january 2015 cape camera

CAPE CAMERAJanuary 2015

Official Newsletter of the

Cape Town Photographic Society

President’s message 2

News flashes 3

How CTPS started 6

CTPS’ first president 8

Introducing the writer 8

Stanford weekend 10

Meet the organiser 11

Table Mountain outing 12

AV programme 14

Judging revamped 15

Top images set 16

Top images open 17

Top images general 18

WC club committee 19

125 Year Diary 20

In this issue

Cape Camera • January 2015 - 2 -

www.ctps.co.za • Copyright 2014 • Cape Town Photographic Society

The year has got off to a very busy start and, by the look of things, it will continue along these lines. To you, members of the Cape Town

Photographic Society it will be An Affair to Remember. (Am I giving my age away by quoting that film title?). On 30 October, 2015, it will be 125 years since 30 Cape Town gentlemen met to inaugurate what today is CTPS (see p3).

I wish all members to contribute in one way or another to our year of celebra-tions, be it in planning or just supporting the various projects. Let it be known by your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that you were part of this enjoyable celebratory year.

From various circulars and notices you will have grasped the fact that there will be some special activities taking place, over and above our normal monthly meetings. Please note all the dates that you will find in a summary of events elsewhere in this issue of Cape Camera.

This brings us to some of our direct requirements from our members, which deal with the monthly running of our meetings. Assist at competition evenings

At our competition evening we all sit back and enjoy seeing our images appear on the screen and listen to comments by our judge. This would not happen without our efficient competition convenor. Lesley Parolis does this month after month, but do we know how many hours this takes? We urgently need help for this port-folio, especially when our digital images are projected.

We need a volunteer who has greater computer skills than I to be trained to operate the system. Should Lesley be out of town, or otherwise incapacitated, the show must go on. We realise that we need trained people

who will continue with the good work that Lesley is doing currently. We need to give her a chance to sit back and en-joy being a member of CTPS, even more than she does at present.

One of the important things we all need to remember is that if we expect to get something out of the club we also need to put something into the club. When we come across problems in one or other area of the club, we should avail ourselves to be part of the solution rath-er than just pointing out the difficulty.

How many of our members spend time looking at books which have many im-ages reproduced? I do, and it is not sur-

prising how much one can learn from the work done by other photographers. It is from these images that one is able to form an opinion of one’s own work and assess the value of that image.

When looking at an image that is projected during our competition evenings, do you in your mind’s eye give it a mark? If you do, how many times do you agree with the mark given? Judging is so subjective and it would be folly to rely entirely on the opinion of another person to put a mark to the image. We need only look at paintings and drawings of what we find in the records left from some of our esteemed masters, and you will agree with me.

We must not be carried away with the judging at our club meetings. We are members because we enjoy tak-ing photographs and we must not spoil our hobby with such trivial matter of getting a gold, silver of red award, in some cases even a no award.

Until next month, I wish you all the best in activating the shutter on your camera.

Yours in photography,

Detlef Basel Hon PSSA, APSSA

President’s message

On the coverWinner Salon Print Open and PSSA senior entry: Making space (27) by Joan Ward. “The timing and execution of the image is very good,” said judge Krummacher, who commented that bird photography is not an easy subject.

Monthly meetingsMonthly meetings are held in the St Stephens Church Hall in Pinelands at 7pm.1st Wednesday: Competition 2nd Wednesday: Audio-visual 3rd Wednesday: Education & DevelopmentFor updates about speakers and topics visit www.ctps.co.za, or join the new Cape Town Photographic Society Fa-cebook group, or be alert to a Snapshot newsletter email.

Cape Camera dates 2015Cape Camera is published after the last CTPS function of that month. Ma-terial deadlines:February 2015: 25 February March 2015: 23 March April 2015: 20 AprilMay 2015: 2 June

(after the CTPS Congress weekend)June 2015: 22 JuneJuly 2015: 27 JulyAugust 2015: 24 AugustSeptember 2015: 24 SeptemberOctober 2015 31 OctoberNovember 2015 23 November

- 3 - Cape Camera • January 2015


President Detlef [email protected]

Tel: 082 898 6759Vice-president Nicol du Toit

[email protected] & Education Karyn Parisi

[email protected] Secretary Jacoba van Zyl [email protected] Honorary Treasurer Nicol du Toit [email protected]

Property Manager Richard GoldschmidtWebsite Manager Steffne Hughes [email protected] Convenor Lesley Parolis [email protected] Convenor Robert Maginley [email protected] Relations Officer Steffne Hughes [email protected] Officer Trudi du Toit [email protected]

Contact CTPS council members

CTPS news flashes

2015 Set subject themesMEMbERS may enter a maximum of three images in any category per competition. The Set subject themes for 2015 will be:4 February: Windows and/or doors4 March: Composite image8 April: Monochrome6 May: Nature3 June: Hands and feet 1 July: Low key5 August: Macro 2 September: Scapes7 October: 125 year celebrations4 November: Shadows and/or reflections 2 December: Rustic

CTPS members perform well in PSSA salonsCTPS MEMbER Jeanette du Toit had seven exceptances in the recent Beachcomber Photography Club Salon. Three acceptances were in the Save the Rhino category, namely, On my way, Portrait of a rhinoceros (right), and Something in the Air.

In the Nature (excluding rhinos) category she also achieved acceptance for The Catch of the Day and in the Open category for A Closer Look at Canola.

In the Macro category of the Beachcomber Salon Jean-ette du Toit had two acceptances, for Hardworking Bee and Yummy....Yummy.Tygerbgerg salon acceptancesIn the Tygerberg Digital Salon CTPS members Mo Bassa and Marius-Lee Pretorius gained acceptances.

The image Vernazza Cinque Terra gained acceptane for Bassa in the SCAPES (Colour only) category.

Pretorius got an acceptance in the same SCAPES cat-egory with City lights.The next PSSA sanctioned salon is the PSSA National Dig-ital Salon. See more at www.pssa.co.za/salons.

