Eight Bars Of Entertainment And Thirty Two Bars Of Music

Those of you who have ever attended a belly dance show know what I mean - particularly if it is traditional, nostalgic, and culturally sensitive. The saving grace for a photographer of these events is the fact that if you missed it the first time, you have three more goes to capture it...

The same might be said for many aspects of photography - I mean about the repetition. I see a number of club contests that set out categories for images. The contestants are pretty good in what they do - they follow the categories and fulfil the set subject criteria - and there is a very high level of technical skill.

There is also a warm nostalgia about some of the images. Not only is the image of the rusted 1937 Ford truck* in the wheat belt paddock evocative of 1937 and the wheatbelt, it is reminiscent of every club competition since 1938, both in and out of the wheat belt.

Some of the subjects are actually the same. Mrs. Ah Wen Chung has served as the wrinkled smoking Chinese woman for club photography since 1957. It has been steady employment for her, and apart from a racking cough, has benefitted her and her family.

We are hoping for a little change in the landscape section in 2016 as the Albany Shire Council has decided to cement up The Gap. If they sell off Wave Rock to the Chinese government we may have to fall back on sunsets and Bluff Knoll. Mind you, hauling a rusted 1937 Ford truck up the top of Bluff Knoll will be a royal pain.

Still, look on the bright side - in November of this year the Albany Shire Tourist Trappers Association will be combining with the Royal Australian Navy, The Not Imperial Any More Japanese Navy, and as many of the local RSL members as can be coaxed out of the bar to commemorate the passing of the ANZAC fleet in 1914. Albany will be Where It's At. What an opportunity for he photographer to capture the scene. Flags flying. Bands playing. Coffee stalls perking. Politicians speaking. Don't worry about missing the speeches - you'll have three more goes...

* The original 1937 Ford has been replaced with a fibreglass replica. Good from the front.

Application For Approval

It would seem that whatever we do in Australia requires approval. Not from ourselves, mind - that would be too easy. No, the approval we require is from the federal government, the state government and the local council. If we superadd membership in a religious faith, a marriage, and a football club we can get to 6 levels of interlaced compulsion. An ox in a yoke would feel freer.

When we elect to join a professional or amateur photography club as well, we find that we can be controlled not only in our artistic opinion, but in how we express it. Does our work not fit in the category required, or not please The Committee, we find ourselves cast into outer darkness...generally without a safelight.

It is a brave photographer who decides what they want and then produces it. And then shows it. And then has a cup of tea and a jam doughnut. And then doesn't stand on the bathroom scales to see if that was a good idea.

When you ask another for permission to own a revolver and to shoot it in the main street of town, that is one thing. When you ask for permission to make your own art, that is another.

Let and hindrance should be reserved for big things - not art. Art is too big for that.

Constructed By Committee

We have all seen things that have been designed by committees - civic architecture, Soviet operas, and a great many British aircraft - and the results always seem to be distinct. Or was that dey stink? Whatever - you can tell when there have been many cooks stirring the broth. Sometimes it makes you wonder what they were using for the stirring...

Not so good for the final buildings, musical works, or bombers, but the practise at least must have made for cheerful bonhomie, cooperative feeling, and murder. Why not bring the same benefits to your camera club or school photography class. With photoshop you can do it.

Put slips of paper in a hat - one slip says "background" - the other slips say "layer" and are numbered from 2 to 5. Five people draw  a slip.

"Background" person goes and shoots a good big image on jpeg - saves the file to a thumb drive. Then Layer 2 takes the file onto their computer and adds whatever they deem appropriate...saves it and passes it on Layer 3..and so on until the work is completed.

As it is saved and flattened each time it means you can't erase other people's contribution - only modify it.

The result should be interesting - it might look like a camel in a corset or it might be quite lovely. The game gets better when you run 4 more rounds - each person has to hand on their position slip with the thumb drive and then they get a new position for the next round. You can wreak revenge.

Make a nice club competition.

Out At Night - The World Of Clubbing

Did goe this weeke to the Westside Camera Club and the Belmont Camera Club and was greatley amused.

It is part of my duty here at Camera Electronic to bring our message of truth, light, and the purchase of lenses to mankind, womankind, and government departments...I sometimes tell about equipment, sometimes tell about techniques, and always tell about myself. That works out the best, because it is the only subject I really know well.

