Our Sunday outing for March will be a sunrise shoot. At 6am meet in Hastings at the Pelican Park Recreation Centre.

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There is a cafe serving breakfast nearby that we will gather at after the sunrise.

The second of our Sunday outings for the year will be on Sunday the 3rd of Feb, this time round we are visiting the wonderful Blue Lotus Water Gardens.

This is a unique outing on the WCC calendar because it has become an almost annual event. We try to mix up the outings every year and not double up on where we went the year prior but the lotus farm offers so much to photograph that it’s hard to leave it out of the syllabus. Those who have been before will know what I mean. Those who haven’t ventured up there before should think seriously about treating themselves.

The details:

Where:	Blue Lotus Water Gardens 2628 Warburton Hwy Yarra Junction 3797 Vic (Melways Ref 288 H8)
When:	Sunday 3rd of February, 10:30am
Bring:	Camera gear, partner (your choice which gets the front seat of the car) and picnic lunch
Cost:	$15 Adult, $12 senior, kids under 16 free

It looks like they have increased seating and a larger cafe this year. Also new this year is a night flowering enclosure.

For those interested there is a second Sunday shooting opportunity on Feb 10. It’s the Lunar New Year Festival in Springvale. Lots of colour and movement and a good chance to practice some street photography.

See you there,
Pete

The Waverley Camera Club Annual BBQ will be held at Brickmakers Park on Tuesday 15th Jan 2013 at 6PM.

There is only one shelter and two tables so it would pay for you to bring any portable tables, chairs, picnic balnkets etc.. I have no idea how popular this place is so it's best to be prepared. The BBQ is electric and will be suitable for a total fire ban day. Please bring utensils and cleaning gear.

Please remember to bring your prints for the FEB 2013 Competition on this night.

If you are not going to the BBQ you can drop your prints to Pete (President) by calling 0403 803 299

Brickmakers Park can be found directly behind Oak Ford car sales which is at the intersection of Ferntree Gulley Road and Dandenong Road (Princess Highway). It seems the best way in and to find parking is along Stamford Road which is accessed from ferntree Gulley Road.

If you are travelling along Dandenong Road, turn east into Ferntree Gulley Road and take the first left after Oak Ford Car Sales into Stamford Road and the park is about 2- 300 mtrs on the left.

If you are travelling west along FTG Road there is a right turn filter lane just before the traffic lights at Dandenong Road.

You Can also access from Huntingdale Road by turning into Estelle Street immedately after Oakligh Golf Course, go to the end and turn left into Stamford Road and the park is about 400mtrs on your right.

 

Welcome everyone to the first Sunday Outing report of 2013 where 7 members attended two exhibitions in the CBD at the National Gallery of Art and the Ian Potter Centre. Having had a few issues with email, we finally managed to get a message out to all members and Pete Davies and I met at the Atrium at Fed Square and sat and waited to see if anyone else turned up. One by one people arrived and the 7 of us, after a short chat about the Xmas festivities went into the IPC to purchase our tickets for the two exhibitions. Discovering that the first guided tour was for the Thomas Demand exhibition, we took a steady stroll to the NGV and duly queued waiting for the guide. Going around the exhibition we were amazed by the sheer effort that Demand had put into his work, recreating everything he photographed. I won't go into detail because the artist had demanded that people look at the exhibition before reading up on the work and i don't want to spoil it for anyone else who is planning a visit. I would recommend this exhibition to anyone but the free tour is worth the effort.

The guide spoke to us for an hour and at 12 noon at the end of the tour, we all headed to the Southbank for lunch and a chat. Having had lunch we took a slow walk to the IPC and waited for the tour which turned out to be the same guide. Jeff Wall is a much younger photographer and his work was presented partly using light boxes but her also used large format printing as opposed to Demand who has printed onto a clear poly surface. Wall's work was quite different to the offerings of Demand and it quickly became apparent that people were not as impressed with his images with some of the group wandering off from the tour as the guide tried to explain away his work. Some of his images were quite self explanatory, others you neede to have an artistic mind to interpret to which personally I struggled to see.

After the tour some people headed on their way whilst a couple of us took the opportunity to walk Melbourne's laneways which turned out to be a bit of an eye opener in places as there is quite a lot of building work going on. With regards to hosier Lnae, that area is now so much of a tourist attraction that it has been spoiled and not really worth a visit any more.

Thanks to all of the members that attended and hopefully we will see a few more to the next Sunday Outing.

Regards

Dave

 

Happy new year to you all, I hope the silly season has been restive and festive for you all.

The WCC year kicks off this Sunday with a trip to the NGV and the Ian Potter centre. There is a pair of photographic exhibitions being held at both venues: Thomas Demand @ NGV & Jeff Wall @ Ian Potter. One ticket (max price $15) will cover both exhibitions.

We will meet at the entrance to the Ian Potter Centre (Fed Square) at 10am. Wander about for a bit and then grab a coffee somewhere before congregating again at the entrance to the NGV (St Kilda Road) at 12:45pm.

See you soon,
Pete

October’s offering will be an outing to Sherbrooke Forest and a veritable feast for all nature and wildlife photographers.

Meet at Grant’s Picnic Ground car park at 10am on Sunday 7^th October however, I will be there earlier especially if the morning happens to be misty.

