Dunedin

Street/urban focus group

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The latest focus group to be established within the club is the Street/urban group. We have a broad focus, encompassing everything from photographing people in the streets, to the buildings of our city. Our idea is to circulate links about a photographer of interest each month, so that we can have a look at their work and discuss when we meet.

The first meeting was held on Thursday 22nd July at Dog with two Tails. We had 8 members attend (plus a mini associate) which got the group off to a great start. Mark McGuire had shared links to the first photographer for discussion – Peter Black. Peter is a Wellington-based street photographer who has photographed social landscapes all over the world.

Brisbane 1973. Peter Black’s first photograph. Source: https://www.peterblackphotos.com/about.html

You can find Peter online via the following links:

Photos can have the magical ability to stop time and thus allow us to examine the world, but in the end the best of them become art – yet they remain as mysterious as a dream.

Peter Black

After a good discussion around Peter’s work and the direction of our new group, it just remained for us all to grab our cameras and hit the streets ourselves.

  • Simon Parsons
  • Kathleen Lane – taken in Auckland
  • Liz Greenwood
  • Liz Greenwood
  • Mark McGuire
  • Melanie Dick
  • Melanie Dick
  • Melanie Dick
  • Rebecca Dick
  • Kate Burton
  • Kate Burton
  • Kate Burton
  • Kate Burton
  • Tony Pomfret
  • Melanie Dick
  • Rebecca Dick
  • Craig McKenzie

The next meeting will be 11am Thursday 19th August at Dog With Two Tails, and all are welcome. The photographer of focus this month is Vivian Maier. If you would like to join the mailing list to receive links and updates, please email Melanie.

Photographer Profile: Murray McCulloch

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Into the small world with local photographer Murray McCulloch this month.

Murray is a finalist in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the year 2018, so don’t forget to give him your vote. nzgeo.com/photography/vote/ 

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Name Murray McCulloch
Photography Awards/Honours Otago Wildlife Photography Competition 2014 – Overall winner, New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the year competition 2016 highly commended in the wildlife section, New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the year competition – Winner of the People’s Choice award 2016, D-photo 2017 – Winner of the Macrophotography category,  New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the year competition – Runner-up People’s Choice award 2017, New Zealand Geographic 2018 – current finalist
Current Camera Nikon D7000
Favourite Camera you have ever used/had I had an old 600-polaroid that I acquired for our wedding day, which was certainly a bit of fun and something different.  I’ve had my trusty Nikon D7000 for a while now and it does everything I need (Though I say trusty, it is my second body as I flooded the first one (as well as the house!).
Which do you prefer? Digital
And why? I’ve always envied people who are adept at using film and think that it must be much harder to be able to review your photos on site and not have as much freedom to really experiment as much, or have the liberty to go out and take a couple hundred photos.
With digital photography you can keep doing more and more, and photographers keep coming up with exciting new techniques.  I do a lot of focus stacking with my macrophotography which just wouldn’t be possible with film.
Which medium do you prefer? Print
And why? I think nothing beats the feel of seeing a printed image, nicely displayed and in good lighting.  Projected images do have some great advantages such as being able to shoot a photo through to friends, family and the wider world, and all at the flick of a button.
How did you get into photography and when? I was introduced to photography mainly by my Dad, Bruce, and my older siblings all do some amateur photography too.  I bought my first camera in 2009 when I was at University – a small Canon “point-and-shoot” which I had fun playing around with.  Then in 2011, when I started working, I purchased my first DSLR (Nikon d7000) and a “do-it-all” 18-200 mm lens.  It was a year later that I got my first macro lens (Nikon 105mm) and flash unit.  It wasn’t until then that I really started to get into macro photography.  My kit has then evolved from there with new lenses, a tripod and macro slider.
Photography is a very personal thing for me and I tend to just shoot photos in a way that that I like and don’t really worry too much what other’s think of my work.  I am very self-critical about my own photos, and it’s often small distracting things in the photos which push me to improve the images.
What keeps you inspired with your photography? I take inspiration from looking at other’s photography, as well as just getting out in nature and being creative.
I actually have a list of ideas and techniques that I want to try out, several of which when tried will likely not be technically possible to do, but that will then spark another idea, which is then added to the list!
Do you have a particular theme that would summarise your photographs? I suppose my theme would be getting up close with nature. I’ve always been interested in more unusual creatures, and it wasn’t until I started macro photography that I developed an appreciation for how amazing these smaller animals are.  With the degree of magnification that you can achieve you really can see these creatures from a new perspective.  Often they appear as an alien-like species and you can simply step outside and observe a whole new world in your own backyard.
Where is the best place that you have been to take photos? Last year my wife and I were lucky enough to travel to the Galapagos Islands where there were many unusual and wonderful animals to take photos of, most of these being non-macro shots, however. The diversity of the wildlife there is breath-taking, and the animals are not as frightened of humans, making taking closer images much easier to achieve.
That said, some of my most successful photographs have been taken in my backyard or at the local park, the great thing about macro photography is that you don’t have to go far to discover a whole new world.
What piece of equipment could you not do without in your camera bag? Probably my Nikon 18-200mm “do-it-all” lens, though it isn’t the sharpest or have the greatest optics, it’s a great all-round lens that will always be in my bag.
Do you have any advice for your fellow photographers? Just get out there and experiment, take heaps of photos…  You don’t need the fanciest gear or big expensive equipment. I’ve seen some pretty amazing photos taken with some pretty simple equipment.
Take aspects from other people’s work, and try to be creative and original.  If I see another photo of a log on a beach, or that tree in Wanaka I might stab my own eyes out!
Do you have any favourite photography related websites or web resources that you’d like to share with us ? (this includes your own) Here’s my own https://500px.com/wildlifecloseup
Also there are plenty of Facebook groups for all different types of photography

