Waverley Camera Club

It’s been a while but we are pleased to debut another WCC Member biography on Dennis Creasy.  Stay tunned for another Member Spotlight in the coming months.

Dennis Eric Creasy, 1931 – 201ish or so

Born in London, Dennis was one of a very rare vintage: 1931 was the year of the lowest birth rate ever recorded in both Britain and Australia. Surviving 250kg aliquots of HE, V1s and V2s he was finally bequeathed his mother’s Box Brownie during his last years of schooling. Hard economics set in: two rolls of “120” film = 16 exposures of 2¼ x 3¼ = One week’s pocket money. Fortunately his father was an amateur photographer so he learnt early to do his own processing (in open dishes) with the cost of chemicals “on the firm”. Developing tanks were unheard of in his household.

With his second roll of film he cycled down to his old haunt where he had been a war time evacuee for a while and photographed the old Saxon church near Didling, W. Sussex, at the foot of the South Downs.

This was a church noted for having kept its head down and hence was overlooked during Henry VIII’s gold grab of 1536 to finance his many girlfriends. This effectively destroyed any vague interest Dennis may have had for bricks and mortar but not for girlfriends.

Ten years later his father bequeathed to him his “620” Kodak folding camera. Frustrated by this continued “large” format being wished on him while “everyone” else had 35mm he opened it up and glued a mask inside to give 16 half size negatives. Consequently he then had to build an enlarger.

Another decade rolled by and, in spite of the cold war, Russian cameras were in the shops. Now he had a wife, a mortgage and money in the bank! Gentlemen, he advised, should always marry a rich woman. So he splashed out on a “Zenith E”: 35mm and colour prints at last!

The “E” saw him through the next 1½ decades and into Australia. But by now Anno Domini had caught up with him and his arms had grown too short for him to be able to read his slide-rule (Slide-rule? What the hell’s that?) let alone focus his camera.

Fortunately for his coronary and blood pressure, autofocus widgets were appearing in the shops and in 1986 a quick trip back to Britain facilitated the duty free acquisition of an autofocus Minolta 7000 and extra lenses. Right up until the death of film, the 7000 never gave him the slightest trouble.

Being an old fashioned “see the wheels go round” engineer, Dennis did not welcome the advent of the digital age. So much so that he retired early to avoid having to use the ghastly electronic widget with which his employer insisted on decorating his desk. Rumour has it that he was latterly in possession of some form of digital Sony gadget which enabled him to use his 7000 lenses. However, he professed to the very end that until he had confined the progeny of his 1469 rolls of film safely into albums he had no intention of getting involved with “all this new fangled digitry”.

In order to preserve a level of insanity he took up playing cards and also became a rowing coach.

In mid 1992 a portrait of WCC then President, Marcia Brown, appeared in the local rag and he immediately applied to join the club. By 1996 he had graduated to Club secretary and also succeeded Christine Anfried as Newsletter editor for several years (with the able assistance of Prue McColl) In 2005 the WCC held an exhibition at the Highway Gallery and beside his two offerings was Epitaph 1:

“Dennis Creasy is a retiring retired engineer. He is very selfish and takes snaps purely for his own personal erotic pleasure with no interest whatever in what others may think. Those who view his images must be prepared to put their own brains into gear if they wish to get anything out of them”.

Eventually he joined that noble band of A Graders. Not, he would hasten to point out, because he was a good photographer but because, like any devious student, he read the (then) rules and then religiously applied them. His mental state declined as he lamented the mutation of the Newsletter to the Blog and he appeared not to have had a remission. He had always hoped that one day he would have had his own private studio in his home and taken pictures of women which they would one day have been proud to show to their grand-daughters.

“The report of his death was an exaggeration” (with apologies to M. Twain) but he will leave a wife, four children and ten grandchildren.

Epitaph 2: “Come back hard copy; all is forgiven!”

Fancy some Astro-Photography?

My friend Subby is an ex pilot a trainer of pilots and an air-traffic controller. Over his long and successful life he has also become a keen astronomer offering his pilots another means of charting their way from here to there without over-shooting the preferred airport.

He now wants to take pictures of the stars and constellations and to this end has joined the mornington peninsula astrological society.  Next year he is willing to bring/take his gear to a suitable location and allow WCC members an opportunity both to look at and photograph the heavens if we so desire.

I will be joining him on this jaunt early in December and will let you know more about it later in the new year – Saves us the trip to the mornington peninsula ourselves I say!

Cheers Andy…

Hi all!  I have been researching the possibility of WCC heading off somewhere to do some bird watching/photographing and I have come up with the ‘numero uno’ spot.  At a number of now dry ‘wetlands’ I have asked where all the larger water birds are and been directed to the Werribee Sewerage Farm, now euphemistically called the Western Treatment Plant.

Here then are the details.

To enter the sewerage farm you will need a key and a permit.  The permit costs $20, is not transferable and may be used over a period of 2 years; the key costs $50 which is a refundable deposit, it must be returned within 2 weeks of the permit running out to get the deposit back.  There is a provision however for short term loan of keys;  short term loan keys may be collected at the time of arrival and returned at the time of departure but because someone is not always around, (I wonder why?), call 9742 2828 tell them when you are coming and a key will be left for you to pick up from a mutually convenient place. Needless to say returned to the same place when you depart.    Problem solved!  Each Bird Watching Permit is good for a car full of as many as 5 people.

Have a great time and don’t get your feet wet!!

Cheers Andy

My apologies for the lack of the Member of the Month article, moving house made this quite difficult. This month the article focusses on a long standing member and current Secretary, Ron Weatherhead.

Q. What sort of equipment you use and what you would like to own in an ideal world?

My first SLR was a Praktica, a good affordable camera made in the (former) East Germany. I got a Nikon F601 when I joined the club, then moved on to a Nikon D80. I use the 18-135mm kit lens, which does not have good reviews, but gets reasonable images with the help of Photoshop. I don’t really crave any fancy equipment, but would have liked the VR Nikon 18-200mm lens, but it was not available at the time.

Q. What sort of photography you like and where do you like to take pictures?

I like “found” images, not so keen on set-up shots. A camera is often with me when out and about, and most of my shots are taken quickly when I see something interesting. They tend to be of buildings, flowers, birds, etc, not many of people.

Heart of a Harley Eucalyptus

Q. How has the WCC changed since you joined?

The format of meetings is much the same as it always was, but the members are now a lot younger and there are more activities outside of the two main monthly meetings. Skills have also changed, mainly due to digital cameras and computers. We used to have members who specialised in B&W processing, cibachrome, slides, hand colouring etc, but now we rely on the computer. Digital photography is great, giving easy access to creativity, much better than spending hours in the darkroom!

Q. Who is your favourite photographer, why, and what is your favourite image?

I am a regular at the MGA, so get to see the works of Australian photographers and really like the B&W images of people like Olive Cotton, Max Dupain and David Moore.

Teacup Ballet – Olive Cotton


Meat Queue – Max Dupain


St Paul’s Cathedral – David Moore

One of my own favourite photos is this one of St Kilda Pier, taken not long before the building was burnt down and replaced by a similar one,

St Kilda Pier – before the fire

This is the second in the series of the member of the month articles. After the huge success of the first article I thought that asking some of the newer members might be a good idea this time. So without further ado, here’s the August 09 version of the article focussing on new members to the club, Rosie & Andy Armitage.
Next month I intend to have a more seasoned member’s bio here, watch this space.