Month: February 2011

Workshop Evening – Tuesday 15th Feb 2011

Pete Davies

Coming up this Tuesday at Wadham House:

A presentation by the good people at

Nulab/PicPress/Creative PhotoWorkshops.

They are Australia’s premiere professional photographic laboratory, they
supply print, workflow and business solutions to the professional
photographic industry throughout Oceania and the world.
They offer a wide range of products and professional services.
On the night they will provide an interactive slideshow presentation
with displays of the products they offer. They will have information that
they can hand out to members. This hand out will include examples of
their printing capabilities, booklets, and each member who attends on
the night will receive a $25 credit towards Nulab!

On top of this Nulab is in a partnership with Creative Photo Workshops
who are Australia’s leading photographic tutoring company. CPW will give
a presentation on a certain aspect of photography, whether that be
portraiture, flash photography or wedding photography. At the time of
writing I haven’t been informed of what the topic is. They have found
that this combination has been very beneficial for club members, with
each member taking away something from the nights presentation.

Recently the team at Nulab, Picpress and Creative Photo Workshops
have given presentations at-
�         Geelong Camera Club
�         Frankston Photographic Club
�         Southern Suburbs Camera Club
�         Mornington Peninsula Camera Club

With all of these clubs thoroughly enjoying the presentation, they
have asked to return later this year.

***UPDATE***
Here’s a little more info on the workshop night coming up this Tuesday.
Not only will Nathan Muller be presenting but you will also be regaled by Shelton Muller.
For those who haven’t heard of Shelton Muller yet try googling him and see how many hundreds of pages come up.
I am very sorry that I won’t be there to see it, I will be at Pakenham Camera Club that night, so I want you all to go and then let me know what you think.
We may be able to get them back in November if we are lucky.

Cheers,

Pete Davies

Report – Sunday Outing to Queenscliff

Dave Sumner
After the Rain on the Friday night it was doubtful whether this trip would go ahead at all given that the Princes Highway was blocked with water. However, I am happy to report that the outing did go ahead and although it rained on the way there, the weather turned out to be very good indeed although a little windy. On the way there and approaching the Geelong area I started to see custom cars all over the place and realised that we were going to be sharing a very busy Queenscliff. I arrived at the Hesse Road car park around 09.45 to find it pretty deserted but a BIG cup of coffee from the cabin at the top of the car park soon got me into the swing of things. No sooner had I finished it when Stephen turned up followed closely by Ian and Fred. Although we waited until 10.50, nobody else turned up so we set off exploring the area. A walk along the seafront revealed some very interesting rock formations and I think that some landscape (seascape) with photographer images were snaeakily taken here. We walked along the beach narrowly avoiding the waves by the rocks below the fortress and on the a jetty which was pretty uneventful so it was on to the next jetty which was much more promising. This jetty had the old waiting shed designed to keep passengers for the ferry out of the elements and the old lifeboat station which has now fallen in to disrepair. Then it was back along the jetty and into the area where the custom car show was being held and as we transited through looking at the odd car and trailer we realised that we had gate crashed what was a paid area. At this point as Fred realised that he had left his bag and sun cream in Ian’s car decided that he needed to walk back for it so we adjourned for lunch in a nice Queenscliff cafe whilst we waited for Fred. Fred back and lunch over we walked back down to the station where we poured over the old steam engine waiting in the station to take passengers on a joy ride. We then moved along the shore to the marina and on to the ferry terminal which has taken on a look of an international terminal in these recent years. I remember waiting for a ferry here a few years ago and we could find was a closed cafe where now there is a hive of restaraunts, a 360 degree observation tower and a raft of diving and fishing shops.

The observation tower which is free, gives you a very good veiw of  the Rip by the Heads so it was worth the climb up the stairs, well for three of us it was as one of us cheated and used the elevator. Not wanting to name this person it was noted that Ian walked back down with us saying it was easier to walk down than up. From here we walked back through the town up to the lighthouse at the top of the park and then along the road back towards the cars. We noticed that the impenetrable fort had opened its gates for the 3pm tour so we diceided that we would have a closer look at the fort. Ian had to leave so the three remaining paid our money and waited for the tour to start. Fort Queenscliffe is still a working army base so ID in the form of a driving licence and addresses have to be provided to visit and though I thought that photography would be banned it wasn’t and in fact we were allowed to take pictures where we liked. The tour guide almost outnumbered the visitors but the 5 to 1 ratio was very comfortable and her knowledge was exceptional. We heard about the history of the lighthouse, signal tower, fort and the ghosts that reside there as well as being allowed into the keep, the magazines and tunnel complex. The fort also has a very well stocked and informative museum which is part of the very reasonable $10 entry fee.