Portrait of a rhinoceros by Jeanette du Toit got acceptance in the Beachcomber Photography Club Salon.

Visit www.ctps.co.za for more information for information on com[petitions and meetings

Month Competition AV E & DFebruary 4 11 18March 4 11 18April 8 15 22May 6 13 20June 3 10 17July 1 8 15August 5 12* 19*September 2 9 16October 7 14 21November 4 11 18December 2 9 No E&D

CTPS meetings in 2015

*The PSSA congress will be held in Swellendam from 9 – 14 August. A combined AV and E&D even-ing will be investigated for the 19th of August.



TWo of CTPS’ swallow members from the UK, Clive and Joan Ryder Rathband (right), have a long heritage in the top structures of photography in South Africa and the UK. Joan was a PSSA committee stalwart, before moving to England, where she and Clive are prominent members of the Royal Photographic Society, who regularly judge exhibitions and lecture in the UK and Europe.

During their brief visit to Cape Town in January, they at-tended our competition evening, and shared their impres-sions of South African photography in the UK/European context.

They can immediately spot an entry from South Africa in the international salons they often judge, they told Cape Camera. And unfortunately, that is not a compliment: South African entries tend to be much too saturated when compared to images from Europe, where muted images, that “glow from within”, is the trend.

And unfortunately, South African photographers tend to choose cutey names for their images, which are a big turn-off for international judges, especially in nature or wildlife categories.

Apart from judging other photographers’ work, the Rath-bands have won numerous awards. Both have, for exam-ple, won the Royal Photographic Society’s Gold Medal for the Best Nature Photograph — Joan won it in the Interna-tional Exhibition in 1990, and Clive in the 2005 RPS Interna-tional Exhibition.

In South Africa, Joan Ryder is one of the BIG names in club photography, because as chaiman of the Germiston club, she steered the growth of this club for 20 years, encourag-ing local salon entrances and PSSA membership. She also served on the PSSA, for example, as a member of the Dis-tinctions Panel.

She is now married to Clive and live in Wiltshire, UK, where they are leading members of the Devizes Camera Club.

Joan has been a keen photographer since 1974, especially wildlife, nature, sport and landscape photography, and is

CTPS news

always in search of the ultimate mood lighting. Cape Town, the Westcoast and our National Parks are among her fa-vourite photographic spots.

She has been awarded the Fellowship of the Photographic Society of Southern Africa (FPSSA) as well as the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain (FRPS) and the Artiste De La Federation Internationale De L’Art Photographique (AFIAP).

British-born Clive, has strong links to South Africa, where he met Joan, and is a Fellow of the Photographic Society of Southern Africa (FPSSA). He is also a Fellow of the Roy-al Photographic Society of Great Britain (FRPS), and was awarded Excellence De La Federation Internationale De L’Art Photographique (EFIAP).

He has been a keen photographer since 1972, with a spe-cial interest in nature and landscapes — with the Wiltshire countryside or South African National Parks providing in-spiration. He also enjoys sport photography.

He is currently a member of the Royal Photographic Soci-ety Nature Distinctions Panel.

CTPS members prominent in Royal Photographic Society

There were some errors in the article, The background worker who selected judges about Jeanette Brusnicky in the December issue of Cape Camera, especially re-garding her work in the field of cytogenetics and at the Munich Olympics. We apologise and asked Jeanette to give an accurate description of the work she did:

She obtained postgraduate degrees at UCT and the University of Stellenbosch and specialized in the new-ly-developing field of Human Cytogenetics. She partici-pated in collaborative research in Mapping the Human Genome, based at the Department of Cytogenetics, Ty-gerberg (1970-2009).

During 1971-73 she worked in Germany, collaborat-

ing internationally to devise new technology for Hu-man Cytogenetic Testing. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, she was a member of the group of German Human Geneticists implementing newly-devised tech-niques using hair root cells for rapid and more accurate detection of X- and Y-chromatin.

All female athletes were tested. Females with positive Y-chromatin tests were excluded from participation in the Games. The presence of the Y chromosome in certain females results in increased production of an-drogens and increased muscle deposition, which could present an unfair advantage over those females with a normal XX chromosome complement.”

Corrections: Jeanette Brusnicky’s career explained



Enter PSSA website competitionMEMbERS MAY not be aware that they can enter any one of their images every month in the PSSA Website Image competition. The competition is open to all PSSA members, or members of an affiliated PSSA club (like CTPS). The image can be submitted via Pho-tovault at www.photovaultonline.com. The winning image will be displayed on the home page of the PSSA website for the duration of the month. See www.pssa.co.za/galleries1/website-winning-pics-nov-2014. The Website Picture of the Year will be selected at the end of the PSSA calendar year (30 June of each year).

flashes (continued)E&D speaker to share knowledge of compositesMAlCOlM VENTER will be the Education & Development (E&D) speaker on February 18th, and in preparation for the Composite Image competition set subject in March, he will be covering various aspects of composite images. He will, among other topics, talk about the history and how to edit and compose composite images in Photoshop and will also be showing some photography examples.

“I did a course on Dynamic Photography at Vega (School of Brand Leader-ship) with him about two years ago and he was a superb teacher — so inspir-ing and enthusiastic!” says E&D convenor Karyn Parisi.

He has been a senior lecturer in photography at the Vega School since mov-ing from Johannesburg to Cape Town in 2010. “In my role as Head of Pho-tography I manage the day to day activities of both students and staff in the faculty. This involves organising camps and outings as well as directing cur-riculum based activities and equipment,” he explains in his LinkedIn profile.

He also teaches critical studies at Vega.In Johannesburg he was a partner in the Light and Lens Productions photo-

graphic company, specialising in commercial, portrait, and wedding photography.“Passionate about all aspects of photography, he is also a keen student of

art history,” the Vega School website describes him. “He brings this passion to the classroom, insisting that we should be creating artists, rather than just technicians.”

