With Stephen Edmonds on props, Pete Davies at the light switch and some generous supplies from some forward-thinking members, many party-poppers were detonated at various angles and millisecond delay settings; no single one popped the same: some fizzled, a few backfired onto Stephen’s fingers, some hit Dave Sumner in the head – entertainment on its own! Using the club’s sound triggered flash system (built by Craig Terry), in a dark room with about 15 open camera shutters, those attending got the opportunity to photograph some unique action,especially towards the end of the night when positioning and timing of the flash had been perfected.

Some more members brought a few [increasingly rare] tungsten lightbulbs to smash up with a metal wrench (these glass bulbs proved surprisingly difficult to shatter!) Keeping to the pyrotechnic flavour of the night, the workshop finale involved an exploding apple that had to be seen to be believed.

A fun night of photography and many a laugh was shared between club members for another highly successful WCC workshop.

This was awesome fun last time and those that were there will know what sort of things to bring.

For those who weren’t: bring your camera and a tripod. Last time around we were setting off party poppers, smashing light globes and bursting balloons.

If you can think of anything else which happens at high speed and will set off a sound triggered flash please bring them along.

A highlight of the night was Leif Anderson’s demonstration of his polarised light box, where plastic objects were lit and photographed through polarised filters with colourful effect.

This Tuesday the 18th
STILL LIFE with kitchen objects
Bring your camera, tripod etc.. and something(s) from your kitchen to photograph.

Tuesday the 25th
Beginners night with John Hadfield.
John has very kindly agreed to step in and take my place.
He has planned a very informative and entertaining evening
SO MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR CAMERA AND TRIPOD etc…

Wednesday the 26th
Flash/Portrait Group.
Bring your gear.

Monday the 31st
Camberwell camera club monochrome interclub.
Address to follow.
Please come along if you can, after our fantastic showing at the last 4 Club a few weeks ago hopes are high for another good result.

Tuesday the 1st of June
Comp night at the Community Centre
This months comp is SLOW SHUTTER SPEED and our judge is Julie Bird, a well known member at Knox Photographic Society.

Sunday the 6th of June
Arcades and Alleyways 2.
This trip hasn’t got an exact route yet, I went into the city yesterday to scout around and will post the route shortly.
There’s a good chance that the walk will start at Jeff’s Shed after we have visited the PMA expo.

Saturday/Sunday the 6th/7th of June
PMA exhibition at Jeff’s Shed
Register online for free entry

See you there,
Pete

Tonight
Tonight at the Community Centre our Landscape comp will be judged by a former member Chris Dowd. Please come along a little early and help by moving a couple of chairs.

Monday the 12th
Berwick Viewfinders are hosting the 4 CLUB inter-club competition.

Tuesday the 13th
AV special interest group upstairs at Wadham House. Starts at 7:30pm.

Sunday the 18th
It’s not the first sunday of the month, but because we missed out due to Easter there will be a trip to Toorongo Falls near Noojee.

Tuesday the 20th
Workshop night downstairs at Wadham House. Door open from 7pm starts at 7:45pm. The topic of the workshop will be MACRO. BRING YOUR CAMERAS AND TRIPODS REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU OWN A MACRO LENS OR NOT. There will be a brief discussion about Macro photography and then we’ll do some ourselves. BRING SOMETHING TO PHOTOGRAPH. It doesn’t have to be something small, it could be a large object which you want to shoot a part of in some detail.

Thursday the 22nd
Possible night shoot at Sandown Greyhound Races.

Tuesday the 27th
Beginners group upstairs at Wadham House. Starts at 7:30pm. BRING YOUR CAMERAS AND TRIPODS

Wednesday the 28th
Flash/Portrait special interest group upstairs at Wadham House. Starts at 7:30pm. BRING YOUR CAMERAS AND FLASH GEAR.

Sunday the 2nd of May
Moorabbin Air Museum

These range from the group shot taken at the beginning of the night:

through to individual portraits:

After the inspiring talk from David Williams last tuesday night I have been doing some research on lenses and remote flash triggers.

I found this site had good information: Strobist: Lighting 101

The following comments are for Canon users, however I think the same price points apply to Nikon and other brand cameras.

Lenses

Canon make two (affordable) 50mm lenses:

• EF 50mm f/1.8 II, costs about $140
• EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, costs about $500

I noticed David was using the Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM which costs about $650

Seems the Sigma is recognised as the best lens. However the cheaper Canon does get good review for sharpness on non full frame DSLR cameras.

Remote control

Only the Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter gives TTL contol of the flash. ie the flash intensity controlled by the camera.

Available 3rd party items will trigger the flash, but not control the intensity

There is a limit of about 10m between the camera and the flash

In addition to the Sigma 50mm lens (available for other brands than Nikon, eg Canon), David was also demonstrating using a Nikon D5000 (shows you don’t need the expensive camera to get great results) and was triggering the external flashes with a Nikon SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander.

Both the Canon ST-E2 and Nikon SU-800 use infrared light which is what limits their range. Recently E-TTL compatible radio based remote triggers have become available, however they are quite pricey and are a significant investment (as much or more as your camera).

If you were also inspired and want to learn more, then you should be coming along to the Portrait & Flash Photography group at its second meeting next Wednesday. The site Ross found, Strobist, was also mentioned by David Gilliver at the first meeting and I expect it to be an essential resource for the group.

David will be demonstrating how to get the most out a portrait shoot no matter where you are or what equipment you have at hand. This will be a great night to come along and get your portrait done by one of the other members under the tutelage of a master photographer.

You will need to bring a couple of things: your good self; your camera and some sort of prop that says something about you. It could be another hobby you have or an object you are particularly fond of. Use your imagination.

Because we want to maximise our exposure and make as much use of whatever light we have, THE EVENING WILL BEGIN AT 7PM SHARP.

Rather than have one person up the front and the rest all sat down looking at the screen we will try something different. It has been proven that the method used in the past doesn’t work for several reasons.

So what we will try is this:

I would like everyone who is able to bring their laptop (or PC’s if you prefer) with them tonight. We can then split up into much smaller groups and therefore (in theory) be able to cater for all levels of expertise. All the people who are familiar with Photoshop/Lightroom/Elements and so on will be able to demonstrate what they know and all those for whom digital editing is still a bit of a mystery will be able to ask questions specific to them.

This will only work if everyone participates.

We also have the monitor calibration tool which is available to anyone who wants to use it.

See you all tonight,
Pete

The night started with Pete showing off the clubs latest equipment, a new aluminium stand and backdrops. This combined with the old stand and new backdrop set up in the front room and the crowds building up, it quickly became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to run this event in the one room and half of the gear was moved to the back room. With both of these and a darkened room set up for longer exposures, we were all keen to get started.

The President addressed the room and announced that the models for the night were all of us. This didn’t get the negative response that was expected and the night was started by Fred Bullock posing in the back room. It soon became apparent that we have some natural models amongst us and it wasn’t long before most of us had sat for the paparazzi like mobs that surrounded each model.

Anne poses whilst John snaps away

Jill posing whilst her husband Peter Takes shots.

The darkened room had some fantastic shadow patterns showing from the blinds in the windows, courtesy of the bright car park lamp shining in through the window.

All in all a great night was had by all and I for one can’t wait for the next portrait session.