Karori Camera Club

Inside This Month’s Newsletter…

• September 5: General meeting
• September 14: Karori Camera Club Annual Exhibition – hanging
• September 19: Exhibition appreciation; potential new members
• October 3: Workshop on Purple and Glass topics
• August’s events (including the Regional interclub battle)
• Exhibitions in Wellington
• Hutt - Karori Interclub Battle
• Further interclub competitions
• Horadela Lodge – possible fieldtrip venue
• AA Directions magazine
• Karori Camera Club Programme to end 2007

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 5: General meeting

Stella Daniell will host this meeting on general club business -

1. install one or two people to fill the position of president (or convenor, call it what you will);
2. et in motion a plan to purchase a digital projector;
3. scrutinise the programme for the rest of the year (included at the end of the newsletter), and decide if any changes need to be made.

The meeting will also cover the upcoming club exhibition (do you agree with the suggestions below? advice on prices; what time to do the hanging — and un-hanging; whether you want the KCC annual exhibition to be open on the weekend i.e. requiring volunteer staff).

Stella suggested: “It's also a chance to decide how we're going to present our exhibition - are we happy with a mixture of frames? (I have no problem with that, as it's a group show and I think works should show the individuality of the artists.). I actually have a whole lot of frames I'd like to sell if anyone's interested. We certainly need to agree when we're going to hang the exhibition and make sure we have enough people to help.”

September 14: Karori Camera Club Annual Exhibition – hanging

We can hang the exhibition on Friday 14 after 4pm, or on Saturday 15. The exhibition is up all week, and will be taken down on the Friday evening or weekend (as long as it doesn’t conflict with an embroidery workshop). If the exhibition is to be open on the weekend, we will need volunteers to be on duty on Saturday and Sunday.

The club owns 39 16x20” frames (suitable for 8x12” prints), which suggests three images per club member. If you don’t want to use a club frame, that’s OK too. For example, over the last year or so, Joanne Long has showed how effective photographs can be printed on stretched canvas. I suggest a maximum of four photographs per club member.

September 19: Official opening of the exhibition: Potential new members invited.

An opportunity to invite anyone you know outside the club who may be interested in joining; we’ll put on a supper; maybe have a guest speaker. People will be given the opportunity to talk about their exhibited prints. Some more thoughts from Stella: “What about inviting potential members along and generally trying to spread the net wider - friends, and friends of friends, a bit like an exhibition opening. It would be good to have someone speak too, but not just to say what a lovely exhibition etc — rather to inspire people to look at photography with new eyes and respect it as a valid art form.”

October 3: Workshop to develop ideas for Purple and Glass topics

Stella’s thoughts again: “a table top photography session for the set topics for the Hutt battle - glass and purple. This would help people get ideas flowing and give them some help if they've never tried close-ups. Even if the shooting conditions aren't ideal on the night, they could pick up some tips and/or enthusiasm to work at home.”

Bill’s thoughts: I’ve had some fun over the last few weeks playing with glass objects and creating some interesting images. But I went over my photos over the last couple of years, and purple pics are down there next to hens’ teeth. There’s not even much in my house that’s purple. So a discussion of possible subjects seems a great idea.

See the notes on page 4 about definition of purple and various flickr purple pictures.

AUGUST’S EVENTS

August 1: General meeting; matting battle pictures

Joanne did send me some notes on what happened at this meeting, but I inadvertently deleted them; I think the gist of it was that a lot of mattes got cut and not much general business was covered.

August 14: Wellington Region Interclub Battle

The Wellington Photographic Society hosted this year’s battle at the Johnsonville Uniting Church. This year’s judge was Rob Kitchin from the Dominion Post, a man of few words but quite decisive in manner.

It was also an opportunity to say goodbye to Joanne Long, and some of us met for a meal beforehand at the Daawat Restaurant.

The battle was quite a tense business, with Karori in the lead (or leapfrogging with Waikanae) until ¾ of the way through the contest. At the end, Waikanae and Wellington pulled in front, and we came third. Congratulations to Waikanae, who for some of the last few years have been at the bottom of the list. And of course, congratulations to Karori, for being a small club hanging in there with the big clubs. It’s been very heartening to (a) see the number and variety of photos submitted for selection, (b) see the level of participation – 12 pictures from 8 photographers, and (c) see us easily matching the standards of much larger clubs.

The battles have changed in style quite markedly over the years. The first ones I went to had a lot of mystery topics, which meant going along with a large pile of prints to cover all the possibilities. There was a substantial fun element, but at the end of the night the competition was more a test of lateral thinking than of photography. (Feel free to disagree – all letters to the editor will be published). In recent battles, the level of heckling has quietened down to the very rare interjection and generally a collective holding of breath.

Club Wellington Karori Hutt Kapiti Waikanae
1 Repetition 3 1 2 4 5
2 Action 2 4 3 5 1
3 Weathered 5 2 3 1 4
4 Panorama 1 2 4 5 3
5 Seashore 1 3 4 5 2
6 Reflections 5 2 3 4 1
7 Shadows 4 2 3 5 1
8 Duet 4 5 1 3 2
9 Caught unawares 3 2 1 5 4
10 Texture 1 5 4 3 2
11 Cityscape 1 5 4 3 2
12 Fantasy 3 2 4 5 1
TOTAL 33 35 36 48 28

Our entries were:

1 Repetition: Syd Moore – trees in front of 33 Bowen Street building.
2 Action: Stella Daniell – high diver at Taranaki Street wharf
3 Weathered: Heuchan Hobbs – cliffs near Dansey’s Pass
4 Panorama: Joanne Long – Spectacular sunrise over Lyall Bay
5 Seashore: Stella Daniell – lone boogie-boarder
6 Reflections: Carol Anderson – red hull
7 Shadows: Bill Leask – late afternoon football game
8 Duet (two of a kind): Mark Berger – Mark arguing with himself
9 Caught unawares: Stella Daniell – ladies under the dryers at hair salon
10 Texture: Mark Berger – woolly cushion
11 Cityscape: Duncan MacDonald – Queens Wharf on a foggy morning
12 Fantasy: Carol Anderson – enchanted forest

EXHIBITIONS IN WELLINGTON

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.

