Congratulations To The Winners

Camera Electronic would like to congratulate all the winners of the 2013 national AIPP awards - presented recently at their convention in Melbourne.

In particular we would like to applaud Tony Hewitt for becoming the photographer of the year.

More details as they become available.

We Love Photography - We Hate Cockroaches

You can be forgiven for wondering at the conjunction in the title - our shop slogan with crawling insects. Leaving aside speculation about the characters of the sales staff, I can explain.

Someone in the shop asked me how I got good results for belly dance photographs and images of model cars. I think they wanted me to tell them a secret of a special lens or a special light - an item they could buy to improve their own pictures. I was delighted to tell them the secret, but it did not involve selling a piece of equipment - it involved selling an idea. And the price was cheap.

The real way to get good images of anything - cars, cockroaches, brides, or belly dancers - is to either love or hate the basic subject. You can choose for yourself which emotion you fancy, and you can freely switch between them as you like - provided you really do care one way or the other.

If you don't - either through general lack of interest in any topic or burnout from long exposure to it - any pictures you make will show this. And the people seeing those pictures will perceive that disinterest. That's a powerful clue for them to let them know how they should react to your work, and they will comply readily. If you don't care, they won't either, and you have wasted everybody's time.

I think this is a pretty good explanation for a number of photographic books and monographs that I have seen in bookstores in Melbourne over the years. The old Printed Image bookstore in Prahran had shelves of them - the NGV bookstores at the main gallery or their Federation Square branch are also pretty good ...errr...dump bins. Okay, not every picture book is Cowboy Kate but some of the depths of banality that are plumbed by small publishers...

Not talking about vanity photo books or self-publishing here - the things that we make of our holiday snaps or our hobbies. These actually have some substance - the audience may be limited to a family, club, or individual, but the book is often intense and treasured. At least the thick ones can be used to swat cockroaches with.

Heading image: Thanx to Jane and Henri

Modest Proposals - Foto Reports From The Guild

Greetings foto fans and welcome to a new season of Modest Proposals - your view of the photographic world through the eyes of The Guild.

First up is the news reported in the DP Review that a major Chicago newspaper has sacked its photographic staff, closed the darkroom and other processing facilities, and enrolled its reporters in a course on how to take pictures with an iPhone. This is an on-going story that will unfold with time, or as long as the newspaper can stay open. Sounds like this might be a measurable period of time...

The Guild applauds this move to downgrade the profession, and sees it as a land mark decision in the fight for poorer quality images. No longer will readers have to put up with seeing the faces and actions of newsmakers clearly and have to endure well-lit or carefully-composed shots. This sort of thing has been going on far too long - and it is time it stopped. From now on the public will be encouraged to use its imagination about news photographs - filling in the gaps between the pixels just as they please.

Note that we cannot get an official statement as to whether the displaced photographic staff will be given 457 visas and moved to Perth to replace our current lot of newspaper photographers. It might be a good idea if the relevant local people form a mob with pitchforks and torches and storm up the street. Around dusk with some side-lighting would be nice. Try 1/60 second and f:2.8. Focus on the front rank.


On to the next bulletin - the Bureau of Statistics has released the report on weddings and has highlighted the number of these ceremonies that are being done for second, third, and fourth marriages.

This has led to an enterprising studio here in Perth instituting a service for these customers in the form of a book of tear-out coupons to be issued at the first ceremony but allowing for discounts for second and subsequent ones.

Dear old Elizabeth Taylor is long gone, and she would have got a roll of tickets on a dispenser - but there will be lots of others. The studio, Radish Foto, has been so named because it repeats on most people.


For our final news we would like to offer the readers of The Stiletto the chance to go into the 2014 Photographic Competition.

As usual there will be a historic images section devoted to photographic representation of great moments of treachery in the past. This is always popular, and has become more so with the introduction of digital filters that simulate old plate and film camera work.

There will also be the usual BGA Year In Review section that awards a prize for he best photograph of a Guild-registered stab in the 2013-2014 period. These are generally more modern images.

This year we are also going to include an Apprentice Section so that Guild apprentices for the current year may also compete. Time to start snapping, kids.

Here is a picture to keep you happy in the meantime.