Welcome to new membersThe new year started with CTPS welcoming six new members: Stella Coram, Paul Nuttall, Anna Morris, Mark Sorenson Browne and at the end of January, Dave Bruce — may they enjoy a long, active and en-joyable association with the society.

Points needed for Gold Silver RedSalon 24 20 16Advanced 22 18 14Intermediate 20 16 12beginner 18 14 10

Points awarded in the club competitions count as fol-lows: Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Red =1. Salon acceptances count 3 points (entrant must alert the competition convenor). Promotion criteriaMembers are promoted to a higher level based on the following criteria:• beginner to Intermediate: 3 gold awards & 30 points• Intermediate to Advanced: 5 gold awards & 40 points• Advanced to Salon: 5 gold & 30 points in club competi-tions & 30 in salon acceptances / or 50 gold awards.

Awards and promotionsGold, silver and red are awarded in club competitions as follows for the four classes of photographers:

Malcolm Venter’s Facebook profile photo.

Save and use your images of the 125 year celebrationsMEMbERS ARE encouraged to hold back their best im-ages taken on outings this year for the following:• Only images taken on outings can be entered in the

Set subject of the club competition in our birthday month (October);

• Please send 2-3 images taken on the outing for publica-tion in Cape Camera ([email protected]);

• Post your images on our Facebook page;

• You are encouraged to provide as many of your imagesfor the making of an AV. Send images to Robert Magin-ley at [email protected];

• All members who regularly enter CTPS club competi-tions may enter one image — on any topic — from which 40 images for the public exhibition in the Artscape at the end of July, beginning of August, will be selected.



CTPS 125 years: how it all started

T he early years of the Cape Town Photographic Society (CTPS) set the tone for the following 125 years. The idea for the society was first mooted in a tavern, and throughout the years socialising

has been among the activities most enjoyed by members. The first president pioneered star photography (see p8) and star trail photography is still very popular. The founding members were prominent in society, and at the forefront of photographic developments at the time ... CTPS has had many prominent members who had also played an impor-tant role in developing photography in South Africa.

What’s more, the first meeting held after electricity was

installed in the YMCA hall in 1896 had to be abandoned due to a power failure. During subsequent meetings they seriously considered returning to kerosene as illumination of the lantern as the “illuminant electric” had the habit of breaking down in the middle of a showing of slides ... which sounds rather familiar!

In the publication 100 Years. Cape Town Photographic So-ciety 30 October 1890 – 30 October 1990, Eric Vertue, who himself played an important role in the society as presi-dent and member, wrote about two gentlemen seated at a small round table at the Thatched Tavern on Greenmarket Square in deep conversation, each enjoying a Tickey Beer.

The Cape was a British Colony, Cape Town was powered by gas, equipment and people were transported by horse carts and oxwagons and photography was in its infancy when CTPS was founded 125 years ago. Yet, certain aspects of the society then will sound very familiar to members today

An early photo of society members on an outing, com-plete with headwear, jackets and ties and the huge cameras they used. From the left in the back row are F Ayres, Grace, RJ Heydenrych, C Martin, EJ Steer, Glennie, Copcroft, Geo Higgie, Ashenden, Wright, Wig-nall, Ferrey, Lindup, vice-presi-dent TW Cairncross, committee member RT Pett, Schonegevel, secretary and treasurer BA Lewis and committee member C Hayne. Seated: First com-mittee chairman C Ray Woods, GC Van Bonde, Dr David Gill (president), committee member DC Andrew and comet-photog-rapher EH Allis.

Despite the cumbersome equipment, outings were as popular in the early days as today.

Members on an outing to Leeuwenhof, home to founding member City Engineer TW Cairncross.



They were T W Cairncross who lived at Leeuwenhof in the Gardens, and B A Lewis who was the Secretary of the Gas Company. Their conversation revolved around the new craze of photography. They were both keen amateurs ...

The outcome of this meeting in the Thatched Tavern – which would feature prominently in CTPS reports in fol-lowing years — was a notice published in the newspaper: All those interested in Photography are desired to attend a Meeting at the St George's School-room, Wale Street, on Thursday, October 30, 1890, at 8 pm for the purpose of forming a Photographic Society.

There were 30 men present at this meeting, where it was decided to form the Cape Town Photographic Club, with Dr David Gill (see p8) as honorary president, and initiators Lewis as honorary secretary and treasurer and Cairncross as vice-president.

The first committee included prominent Capetonians of the time like Ray Woods, EH Allis, who photographed the Great Comet with Gill, F Ayres (of Starke & Ayres seed and flower company), EK Green (in the liquor trade), etc.

The chairmanship rotated from member to member, except when there was a Soiree or a Personage was being entertained when Dr Gill (later Sir David Gill) took the chair, reports Vertue.

The membership grew with each meeting and the following year a second South African photographic society was formed in Port Elizabeth, followed by another one in Grahamstown. These clubs had cordial relations — in 1894 members of these societies met in George for a weekend outing and they shared lantern slides amongst themselves.

The Cape Colony was under British rule, and although war had not yet broken out with the two Boer Republics, the Cape societies had more in common with the Royal Photo-graphic Society in the UK, than the South African photog-raphers in the north.

According to Vertue the minute books for the years 1897-1906 were lost, and there is therefore no record of how the Anglo-Boer War affected the activities of the club.

Then, in 1906, we find the name of the Club being the Cape Town Photographic Society, writes Vertue. What brought the change about is not known, but it happened before 1906 — as an Exhibition held that year is organised by the "Society".

The meetings over the first few months centred largely on members describing cameras they either made or adapted; discus-sions of fixture recipes, the making of optical lanterns and the making of lantern slides, both wet-plate and commercial slides being compared, reports Vertue (more in the next issue of Cape Camera). Different methods for illuminating slides were often discussed.

Perhaps due to the influence of Dr Gill, stars were popu-lar topics for photos. At the July 1892 meeting Ray Woods showed enlargements of three diameters made from six inch plates of Nebulae. The exposures varied from 5 seconds to 12 hours! The long exposures showed beautiful nebulae, which has never before been seen and could not be seen even with powerful telescopes.