After the tour we walked back to the cars and took a drive to Point Lonsdale to get a better look at the Rip and the Lighthouse and a short walk along the rocky beach revealed a few more shots. The lighthouse here is very much a working lighthouse and commands a very good view of the Bass Straight and the Heads but having lots of ariels and communication dishes doesn’t make it the most photogenic lighthouse ever.

After this, as it was around 5.30, we bid farewell and returned home after what was a very good day out.

It was a shame that more members didn’t turn up but given the weather on Friday it wasn’t a suprise. I did receive an apology from Wendy who couldn’t make it at the last minute so thanks Wendy for letting us know. Otherwise we’ll see you all at the next outing which is Sunday 6th March to the Blue Lotus Water Gardens. This is a great venue and is not to be missed.

Fred at the rocks below Fort Queenscliff - Image by Dave Sumner
Ian below Fort Queenscliff - Image by Dave Sumner

Queenscliff this Sunday 6 February

Pete Davies

Hi All,

As you should be aware the second Sunday outing of the year is on this coming Sunday.

The location this time around is sunny seaside Queenscliff. Roughly ninety minutes from the CBD Queenscliff offers many photographic opportunities.

What I suggest is that you all meet at 10:30am at the carpark at the end of Hesse St:

Directions:

Next door is Fort Queenscliff which is probably a good place to start. Check http://www.fortqueenscliff.com.au/ for further things to see and do.
As always, partners are very welcome, as are prospective members.

Cheers,
Pete

Cranbourne Rodeo – Report

Andy Armitage

For those of us who were able to go to the Rodeo at Cranbourne I hope you all had a great time – as great a time as I had at least, I was like a child in a lolly shop.

Dave Sumner, Dave Burton and I were there, together for the most part, so too it seems was Kaye Harding and John Mallet who wrote to me that night to tell me so.  It was a wonderful day.  Sure it was a little hotter than it has been, but it is summer after all – isn’t it?  There was a lot of dust around, bull, horse and the real stuff and for those of you reluctant to expose yourselves due to your health you were justified.  Dave dared me to go up to the St Johns Ambulance folk and squeeze in between their carrying thingy and the fence.  The ladies were too nice about it and before long Dave came up too and brought along his bazooka like 400mm lens, tripod, bag, change of clothes and all the other paraphernalia.  I didn’t bother with a change of clothes.  In hindsight, and indeed that was all we got sometimes, we could have found a better place but once in a good spot we were not too happy to go fossicking for a better spot so we stayed put.  The result of which was that we missed Mr Mallet.  Anyway I had not been to a Rodeo since we took Jamie to Mareeba in North Queensland; in 1979 I think it was, he must have been 4 or 5 years old.  Boy that does put the age on me.  Anyway it all was the same but this time I was able to take a few shots and if I can clean them up I might even include them in this little note.

Technically I needed a long lens; 400mm at least, it would have provided a means of isolating the action from the distr-action. It would also have been nice to have a printed programme that would have allowed an opportunity to know where the action was going to take place in the arena before excited horses, angry bulls, concerned wranglers, ropes and crazy clowns all descended in the same place at the same time!  Sometimes all I saw was horse’s legs!  One cow-boy got his foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged about like a rag-doll in front of us but neither Dave nor I had a thought for taking his picture – multiple pictures in our case.  Come to think of it the bull riders, wild horse breakers and the cow ropers were all rag-dolls being tossed about by the huge animals they were expected to do duel with.  The golden evening light was wonderful but all too quickly what there was insufficient to make images of the very fast moving action in front of us.  One horses hoof, real one, came through the fence rails and smashed the glass on the face of my watch – don’t ask!!  There was roping, wrestling, riding and a hell of a lot of getting dumped on your bum on the hard baked earth. Huge fun for those of us that were watching.

We missed you there – so we’ll hopefully see you next Sunday 6th February at Queenscliff!

Cheers Andy


Photo by Andy Armitage