Leica Announce Winners Of Their X Contest

A little while ago we announced that Leica was conducting a contest that featured their X-model cameras. People who used these cameras with their superb lenses were invited to send in images on-line for judgement and there was a selection of valuable prizes for the winners in various categories. Arrangements could even be made to borrow a Leica X camera to shoot for an entry to the contest. A number of people took Leica up on this.

The results are in and Leica have made their decision. If you were part of the contest, or would just like to see some great photography,  we have advised that you can go to:

http://leicarumours.com/2014/03/22/winners-of-leicas-me-my-leica-x-photo-contest-announced.aspx/

I've done so but it does not seem to connect quite yet - the leicarumour page comes up alright, but the rest of it still seems to be buried. Undoubtedly Leica themselves will make the matter clear in good time - you might drift over to their site and see...

X Spots The Mark - Leica Treasure Trove

Anyone who has an X-series Leica camera - that is the X-1, the X-2, or the X-Vario - has an opportunity during this and next month to participate in a unique contest. And there are some unique prizes.

The Leica people are celebrating a 100-year anniversary and a great deal of their operation is moving back to their traditional location -Wetzlar in Germany. To celebrate this they will be having a big opening of  the industrial complex called Leitz Park in that city in May 2014.

The exciting part for Leica X-camera users is that Leica have a contest going right now for images taken by these fine cameras. It is conducted through the LFI website - that stands for Leica Fotographie International - and it is open through the web to all users. There are a number of divisions and they are awarding prizes to runners-up as well as overall winners.

The BIG prizes will be for the best two - airfares and accommodation and an invitation to be present at the opening of Leitz Park in May. Runners-up will get X Accessories and LFI subscriptions, so however you look at it there is a good incentive to enter.

Please google and go to the LFI website to see all the rules - note that you do need to use a Leica X-series camera and they will need to see the Exif data to prove it - so it is no good posting them tintypes in a frame and hoping for the best...

The last date for entry into the contest is February 28th 2014 so get cracking now if you need to make pictures - or go through your best ones to see what gems you already have. It's going to be a big year for Leica and you can be part of it.

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

Pictures To Look At - Drop Into The Box

I have just been informed by Ric McDonald that there are winning pictures from last night's Click West presentation to be sen in the Drop Box website. Not quite sure what to do, but if you are savvy about these things, go to the site and ask for Clickwest 13 winners. If you need more information you can contact Ric on

 ricmcd@iinet.net.au.

I had the chance to see the cinema they used last night out at Carousel - La Premier with the fancy seats up the back - and I daresay some pretty fancy projection equipment to show the images. As I was waiting to go in and put the show bags on the seats I watched the regular cinema patrons stream past. It's been a while since I went to the movies and it would appear in the interim that the snacks have gotten bigger - the popcorn tubs I saw yesterday were the size of railway gondola cars...the soft drink canister looked like an oil tank car with straws...

Back to the images - I'm looking at some of them right now but in book form. I like printed pictures in about a 6" x 9" size anyway, and these are wonderful. The WAPF must be very proud of itself in having such talent and being able to present it in such a way.

A Good Night Well Spent - With Kingsley And Crew - DSLR Video

Did goe to Shoot Photography in Stirling Street laste night and was greatly amused.

The venue was warm on a cold night, and filled with enthusiasts, equipment, and expertise - and I benefitted greatly from the lecture.

Kingsley Klau from Photo Coffee in Rockingham hosted a beginner's course on the video capabilities of the DSLR. This was to assist members of the WAPF to access the video section of the cameras that they already own - and to prepare them for an upcoming competition. The Nikon company will be sponsoring a video comp in conjunction with the WAPF and there seem to be a number of really valuable prizes on offer.

Never mind the prizes - what Kingsley had to offer last night was really valuable - the logical presentation of the subject with practical help to each member of the audience in setting up their own camera. There was a variety of ancillary equipment to be seen as well, courtesy of one of the experienced members, and good advice from a professional in the video business. But the inspiration that Kingsley gave was what people really need - he recognises that some of the new capabilities of the equipment ned to be matched by confidence on the part of the users.

We got a mention, naturally, and hopefully someone will come in and buy everything in the shop from the specials list...My particular thanks go to the lady who provided the coffee-time cake and Florentine slice. A good Florentine slice bespeaks elegance and fine character, and if that isn't a broad hint, I don't know what is. Canadian butter tarts are also considered grounds for canonisation.

Apart from this, we got to meet Nikon again - always a pleasure - and come away with the determination to record something - anything - and get out there and experiment. Ah, Inspiration, thy name is Klau...

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.

City of Belmont - Snap Up A Prize

The City of Belmont will be holding a photographic competition and exhibition a little later in the year and Camera Electronic will be helping with the prize sponsorship. There is a little over a month until the entries close so there is still time to plan and shoot your masterpiece.

It will not just be senior photographers either - there is a valuable set of prizes for students and youth.

