castle hill rsl photography club viewpoint · 2014. 2. 3. · castle hill rsl photography club...

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Inside this issue:

Castle Hill RSL Photography Club

Issue 94 February 2014

Mini Prints 2

Competition Results 3

Winning Website Images 4

Digital Image of Year 6

Print of the Year 7

Christmas Party 8

Eastern Creek 14

Castle Hill Show 16

2014 Comps 17

Week Day Christmas 18

Maitland 20

Member’s Benefits 21

Meet Amelia Chen 22

Amelia’s Trip 24

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christ-

mas and like me, has made a New

Year’s resolution to put more time

aside for photography. We had a won-

derful Presentation Night in December

due to the work of Jacci Schipp and her

hard working Social Committee. It was

wonderful to see all the award winners

acknowledged for the hard work and

talent they displayed during the year,

but it also should be realised that they

are representative of the quality of

work that the rest of the club members

present. Everyone who contributed

month after month should be justly

proud of being part of the quality of

our club.

We have now had time to recuperate

from a busy year and look forward to a

new wonderful year of photography. I

am sure that members will be excited

and stimulated by the program that the

committee are putting together for

2014 and I would urge any member

with any ideas of how to improve what

we are doing should contact me or any

of the committee.

This is a very important year in the life of our club as it will be our thirtieth anni-versary and during the year there will be appropriate activities to commemorate this wonderful milestone. It would be wonderful if as many members as possi-ble were able join in our celebrations.

Graham Gard

Images by Jason Pang

Image by Barry Clinch

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Mini Print Competition Results - December 2013

1st

Robertson’s Point, Navel Fleet Review

Deanna Brown

3rd

Jason Pang

2nd

Jacci Schipp

Image Not Available

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Competition Results - 2013

Point Scores A Grade 1st Amelia Chen

2nd Karen O’Conner

3rd Geoff Higgins

Point Scores B Grade 1st Marrianne Rowley

2nd Julie Smith

3rd Jane Borg

Overall Point Score Winner Amelia Chen

Brian Coleman Award Koen van den Beld

Winning Website Image 1st Jason Pang

2nd Chris Randall

3rd Jason Pang

Winning Viewpoint Articles Greg Ting

Steve Castle

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Winning Website Images

1st Jason Pang 2nd Chris Randall 3rd Jason Pang

Amelia Chen Bob Cook

Bob Cook Chris Randall Dianne English

Dianne English Joan Asplin

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Winning Website Images

Judith Schwarcz Tony Carrozzi

Julie Smith Maria Brear Maria Brear

Richard Logan Rob Brear

Robert Shelberg Deanna Brown Ruth Garbutt

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Digital Image of the Year 2013

1st

‘Faint Attention’

Peter Kissun

3rd

‘Kakadu Sunset’

Geoff Higgins

2nd

‘Driving Warp Speed’

Amelia Chen

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Print of the Year 2013

1st

‘Old Woman Who Lived in a Boot’

Karen O’Conner

3rd

‘Quiet Respite’

Karen O’Conner 2nd

‘Burnt Toast’

Ian English

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2013 Christmas Party and Presentation Night - Jason Pang

Images by Jason Pang

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2013 Christmas Party and Presentation Night - Jason Pang

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2013 Christmas Party and Presentation Night - Barry Clinch

Images by Barry Clinch

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2013 Christmas Party and Presentation Night - Barry Clinch

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Week Day Outing – Eastern Creek

1st Carol Abbott 2nd Jane Borg

3rd Helen Andrews

Tom Brassil

Brian Berry

Chris Randall Ian Walton

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Week Day Outing – Eastern Creek

Ian Walton

Chris Randall

Mal Hobson

John O’Farrell

John O’Farrell

Carol Abbott

Barry Ormond

Helen Andrews Mal Hobson

Brian Berry

Jane Borg

Barry Ormond

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Club Activity - March 2014

Castle Hill Show

28th, 29th, 30th March 2014

Photography Exhibition

The Castle Hill Annual Show, Photographic Exhibition is run by our Photography Club.

We are involved in several different ways.