Grant’s offers a native bird feeding area, shop (tourist) and a nice café which gets busy on Sunday’s. There are several walks available, some flat and short, some not so flat and longer. The whole area is awash with nature/wildlife subjects if you know where to look. Kallista is also nearby which may offer some photographic opportunities as well. There will be Cockatoo’s, Corellas, Galah, King Parrot, Lyrebird, Kookaburra, Yellow Robin, Currawong and many others. Personally, I will be going looking for some Lyrebirds and I would suggest that if you want to shoot Lyrebirds this is a great opportunity as I can pretty much guarantee that you will see one. However, it does involve some walking (about 3km return) into the forest and perhaps going a few meters off the path. Otherwise there are plenty of other walks and lots to see.

Suggested things that you might need:

Long and wider lenses
Monopod or Tripod
Walking Boots especially if it has rained
Mozzie spray
Warm Jacket (it can be up to 10 degrees cooler than at the bottom of the hill and you can always leave it in the car if it happens to be warm).

 Please Note: If you intend to stay on the track then there is no problems at all however, if you step off the tracks in the forest there is a good chance you will get leeches on anything that you put on the ground and on your legs. It has been suggested to me that if you wash your lower legs with soap and let it dry rather than rinse it off, this will keep the leeches away.

How to get there:

From the Eastern suburbs etc. follow Burwood highway to Belgrave and at the roundabout at the far side of Belgrave shopping street go straight across the towards Kallista on the Monbulk Road. The road climbs slowly up into the rainforest and in around 2 – 3km Grant’s picnic ground is on the right side just before Kallista. If you miss the turn or get to the roundabout at Kallista then go around and come back down the hill and the entrance is on the left side.

From the South Eastern Suburbs, use the Hallam – Belgrave Road to the roundabout in Belgrave and turn right towards Kallista on the Monbulk road, then follow the instructions above.

See you there

Dave Sumner
WCC Secretary

The Pakenham National Photography Competition’s exhibition will take place over the weekend of the 22nd & 23rd of September 2012 at the Cardinia Cultural Centre, Lakeside Boulevard Pakenham Victoria 3810. Exhibition times are Sat – 10am – 7pm and Sun 10am – 3pm.

We have at least 4 members of WCC that have acceptances in this competition, one of them having 2 x second places.

So come along and support your club, we are all going on Saturday afternoon leaving around 2pm so lets all be there for approx 2.30, look at the exhibition and have a coffee and a chat.

See you there.

Dave Sumner

WCC Secretary

Sunday’s outing in August 2012 was to Agnes Falls, just north of Toora off the South Gippsland Highway about 2 hours from Melbourne. A crowd of around 13 WCC members and their partners etc decended upon the Agnes Falls Car Park for 10am only to have been beaten there by four unknown photographers shortly before us. We set off on the short walk to the falls and the first thing that struck me was the sheer depth of the gorge which clearly isn’t visible from the car park. The second thing that suprised me was that the four unknown photographers were already on their way back up the path. “Can’t really see the falls and the vantage point isn’t that good” said one of them and a short walk later we too were disappointed by the lack of a vantage point from the small viewing platform which we filled with three tripods. We tried to find better vantage points but to no avail and within 45 minutes we were done and heading back to the cars.

Note to Parks Victoria, the viewing platform and access to the falls is poor and not worth the trip from Melbourne. Considering this is the biggest single drop waterfall in Victoria, you can’t see even half of it and you can photograph even less. Adding to the viewing problem was a howling gale which was making the trees almost impossible to photograph with the longer shutter speeds needed and several people were concerned about falling tree branches. The light was also very blotchy with sunlight shining through the leaves onto the falls.

One good thing though was that I was able to test my new HOYA 0 – 300 variable ND filter and it worked a treat. I managed a 30 second, f/22 shot of the falls in bright daylight. Although the wind was doing its best to ruin the sharpness by blowing the camera around on the tripod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We scoured the maps for somewhere else to visit so the morning wasn’t wasted and decided upon the boardwalk at Port Franklin but again this was a huge disappointment with the boardwalk being just a few hundred metres long and nothing to be seen to photograph. So it was off to Foster for a coffe and something to eat with some great company then we all went on our merry way.

Dave

Hi All,

Your next outing is on Sunday the 5th of August.  The venue selected is Agnes Falls, on the South Gippsland Highway near Toora.  Rosie and I are not going, we are going to Vietnam instead so I cant tell you where we might meet you or anything else, unless you are also going to Vietnam. However, I am certain there are other experienced photographers who are keen to go and will be glad to give the new starters a hand, hint, good idea? … from time to time.  So, if any of you experienced photographers are going to Agnes Falls. Here is some info regarding the falls:

Hidden within the rolling green hills of the Strzelecki Ranges, the meandering Agnes River cascades over rocks into a deep picturesque gorge.
At 59 metres, Agnes Falls are the highest single span falls in Victoria.
Take a short stroll through the Blue Gum Forest to a viewing area overlooking the falls or relax and enjoy a picnic under the shade of tall blue gums on the grassy banks of the Agnes River.

Agnes Falls on the Web

I would suggest meeting at 10am in the Agnes Falls Car Park.

Andy

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