Appraised by Kate Burton and David Steer
Meetings
2016 Spring Print Exhibition Results
This year we held our Spring Print Exhibition at the Dunedin Community Gallery (28-31st August). Having the exhibition on for a few days gave members a chance to view the images multiple times if they wanted, and enabled us to share our work with the public.
Along with the Spring Print exhibition, we had the Dunedin Junior Photography Exhibition on display. 2016 was the first year for this and we were pleased to get 18 entrants who submitted photos on variety of subjects. 10 images were selected for the final exhibition. We look forward to running this again next year.
In addition we presented a digital exhibition of member’s work from the Filderstadt Photoclub (FCF). In 2015 a member of the FCF visited a DPS exhibition, and this has led to several interactions between the two clubs this year.
We had a good number of visitors through the gallery, and all positive feedback. Our second meeting of the month was held on Mon 29th at the Community Gallery where we heard feedback from the judges (Paul Sorrell, Natural History; John Hart, Open) and got to catch up with one another over drinks and nibbles.
Congratulations to everyone who had images accepted for the exhibition. The honours and awards images are in the slideshow below.
Workshop: 22nd Aug
Our next meeting on Monday 22nd 7.30pm is an indoor (vege) light painting workshop. It’s going to be a fun night where you can let your creative side run wild and come up with some interesting images
Please bring:
– camera
– tripod
– shutter remote if you have one
Optional items to bring:
– small torches, glow sticks, iPads, LEDs, mobile phones
– interesting shaped/coloured fruit or veges
– still life objects e.g. books, bottles, flowers, old boots, anything!
– large pieces of dark, dull fabric e.g. velvet (not shiny, preferably not wrinkly)
– download a free app such as Pocket Softbox for a selection of any coloured light
This event is open to anyone, but a gold coin donation on the night is requested for non-DPS members.
Guest Speaker: Rod Morris
Meeting: Monday June 27th
Rod Morris, who is a well known and award-winning natural history filmmaker, author and photographer, was the guest speaker on Monday night. His talk titled ‘ Pinch of Salt – Seashore macro photography’ was based around his most recent work, producing a field guide to the New Zealand seashore, in conjunction with Sally Carson from the Portobello Marine Science laboratory.
Accompanying his talk, were many photographs of the wonderful and weird sea life that inhabit our shores. There is, in fact, a huge variety of life in the sea that exists and is not that well known. In fact, about 96% of animals live in an aquatic environment; the rest are terrestrial. Rod urged us to go out and explore the inter-tidal environment.
Photographing these animals presents several challenges. First and foremost are two factors that are enemies of the camera – saltwater and sand. Rod recommended placing a finger near the end of one’s camera lens to provide a warning that the camera is getting close to the water surface. Rod also uses a point-and-shoot waterproof camera which can produce some pleasing results (particularly cameras that have a tilted screen). In more sheltered rock pools, it is possible to shoot through the water surface, particularly when using twin flash units.
Another challenge is that many of the animals tend to quickly burrow themselves in the sand if they sense danger. In this case, Rod often took these specimens back to the laboratory and placed a sheet of glass between the animal and the background sand so that it could not burrow. After photographing, he would then return the animal to the sea. He has also used water filters in the laboratory to move sediment and water around the tank, in order to stimulate some activity in the animals (such as barnacles which may close up as a defence mechanism). There are also various tidal rhythms that can influence the behaviour of the animal so it is important to have a bit of background knowledge of these animals.
Rod’s talk has certainly inspired us to head out to the seashore and explore. We look forward to the publication of his field guide.
First meeting for the year tonight
It’s been a bit of a slow start to the DPS year, with missing our usual first meeting of the month due to Waitangi Day being observed on Monday.
However, we are back into the swing of things tonight, and our first speaker is club member Paul Sorrell.
Come along and join us to hear about his latest projects and catch up with everyone after the long break.
See you tonight – 7.30pm at Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Terrace.
2016 Programme available
At last! This years programme is (pretty much) finished and is available now.
The last few meetings and workshops that are still TBC (to be confirmed) will be updated as soon as possible.
We have also loaded all the meeting dates and info into our DPS Google calendar. Feel free to add this to your own Google calendar – click the link in bottom right of the calendar.
See you on Monday 22nd 🙂
Programme coming soon
We have had a few queries as to when the 2016 programme will be ready, and I am happy to say we will have something out to members in the next few days 🙂 Thanks for your patience.
– Melanie
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you have had a relaxing and enjoyable break over Christmas and a great start to the new year.
Council are in the final stages of putting the 2016 programme together – we are just waiting on confirmation of a couple of guest speakers, and then you will receive a copy via email and it will be available here on our website.
The first meeting will be on Monday 22nd Feb 7.30pm (no meeting on 8th Feb, Waitangi Day observed). Our speaker will be club member Paul Sorrell, and we will have the Projected Image of the month (theme: open).
Happy New Year
The new year is well underway now and hopefully you have all been out enjoying the great weather and taking lots of photos. We had the first photowalk of the year on Sunday, which was actually a photobike rather than a walk. We headed to Hyde and cycled a bit of the rail trail, before heading back to the cafe at Hyde for lunch. Great way to start the DPS fieldtrip/photowalk year.
2015 is a big year for the Dunedin Photographic Society – we are celebrating 125 years. We are led to believe that the society is the oldest continuing Photographic Society in the Southern Hemisphere – certainly in Australasia We will be celebrating this occasion in March with an exhibition of members’ work and some historical works from the Hocken Collection. There will also be some associated events – more details to come.
The programme for the year is available online. The first meeting of the year is Monday 9th Feb at 7.30pm. Our speaker for the night is Terry Maguire who will be giving us a history of the Society. Of course, the print of the month competition will also start on the 9th. The theme is “Open” and prints will be appraised by John Hart. Remember to bring your prints along by 7.20pm.
New president appointed
Monday night’s meeting was action packed, with the AGM, Spring Print Exhibition and the Projected Image of the Month. The AGM saw the appointment of Kate Burton as the new President of the Society. Kate takes over the role from John Casey who steps down after a two year term – John also held the position for another two year term several years ago. The council and members of the society thank John for all the time and effort he has put into leading the society during his term as President.
This is Kate’s first time as President of DPS, or any society for that matter, and she is looking forward to the opportunity. She will have the support of all members as she takes on this role, and especially that of the council. We look forward to the next meeting when Kate will take up her position as President.
After the AGM the Spring Print Exhibition was held and Paul Sorrell (Natural History) and Alan Dove (Open) were on hand to provide comments on the accepted prints. Congratulations to Emiko Cowell, a relatively new member, who was awarded the Champion Open Print, and Craig McKenzie who was awarded the Champion Natural History Print.
Dunedin Photographic Society 