1. The Exhibition is organised by Club Members.

2. It is staffed by club members

3. the judging is organised by the club

4. The club gets the accolades in the local press

5. It supports the RSL in their support for the community

6. Many club members participate by entering entries

7. Our club gives the Major Prize, of $200, for the Overall Winning Entry.

8. We also gain new members from people who visit the Exhibition at the Show.

We will shortly be looking for volunteers to help with the Exhibition next year.

If you wish to enter the Exhibition next year, once again, or even for the first time, Entry Forms for the 2014 Exhibition are now available at:

http://www.castlehillshow.com.au/Sites/chshow/CMS/Docs/Schedules2014/Photography_2014.pdf

William & Robyn Stewart

Co-ordinators.

The Castle Hill Annual Show, Photographic Exhibition is run by our camera club.

We are involved in several different ways.

1. The Exhibition is organised by Club Members.

2. It is staffed by club members

3. the judging is organised by the club

4. The club gets the accolades in the local press

5. It supports the RSL in their support for the community

6. Many club members participate by entering entries

7. Our club gives the Major Prize, of $200, for the Overall Winning Entry.

8. We also gain new members from people who visit the Exhibition at the Show.

We will shortly be looking for volunteers to help with the Exhibition next year.

If you wish to enter the Exhibition next year, once again, or even for the first time, Entry Forms for the 2014 Exhibition are now available at:

http://www.castlehillshow.com.au/Sites/chshow/CMS/Docs/Schedules2014/Photography_2014.pdf

William & Robyn Stewart

Co-ordinators.

http://www.castlehillshow.com.au/Sites/chshow/CMS/Docs/Schedules2014/Photography_2014.pdfhttp://www.castlehillshow.com.au/Sites/chshow/CMS/Docs/Schedules2014/Photography_2014.pdf

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2014 Competition Set Subjects

February Nature—(we can use the zoo) However for Glennie the International Rules

Apply.

March Men or Women at work.

April Self Portrait - must be of the author and taken by him/her.

May Transport—Must show transport as the main subject.

June Through the window - Must include the window frame.

July Trees - Show trees in any form. Trees must be the focal point.

August Balloon - Must show at least one balloon in the image.

September Backlit—Subject matter must be lit from behind.

October Opposites.

November Weather - Must show meteorological effects.

December Mini Print Night

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Week Day End of Year Dinner Hazel Hogarth

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Week Day End of Year Dinner Hazel Hogarth

Models needed for Social Outing to Ebenezer Church and Graveyards.

Date: Saturday 12th April

Time: 5pm till 9pm

Dress: Early Australian Costume or White gown/robe

Purpose: Photography shoot using light painting and long

exposure.

Please contact Colleen Galvin 0413849846 or Jacci Schipp

Fellow Photographers -

When out and about with fellow members of the CHRSLPC working hard at our pho-tography we also have a great deal of fun and frivolity.

Much of this is captured by us all.

As well as sending images for judging by our peers to the website could you also send some of those candid shots to the editor of Viewpoint?

Apart from the club organised photo shoots there are others too where a group of friends go out in search of the perfect image. We would love to hear something of those spontaneous outings as well.

Maybe the competition this year should be for the funniest story and images on an outing or at a club function.

Comments please.

The Editor.

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Maitland International Salon of Photography 2014

Prints Colour Acceptances Judith Bennett Osprey Feeding PSA Medal for best print

Gary on Injalek Hill

Dianne English AFIAP The Card Sharp

Ian English AFIAP Burnt Toast FIAP Gold Medal for Excellence

Box Brownie

Monik 3

Monik 5

Prints Monochrome Acceptances Dianne English AFIAP Honourable Gentleman

Leaving

Memory Lane 2

Ricky Mono

Ian English AFIAP Prayer

The Bedroom

You Don’t Say… FIAP Honourable Mention Ribbon

Projected Images Open PDI Acceptances

Dianne English AFIAP Fairy Godmother Arrives

Moon Drop

Ian English Monik 4 PSA Silver Medal

Peter Kissun Eyepiece

Karen O’Conner Beauty and the Beast

Old Woman Who Lived in a Boot

The Railway Children

Projected Images Nature PDI Acceptances

Ian English AFAIP Cotton Top Tamarin

Congratulations to all these people.

