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PVO for June enabled! Set Subject : Power. Portray power in any way it may be perceived; The power of a executive, of the sun or the wind or perhaps even the power of the body builder’s perseverance to attain a particular look. Look for power in other places, there are many forms of power. No limitations on image orientation or processing. Remember a maximum of 4 images is allowed and 1 extra image if you enter the Interclub Juxtaposition competition.

Full set subject list here

The image submission cut-off for the current monthly competition closes tomorrow (Monday, Monday!) 20th May 2013 at midnight.

Your maximum of four images (or five, if you enter an extra “Juxtaposition” image into the WCC/MCC Interclub competition) can be uploaded to your Photo Vault Online account and entered into the WCC club competition thereafter.

Please note that we urge all WCC members to rather use PVO and not submit entries to the club on CD/DVD. There has yet to be an issue with images submitted via PVO and we will continue to promote PVO until the entire club makes use of PVO as their single method for image submission.

Should you not be in a position to use PVO (i.e. absolutely no internet connection whatsoever) then please feel free to approach the WCC committee so that we can make alternative arrangements.

Click!
Chas.

Hope everyone is looking forward to hearing Matthew talk on the 14th May 2013. Here is a brief profile on Matthew;

Matthew Willman is a freelance documentary photographer working across Southern Africa with some of the worlds foremost charitable and funding organisations that include Oxfam International, World Health Organisation and the European Commission.

Matthew’s interest in photography combined with his personal commitment to issues that exist within our communities in Southern Africa has afforded him very privileged experiences and commissions with people and places that go beyond the external and calls for an intimacy that many don’t allow themselves to step into.

As a photographer Willman has been afforded diverse and interesting photographic commissions that include places like Robben Island, Inanda Heritage, The Royal Ballet School in London, Tromso in the Arctic Circle and Red Fern Aboriginal Centre in Australia. Personalities that include from amongst others: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Annie Lennox, FW De Klerk, The Dalai Lama and US President Bill Clinton.

Willman is both intrigued and inspired by people, who they are and what they shape themselves to be, none more so than the man Nelson Mandela. Since 2004 Willman has worked as a commissioned photographer to The Nelson Mandela Foundation, being afforded many incredibly intimate experiences with a man who for Willman embodies the very spirit and conviction we all possess as South Africans

Hope everyone can manage to be at the library, it is going to be a really good evening with Matthew’s presentation followed by Meryl Bartho’s Scrapbooking talk. See you there.

Click!
Chas.

PVO enabled for May – Set Subject is “Something Ugly”

Click!
Chas.

Hi there,

The gallery for March 2013 has been updated along with the “Where you stand” log. Well done to all those awards, it was a bumper batch.

Click!
Chas.

Camera Simulation for Begginers

Want to play around with your camera settings and learn exactly what each setting does? Now you can, and you don’t even have to use your camera. Canon have put together this simulation website where they give you a virtual camera and you are able to play around with the settings, take photos and learn how each setting affects the way the photo comes out. Once you done, you can take the challenge and see how quickly you able to complete it. This one is aimed at begginers but try the challenge out anyway. Its quite fun.

More Free Books

David duChemin, a world humanitarian photographer has put together his second Craft & Vision ebook. The book covers “More Great ways to make stronger photographs”. Topics include: Making sharper images, learning to shoot in manual mode, balancing flash with ambient light, developing style and consistency, learning to see the light plus much more. Best of all- It’s FREE. Not only that you can get the previous version for free at the same time. Get it all right here.

Maritzburg Camera Club

Dear Fellow Photographers

The Maritzburg Camera Club Committee and Members invite all photographers to participate in their annual Digital Photo Circuit on Sunday 14th April in and around Howick.

Date: Sunday, 14 April 2013

Registration Time: 7.15 – 8.00am

Where to Meet: Nelson Mandela Sculpture Memorial Site Parking
On R103, roughly three kilometres outside Howick
GPS 29° 28.130 E 030° 10.176

Entry Fee: R30.00 circuit and R20.00 Midmar Dam (optional)
for a lunch time bring you own picnic

Topics A list of 10 interesting topics, which have to be shot on the day, will be handed to you on registration.