Despite the cumbersome equipment, members regularly went on photographic outings, with horse-drawn carts or ox wagons transporting the equipment — depending on the length of the outing. On shorter outings they carried their own equipment on public transport.

An early meeting in the Owl Club room of the YMCA where the formally dressed all-male members were smoking pipes and cigarettes.

The minutes of the first meet-ing was repro-duced on the cover of the menu for the CTPS 100th year celebra-tion dinner.

Below: Cape Town in 1894 photographed from Lion’s Head.

It was debated if the club should return to the kerosene illumina-tion of the lantern as the "illu-minant electric" had the habit of breaking down in the middle of a showing of slides

To p11



CTPS 125 years:

Our first stargazing president

F or Dr. David Gill, starting organisations seemed to be a thing that he just did — time and again. He was a starter, an organiser. Cape Town Photographic Club was just one of the organisations that he got

off the ground. He was elected homorary president at the first meeting on October 30, 1890, and remained president until he returned to the UK in 1906.

When the Cape Town Photographic Club was founded he had been the Astronomer Royal in charge of the Royal Ob-servatory at the Cape of Good Hope for 11 years, a position that he would keep for the next 16 years.

When he arrived in Cape Town in May 1879 the Royal Ob-servatory at the Cape of Good Hope was in a bad state with antiquated, poorly maintained equipment, dating back to 1820. When he resigned in 1906, the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was the finest observatory in the southern hemisphere, he had kick-started Astrophotogra-phy, he had designed a new telescope that was so good its design was still regarded as the best 100 years later, and he was now Sir David Gill, having been knighted by Queen

Victoria in 1900. Born on 12th June 1843 in Aberdeen Scotland, David Gill

was the eldest son of David and Margaret Gill. His father was a watchmaker of some repute, who held a Royal War-rant as Watchmaker to Queen Victoria, and fully expected his son to take over the business. Young David, however, had other interests, notably astronomy.

He attended school at Dollar Academy in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (which is currently the United Kingdom's oldest co-educational day and boarding school) where he board-ed with the headmaster, Dr. Lindsay, who influenced him and interested him in mathematics, natural philosophy and chemistry.

He must have been a bright kid, as he was enrolled at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen in 1858, aged only 15. One of his tutors was the great physicist James Clerk Maxwell who produced the first colour photograph in 1861 – about the time that David left at his fathers request to learn the watchmaking business.

David spent the next few years travelling around the con-

Introducing JoyTHE ARTIClE on Dr David Gill was written by Joy Wellbeloved, a seventeen-year veteran of CTPS. She is known for her love of history, re-search skills and ability to make sense of tech-nical terms and descriptions, as well as her willingness to help out when called upon.

Joy has been interested in photography for most of her life – or more precisely, since she received a box brownie when she was about eight. At school she joined the photo club, and in about 1957 she bought a 35mm Robin cam-

era. “A roll of Kodachrome slide film cost one pound ten and six (about R3.50) at a time when my weekly pocket money was one shil-ling (10c).”

While working in the emerging computer industry in Johannesburg during the 1960’s, she joined the Johannesburg Photographic Society for a few years. “My first Salon ac-ceptance was a black and white print,” she says.

In 1975 she was transferred to Cape Town, where she added a double garage to their cottage in Constantia as a studio. Portrait

Sir David Gill, the first CTPS presi-dent, was a remarkable man: he took the first photo of the moon, pi-oneered astrophotography, helped take the first clear photo of a comet and used photography to map the stars ... among his many other ac-complishments. JOY WELLBELOVED researched the life of the famous founder member of CTPS

Far right: Sir David Gill during his time in Cape Town.Right: A copy of the Southern Sky catalogue dr David Gill compiled as astronomer in Cape Town, now in the Library of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific



tinent, learning the art of clock making in Switzerland and acquiring a feeling for precision instruments, knowledge of business methods, and foreign languages. At the same time he kept his interest in astronomy alive by helping a professor at Kings College Aberdeen set up a telescope. After a few years he sold the business, but the skills that he had learned working with precision instruments stayed with him.

By 1869 he was a member of the Royal Astronomical Soci-ety, and had built his own 12 inch (300mm) telescope with which he took a photograph of the moon, which was of high quality. Taking a photograph of the moon in 1869 was not as simple as it seems to us. The Daguerreotype pro-cess was just not sensitive enough to light as it required very long exposures, even in full daylight. Wet plates could only be exposed while they were still wet, which limited exposure time, and the invention of dry-plate pho-tography was still a few years away.

When an aristocrat, Lord Lindsay of Dun Echt, saw Gill’s photograph of the moon, he knew that he had found the man to build him a private observatory at his home at Dun Echt. When Lord Lindsay offered Gill the post of director, he accepted with alacrity, despite the reduced salary.

The observatory was erected under Gill's supervision and equipped on a lavish scale with instruments finer than many of those available in Government Observatories at the time — including a 4 inch (100 mm) heliometer with which he became an expert observer. Gill remained the Director at Dun Echt until 1876.

And so started his career which was to bring him inter-national fame, and provide astronomers all over the world with a priceless new research tool — Astrophotography.

Gill undertook various scientific expeditions to far-away places to observe the pair of transits of the face of the sun by the planet Venus, and using the opposition of Mars to work out the best-yet distance from the earth to the sun — and was within 0.2% of our current figure. This value was widely adopted and earned him the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1882, as well as a medal from the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1879 Lord Lindsay was obviously a man of influence, because he influenced the decision to have Gill appointed as HM Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope – a position that he held until 1906. Before he took up his post, Gill trav-elled extensively all over Europe in order to meet some of the world's foremost astronomers.