2016 Spring Print Exhibition Results

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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.

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Congratulations to everyone who had images accepted for the exhibition.  The honours and awards images are in the slideshow below.

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47th Dunedin Festival of Photography

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The Dunedin Photographic Society Inc. invites you to submit entries for exhibition in the 47th Dunedin Festival of Photography for 2016.

The Festival is open to all New Zealand residents, and also to financial members of PSNZ affiliated camera clubs.

All the rules and entry information can be found on our website: https://dps.org.nz/2016dunedinfestival/

We look forward to receiving your entries.

Important Dates

Urban Vista
2015 Champion Open Print: Urban Vista, Liz Hardley

Opening Date for Entries: Friday 19th August

Closing Date for Entries: Friday 30th September

Judging: Saturday 15th October

Festival Exhibition Opening: Friday 4th November

Festival Exhibition: Saturday 5 – 10th November; Dunedin Community Gallery, Princes Street, Dunedin

The Dunedin Junior Photography Exhibition

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Entries are now open for the The Dunedin Junior Photography Exhibition.
Open to Secondary School students in the Dunedin area, the Exhibition will be displayed alongside the Spring Print Exhibition at the Dunedin Community Gallery between the 29th and 31st of August.

Please share the links below, or the blog post itself, to anyone you know who may be interested in entering.

Entry and information: https://dps.org.nz/tdjpe/

Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/tdjpe/

tdjpe2016

Autumn Print Results 2016

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April the 11th was the Autumn Print Exhibition. The final selection for exhibition included 19 Natural History and 47 Open prints, with the Champion Natural History print awarded to Craig McKenzie for “Sheet Web Spider” and the Champion Open print awarded to Kathy Richards for “Buick 8”.

Natural History Prints selected by Paul Sorrell

Open Prints selected by Terry Maguire

The Slideshow will be added to as the requested Honours images are provided.

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Alan Coppin 4 Acceptances (Open)
Micky Waby 4 Acceptances (Open)
Kate Burton 2 Acceptances (Open)
John Casey 1 Acceptance (Open)
1 Honours (Open)
2 Acceptances (Open)
Gary McClintock 5 Acceptances (Open)
1 Honours (NH)
Ken Trevathan 4 Acceptance (Open)
C.W. Patillo Portrait Cup (Open)
2 Acceptances (NH)
Chris Hewitt 3 Acceptances (Open)
1 Honours (Open)
2 Acceptances (NH)
Graeme Atkinson 2 Acceptances (Open)
1 Acceptance (NH)
Kathy Richards 5 Acceptances (Open)
Champion (Open)
1 Acceptance (NH)
Craig McKenzie 1 Acceptance (Open)
1 Honours (Open)
Champion (NH)
1 Honours (NH)
David Steer 2 Acceptances (Open)
1 Acceptance (NH)
2 Honours (NH)
Laurie White 3 Acceptances (Open)
Mark Cowden 1 Honours (Open)
Como Marine Award (Open)
Melanie Middlemiss 4 Acceptances (Open)
3 Acceptances (NH)
Raimo Kuparinen 1 Acceptance (Open)