Results Show Wednesday, 15 June, Voortrekker Museum Auditoriam

Come and explore the area, in and around Howick, and get inspired amongst the gentle hills, historic places and warm-hearted people who call the Natal Midlands their home! We look forward to seeing you there.

Should you have any queries please call on of the following committee members:-

Carol Phillips 082 924 6441 Leon Heyes 083 463 8864
Burkhard Schlosser 082 442 7479 Cheryl Ellis 083 661 0696
Doug Couperthwaite 083 525 3914 Jake Alletson 083 787 1584
Phil Muller 072 219 1955 Ron Lotz 082 575 9230

Bring picnic lunch if you want to meet and eat with other photographers at Eikedale Picnic Site, Midmar Dam. Braai facilities are also available. Bring your own charcoal etc.

Hi all,

The April edition of SNAP has been uploaded.

Please note that Meryl will not be presenting Digital Scrapbooking at the Tuesday workshop as noted in SNAP. Meryl will present the session at a later date, hopefully in May and by the way, May’s Tuesday workshop is going to be a cracker. Here is a clue; What do Former President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Former President Bill Clinton and a beaded wingback chair have in common? You don’t know? Then you had better diarise the 14th May 2013.

This Tuesday, Liz Cartwright will be doing a presentation on Travel Photography and also self-publishing photo books. A few other items will also be addressed.

See you this Tuesday.

Click!
Chas.

Converting to black and white: When and How?

In this article by DPS, they cover the When and How to convert photographs to black and white. In other words, how do you know which photos will be good candidates to convert to black and white? Not all photos look better or good at all when they are converted. And how do you use Photoshop to convert images to black and white? I’m sure most people can give you 3 different methods quite easily but some methods can cause a loss of image quality. Do you know which one is the best method?

Inspiration

This week’s inspiration comes from “The Big Picture”.  In this article, they feature the finalists the Smithsonian’s Magazine 10th annual photo contest. Some beautiful images to look at… Be sure to browse around their website for more great news stories in photgraphs

Best video channels for the amateur photographer

MakeUseOf is not a photography website, but they do have some good photography resources from time to time. In this article, they have a list of YouTube channels that consistently produce photography content aimed at teaching and helping the amateur photogrpaher. Check out their list right here…

Boy, anagrams are fun and Pieter and I are only pulling your leg!

For the crossword aficionados out there, the title of my previous post “Aid Royal Flops!” is an anagram for “April Fools Day!”

To those concerned souls who would be adversely affected by any demerit rule or system rest assured, we are doing nothing of the sort.

In today’s fast-paced world, we sometimes forget to stop and chuckle. So on the count of three, smile!

On the subject of April Fools Day, here are two classics posted a few years ago.

Google

Google’s broadband initiative may be the real deal, but back in 2007, the G-team joked that it was launching a broadband service that would run through the sewers.
TiSP — short for Toilet Internet Service Provider — was described as a “self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a Wi-Fi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.” To use the service, all you had to do was flush a fiber-optic cable down the john and Google would fish-out and connect the other end to a specially provided router.

Kodak

Kodak offered Relationshiffft, which would allow you to click on the faces of people you no longer wanted in any of your images – like the dorky boyfriend who is now history. Using facial detection, Relationshifft would remove said individual from every photo on your computer and social networking websites.

I guess I can put April Fools’ 2013 back in it’s box now.

Click!
Chas

p.s. Apologies to the committee for any angst and anxiety I caused them as they fielded frantic calls, SMS’ and emails from the club about demerits.

Hope you are all working hard on those Juxtaposition images for Set Subject and Interclub challenge.

To clear up any identification issues in my original post. The “society” I referred to is any society that you wish it to be; “The Dead Poet’s Society”, “The Flat Earth Society”, etc. and “Mo” is “Morris”, our yet-to-be-found-and-appointed demerit system steward.