This week saw me bore and baffle the two clubs about close-up photography and the Fuji X cameras. I hope my Powerpoint displays and talk were helpful and interesting, but if they weren't quite as up-to-date as could be it is because up -to-date these days seems to be on an hourly and sometimes a minute-by-minute basis. The internet does that.

Now some of you may be reading this on the internet so I don't want to be too harsh about it - and I don'r want to offend the snooping agencies either - Hey! to Langley! - but it is becoming a little exasperating to read the wrongformation that is being tossed around a number of the forums. No sooner does the Flapoflex Corporation announce their latest camera than all the anonymous writers leap on it to bag it - and then to have a sneering war with each other. This would not be too concerning except that our customers read this and then come in and retail it to us.

 I mean, Cripes! We're the retailers so surely we should be given the opportunity to get in there first and confuse matters. This is why I like the club visits. I like to tell things as they are - not like the internet lurkers imagine it is. I take along examples of the things I find in my own photography and the discoveries we make here in the shop.

Tip O' The Week.

If you need a lens reverser to put a camera lens on the front of another lens for macro photography, and can't find one to suit the two lenses...get two "P" series Cokin mounting rings and glue them or rivet them face to face. Slide them about to decenter the optical axis. Experiment.

The Level Playing Field - New Federal Statutes To Govern Camera Clubs

Wait for it - it is only a matter of time before someone in Canberra takes a long lunch and comes back with this idea: All entries into camera club competitions must be the same size and shape to allow for even judgement. In addition, each entry must be matted the same way and hung at the same height and in light of the same colour temperature and intensity. Projected images must also be displayed with equal light upon a standardised surface. Inspectors with badges and warrant will be dispatched to the clubs for surprise inspections and infractions of the rules will incur on-the-spot fines.

Federal police spokesmen will be using the term " crackdown " frequently when interviewed in the press.

There will also be provisions in the act to compel competitors to take their photographs under similar conditions - no longer will the richer members of camera clubs who can afford to travel overseas be able to overbear the poorer members who must stay at home and take local subjects. Of course people will still be able to travel - this is in accordance with the federal laws that provide a level landing field for airlines - except in certain Asian countries - and a level bar surface for tourism operators. The new law will require anyone using an image taken overseas to re-imburse the club with the cost of the travel so that it can be re-distributed to the other members. This may affect those who wish to travel business class...

Of course the use of different classes or levels of equipment has always meant the disadvantaging of certain photographers - the new act will address this by requiring all club photos submitted to be taken with the same gear. The new standard club camera will be the Flapoflex K30 IIIA ( A for Australia ) with a standardised 35mm lens. Low light workers will be pleased to hear that the lens has a fixed aperture of f:1.8. The price of the new standardised camera will not be fixed, because that would be against the ACCC...

There has been some debate amongst the international award-winning iconic mentors as to whether these new laws will stifle the artistic spirit of Australia. We in the Guild take the opposite view - if the photographers of Australia have been willing to accept the Rule of Thirds and the Sheimpflug Rules for the last five decades, there is no reason not to impose more upon them.

Here Come De Judge - With Epson And Eizo

Did goe to the Fremantle Camera Club last night and was greately entertained.

It is always gratifying to be asked to a club to judge competition photographs as it is a sterling opportunity to crush the spirits of the hopeful while selling them more equipment. Plus you get coffee and a biscuit at half-time.

I have expressed reservations about judging in " Here All Week" but we have to remember that even the barest reservations sometimes cover vast oil fields and for the better sort of coffee and biscuit I can be as oily as required. And in truth, I learned three things of value last night.

The competition pictures for projection were sent to me on a CD and I looked at them on my home monitor, making notes as I went. In many cases I was pleased with the overall image but thought them too dark, and made recommendations based on this. Then when the images were shot up n a good screen with a good Epson projector I saw how wrong I was. I had my monitor at home set too dark. Lesson one. Perhaps it is time to go and get an Eizo monitor.

Lesson two was watching the display of the printed images in a separate room. The venue had inadequate down lighting but the clever club people went and got Bunnings halogen work lights, directed them onto the white ceiling, and got an even and flattering overall illumination. As prints are made or ruined by their illumination, this was a very good idea.