The form to enter the competition plus a clear explanation of the timing and the rules is to easy to find Go on over to:

www.artistschronicle.com/belmont-art-photogrphic-awards/

You'll note the youth section that runs from 12-18 years old, and the general open section. There are two days in July on which the art can be delivered, but you'll need to do the business of entry by the 20th of June.

There are several divisions and prizes in each one - Camera Electronic will be offering $ 300 for the Open Highly Commended winner. Some of the prize divisions are marked as acquisitive and some not. There is an opportunity to offer works for sale, with the exhibition organisers taking a percentage of the price, or works can be shown free of sales offer. The organisers do stipulate that for ease of exhibition, the prints must be mounted on a 40 x 50 matt board

There is also a clause that assures the photographers that they will retain copyright in their images and be credited whenever they are shown. The City of Belmont also noted that they will reserve the right to publish suitable works free of charge for their publicity purposes.

The works will be publicly exhibited at Belmont Forum between the 22nd of July and the 3rd of August. There should be quite some interesting images.

Slither Your Way To Fame With the WA Herpetological Society

I am going to have to rein in the editorial horses for this one, as the temptation to use expressions like " Snakes Alive!" and " Hissing Syd" is nearly irresistible. Once you start to introduce reptiles into a conversation dignity flies out the window - much as when you introduce them at the dining table...

In any event, the Western Australian Herpetological Society would like you to go to the Reptile Expo 2013 at the Cannington Exhibition Center on Sunday, the 19th of May. The exhibition will run between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM but the bit that interests photographers is between 10:00 and 4:00.

You see they are running a photo competition and we are amongst the sponsors who are providing prizes. There is a proper set of rules to be seen at the following website:

http://wahs-expo.wix.com/2013

But I can give you a précis here:

Must be a picture of an Australian reptile. Not a newspaper proprietor, a real reptile...

Must be mounted on matt board - max dimension of the matt board is 40cm x 50 cm

Must be submitted for judging and exhibition at the center on the day - entries close at 10:00 AM.
There will be announcement of he winners and presentation of prizes at 12:00 and you can collect your pictures back again between 4:00 and 5:00. If you don't collect them after some long time they will donate them to a school.

You must be an amateur photographer. Not a professional photographer - they even say in the rules that you can never have been a professional...I'm not entirely sure how that idea will go if someone somewhere once paid you for a picture... any rate be careful. Remember what happened to Jim Thorpe.

The WAHS says they intend to reserve the right... to reproduce any of your photos for future publications but promise to give you accreditation. I am not quite certain how this works if you are going to collect them at the end of the day, but I'm sure they will work this out.

The prizes for the winners of the competition are:

1. 1st prize is your art work reproduced on a 12 x 18 canvas and a Cullmann tripod and bag.
2. 2nd prize is a photographic session with Houndstooth Studios.
3. 3rd prize is a Cullmann monopod - very valuable if your next wild reptile encounter is conducted in thick undergrowth...

Alex Cearns, wildlife photographer extraordinaire, will be doing the judging. Saul Frank, camera salesman extraordinaire will be presenting the Cullmann prizes.

Apparently I, Uncle Dick, hack writer extraordinaire will be doing some form of a little talk on photographing reptiles. If they put me near the frogs and lizards I will be using English and if they put me near the poisonous snakes I will be using Anglo-Saxon. That'll be me - perched on the top of a step ladder with a forked stick and a Colt .45.

The Wurst-Käse Scenario

Many people have seen the uniforms of troops in the German army and noticed the various pouches and attachments that they have on their gear, ammunition pouches, entrenching tools, gas mask containers, etc. Few know the significance of the small sealed box on the upper left hand strap of the 1917-model field webbing.

It is seen in old photographs of the period and can sometimes be offered in militaria auctions. Rarely is it seen in the unopened form, but recently at Denby's in El Paso one of these originals showed up and after it was sold the collector who had bought it agreed to open it for the camera. It contained the  remains of three small sausages and a block of extremely hard cheese - the seal must have been good enough to prevent total spoilage over the the last 90-odd years.

The collector explained that this was the emergency ration of the observation-corps soldier, to be used only if all other rations had been expended, he was trapped far behind enemy lines, and on the point of death from starvation - the seal was to keep the food edible but there was a military law that forbid breaking it under any other circumstances.

It was the the sort of dire situation that gave rise to the Wurst-Käse scenario...

Which brings us to the topic of this post. Most people come into the shop looking for the best camera. They all ask for it. They all search for it on the internet. They all know someone who has advised them to get it...

Hardly anyone comes in looking for the worst camera. Oh, there are a few who do - they are very special people. Very. Special. And they have got me thinking that their approach to the art and science of photography might be a good test for the rest of us.

To that end, I shall be proposing a small contest later in the year - open to amateur and professional alike. There will be publicity, prizes, and probably art. Or artillery. Either way, there will be sausages and cheese.