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MAY 2017

July 2017 WHAT HAS YOUR COMMITTEE BEEN DOING SO FAR THIS YEAR?

It has:

1. As far as our PSSA membership is concerned –

• Our monthly winning CCC images have been entered in the PSSA monthly national Camera Clubs’ competition; all clubs’ scores each month determine which club wins the annual PSSA competition;

• Entered our 15 best CCC images in the annual PSSA Inter-Club Competition (see these images on page 2 of Focus);

• Uploaded Focus each month on the PSSA website so other clubs can see what’s going on at CCC – see Clubs/Club News on the PSSA website;

• Entered Focus in the annual PSSA newsletter competition;

• Entered our CCC website in the PSSA annual website competition. The results of all these competitions will be announced at the PSSA Annual Congress in September.

2. Bought a New Projector: Did you notice any improvement in our projected images at the July CCC meeting? This decision has been a long time coming, after many gripes about the previous projector’s quality. We bought an EPSON EB-U32 projector with two built in speakers and high level specs, which will work well with what we hope will soon be a more modern laptop. With a 2 year warranty, this projector cost R11,910-00, so didn’t break our meagre bank account!

3. Organised Development and Workshop Programmes: At monthly meetings, we’ve so far had two interesting 30-45 minute development presentations, by Doug Young (Ways of Seeing and Composing, in June) and Michele Nel (Wild Life Photography, in July). Quarterly workshops are planned for 29/30 July (at our Paternoster Symposium and weekend shoot), September (Lighting), and November (Landscapes).

4. Reconsidered having prints at monthly CCC meetings: Following feedback from some members, we’ve decided to include prints in our monthly CCC competitions from time to time. This will be announced in good time to allow members to prepare good prints for judging.

Focus Monthly newsletter

Creative Camera Club, Wynberg, Cape Town

The Creative Camera Club is a small interactive community of seriously enthusiastic, committed photographers meeting monthly to share their work and have it independently judged to raise their image making standards. They aim to develop their interests, visions, imaginations and camera skills to levels of creative excellence that make their photographs outstanding and memorable. Editor: Douglas Young: douyoung@worldonline.co.za

Editor: Douglas Young: dougyoung@worldonline.co.za

July 2017

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CCC ENTRIES FOR THE MONTHLY PSSA INTER-CLUB COMPETITION These images were selected for entry by the CCC Committee, from the best scoring images ( at least 25 points) in our monthly Club competitions since January 2017.

Andre Diener: Shooting the Shooter. Anthony van Zyl: Old Railway Station Doug Young: Water Seller

Jane Bursey: Old Stables at Meknes and Lobster Nets Lesley Morse: Cinqueterre

Paul Nuttall:

Marbled Nude Soft Nude

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Chris Kinross:

African Bull Frog Bat-eared Fox

Chris Kinross: Shy Steenbok Irvine Edelman: Comfortably Napping

Michelle Nel:

The Stare Morning Hugs She’s Mine!

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WINNING IMAGES: 3 JULY MEETING

Creative: Mexican Catholicism: Suzzane Hayano 25 Open: Clashing Onion Slices: Doug Young: 25

Open: Sugar and Honey: Chris Kinross: 25 Shoot: I See You: Paul Nuttall: 25

Shoot: Strelitzia: Claude Felbert: 20 Shoot: Dragon Tail: Anthony van Zyl: 20

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CCC MEMBERS' SCORES - 3 JULY MEETING

Name Title Category Score Award

Suzanne Hayano Mexican Catholicism Creative 25 Gold

Paul Nuttall Looking Up Looking Down Creative 24 Gold

Chris Kinross Flight Creative 24 Gold

Andre Diener Damned Empty Creative 23 Gold

Jane Bursey The Lilies Of The Field Creative 20 Silver

Anthony van Zyl Karoo Monster Creative 20 Bronze

Theo Potgieter Liberty Creative 19 Silver

Marge Vermaak Death Machine Creative 17 Bronze

Sandra Cattich Serenade Creative 16 Bronze

Michele Nel Standing Tall Creative 16 Bronze

Gerrit Opperman Watchtower Creative 15 Bronze

Elizabeth Cook The Dancers Creative 15 Bronze

Douglas Young Pepper Tree Trunk Creative 15 Claude Felbert Lens To Eye Creative 15 Bronze

