Waverley Camera Club

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Last night’s (Tue 16th Jun) workshop night was a huge success with approx 39 members and guests attending. Many people commented on how they enjoyed George’s sound triggered flash setup. There was also a still life table which attracted several photographers, beginners and experienced alike. I think that all who participated would join with me in thanking George Skarbek for his efforts and help with what was a great club workshop evening.

Sound Triggered Flash Workshop

By far the main event was the sound triggered flash help upstairs in Wadham House. Thanks to George who brought in his equipment, members were able to photograph balloons full of flour bursting, light globes being smashed and party poppers being fired.

The basic idea was that around 8 photographers would setup their cameras, hand held or on a tripod, at F/5.6, ISO200 and 4″ exposure. Everyone then obtains a good focus whether manually or auto (Nikons were a pain due to there auto focus assist lamps), the light is then extinguished and the shutters are pressed. After 1 second, george would carry out his action whether it be dropping a dart on a balloon or hitting a light globe with a small hammer. The sound of the balloon popping or hammer hitting glass would then trigger the flash and the exposure was taken. The light monitor person would then count to 3 in their head and put the light back on and in the meantime the shutters set at 4 seconds would have closed and we all would admire the images that we had taken.

Adjusting the time when the flash fires was done by simply moving the sensor back and forward and George advised that 10cm of movement would change the time by 1,000th of a second. Many people commented to me on how they really enjoyed the night and a good number took away plans provided by George to attempt to build their own systems.

A group setting up with George getting ready to smash a light globe

George releasing a party popper.

Balloon ripping apart after being punctured by a dart.

The same as above but with flour in the balloon.

Images by David Burton

Still Life Workshop

Downstairs saw a still life workshop and this definately played second best to the sound triggered flash running upstairs. However, because of the limited space upstairs, the still life gave an alternative whilst we waited for our turn. It nearly didn’t get off the ground because although people were asked to bring in things to use as still life subjects, only Pete Davies and I remembered and fortunately we had several items to use.

Anne and Fred at the still life table

(Fred is about to give the wall a sun tan with his flash setup)

Pete Myers instructing a new member, Diana on the aspects of table top photography

Thankfully, the Pete had also brought in a couple of lamps and a black back cloth so the still life session managed to go ahead. Several people had a go at this and many found that the particular setup was suited to B&W and I saw some great attempts including this one taken by Rosie Armitage. Rosie is new to the club and is in the beginners class, she took the shot with her pocket camera and it came out very well.

Well done to Rosie for getting in there and having a go whilst the others were just stood around talking about it.

Still Life taken by Rosie Armitage using her pocket Fuji digital camera

Thanks to all who attended the night and made it a huge success especially to George for bringing and operating his equipment. Thanks also to all who helped organise the night.

Photographs by Rosie Armitage and Teddy Tan

Don’t forget…this coming Tuesday is “Workshop Night” at WCC.

We will have two concurrent workshops taking place. Workshop 1 will feature sound triggered flash photography, demonstrated and presented by George Skarbek.

Workshop 2 will be on the subject of “Still Life” photography.

Don’t forget to bring your camera and a tripod…the fun starts at about 7.30pm

This is the instructions kindly documented by Roger Howell after his very successful picture mounting demo at the club workshop night.

Material & equipment Image mounting demonstration 19th May 2009

Mat Cutter – Logan model 4000 pull type. Fitted with a measurement bar which makes marking out a doddle.
Measurement bar is removed for the cutting operation.

Marking out and cutting board with straight edge – made from a piece of MDF board obtainable from most timber yards. Size not that critical but needs to be around 630 x 530mm. Thickness of 9 mm makes for a lighter structure but probably better if 12 mm is used. This will enable hinges to be attached to the straight edge and holding bar to be attached to the base with small half inch wood screws. (Mine uses glue but it has been known to require repair – see illustration) The straight edge is made from a 50mm strip of clear Perspex obtainable from glass shops who will cut it from an off cut.

High-density cutting mat easily obtainable from most art shops – usually green and marked out in squares.

Stanley Knife for cutting card from large sheets.

Small fine blade scalpel type knife for detaching obstinate corners of cut mounts. A little practice with the Logan mat cutter will avoid this need most of the time.

Steel straight rule 600 mm – best in steel – obtainable from hardware stores.

Magic tape for attaching print to mount.

Double sided tape if mounting full size back boards to mat.

L-plates for sizing image prior to cutting mount board – A pair of these are made from a piece of mount card. They need to be fairly large – large enough to go round your largest print and about 60 mm wide.

Work flow.

Note: – This is the way I did it in the demonstration and using the tools I had. There are other ways but at the end of the day it’s up to the individual as to how he or she tackles the exercise.

1. Size the print using L-plates – note inside horizontal and vertical
   measurement and decide on border width. It will be found that 60 or 70 mmwill be sufficient but it is a matter of opinion.
2. Add twice theborder width to each of the horizontal and vertical measurements to determine the size of the mat required.
3. Check all measurements and if correct cut mat to correct outside size.
4. Set mount cutter measurement bar to border width and mark left and
   right hand margin on the back of the mat.
5. I advised that it was better to displace the image by about 2mm
   towards the top of the mat. To do this – set the measurement bar to the border width less 2mm – mark the top border on back of mat and put a ‘T’ on the board to identify the top. Now add 2mm to the bottom width – set the measurement bar accordingly and mark the bottom border.

   You should now have a correctly sized mat with four boarders marked on the reverse side and the letter T identifying the top of the mat.

That’s the lot.

Roger