Lesson three was the home-made illumination box used to present the prints one at a time for the audience to see during the commentary. I was the commentator so the speech was nonsense, of course, but the images looked wonderful. If you cannot make a dedicated illumination frame, get a Grafilight and do your best.

In the end, the standard of the piccies was very high, and I hope I was able to assess them correctly. The winners shook my hand heartily and the losers chased me down the lane with torches and pitchforks so I think the evening was a huge success.

All Time Favourite = Escaping The Ghost

Internet bloggers love to make lists of things - it is one of the techniques that we are told will increase the hits on our site. The more outrageous the premise - or common the theme - the better. Everyone gets to relate to the list and then decide that the author is full of it.

I am more interested in seeing into the mind of the reader - in particular the visual mind. I want to know what has made the photographer take the photographs.

Sometimes this is obvious - the photographer has been given a dollar and told to go out and take a certain picture. Or the photographer has speculated that if they take a certain picture they can sell it later for a dollar. It is commerce.

Sometimes it is need - emotional need. The first picture of a long-desired baby...followed by 32,000 more of them. Or the last picture of Grandma just before she went over the top at Ypres. These are the basic photographic lining of our memory box, and we can all understand it.

But what about the...shhhh, don't speak loud...Art picture. The one taken to show, and shown until the pixels are ragged, but never paid for. And not a relation. Why? Or more to the point, what image was there in the mind of the photographer that influenced them? You can generally find out if you can get an honest answer to this core question:  What is your all-time favourite photograph?

You can answer that one for yourselves. Find the one that you have always loved and look to see if it is re-appearing time and time again in your images. Don't be ashamed of this - after all something has made you the way you are in every field of endeavour - even if it is just the memory of being knocked about.

Should you break free of it? CAN you break free of it? Can you do it better and make it the springboard of success - after all it is sitting there in your psyche whirring way anyway - might as well use the power.

Okay - now you know why there is an August Sander picture of the Konditormeister at the top of this blog. That's my prime image. I don't know why, but it has always made me feel good to see it. I don't really know if any of my own pictures exhibit all of the features but I can see some of it somewhere in my successful ones. I just wish that he had had the opportunity to work in colour.

Uncle Dick

Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte

I often look at photographs of Japan and China and contemplate visiting these countries - but I always chicken out. It is the signs in the streets, you see - they are big and bold and totally incomprehensible. I am a person so used to reading and comprehending that the leap of understanding required for travel defeats me. It is not quite the same in Europe - I can understand some French and some German and wing the rest of it. Of course I struggle in the English Midlands, but then don't we all...

This is a preamble to the point of the post - the importance of written messages in our experience. If we are used to seeing them and to interpreting them, they let us function in any setting - but they also colour our perception of the visuals. It happens in the street and it happens in the photographic club exhibition.

At this point please do not think that I am caning the clubs exclusively - it also happens in major exhibitions but to a minor extent...by the time images get to a museum wall they have been seen and corrected by a dozen busy bodies and are generally helpful, rather than the reverse.

Not so at the club level. The aspiring artist enters the July Open Monochrome Portrait With Half-Gainer And A Twist Of Lemon Section of the Projected Print  Division of the 3rd Mounted Pixellators...and gives the image a very poignant and telling title. The title expresses the basic angst of a society guilt-ridden with the Jungian/gestalt parameters. Anyone who sees it starts searching their soul.

The judge starts searching his pockets for the car keys...or a knife.

Anything you say in a title modifies the impact of the image, and unfortunately it frequently detracts from it. It steers the viewer away from the message of the image, and it may actually mislead badly. the title may refer to some cultural idea that the viewer is not familiar with - it may actually seem irrelevant or even insulting. What might have been pleasant becomes the opposite.

Likewise, anything you say about an image that you are explaining to viewers is subject more to your tongue than to your eyes. Recently I saw a very good image that was spoiled - and my opinion of the speaker reduced - by a careless coupling of a political message with the visual. Of course one always risks prodding a raw spot when sex, politics, or religion enters polite conversation and it is no different if the conversation is in a drawing-room or a lecture hall.

So...what to do. Show your picture. Present it as well as circumstance permits. If it is a place, name the place. If it is a person, or a ship or a breed of dog, state the name as such. If the image needs a time definition to be understandable - and few do - then state this.

Then stop. If you feel any need to further add to the image that you have put up on the screen stand in front of the projector and make shadow rabbits. I can do a very good flying dove to go with this.