Douglas Young Clashing Onions Slices Open 25 Gold

Chris Kinross Sugar And Honey Open 25 Gold

Paul Nuttall Rare Vintage Open 22 Silver

Suzanne Hayano Light Is Meaningful Only In Relation To Darkness Open 20 Silver

Sandra Cattich Capture Open 20 Silver

Elizabeth Cook The Elephant Whisperer Open 20 Silver

Anthony van Zyl Stripes Open 20 Bronze

Andre Diener Catch Of The Day Open 20 Silver

Theo Potgieter Wireless Beach Open 19 Silver

Michele Nel Just Chilling Open 17 Bronze

Gerrit Opperman Protea Open 17 Bronze

Jane Bursey Arctic Landscape Open 16 Bronze

Claude Felbert Over The Top Open 15 Bronze

Paul Nuttall I See You shoot 20 Bronze

Claude Felbert Strelizia Abstract shoot 20 Silver

Anthony van Zyl Dragon Tail shoot 20 Bronze

Sandra Cattich Pienkowski shoot 19 Silver

Michele Nel Pretty Prinia shoot 18 Bronze

Chris Kinross Strike A Posie shoot 18 Bronze

Elizabeth Cook Tranquility shoot 17 Bronze

Gerrit Opperman Reflections shoot 15 Bronze

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MEMBERS' POSITIONS: JANUARY - JULY 2017

Name Star Rating

Entry Count

Total Score

Average Score

Total Points

Jane Bursey 3 Star 21 449 21 52

Paul Nuttall 3 Star 18 403 22 42

Chris Kinross 3 Star 15 340 23 38

Gerrit Opperman 3 Star 20 382 19 34

Douglas Young 3 Star 21 427 20 33

Anthony van Zyl 3 Star 15 326 22 30

Michele Hendry 2 Star 10 229 23 28

Jenny Morkel 2 Star 10 224 22 26

Michele Nel 2 Star 10 223 22 24

Lesley Morse 2 Star 8 166 21 18

Theo Potgieter 1 Star 7 147 21 17

Elizabeth Cook 1 Star 9 167 19 15

Claude Felbert 2 Star 7 134 19 13

Andre Diener 1 Star 5 104 21 12

Lennon Fletcher 2 Star 4 87 22 10

Wendy Taylor 2 Star 5 98 20 9

Elaine Cleghorn 2 Star 4 84 21 9

Irvine Eidelman 1 Star 2 50 25 8

Crighton Klassen 2 Star 4 76 19 7

Roger Trythall 2 Star 4 73 18 7

Suzanne Hayano 1 Star 3 63 21 7

Carol van Blerck 2 Star 4 64 16 5

Sandra Cattich 1 Star 3 55 18 5

Marge Vermaak 1 Star 3 53 18 5

Shirley van der Hoek 2 Star 2 44 22 5

Andrew Mcfarlane 1 Star 2 41 20 5

Shaun Fautley 2 Star 2 42 21 4

Marianna Meyer 2 Star 3 50 17 3

Marian Boardman 2 Star 3 47 16 3

Mujahid Ur Rehman 2 Star 1 23 23 3

Jane Forsdyke 3 Star 1 20 20 2

CONGRATULATIONS TO JANE BURSEY AND CHRIS KINROSS

FOR THEIR PROMOTION FROM 2 TO 3 STAR RATINGS!

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FOCUS ON KESTRELS

Did you know that CCC’s Image Master, Anthony van Zyl, is a highly regarded expert on Kestrels? In a recent article on Dr Andrew Jenkins, in African Birdlife, its author David Allan, names Anthony as Dr Jenkins’ closest collaborator, saying that:

“…as with all matters related to the genus Falco…Anthony van Zyl (is) southern Africa’s leading Kestrel expert.”

