Hi all. The next Outing of the WCC is on Friday 27th – thats right FRIDAY 27th and we will do a City walk at night time. I dont know where we will go but the usual form is to meet on the steps of Parliament at about 7.30pm and walk the city streets at night. Did I mention this was a night walk? So bring along your sturdy tripod and have walking shoes. I believe it will be reasonably cool on Friday so a warm coat and gloves will also be necessary. Hey what am I your Mum?

So thats it Friday 27th, Night time, about 7.30pm, on the steps of Parliament House, Waverley Camera Club will do a CITY WALK.

Update: Meet at Flinders Street Railway Station, NOT on the steps of Parliament House.

Although the time has passed by so quickly or because it takes me awhile to do things, the club did have a weekend away at Lakes Entrance over the Labour Day weekend.

Fourteen of us ventured up to the beautiful Lakes area.  Some of us stayed at the Sandbar Motel and some of us camped a few doors down the road.

With all the rain in the region, there were  a lot of full flowing rivers  and areas still under water. Unfortunately, the weather decided not to co operate with photographers.  The amazing sunrise and sunset shots that were going to be taken and win the monthly competition never eventuated. This meant  however, that some people slept in. But not all of us – there was always that wishful thinking that just maybe  the skies would clear.  Up before dawn, we still enjoyed walks along the waterway and the beach, before heading off to a café for brekky or in my case jumbo cappuccino.

Thanks to Pete, Ron and Stewart’s knowledge of the area and maps, our days were beautifully planned.  We would all meet up around 10.00 and head off on our adventure and hopefully, a photographic masterpiece.

Saturday was Metung (so lovely), lunch in the park, local market, amazing river silts, Paynesville. Raymond Island. We even saw owls and there were swans, parrots and koala bears and lots of water.  Glass of wine or a beer  before a pizza tea in the park. Water water everywhere.- love it.

Sunday saw some amazing old trestle bridges. There were also some trail bike riders who like the  skies did not co operate with photographers. Lunch was in the park at Orbost next to the mighty Snowy River. The road to Marlo was closed due to flooding, so it was the long way to Cape Conran.  Lovely scenery but not lovely light. Stopped off at a beach hidden off the road and tried to capture some surfers but light pretty awful. People then headed back to Lakes Entrance. But not all – Bev, Ross and I decided to see Marlo, where the Snowy heads out to sea. Lots of pelicans which was really exciting. There was also the slightest of clearings in the sky, so it was off to the Marlo pub for tea and then off to capture a sunset that didn’t really happen.

Monday was another early  walk before the big brekky. Then it was time to pack up and head back to Melbourne. I thought it was a great weekend (apart from uncooperative skies). It was a lot of fun with great company in a beautiful part of the world.

Jenny

Hi All – Rosie and I had a wonderful day with several other members of the Waverley Camera Club, wasnt it a beautiful day?

We woke early – for two oldies who dont go to bed until after mid-night and don’t usually wake until after 8am so 6am is early!  We caught a bus from Springvale to Westall because the rail lines were broken and then the train from Westall to the city to be there before 8am as promised.  We met Pete Davies on the station platform in the city and managed to learn more about the route of the competitors in running for kids that morning. Did I mention it was a beautiful day to be in the city? A day to do anything actually some of them ran others jumped,  WCC, and indeed  a whole gaggle of photographers wondering about in the city cameras in hand, were primed to make great images;  road menders dug holes in the road, engineers lifted up railway lines – in fact anything was possible today.  After the appropriate greetings and the obligatory wait for those who may or may not turn up Paul produced several maps of laneways and city walks and we wondered away together to have a look at the New Graffati in Hosier Lane. Nice it was!! Some of us were lucky enough to watch a young hooded child make his mark with spray can in hand.  “Perfectly legal man” was his thought for the day.

From there we walked back on to Swanston Street via another of those paths less travelled and came across a couple of likely lads who took time out to talk to Paul and tell him what they were thinking on such a beautiful morning.  Before long it was our turn to meet someone, who believe it or not, was just visiting from Heaven – he didnt tell us his name but I, a firm believer in the Second Coming, reckonned it would be preferable to ‘Go Up’ to heaven rather than ‘Come Down’ from there.  Still …live and let live is my philosophy.

Sooner than I expected we lost a number of the group to more serious interests – some to the laneways, others to the runners and  some to the architecture on offer.  Rosie and I wondered off through the arcades and laneways and ended up near enough to Camera House where we stopped to buy some good batteries.  Thank you Peter for lending her yours – I shall certainly continue to pay it forward!