Monik 4 Ian English

You Don’t Say…’ Ian English

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Member’s Benefits

Meet the Major Sponsors of Castle Hill RSL

Photography Club’s

Presentation Night 2013

By Dale Chadd

Member Benefits Coordinator

Saturday evening, 14th December 2013 arrived quickly on a flourish of fevered activity by the Management Committee, steered by the Social and Competition Committees to bring to a successful conclusion, the An-nual Presentation Night. A huge thank you to the or-

ganisers and helpers involved in making this such a

special event.

This year the major sponsors for Presentation Night were acknowledged with specially prepared advertising banners being interspersed amongst a wonderful slide

show of prints by club members.

An excellent display, Jason!

Prizes donated by sponsors were a highlight of the

night and much sought after.

Major Prizes:

Four-hours of one-on-one personalised studio men-toring with photographer, Morris McLennan, valued

at $600.00 won by David Schofield.

A Peter Eastway Masterclass either DVD or Online

valued at $295.00 won by Grant Nichol.

1 Day Studio 4 Hire from Dragon Image Australia

valued at $295.00 won by Allan Church.

Equipment Hire credit from Dragon Image Australia

to the value of $150.00 won by Melanie Kong.

Gift voucher for a 12” x 8” acrylic image from Im-agebank Australia valued at $150.00 won by Grant

Nichol.

at $100.00 won by Ian English.

CamRanger x 2 purchased by Castle Hill RSL Pho-tography Club and discounted by Kayell Australia each valued at $369.00 and won by Jeff Remington and

Graham Gard.

The following donations were also gratefully received:

Walking in The Light, a Ken Duncan Panograph –

Platinum Edition won by Jacci Schipp.

Pro Hart The Tribute Coffee Table Book donated by

Mal and Janice Hobson won by Rita England.

Elements 10 Book won by Julie Smith.

Digital Photography Book won by Susan Terpening.

USB Flexible Adaptor won by Rita England.

The Management Committee and Members of Castle

Hill RSL Photography Club would like to thank :

Morris Images www.morrisimages.com.au

Better Photography Magazine

www.betterphotography.com

Dragon Image Australia

https://www.facebook.com/DragonImage

L&P Digital Photographic http://lapfoto.com.au

And a very special thank you to Image Bank Australia for their sponsorship on the night as well as their dona-tion of monthly prizes of a 12” x 8” Acrylic Image.

www.imagebankaustralia.com.au

For information about special deals from our sponsors please click on the Rotating Banners on Castle Hill RSL

Photography Club’s Web Page.

http://www.morrisimages.com.auhttp://www.betterphotography.comhttps://www.facebook.com/DragonImagehttp://lapfoto.com.auhttp://www.imagebankaustralia.com.au

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Meet Amelia Chen

How, when and why did you start photography?

I started my photography when I first took the pho-tography subject as my elective in my university days in 1995. I had my first SLR film camera. I learnt the fundamentals of aperture, ISO, shutter priority, sen-sors and composition. In the olden times my photos were all in black & white using an enlarger in the dark room. I had a lot of assignments photographing strange stuff. I scored a high distinction for my pho-tography subject in my university days.

What camera have you used in the past, and what do you use now?

In the past, I used Pentax SLR for my university elec-tive. 2 years ago I used to own a Nikon D90. Now my current camera is a Nikon D7000

What is your favourite lens at the moment and why is it your favourite?

My favourite lens is still the Nikon DX 17-55mm. It takes a good image, it is not too wide, doesn’t distort the subjects and neither it is too narrow. It is gener-ally a good lens for snap shots, portraits & people.

What are your photographic goals? I have a few photographic goals,

Keep winning competitions Taking impactful & emotional photos More travelling Master my photo editing technique Venture into boudoir photography

What does being a member of the CHRSL Photogra-phy Club mean to you?

I enjoy being a member of this club. This club has taught me a lot of things. It widens my contacts. It is also a very organised club.

Are you drawn to any one type of photography (landscape, portrait, macro etc.)? and why?

Generally, I like an event which is fast and dangerous. Taking a seascape with high swells is fast & exciting, and is my kind of photography. So are sports such as cow races in mud, bulls bucking, skateboarding etc – motion & dan-gerous. But I also like playing with shadows and light. Hence, creative portraits photography is one of my fa-vourites too.