In 1882, Finlay, one of his assistant astronomers at the Cape Observa-tory, discovered a bright comet in the southern sky, which became known as the Great Comet of 1882. By this time the dry plate cameras were new-ly introduced. Gill, remembering his moon photograph of 1869, invited a local photographer, Mr EH Allis (who later became a CTPS committee mem-

ber) and they fastened an ordinary camera with a 2.5 inch aperture, and 11 inch focal length Dallmeyer lens to the clock-driven equatorial telescope. They took several pho-tos over a few nights with exposures of between 30 and 60 minutes. The results were astounding. The photographs showed a good image of the comet, but the background stars were also shown with absolute clarity and sharpness.

As Gill studied the photographs, he knew that photog-raphy could assist making star-maps down to very faint magnitudes. The result was the famous CPD or Cape Pho-tographic Durchmusterung, which extended a

photography became a paying hobby, because as she says, “Hasselblads are very expensive!”

She joined CTPS in the same year and served as chairman of the print section for about two years, before she was elected president in 1984.

1985 was a traumatic year: her divorce cost her all her photographic equipment, and she was declared redundant by the computer bureau. She consequently left CTPS.

Joy had joined Leo Computer Bureau in 1966 as a com-puter operator, working shifts, and moved to programming within a year, followed by a promotion to a systems analyst specifying custom designed applications. She was trans-ferred to Cape Town as an account manager.

After the retrenchment she was unemployed for two years, and then had various jobs in the computer industry, doing customer training across the country, as well as in neighbouring countries Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

She retired as a quality controller in 2007 – and ended the lean photographic years by buying the Canon 40D she still uses. This enabled her to rejoin CTPS in 2008, where she has been very active in various positions, like organis-ing the audio-visual section for the past two years.

“If money were plentiful, I would be a wildlife photog-rapher,” she says. “But, I am concentrating on Macro this year – I can do it in my study, and close to home. I would like to do portraits again, but do not have the space.”

Far left: The historical photo of the ‘Great Com-et’ of 1882, taken by two CTPS founder members.

Left: The advanced heli-ometer Gill used in Lord Lindsay’s private obser-vatory in 1876.

As Gill studied the pho-tographs of the comet, he knew that photogra-phy could assist making star-maps down to very faint magnitudes

To p11



CTPS 125 years: Action-packed Stanford weekend

RICHARD GOlDSCHMIDT not only organised the first outing of our celebratory year to Table Mountain (see p12), he also used his considerable organising skills to plan the weekend outing to Stanford, which members will not want to miss. He is also helping his friend Keith Bull with the arrangements for the Red Bus Tour in March.

But then, organising should come naturally to a sea-soned engineer.

Richard is a born and bred Capetonian, who was given his first SLR on his 21st birthday to capture his mountain climbing exploits. He remembers attending at least two meetings of the Cape Town Photographic

Society in the late 1960’s when our meetings were held in the Cathedral Hall in the City. They were scary and not condusive to encouraging a young, inexperienced, pho-tographer to join.

A working life spent building up a mechanical /electrical consulting engineering company in the City, left no time for photography, other than to capture a growing family.

Richard has designed the building services for many well-known projects, such as the Victoria Wharf shop-ping centre, many high-rise office buildings, numerous five-star hotels, shopping centres, and ended up leading the teams on the Port Elizabeth and Green Point Soccer

The guy who makes the outings happen

Above: Eagleyes’ Lodge will be our base for the weekend outing to Stanford. Right: The Goldschmidts (Joyce is at the back left) and Alison and Keith Bull did a recce visit to the base lodge, and had lunch with the owners Royd and Lindsey Frith. Photos: Richard Goldschmidt.

Stanford is a picturesque village in the Overberg, 30 km past Hermanus, which is the destina-tion of our weekend outing of 20-22 February. Surrounded by mountains and perched on the

banks of the Kleinrivier, the village offers abundant pho-to opportunities. Apart from nature, the many antique and coffee shops and quaint architecture will inspire members to keep the shutters clicking.

CTPS has hired a large house — Eagleyes’ Lodge — as our base for the weekend outing This house sleeps ten people, and other members will be housed in a seven-bedroomed bed and breakfast, which has fabulous views of the lagoon and mountains nearby.

Some of the weekend activities will be: • A sunset cruise to take images of birds on the lagoon;

On Friday 20th February some 25 CTPS members will be leaving the city to enjoy an action-packed weekend at Stanford, with a full programme of photographic and so-cial events. Organiser RICHARD GOLDSCHMIDT explains

• A walk led by an architect around the heritage sites of the village;• A visit to Die Kelders caves and beach; • A visit to the Birckenhead Brewery, • Breakfasts at special little restaurants. • Or just walk around and enjoy the scenery.

In the evenings we will all gather for a communal braai and maybe some photography!

Details will be communicated directly with those who have told Richard that they will be attending, in due course.

Other members may still be able to be accommodat-ed. Anybody who is still interested, should contact the convenor, Richard Goldschmidt on cell 082 558 3037 as soon as possible.



Stadiums built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. After retiring in 2010, he was talked into attending a CTPS meeting by his friend, Keith

Bull. His wife, Joyce, also wanted to know more about photography, and so digital cam-eras were purchased, and they started to learn the ropes. They especially enjoyed the outings organised by Nellian Bekker, which encouraged their progression from Beginner to a little way up the ladder. But, Richard acknowledges that he still has much to learn.

With his knowledge of the building industry and management, Richard had his arm twisted to serve on council to look after our property at Jarvis Street.

Now that is in the final stages of being sold, he has accepted the task of organising some of our 125th year celebration outings.

Richard spends most of his time playing golf, climbing the mountain, dealing with CTPS business and working in a large garden. Richard and Joyce have three children, all resid-ing in Cape Town, two of which have just provided them with their first two granddaugh-ters in January this year.

The remarkable Dr. Gill (from p9)

The courtyard of the lodge where members will be meeting for the evening braai. Photo: Richard Goldschmidt.

Northern Hemisphere survey, the Bonn Durchmuster-ung, down to the South Pole of the sky. The finished cat-alogue gives the brightness and approximate positions of nearly half a million southern stars

1886 he initiated an international congress to promote the making of a photographic catalogue of the whole sky, which resulted in the Carte du Ciel project. The Cape Ob-servatory was assigned the zone between declinations −40° and −52°. He initiated the idea of a geodetic sur-vey along the 30th east meridian stretching from South Africa to Norway, resulting in the longest meridian yet measured on Earth.