Lunch time found us near the State Library and since we both have never been inside the palce we decided we would go in before lunch rather than after.  The phone in my pocket rang loud enough for me to hear it Pete Davies was on the other end of the eather wondering where we were, having learned we were beside the library he joined us and we went inside to the treat of our lives. The State Library is worth a visit by itself and we were told that there is at least one camera club in the library every Saturday.  It was after 1.00 when we came out and went to lunch before going back in for a Private Visit courtesy of one of the security guards who took a shine to Rosie.  The room is in the older section of the library and is said to be more than 100 years old, 152 years old Rosie tell me.  What a beauty!!

That ended our day folk – for those of you that came, I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as Rosie and I did.  For those of you who would go to the city anytime, well you wont have us to accompany you, but I hope the company you do keep on the day will be as good to you as ours was today.

Cheers and you have a great working week.

Andy and Rosie Armitage

This Sunday 26 February, 2012 will be the next official club outing, this time to the RAAF Museum in Point Cook for their Air Pageant.

Entry is free and the gates open at 9am with the flying display running from 1pm until 4:30pm.

I was there two years ago, so have a look at a selection of my photos to get an idea of what you will see.

Things to note:

• Get there early (although the flying display doesn’t start until 1pm) so we can claim some space along the flight line.
• The is no seating in the viewing area, and very little elsewhere, please ensure you bring along a chair.
• Along with no seating, there is very little shade, don’t forget sunscreen and a hat.
• There should be enough of us to allow some to remain with the chairs, while others photograph the static displays in the morning.
• There should be vendors with take away food and drink, otherwise bring your own.

See you on Sunday,
Stephen

The next camera club outing is on Sunday the 5th of February at Williamstown. Be mindful please this is a sunrise shoot which means it happens very early in the morning, yes even while it is still dark! Bring along a sturdy tripod, a remote shutter release, and a torch.

We will meet at the intersection of The Strand and Stevedore Street in Williamstown at 5:45am. Sunrise is at 6:38am with first light at 6:09am.

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1. Bring a TRIPOD because there are long shutter speeds involved, some people may have a spare one with them if anyone doesn’t have a tripod and others might be able to share if required.
2. There is more to shoot than just the sun, it will be hectic from first light to sunrise and for about an hour afterwards. Don’t forget to look behind you as well for the suns light on subjects.
3. We will be looking at the sunrise over the city (or fairly close to it) and there may be hot air balloons over the city to photograph as well.
4. Please be there promptly and leave in plenty of time as there is always shots to be taken before the sun comes up.
5. Also if the moon is out like last year, twilight is the best time to take shots of it so if that interests you, see Pete or Dave and we’ll help you with it.
6. We usually look for some breakfast at a café afterwards so if you don’t want to cart sandwiches etc. you are more than welcome to join us.
7. Even if it looks cloudy there may still be a good sunrise so don’t be put off by the weather 40 km away at home. If it is cloudy and rainy when we get there, then we’ll have a great WCC breakfast together instead.

I am sorry I have waited so long to get this out to you all.

Cheers and have a great day!

UPDATE: We have found out that Citylink will be closed from Toorak Road until 9am on Sunday morning, an alternate route such as Dandenong Road should be considered.

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Just because I was somewhat successful with a couple of my rodeo images last year, I have been looking at the rodeo calendar for some days now in an effort to repeat the performance. There is plenty of rodeo activity happening right here in Victoria – this month, next month and in fact right up until March 2012. So here’s the thing – do we as a club want to go to a rodeo specifically to make images?

If we are, then I am prepared to try to get us some nice seats in a prime position! If we, collectively, are not interested then Rosie and I will go together, as we do anyway. Here are some dates (though we cant go in January!)

January
28th – Cranbourne

February
11th – Kyabram
25th – Whittlesea

March
9th – Kyabram
10th – Merrijiig(?)
17th – Cockatoo

… now this is all I know so if you want to go as a group let me know and I will do some research. Find a contact, butter it up, and see what happens.

Rosie and I joined 14 other WCC members and their guests on the final Sunday outing for the year to Werribee Open Range Zoo – Yes there were 16 of us including new members Paul Spence and John Ho, and several guests; husbands, wives and in-laws. It was a cold, almost wet, windy Club Outing – what more would we have expected!!!