This is high praise indeed. Focus asked Anthony to share his work and pictures of Kestrels with us, which he will do in a later issue of Focus. As a foretaste of what we plan will be “Focus on Anthony van Zyl”, we show here four of his Kestrel images, which some members will recall he displayed at our CCC Body of Work exhibition in November 2016. We might even be able to persuade him to emerge from his usual modesty to give us talk on his work!

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ADDO ELEPHANT PARK ISN’T ONLY ABOUT ELEPHANTS

Douglas Young Not surprisingly, Addo Elephant Park is home to an abundance of elephants. For those who haven’t been there yet, it’s SA’s third largest Park, after the Kruger and Kalagadi National Parks - over 178,000 hectares in area. It’s about 72 kms from Port Elizabeth. Since its first opening to tourists in 1978, when it held about 100 elephants, it now has a population of over 600 pachyderms, grouped in at least 7 families, some of whom have been re-located from elephant over-populated Kruger.

More surprisingly, acording to the Offical Guide, Addo contains about 115 mammal species, at least 190 bird species and a rich abundance of indigenous flora. In our seven day visit in June, in addition to countless elephants, we also saw many buffaloes, 2 lions of the 15 known to be there, lots of kudu and various other antelope, zebras, many warthogs, jackals and meerkats.

Accommodation and facilities in the Park are excellent, with well equipped campsites, tented camps, guest camps, rondavels, huts, cottages and chalets at reasonable rates. My interest, photographically, was in portraying elephant behaviour rather than simply adding to the plethora of clichéd record shots.

The best time to see elephants is around midday, though not ideal photographically, light-wise. They move, in their families to water pools to drink. All these pools are pump-fed by the Park, given the the drought-caused absence of natural water holes and rivers in the area. We were saddened to see one group reach an empty pool not yet refilled and then disconsolately plod off, unquenched, to the next pool many kms away.

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Elephants need to drink up to 200 litres of water a day. Where there is competition with other animals for drinking space at a pool, the elephants assert their bulk and authority by spraying any competitors with water, as can be seen in this shot of a warthog being chased away

Delightful and amusing, as always, is the behaviour of babies and calves, who reach maturity at about 12 years of age. We watched family after family arrive at various water pools – each group shepherding 2 or 3 of their very young ones, together with older juveniles. The antics of the calves kept us enthralled for hours!

Queueing for water often results in power struggles between alpha males and also between senior cows protecting the needs of their offspring. Fascinating to watch is the way elephants, especially dominant bulls associated with different families, greet each other as they approach the water pools. They entwine their trunks in ways that at first seem like aggressive engagements. Younger ones start early in mimicking their elders.

Young elephants are not immune to scrapping and power displays, as can be seen in this image of two very young bulls at war.

Most Addo elephants seem very well habituated to cars and their passengers and don’t normally pose any safety threats, though one evening close to the 6pm camp gate closing curfew, we were confronted by an advancing bull elephant intent on blocking our road ahead, so that we had to reverse quickly for some distance to an escape route.

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In addition to the elephant superfluity we enjoyed, we were fortunate, on night drives, to see two of the Park’s eight adult lions. The image below, taken in the glaring white light of the guide’s torch, gives this lion a ghostly face belying his liveliness.

Several other rarely seen animals were present on our night drives – a black rhino and her calf, bush pigs, bat-eared foxes, porcupines, honey badgers - and even a brown hyena, all of which, alas, defied photograhy in the poor light. The young spotted hyena, here seen emerging from his roadside burrow, is a more common variety.

Birds we saw in aplenty, especially the Southern Boubou shown here, plucking ticks off a warthog.

Addo confounded our expectations about what we could see and experience. It’s well worth a visit, especially if photographing elephant behaviour is one of your interests!

CCC NOTICE BOARD

• Creative Topic: August

Due in 31 July:

“Double Exposure”.

• Shoot topic for those

unable to go to the

CCC Symposium on 29-30 July at

Paternoster:

“Nature”

Due in 31 July.

• Development talk,

CCC Meeting on

7 August:

“Macro Photography”,

by Paul Samuels.