked up pixel mapping on Google, and one useful site was http://www.photo-info.co.nz/articles/pixel-mapping. “Over time digital camera's can (and do) develop pixels that are either permanently dark (dead pixels) or permanently bright (stuck). Pixel Mapping eliminates the bad pixels (by mapping them out) and replaces them with values interpolated from adjacent pixels. The advantage of this method over manually editing is once done you won't have to manually edit each image. Most cameras will need to be sent back to the manufacturer for this process.”

FOOTNOTES

The Karori Camera Club is part of the Karori Arts & Crafts Centre. For information on all Centre activities, contact Stella Mason, 476-6817 during working hours.

Karori Camera Club meets on the first and third Wednesdays of every month at the Karori Arts & Crafts Centre, at 7.30 pm. Current and recent events, and links to individual members’ websites, are found on http://karori.cameraclub.org.nz. For any enquiries, contact our new co-convenors Stella Daniel (twinkle@paradise.net.nz) or Mark Berger (photosoc_kcc_@moothall.co.nz). For contributions to the newsletter, contact Bill Leask at bill.leask@irba.co.nz or bill.sue.leask@paradise.net.nz.