Gill was not a great theorist— his genius was as an or-ganiser, observer and technologist.

His expertise in instrument making was put to good use. His design for a Reversible Transit Circle telescope proved so reliable and accurate that it remained in use until 1972. For decades, accurate positions for southern stars depended mainly on this one instrument.

On the 24th May 1900 Gill was knighted, and in 1906 he resigned due to failing health, and returned to Lon-don, where he continued to involve himself in matters Astronomical until his death on 24th January 1914.

In June, 1894, Sir Benjamin Stone, president of the Bir-mingham Photographic Society was the speaker. He "con-demned" the use of hand cameras, when used merely for taking advantage of persons in peculiar positions and gen-erally as tending to produce somewhat careless work. Dur-ing his African trip he made between 600 and 700 glass plate exposures using his plate camera.

The first electric streetlights were installed in 1881 in Adderley Street and in 1896 the YMCA hall, where the club met, became electrified. However, the new-fangled illuminant, termed “electric” was viewed with scepticism (writes Vertue), because of the many power failures. They seriously considered to keep on using kerosene lanterns for illumination, instead of switching on. The discussion of alternative power sources has now come full circle.

Early days (cont from p7)

Diarise and take notePlease diarise the following information about future outings during this year. Also see the diary of activities for the full year on p20:

• March: The date for the Red bus Tour has been moved forward to 21 March. More details will be sup-plied later.

• 25 April: The bein Wine outing will cost R150 per per-son and a maximum of 20 people can be accommo-dated. Members will be required to walk 4.5km uphill to enjoy a picnic at a panoramic viewpoint, and walk 4.5km downhill after sunset. The donkey cart only transports equipment. Urgently book with Pat Scott on email [email protected].

• 29-31 May: There are 58 places available for CTPSmembers and guests who want to attend the De Hoop Congress. Members are urged to book with Pat Scott as soon as possible, so that the bookings can be final-ised.The four speakers are Chris Fallows, Paul Bruins, Martin Osner and Nicole Palmer. Palmer’s husband, a nature conservationist who has been working with De Hoop for 30 years, will give a talk on Friday afternoon. A gala dinner is planned for Saturday 30 May. Book with Pat Scott on email [email protected].



CTPS 125 years: Table Mountain outingThe fickle Cape Town weather turned the first outing of the year into an adventure

A Titanic moment for Jeanette du Toit, captured by Joyce Gold-schmidt. Photo: Richard Goldschmidt

With the restaurant all but disappearing in the mist, CTPS members, protected by their new jackets, find shelter. Back row: Trudi du Toit, Joyce Goldschmidt, Nicol du Toit, Leslie Maginley, Richard Gold-schmidt, Robert Maginley, Barbara and Detlef Basel. Front: Lidia Sancho and Anna Morris. Photo: Jeanette du Toit.

Top: The group was already in the cable car to return home, when the sun broke through the clouds and everybody got out to photo-graph the sunset.

Above: “Cheers!” says Leslie Magin-ley, with Rob-ert looking on. Members en-joyed their pic-nic, even though thick mist cut off the view.

Cape Town demonstrated the truth of the saying four seasons in one day when CTPS members ascended Table Mountain via the cable car in hot sunshine, were greeted at the top by a fresh breeze, picnicked

with clouds closing in and mist cutting off all visibility ... and were then rewarded by a beautiful sunset as the sun broke through the cloud cover.

Just as the later group were getting ready to ascend, Cape Town was experiencing true winter weather. Rain and thick mist resulted in a nerve-wracking car trip to the cable car and put the rainproof features of the new CTPS 125 year jackets to the test. We’re coming down, said the group at the top, who had enjoyed their picnic cocooned in fog.

And just before the cable car doors closed for the journey down, the sun broke through the clouds ... and the group got permission to return to the mountain to enjoy some glorious photogenic scenes.

The ease with which the group could adapt to the fast-changing conditions, was in stark contrast to what the socie-ty members had to endure a century ago: no cable car to take them to the top, no lightweight, compact cameras, no fast return as the clouds covered the mountain, no cell phones to communicate changed plans ...

Yet, they climbed the mountain with their bulky gear and took some impressive photographs, as Richard Goldschmidt demonstrated with the Table Mountain photo album from the CTPS storage archives he brought on the trip. And they did it with the clouds moving in, as the images on the next page show.



Right: The turn-off to Table Mountain Road from Kloofnek Road had a tram stop in the beginning of the 20th century. Above: Nowadays there is a stop for the MyCiTi feeder bus that takes passengers from the parking area to the lower cable car, as can be seen through the mist during the CTPS outing. The road leading to the cable station is also now tarred.

Table mountain then and

nowThe two monochome photos above from the CTPS archives were taken on an outing in the beginning of the 20th century, before the cable car was built in 1929.

The challenge was to recreate these images, taken about a century ago, during the CTPS outing.

Just as on that long ago trip, low-lying clouds and rising mist contributed to dra-matic images.

The photographers are: Left (top to bot-tom):Trudi du ToitRobert MaginleyRobert MaginleyTrudi du Toit.

Right (top to bottom):Leslie MaginleyLeslie MaginleyRichard GoldschmidtRobert Maginley.



THE FIRST AV meeting for 2015 was well attended, and all enjoyed the talk by Graham Blyth on the Antarctic. Nellian Bekker also presented an interesting talk on ’Do’s and Don’ts of AV Making.

David Beckham AV’s where shown and members made various comments.

We would like to welcome new members Stella Coram and Mark Sorensen Browne to the AV section and look forward to seeing their AV’s

The next meeting on February 12th is our first competi-tion night for 2015 and we look forward to seeing your entries.

See more on how to enter in the block right.