Photospace Gallery
1st flr, 37 Courtenay Place (above Sahara Cafe)
Hours: 10am-4.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-3pm Saturdays.

24 August - 15 September 2007
Jenny O'Connor (photographs) & Sean O'Connor (music) -
Nothing more than this.

20 September - 13 October2007
Heinz Sobiecki - Once Were Kumara...The humble root vegetable reinterpreted.

NZ Centre for Photography Gallery
Shed 11, Wellington Waterfront,
30 August—30 September
World Towns - Allan Chawner
and Face Value - video portraiture from the Pacific
10am-4pm daily.

Wellington Museum of City & Sea - Queens Wharf
from 24 August War in Paradise - images NZ soldiers in New Caledonia, 1942-44.

Pataka
Cnr Parumoana/Norrie St, Porirua, 26 August—18 November
STOPOVER, a story of migration — Bruce Connew.

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

HUTT- KARORI INTERCLUB BATTLE

The Hutt-Karori Battle will be hosted by Hutt Camera Club on Tuesday 13 November 2007:

• 10 prints - subject "Glass" (Use your imagination and whatever else you wish so long as the main feature of the image is glass)
• 10 prints - Open
• 10 projected images - subject "Purple" (Purple, purple and more purple. We are looking for images where the main interest is purple, not blue, not lilac, not mauve, just lots of purple).
• 10 projected images - Open

In spite of the hard-nosed attitude of the Hutt club, our dedicated researchers have shown that there is a fair bit of interpretation of what "purple" actually is, e.g. in colour theory a Purple is defined as any non-spectral colour between violet and red (and what’s violet then?). Mark Berger recommends some sites to visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple
http://flickr.com/groups/top20purple/
http://flickr.com/groups/the_colour_purple/
http://flickr.com/groups/purple_purple_purple/

FURTHER INTERCLUB COMPETITIONS

Now that we’ve disposed of the Wellington Battle, we’re asking for prints for the annual exhibition in September and prints for the Hutt – Karori Battle in November. Here’s another idea – the PSNZ Central Regional Convention is holding an interclub digital competition, closing date 1 October. A club entry consists of 8 images from 8 different members, unless you’re a small club like us, in which case a maximum of two members may enter two images each to make up the selection.

Your humble newsletter writer suggests that we send in an entry for this competition, based on the selection process for the Hutt Battle. We would need at least 6 people to contribute. The subject is Open, and may include any genre, providing they have originated in a camera. The images will be judged separately – there is NO requirement that they fit together or form a set. Image size 1024 pixels on the long side at 72 dpi in JPG format. The Wanganui Cup will be presented for the best Club Set of Projected Images, and the Heney Cup will be presented for the Champion Projected Image.

While on the subject of interclub competitions, 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.

HORADELA LODGE – POSSIBLE FIELDTRIP VENUE

Hello Bill,

I wish to introduce myself to your club and invite you to view our web page as it may be of interest. My name is Sharon de Melo, and I moved from Auckland to Waverley coming up 4 years ago. My husband Lou and I farm as well as offering the farm as a venue for individuals and groups to come, stay, have fun and be challenged.

Our initial goal was to establish an equestrian holiday centre, our market being the recreational rider, but we are now looking outside the square to other organisations that enjoy the outdoors and love of nature.

Horadela Lodge is 1200 feet above sea level, parts of the farm have 360 degree views of the sea, mountains, Mt Egmont, extensive coastline, panoramic views... photographer's delights. Native bush, wild life, something for everyone. For the person seeking peace and serenity there's an abundance of it. We wish to invite individuals and groups such as yours to enjoy what we have here which we think is unique.

Facilities - showers, toilets, kitchen with large open plan living, fabulous for get-togethers, meetings etc. We are 45 minutes from Wanganui and Hawera, tarseal to the gate, ample parking, perfect for caravans and tenting. However inside the building with stretchers easily sleeps 15—20 people. Charges $15.00 per night per person GST inclusive.

www.horadelalodge.co.nz; email horadela@xtra.co.nz

AA DIRECTIONS MAGAZINE

Attaboy! to AA Direction magazine for a series of articles in the latest Spring 2007 issue re well-known NZ photographers – Andris Apse, Jane Ussher, Darryl Torckler, Fiona Clark, Arno Gasteiger and Andrew Conaga. Also articles by Brian Curtis on getting the most out of your digital camera, and by Bob Maysmor on a colourful market in northeast Vietnam.

KARORI CAMERA CLUB PROGRAMME TO END 2007

September 5

General meeting

September 15-21

KCC annual exhibition

September 19

Potential new members, exhibition appreciation, possible guest speaker.

October 3

Workshop on Glass and Purple special battle topics

October 17

selection for Hutt-Karori Battle

November 7

Club member show & tell (Bill Leask’s name on this, but he may not be in town – anyone else keen to participate?)

November 13

Karori—Hutt interclub battle

November 21

Photographer of the year; End-of-year function

December 5

Field trip and drinks/coffee somewhere afterwards?

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 contributions to the newsletter, contact Bill Leask at bill.leask@irba.co.nz or bill.sue.leask@paradise.net.nz.

AND FINALLY …

Spotted by Heuchan – the perfect camera to use when the s*** hits the fan.