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Looking through Chiharu Shiota’s ‘The Web of Time’ – Nicola Pye
It was decided at our last Council meeting that we’ll keep using Zoom for our meetings for the rest of the year, regardless of any possible Covid level changes. The underlying reason for this decision is to protect the health of all members, and the issue of vaccination requirements is key. While the Council strongly supports vaccination, any decision around vaccination requirements will likely need to come first from the government and from the Maryhill church where we meet. In the meantime, we’ll carry on as we have been, with meetings over Zoom, and field trips or photo walks in areas where we can socially distance as needed (at least as long as we’re at level 2 or better). Fingers crossed things will be closer to normal when we return next year!
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 1 November
View Finder #14: Tony Carter – Another World, portraits from Ōhura
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 8 November
Club meeting: Speaker TBC
Projected Image Of The Month: Open
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 15 November
Focus group meetings
Zoom and various
9:00am Saturday 20 November
Field trip: Maple Glen
Meet at Bayfield Park carpark for carpooling at 9am, to reach Maple Glen about 11:30am. Bring lunch and a cash donation to enter the gardens.
Wyndham and surrounding areas, possibly Invercargill?
7:30pm, Monday 22 November
Club meeting: Ferg Campbell and The Projects Group
Projected Image Of The Month: Reflections
Zoom
10:00am Sunday 5 December
Photo walk: Annual Photo Scavenger Hunt
Meet at the main gate to the Gardens, at the corner of Great King St and Opoho Rd, finish with coffee/lunch at Croque-o-dile café.
Botanic Gardens and surrounding areas
7:30pm, Monday 6 December
View Finder #15: Judy Stokes – The art of painting with your camera
A bit of a disappointing ending to last month with Covid rearing its ugly head again, but hopefully we can slowly start emerging from lockdown very soon. In the meantime, a reminder that we’ll be running ALL DPS activities online until we’re back at Level 1, just to be on the safe side. This means that some activities may need to be cancelled or postponed, and all club meetings will be held on Zoom until then – keep an eye on government announcements if you’re not sure where we’re at 🙂 Covid Alert Levels and Updates
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 6 September
View Finder #12: Esther Bunning – NZ Pacific Studio ANZAC Flags project
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 13 September
Club meeting: Noelle Bennett – Rules? What rules?
Projected Image Of The Month: Edges
Zoom
Saturday 18 September
Festival judging
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 20 September
Focus group meetings
Zoom and various
6pm, Thursday 23 September
Field Trip: Glenfalloch Night GardenN.B. THIS WILL ONLY RUN IF WE ARE AT LEVEL 1
Meet at 6pm towards the Strathallan Street end of the Bunnings carpark, to catch the free bus to Glenfalloch
Glenfalloch
7:30pm, Monday 27 September
Club meeting: AGM Neale McGowan: Postcards of Old Dunedin Phil Hollard: A First for New Zealand
Print Of The Month: Open
Zoom (or if at Level 1: Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce)
TBC
Field Trip: Monarch Wildlife Cruise
All details TBC – an email will be sent out when they are confirmed
View Finder #11: Paul Hughson – Real estate photography in Norway
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 9 August
Club meeting: Stuart Clook – Alternative Photographic Processes – the art and practise of the handmade photographic print
Print Of The Month: Open Appraised by Paul Sorrell
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
7:30pm, Monday 16 August
Focus group meetings
Zoom and various
Saturday 21 – Wednesday 25 August
Print Exhibition
Selectors: Karen Lawton (Open) and John Hart (Natural History)
Moved to Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 23 August
Club meeting: Meeting at Dunedin Community Gallery
Projected Image Of The Month: Flow
Dunedin Community Gallery, 20 Princes St, Dunedin CBD
1pm, Sunday 29 August
Field Trip: Taieri Historical Society and Museum
Meet at: -12:15pm at the Bayfield Inlet to carpool – or at the Wobbly Goat at 1pm for a pre-photo coffee – or at 2pm at the little museum Bring $5 cash per person for museum donations
Outram area
Sept/Oct TBC
Field Trip: Monarch Wildlife Cruise
All details TBC – an email will be sent out when they are confirmed
A quick update: we’ve decided not to continue with the theme challenges for 2021. There hasn’t been much interest this year for some reason, so the slideshows have looked a bit sad! In the same vein though, are our monthly Print and Projected Images of the Month. These are a great way to keep yourself challenged, as you can use each month’s theme to create a brand new image. The upcoming PIOTM and POTM themes are:
The NatMAT group have organised an Astrophotography trip, open to all members, which should be a great night out! Judith Swann has also put together some very handy information to look through before the night, so have a read and start preparing 💫⭐✨
Image by Trevor Douglas
When: Meeting at 1800h on Saturday 12th June 2021 depending on the cloud cover. We will have another look at the weather on Saturday morning and if we need to cancel we’ll let you know, otherwise see you Saturday evening.
The new moon is on the 10th June, so on the 11th and 12th it will still be basically moonless and dark. On the 11th and 12th sunset is at 1658h; moonset is at 1718h and 1805h; and the tide will be falling. High tide is at 1520h and 1600h.
Safety: Think about your safety. Bring a RED LIGHT torch our eyes take longer to adjust to the dark after looking at white light compared to red light. It is also very easy to get temporarily blinded by white light. Put fresh batteries in your torch. Remember Sea Lions use the sand and they don’t leave just because it is dark! Check before you take a step backwards. Lights: Folks around you may NOT want your torch on just so you can make adjustments to your camera. Practice beforehand so you can change your camera settings by touch. Talk to each other about putting lights on. Focus: Focusing in the dark is really hard. Find out if your camera will do focus magnification and turn it on. Teach yourself how to turn on manual focus by touch! On site, find a star and manually focus on it until it is crisp pin point of light.