AV’s plan ahead for the year

Competion news for 2015IN 2015 the bi-monthly competitions will have two sections — either Open or Challenges. Members may only use a Challenge subject once during the year. The topics that members can choose from during the year are:• Plant Kingdom• My Favourite Song• Monochrome• Tell us a story with less than 6 images • Light Spectrum• Some narration• 1 minute AV• Animal Kingdom• Abstract• Imagination

At each comepetition evening there will be three prizes awarded for the Best Open, Best Challenge and Best Beginner AV. A beginner is an AV-maker who has not won any competition, had a salon acceptance or made more than five AV’s.How to enter: • Members must submit the details of their entries to

Robert Maginley at [email protected] by the Sunday prior to the competition night.

• Members may submit a maximum of two AV’s per competition night, which must be no longer than five minutes each. Members are encouraged to make new AV’s for the competitions.

• Bring the AV’s on either a memory stick or CD/DVD to the club by 6.30pm, to allow enough time to load them on the computer.

Salon newsThe current list of Salons from PSSA is on the right.

We also received news of the Tauranga Photographic Society salon in New Zealand. The are accepting entries from 1 April, closing 10 June. The judging will take place on 20 June. The cost is NZD $34 for the first av and NZD $11 for each additional AV.

The categories are Theme, Documentary, Music poetry and song, Fusion (get examples for fusion on their website).

Contact email: [email protected].

ROBERT MAGINLEY reports back on the first AV meeting and what can be expected this year.

For further information on the AV section please con-tact either Nellian Bekker (left) at [email protected] or Robert Maginley (right) at [email protected]



T he four-month trail period for the new competi-tion format of three judges was introduced in January. Members are asked to please give their feedback on this new system, and they will be

asked to vote after the April competition evening on the best way to proceed.

Apart from introducing the multi-person judging panel, another change was to send the images to the judges before the competition evening, without any indication who the photographer is. They are, however, not re-quired to pre-judge remotely — this will not be fair to the print entrants and the judges should see the images as displayed by our new HD projector and on our new screen (which will soon be installed).

This does, however, offer the judges the opportunity to form an opinion of the good and bad points of an image

You be the judge of judgingA new three-judge format for the competition evenings was intro-duced for a trial period in January. Members are asked to give feedback to council and will be asked to vote whether we should adopt this system at the end of April

PSSA Entries: Every month a judge must nominate a competition entry from a senior (see p2) and junior photographer (right) to enter in the PSSA club com-petition. See the PSSA website at www.pssa.co.za.

Three judges in JanuaryIn January the competition entries were judged by two club members, Ken Woods (middle) and Cathy Bruce Wright (right), and one external, Frank Krummacher (left), who was asked to comment. Krummacher is well-known for the creative photography workshops he presents and as co-owner, with his wife, Nicole, of the Camerastuff Cape Town branch.

Nervous at first, Cathy said during the coffee break that she gained confidence when she realised that her scores were on par with those awarded by the other two judges. The average score of the three judges was exactly the same, namely 22.

outside the pressurised environment of the competition evening. It also gives the external judge time to prepare comments, which improves the flow of the evening.

The judges score by clicking a device that is directly connected to the Photovault programme on the compe-tition convenor’s computer, which averages their scores. In the event of an internal judge entering an image, the average of the other two judges is entered as the score.

In February the external judge will be Christ Hart, a photographer and judge for many years and part time camera repairs person at Orms. The two internal judges are Neels Beyers and Gail Reuvers, both very experi-enced photographers and judges.

So far the feedback has been mostly positive, says Pat Scott, but she urges all members to voice their opinions via email by contacting her on [email protected].

Right: Print Set Subject Interme-diate winner Nature using tech-nology as a resting place (24) by Jenny Cole-Rous. “A lovely photo with a nice, soft, feel,” said judge Krummacher, who suggested that the seal could have been more to the side of the image, not in the middle.Left: Digital Open Salon winner, The bigger picture (26) by Marius-lee Pretorius. “A humorous take on the subject,” said Krummacher of this impactful portrait that was one of the top scorers. He would have liked to see more expression on the subject’s face, though.



Winning and top images January Set subject: Yin and Yang

Left: Digital Set sub-ject Salon winner: Eye spy (26) by Malcolm Jones.

Right: Digital Set sub-ject Advanced winner. Inside Outside (25) by Robert Marconi.

Above: Print Set Subject Salon winner. Interdependence across a divide (25) by Malcolm Jones.

Above: Digital Set Subject Intermediate winner. Leu-cospermum Balance (21) by Cathy Jenkins.

Below: Digital Set Subject. Salon. Where opposites meet (24) by Shaun Laishley.

Above: Print Set Subject Sa-lon. Dark or light landscape or moonscape (24) by Jean Brad-shaw.

Above: Digital Set Subject Ad-vanced. Opposite Statues (23) by Richard Goldschmidt.



January winners & top scorers: OpenLeft: Digital Open winner In-termediate. Portrait of a wood owl (23) by Cathy Jenkins.

Right: Digital Open Advanced winner. Nature’s Power (25) by Dante Parisi.

Above: Digital Open Salon. In the light of the watery sun (24) by Jean Bradshaws.

Below: Print Open Salon. Wintertide (26) by Marius-lee Pretorius.

Above: Digital Open Salon Blush (25) by Jeanette du Toit.

Above: Digital Open Salon. Enclosure (25) by Cathy Bruce.

Above: Print Open Salon. Ma-rocco Street Scene (25) by Jean-ette Brusnicky.

Left: Digital Open Salon. Reach-ing Out (25) by Jeanette du Toit..

Above: Print Open Intermedi-ate winner. Mantis in the Court-yard (20) by Jenny Cole-Rous.



More January top scoring imagesLeft: Digital Open Salon. I’ve got attitude (24) by Shaun Laishley.

Right: Digital Open Ad-vanced. Flamingo Planet (24) by Karyn Parisi..

Right: Digital Open Salon. Ne-ons Passing (24) by Marius-lee Pretorius..

Left: Digital Open Salon. After the Fire (24) by Neels Beyers.