Undaunted, and by the good offices of Mary McLean who organised us all into the 11.10am bus, we all sat together each with a window and we took pictures to our hearts content. Of course the first thing we did given the overcast conditions, was to re-set our ISO ratings – some to ‘auto’ others up to 400. Some of us even remembered Andrew Harrison mentioning the other night that an overcast sky can take the place of a soft-box and did nothing with ISO ratings.

After the interesting safari ride into a wet and dull African Savanna on which we were able to spot Hippo, Zebra, Giraffe, Rhinos we went for a walk into the jungle seeing many other animals such as Cheetah, Lions, monkeys, African Wild Dogs. Later we had some well deserved lunch and another walk to look at kangaroos and emus. It was long after 3.00pm when the afternoon ended and we headed home. And as we drove home, guess what? the sun came out to give us the feeling of quiet contentment, we had indeed spent a warm day on the African Weldt.

I hope you had a great day and learned some photography tips and techniques. We also hope that you can be with us next year when we have our first Sunday Outing for 2012 – Daybreak at Williamstown on the 5th of February. Pray for some sunshine and a great sunrise, see you at the End of Year Night.

Cheers Andy

The next scheduled Sunday outing and the last before Christmas and maybe even for the year, will be to Werribee Open Range Zoo on the 4th of December.

If everyone who said they would like come actually is able to come it promises to be a great WCC turn out. Check your iPods and iPhones for the weather. I only hope the weather will hold out for us. Rosie and I will try to be there by 10.30am, however if we are not, buy your tickets and go on the first available bus. The theory is that animals get sleepy as the day goes on, we dont have to look too far.

These outings are not designed to be either workshops or outdoor classrooms folks but rather another opportunity for us to get to know each other, get together as people with a similar interest, exchange ideas, show off our kit and take some pictures too.

In the past the experienced shooters at WCC have been on hand, and eager, to help us mere mortals; Sometimes with a small but important detail that goes on to make us better image makers in the long run; words like “Dont lean on your tripod Andy it makes shakey pictures” still ring in my ears everytime I go out with a tripod, so dont U feel bad about asking for advice.

There will be at least one great natural history, macro and black & white shooter ‘On Safari’ with us although getting an admission might be difficult, and a member of your club.

The cost of this little jaunt is what U want to make it. There is a charge for entering the zoo ($25.40 per adult, or less) and I understand this includes a 45 minute ride through the park in a safari bus that supposedly takes as many as 40 people. Rosie and I plan to take our lunch so do bring yours too if U like – but there is a cafe where U can buy lunch, drinx, souvenirs and stuff. I dont think there will be room on the bus to take and use a tripod effectively but there is no harm in carrying your tripod if it doesnt weigh too much, U never know when U will need it.

So see U all there on Sunday and dont forget spare batteries.

Cheers Andy

Rosie and I had a great day out at the Club Outing at Chesterfield Farm on Sunday.

As it was both of us had been ill for several days with a malady U don’t really want to hear about. Be-that-as-it-may we both hauled ourselves out of bed on Sunday morning feeling sufficiently adventurous to make the decision to join the group on the Sunday Outing.

We got there just after 10:30am and we made up the numbers of WCC members waiting. Included in this group was none other than Natalie. Natalie has been swamped with work recently and it was great to see her again resplendent in her hall mark red top. Great for photographs. Thanks for coming Natalie.

It was also wonderful to see 2 ladies from the Novices Group Elizabeth and Michelle who spent the day assiduously following Pete Davis’ instructions on how to shoot images in poor light conditions – Right ladies?; John was there, as was Paul. It is great to see the new members taking advantage of an opportunity to make images with some of the more experienced ones.

Among the oldsters were Diana, Anne and Leo, Leif, Rosie and I of course. Leif was a great help to anyone who cared to listen and the first thing we did was up the iso rating on our cameras to match the poor light conditions of the afternoon.

Interestingly enough the roosters, turkey gobblers, peacock, guinea-fowl and other critters didn’t seem to mind the weather which through the late morning and into the afternoon got darker and more threatening – they say it rained in East Bentleigh but we were quite dry all day.

Some hours later we wandered off to the steam engine museum but there was nothing exciting happening there so after a quick walk we decided we would leave and return to the comfort of our respective rocking-chairs and hot-chocolate. And by the way if you believe this last bit then I you might also be interested in this block of land in Brisbane I havnt seen since the floods!!

Cheers Andy