Uncle Dick

Speaking Whereof We Know

I note that we will have a Nikon event next week - the 9th of July - and the staff have been permitted, enjoined, and ordered to go to it. I, for one, am delighted, as the man giving forth is an expert in his field. Kristian Dowling  knows how to take pictures of celebrities so that they continue to be celebrated - and he will likely be showing some of us the secrets that ensure his success. I'll benefit - a little later in the month someone wants me to shoot a party as if it were a Hollywood event, and I reckon Kristian's advice will be worth gold.

Still have some places for interested punters so ring Shoot Workshops and make a booking for it. As long as there is one spot left for me, mind.

All of which is an introduction to my plan of action for shop-related talks this year. I will be seeing several clubs for their evening activities this year and in some they want a little talk. It would be the height of folly to ask me to speak on the subject of fashion photography - one look in my wardrobe at home would tell you all I know about fashion. Likewise getting me to hold forth on street photography, sports, or architecture. Have a look at the dismal results on this page and you'll see what I mean. If the clubs want to know about these things, they will have to snare Gosatti or Phillips or Romano for that. These guys DO know whereof they speak because they do it well.

I shall speak on the little wedding and how to photograph it simply. I shall speak about the Small World and how to photograph it in the studio. About the photography of costumed societies. About the hot rod and how to capture it. These may not be what the clubs want to hear...but it is what they are going to get. It actually will have some value of expertise, albeit small.

Uncle Dick

A New Year's Resolution

New Year. New financial fear. Added to accounting for a new calendar year, new religious year, and new car license year...every year...it is a wonder that we can remember anything that we have resolved. I have taken to putting stickers around the house to remind myself, but I sometimes forget where I put the stickers...

Never mind. If we are enjoined o make moral resolutions for the religious new year and practical ones for the calendar new year, I guess we can make financial ones this month. Here goes.

I have a bundle of old camera equipment that is sitting in the studio and the safe - unused for 5 or more years. If it was socks there would be moth holes in them - as it is there is figurative dust accumulating. It is time to turn these still-fine items into new items that I actually will use.

I'm lucky - I have gear that still has some intrinsic value - not much, but a little. I can offer it for sale knowing that there are actual customers for it. My resolution is that I will get off my rusty and actually do it. The return of some money will be one thing, but the real benefit will be that it will clear the mind of sitting and wondering what to do with it. Once gone and converted to a new lens I will be off to new adventures.

May I suggest the same to you? If your old gear is truly old junque...I realise these are strong terms, but we are adults now...give it to a charity. Or take it to the Workshop Camera Club camera market and set up a stall and learn a great deal about human nature in the space of a morning. One tip - sniff. If granddad's dear old 35mm Flapoflex or your automatic film compact smells like vinegar or old socks or a rabbit hutch in hot weather, ditch it in the bin.

If it is not bad and not cheap and not broken, a professional dealer may express some interest - but generally only if it will have a profitable resale. Be honest with yourselves - if no-one wants to buy it from the newspaper or Gumtree or the camera market, they are not going to buy it from a shop. Time to be realistic. Bin.

So where has this blog gone? Round in a circle, I daresay, but at a tangent from that circle will be some benefit from the turnover of the gear that is just sitting there. I am sentimental about it, but then I am sentimental about Curtis Lemay and the 21st USAAF and that never gets me noticed at parties either.

Change.

Still Time To Get A Seat - Click West

Normally I would not advise someone to grab their seat in public...but tomorrow night is an exception. Mind you, you'll need to start searching for it today.

The WAPF is holding their second big exhibition of competitive photographs at Carousel's La Premiere cinema tomorrow night - the 6th of June.

This is the big one for WA camera clubs, with some of the finest photos by WA members shown on one of the biggest screens you will ever see. This beats setting up a bed sheet and a Hanimex Rondette in the CWA hall by a long shot...

The WAPF has a website dedicated to this competition - just Google on over to it and look up at the top of the page. There is a section that lets you book a seat for the night. There is reserved seating, seniors seating and lots of other things. Pop over there now and grab the telephone.

Note on the site that there are a number of big photographic names here in Perth associated with this competition - not least of which is us down here at Camera Electronic. We'll be sending one of the chiefs to the pow wow and I'll be reporting on the winners - with images I hope - afterwards.