Right: Digi-tal Open Ad-vanced. Eiffel Tower (24) by Jacoba van Zyl.

Above: Digital Set Advanced. Yin and Yang earth elements (23) by karyn Parisi.

Above: Digital Set Advanced. Dune Walk (26) by Cathy Bruce.

Left: Digital Set Advanced. Poinsettia Yin and Yang (23) by Julie Dyer.



Clubs in the Western Cape are en-couraged to share information about their activities, to attend workshops and a training course

for prospective judges, through a new Western Cape Club Committee. About 30 representatives of clubs and invited guests attended a meeting on January 17th, con-vened by the PSSA regional representative, Johan Kloppers, where the committee was formed.

Clubs must appoint a representative to this forum. The main contact and discus-sions will be through email, but a meeting will be held quarterly, if required and club secretaries must be asked to send infor-mation of club activities, such as outings and workshops, as well as newsletters, to PRO Celia Fouche and Kloppers, so that clubs can hear more about the activities of other clubs.

Johan asked me to give a brief summary of what we are planning for our 125th year celebrations. I stressed the exhibition we are planning at Artscape, where we will be exhibiting a number of old prints dating back to 1890 together with newer ones from our members, and the Gala Evening to which chairpersons of the various clubs will be invited.JAP course for prospective judgesCelia and Antenie Carstens are driving the judge accredi-tation programme in the Western Cape and they are busy finalising their own programme, which they will publish be-fore the end of February.

They are planning 20 monthly meetings, where they will get experts within the amateur club system (not profes-sionals or academics) to talk about a different genre of pho-tography at each meeting. This will include pointers to keep in mind when judging.

Participants will get opportunities to judge photographs by scoring, as well as commenting publicly thereon. All the other participants, as well as a few senior active judges, such as Antenie and Johan, will then evaluate individual participants, who will get summarised evaluations, includ-ing pointers on improvements, after each session.

The programme is structured over a 24 month period with no meetings in December and January. At the end of it par-ticipants who made the grade will either be accredited as a club judge, or a club and salon judge.

New forum for WC clubsA new committee, the Western Cape Club Committee, was formed in January to pro-vide a forum for clubs to share information, improve social interaction between clubs, organise workshops, and run a JAP course for photographers interested in becoming competition judges. NICOL DU TOIT attended on behalf of CTPS, and reports back

Interclub competitionJohan asked Alicia Greyling to move the Interclub date away from the 30th of Oc-tober 2015, because it clashed with CTPS’s Gala evening. The date was subsequently changed to 6 November.

It was decided that the digital format will be changed to High Definition and that a maximum of 3 images per author will be al-lowed for clubs with 24, or fewer, members. Furthermore, five judges will be appointed, with the top and bottom scores to drop out. Amateur club judges will be used and not professionals or academics.T

he 2015 event will be hosted by Swartland, while the 2016 event will be run by Creative.2016 PSSA CongressThe 2016 congress will take place at Langebaan, and Johan said that he wished to dedicate the congress to CTPS, who has done a lot to promote photography in this region over many years.

He mentioned that delegates to the Swellendam congress in August this year is capped at 200 delegates, half of which

have already confirmed.PSSA MembershipJohan stated that the Western Cape lagged behind the northern regions in terms of membership, with the result that we do not have sufficient representation at PSSA. He asked that we should encourage people to join the PSSA and in so doing give us more say in what happens at the national body.Limiting salonsHosting salons is becoming a hot discussion point at PSSA. Statements have, for example, been made that the number of salons should be drastically reduced as it was causing a drop in photographic standards. This was hotly disputed by most of the delegates, stating that overseas acceptances are easier to obtain than South African acceptances. Also, if you compare current acceptances to those of years gone by, there is a marked improvement in standards.

The administration workload is another reason for want-ing to reduce the number of salons. They also want to en-courage organisers to have salons with live judging, exhibi-tions and printed catalogues and will either encourage or enforce such salons. I made the point that they then need to increase the entry fees drastically.

CTPS vice-president and treas-urer Nicol du Toit represented the society at the inaugruation meet-ing of the Western Cape Club. He will also be treasurer of the organ-ising committee of the 2016 PSSA Congress in Langebaan.



February 20-22, 2015Weekend in Stanford: urgently con-firm attendance with Richard Gold-schmidt and book accommodation (See p10). Contact: cell 082 558 3037

March 21, 2015Red tourist bus late afternoon outing around the Peninsula with unique stops for photography. Details to follow.

April 25, 2015Bein Wein Private Cellar outing in Vlottenburg with wine tasting at sunset. Donkeys transport cameras. Limited number can go — book with Pat Scott urgently at p.a. [email protected].

May 29-31, 2015

CTPS Congress for members in De Hoop Nature Reserve. Expect top speakers like Chris Fallows, Paul Bruins, Martin Osner and Nicole Palmer. (See p11). Book urgently with Pat Scott [email protected].

Schools photo competition launched.

June 2015 Outing in Stellenbosch area under guid-ance of a renowned photographer.

July 20 to 4 August, 2015 Exhibition of members’ work across 125 years in Artscape Opera House foyer.

August 2015

Postberg outing during flower season. Date and details to be confirmed.

PSSA National Congress in Swellendam 9-14 August. Organised by Swellendam Photograph-ic Society and Cape Photographers. See PSSA website at www.pssa.co.za (Congress tab).

September 16, 2015 An illustrated talk on the club’s 125 years’ history. Possible AV shown?

October 2015

Cape Town Photographic Society 125th Anni-versary Salon for print (Antenie Carstens), PDI (Lesley Parolis), coordinated by Nicol du Toit.

On October 30th, the society’s birthday will be celebrated with a gala dinner at Granger Bay with a good speaker, where old and current members will be honoured.

125 Year celebration diarySave these dates for 2015

january 2015 cape camera

Documents

cape town gentlemen

images general

images open

digital images

cape camerajanuary

issue of cape camera

year diary

year of celebra