What are your thoughts on today’s competitions and Judges?

Today’s competitions are varied & they call upon a lot of artistic & creative photographers. Judges generally came from the same school. Their criticisms are pretty much

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Meet Amelia Chen

similar to each other even though some judges come from the old and some come from the new school. If you listen to their comments they say almost the same things – sharp, good composition, well exposed, shadow details, nothing blown out, unique, emotion. If anyone wants to score well in a competition, pay at-tention to the critics. I have learnt many tips from judges, and from past experiences with my competi-tion participation.

Whose photos in the Photography Club do you admire the most and why?

I admire a lot of photos. Can’t seem to pick the 1 per-son that I admire the most. There are so many tal-ented club members whose photos I really admire.

Do you have a “photographic moment/adventure” to share?

We had a recent trip to Padang, west of Sumatra. Padang is a Minangkabau village. It is not a tourist city. Hence there were no direct international flights to Padang and we had to take connecting flights via Kuala Lumpur. Nobody in Padang speaks good English and in order to go there, you must be able to converse in Ma-lay.

Padang is well known for its ardent adrenaline bull race in the paddy field. This tradition had been around for more than 400 years. Each farmer from different villages would have a bull race every Saturday over 10 months. The festival is celebrated at end of every rice-harvesting season. The bull race festival is held in a village 4 Saturdays in a month. After that, it will be held in someone’s paddy field or another village on the following month.

The place we went was at Sungai Tarap village, which is 110 km from Padang city, about 2 and half hours drive. After we landed at Minangkabau International Airport at Padang, we hired a driver to ferry us to Hotel Pagaru-yung II at Batusangkar. Batusangkar is only 20 mins away from Sungai Tarap village. Along the journey, we saw many paddy farms. The whole place is very rich with agriculture. It is surrounded by 3 active volcanoes - Gunung Marapi, Gunung Singgalang and Gunung Sago. According to the driver, Gunung Marapi every once in a while would cough smoke. The rests of the volcanoes are “sleeping”. Gunung is a Malay word and it means mountain.

The bull race event is called “Pacu Jawi” in Indonesia term. Pacu means sports and Jawi means bulls/cows. This is a fantastic event for photographers. It involves mud splashing, it deals with danger, motion and the jockey exhibits many expressions, plus it is a daring sport for the jockey and of course for the spectators and photographers.

The race involves a jockey with 2 cows tied to a wooden frame. Basically the jockey is balanced on the wood frame and clunked on to the bull’s tail. The jockey would bite their tails to force the steads to race faster. The bulls might run left or right or straight or up the hill towards the crowd or in the opposing direction. Bulls running in the opposite direction would cause the jockey to have the widest split. Some “jawis” ran to-wards the crowd knocking people over.

On our day, it was a wet day. The field was muddy and very slippery. For the first time I was bare footed walk-ing in a muddy field. It was not just muddy, but also soggy. It was so soggy that half of my calves buried into the mud. A lot of people fell into the mud because they were trying to get away from the bulls running towards

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By Amelia Chen

them and the area was immensely slippery. We were all covered with mud thanks to the “jawis”and the jockey. Fortunately I had my camera raincoat on, oth-erwise my camera gear would have been in a serious condition. The day was also raining, it later proceeded with heavy downpours. I strongly recommend this event for photographers. Don’t expect too much from Padang. First it is a Malay city and you need to converse Malay. It is not a tourist area and it is also not a clean environment, but if your minds are set for this photography event, you won’t even think of other negative factors.

Most people have other interests as well as pho-tography. What are your other interests, sports, hobbies, clubs etc.? My other interests are travelling, politics, current af-fairs and lots of reading.

What has been your favourite recreation, leisure, holiday or travel event? How was your photogra-phy at this event? Besides my Padang trip, I can’t forget my inner Mongo-lia trip. We travelled in a convoy of 13 Four-wheel drives. The adventure to the wilderness, and it is fast & furious.

Name one thing we don’t know about you? Not sure everyone knows I came from Singapore and can speak Malay.

Do you have any suggestions for the Photography Club?

I suggest this club organises an international photo-graphic trip such as to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia etc

Any other comments you would like to add? More attractive benefits for the club members like dis-counts for camera gear.