Cold – More than likely it will be COLD
Layers: Taking astro photos can involve quite a lot of standing around, in the cold, doing very little. You will get cold. Wear some warm layers, bring more, including a wind-proof layer. Hat, scarf, gloves, chemical hand warmer pouches, something to sit or kneel on if you think you’ll need it. Camera & Batteries: Your camera gear will get cold, and cold batteries don’t work so well. Take some spare batteries and keep the spares in a warm pocket. Putting a cold camera into a warm car risks inducing condensation inside the lens and/or camera. A Ziploc plastic bag or dry-bag with a silica gel sachet in and a plan to warm up your camera slowly will reduce this risk. (https://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/how-to-protect-your-digital-camera-in-cold-weather)
Movement – The subject (the sky) moves and your camera is at risk of movement
Subject movement: Actually it is the earth that is moving (turning) while the sky stays still! We perceive this as the stars moving. Photographing this movement is how you get star trails. If you want points of light for stars your exposure time needs to be less than about 25 seconds. Camera movement: The long exposure time means you have to hold your camera completely still so a tripod, bean bag or similar is essential. Remember your cable release, or work out how to use the timer on your camera. Work this out in the light and warmth of home before you set out.
These articles are good backgrounders to taking images of the stars. Read about wide open aperture (f/4 or lower if you can get), higher ISO (1600 and up), longer exposure times (10 – 30 seconds), and white balance to 3200Kelvin (if you can). Then also read the pros and cons of each of these variables in this situation.
Star trails use very similar settings but are taken for longer so your camera captures the movement of the stars OR you take a number of star photos and stack them together to make the star trails.
Milky Way
The techniques and settings for stars usually work for the Milky Way as well. One difference is learning where the Milky Way will be, at the location you’ll be at and at the time you’ll be there. The videos on this site (https://www.davemorrowphotography.com/p/tutorial-shooting-night-sky.html) describe using free apps and programmes (Blue Marble, The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE), Google Maps, Stellarium) to work out where the Milky Way will be. The Milky Way should be just to the seaward side of Taiaroa Head at about 1900-1930h on the 111th and 12th June.
Winter has just about officially begun, heralded in by a very cold blood moon last week. David Steer captured this impressive image earlier that evening, featuring the moon in full queen mode before she started blushing and hiding behind the earth 😊 Inspiration for us all to get out there for the upcoming Astrophotography workshop this month! Please note: there’s been a change in content for our meeting on 14 June, but we’ll still be at Mornington.
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 7 June
(no meeting for Queen’s Birthday)
6 – 8:30pm, Friday 11 OR Saturday 12 June (details TBC – depending on cloud cover)
Field Trip: Astrophotography – Stars – Star Trails – Milky Way – Light Painting
Hosted by the NatMAT group
Aramoana
7:30pm, Monday 14 June
Club meeting: Practical session
Print of the Month: Open
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
7:30pm, Monday 21 June
Focus group meetings
Zoom and various
7:30pm, Monday 28 June
Club meeting: Speaker – Robert Scott, In Plain View: a comparison of simple versus complex approaches in the art industry
Projected Image of the Month: Out of focus
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
It seems ridiculous, but we’re just about in May already! This is the first month of the year when a public holiday hasn’t bumped one of our activities, so keep your Mondays free 🙂
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 3 May
View Finder #9: Tim Flach – How to Evoke Empathy Through Animal Portraiture
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 10 May
Club meeting: Helen Westerbeke – My Journey to Fellowship
Projected Image Of The Month: Repetition
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
7:30pm, Monday 17 May
Focus group meetings
Zoom and various
7:30pm, Monday 24 May
Projected Image Exhibition Selectors: Graham Dainty (Open) and Mike Boyd-Clark (NH)
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
Apologies for the phone pics, but I wanted to show off the amazing landscape that Anastasia took us to recently, and to thank her for organising such a great trip to Wanaka and Mou Waho. If you haven’t been there before, you must! And if you haven’t been away on a DPS trip, I can’t promise such perfect surrounds and weather every time, but we usually find something interesting, so watch this space for details of the the next trip. Until then, here’s this:
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 5 April
(no View Finder for Easter Monday)
2pm, Saturday 10 April
Huriawa Pa/Karitane photo walk
Meet at 2pm in railway station car park
Karitane and Huriawa Pa
7:30pm, Monday 12 April
Club meeting: speaker exchange with Greymouth Photography Club, featuring Nicki Mora, Elizabeth Passuello and others
Print Of The Month: Open
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
11:59pm, Saturday 24 April
Closing date for Projected Image Exhibition submissions
Welcome to autumn! After a small Level 2 blip in February, and another one running currently, it’s important to remind everyone that we don’t run our club meetings unless we are at Level 1, just to be on the safe side. Any club meetings that are scheduled during Level 2 or above will be moved to Zoom. There’s a link to the programme underneath the table below. We try to keep this updated as much as possible, but sometimes the changes happen a bit too quickly, so please keep our ‘club meetings at Level 1 only’ protocol in mind, and keep an eye on your emails for any meeting changes.
Date
Activity
Details
Location
7:30pm, Monday 1 March
View Finder #8: Georgina Steytler, The Art of Bird Photography
Zoom
7:30pm, Monday 8 March
Club meeting: Izumi Schmidt – Reality of photography in the digital era
Print Of The Month: Open
Mornington Presbyterian Community Centre, 16 Maryhill Tce
Dunedin Photographic Society 