A short trip to Padang for the Pacu Jawi event on 4th Jan 2014.

Author and Photographer - Amelia Chen

Pictures were taken with Nikon D7000, Sigma 10-20mm lens, Nikon 17-55m lens and Nikon 24-70mm lens. Sto-ries are of each picture. Hope you enjoy.

Minangkabau palace which was used as the kings’ resi-dence. Now it is a museum. It is called “Istano Basa Pa-garuyung” which means Basa Pagaruyung Palace.

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By Amelia Chen

The drums (gongs) are displayed in the Minangkabau palace.

In the Malay culture people play these drums (gongs) at functions and festivals.

Jason & one of the Singapore club members who followed us on the Padang trip. As you can see it is all muddy, soggy & dirty.

Our hotel - not in the city, but at Tanar Datar about 2.5 hours drive from the airport.

The schoolgirls who visited the Minangkabau Palace did a good job posing for me. Good girls.

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By Amelia Chen

The race that stops the whole village.

The jockey was trying hard to hang on to the bulls that ran havoc.

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By Amelia Chen

The jockey bit the tail of the cows to force them to run faster.

The jockey also slapped their back to force them to run. The best bull that runs faster and straight will be the winner and might fetch the highest price if sold.

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By Amelia Chen

The boys happily playing in mud after the cow’s race. They’re back in the paddy field where the bull race took place.

The two photos above show the grave of Tantejo Gur-hano, who the Minangkabaus believed that he was the tallest man on earth. According to the signboard, his tombstone was 629m square. His grave was meas-ured to be 25.5 m in length x 7 m wide. They believed him to be as tall as 3 m. Do you believe this story?

One of the villagers didn’t mind me taking a photo of her while she was carrying a container on her head.

Jason with the vil-lage (kampong) boys showing them their photos he had taken. They are happy and simple kids who have never seen tourists be-fore.

The mother who washed her little boy in the open area. He was crying because everyone was looking at him. Poor thing.

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By Amelia Chen

The scenery from Gunung Singgalang

The ladies busy working in the paddy field.

The villagers after work

This is a beach called Air Manis where there is a leg-end of an ungrateful son who became rich and was turned to stone by his own mother because he was ashamed to recognise her as she was poor. The guy on the right was our tour driver for the 4 day trip.

This is the guy who was turned to stone - where the boy is pointing. The rest of the stones were his boat and barrel.

The bridge to Air Manis beach that was never com-pleted. The rests of the bridge is built with sand bags.


President:

Graham Gard

[email protected]

Vice President:

Jason Pang

[email protected]

Immediate Past President:

Robert Shelberg

[email protected]

Treasurer:

Mal Hobson

[email protected]

Secretary:

Dennis Furini

[email protected]

Program Coordinator:

William Stewart

[email protected]

Competition Coordinator:

Val Fenbow

[email protected]

Social Coordinator:

Jacci Schipp

[email protected]

Member Benefits Coordinator:

Dale Chadd

[email protected]

Publicity Coordinator:

Amelia Chen

[email protected]

Training Coordinator:

Bob Cook

[email protected]

Membership Secretary:

Michael Schwarcz

[email protected]

Enquiries Officer:

Mary Spence

[email protected]

Forum Administrator:

Les Harvey

[email protected]

Newsletter Editor:

Hazel Hogarth

[email protected]


Atrium Castle Hill RSL

Level 6, 77 castle St

Castle Hill

PO Box 25

Castle Hill NSW 1765

Viewpoint Contributions

Viewpoint depends on them!

If you have any articles that may be of interest to our members, please email them to [email protected].

Articles could include -

Camera hints, Photoshop hints, Holiday photography and/or Local Photo-shoots, awards, competitions, exhibitions, upcoming events, workshop and Lecture reports, recommended Book reviews, reports etc.

Don’t be limited by this list. Anything that might interest photographers is acceptable.

Please send articles in Microsoft word or plain text format with photos attached as separate files. Submitted images should be a jpg file with a maximum size of 50 - 80kb.

In order to ensure your article is included in the next newsletter, please

submit it by the 17th of the month.

castle hill rsl photography club viewpoint · 2014. 2. 3. · castle hill rsl photography club...

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