Hi all – the next scheduled WCC Sunday Outing is  Sunday the 6th November at Chesterfield Farm and the Traction Engine Museum. The address for Chesterfield Farm is 1221 Ferntreegully Road Scoresby 3170 and the Melways Reference is 72 D8.  You must pay to get into the farm but the traction engine display is FREE.

I have put an emphasis on scheduled because there has been at least one other unscheduled suggestion this month.  The take-up for the unscheduled suggestion was not good.

Just opposite The Farm at 1200 Ferntreegully Road Scoresby is the Traction Engine Museum.  This is a collection of traction engines maintained by the Steam and Traction Engine Club in the South Eastern Suburbs.  They have a large and varied collection of steam engines including ploughing engines, steam rollers, portable engines and a large collection of industrial engines, marine engines and stationary steam engines. THIS IS A STATIC DISPLAY.
On Sundays they also run a miniature railway.
They are opened from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm each Sunday and entrance to the museum is FREE. There is a small donation box.

But on the LAST Sunday of the month which is Sunday the 30th October they will ‘raise steam’ and run as many of the engines as they have volunteers for, in the areana.  So all you steam buffs, if you want to make images of steam engines working in a captive environment then go down there on Sunday the 30th October first. I think Rosie and I will.

Given the farm is opened reasonably early but the steam museum is opened after 11.00am i’m suggesting it will be a longer day with lunch in the car so together with wide angled lens, tripod and flash unit dont forget to bring along a picnic basket, a drink or two and some water.  Rosie and I will try to be at the Farm reasonably early and stay ontill the Traction Engine display is opened.  I love trains  – dont you!!!

One thing I havnt been able to confirm is the weather for the 6th November but who in his/her right mind will try to predict the weather in Melbourne several days ahead?

Cheers folk and have a great day- Andy

 

Just to let you all know that the Sunday outing scheduled for Sunday the 4th of September – Fathers Day – is cancelled.

Instead we will try to get to the Ballarat International Photo Biennale next Sunday the 11th of September. If anyone is interested (to go) please write to me and I will set it up. I’m told there is very little parking in Ballarat particlarly during the weekends, and indeed particularly during these weekends of the Biennale (BIFB’11) so we must organise ourselves with that in mind.

The core program of the Biennale is in 21 shows at 7 different venues within the Ballarat CBD. They are said to be no more than 5 minutes walk from each other. They are all FREE and are all open every day. Some of the fringe programs operating independently of the Festival Core programs are said NOT to be open every day and may not be FREE. The Projections Program is held at the Art Gallery Of Ballarat on a rolling schedule throughout the day and is open daily during the festival.

So, these are some of the excitements served up by the Ballarat International Photo Biennale – held from the 20th August to the 18th September. If you want to go let me know quickly.

We should be there ‘early’ and meet someplace convenient to all.

Andy Armitage

It was a cracker of a morning, chaps, and it was no wonder we stopped at least once on the way. As we approached the Yarra Valley there even was a SKY and it was as blue as blue can be; and there were white clouds scudding about and there were balloons in the sky. The milch-cows were slowly drifting homewards to the old bus – which seemed to be serving as a shed – for morning milking, the dairy farmer himself covered up in his dry-as-a-bone cape was out already, hand feeding the early returns and whistling up the stragglers. Smoke rising out of the chimney told us the lady of the farm was baking something fancy. So when we got to the meeting point at the supermarket there they were, waiting, waiting, waiting then they got tired of waiting and started out without us. But wait, here we are! There were 7 cars with Vicky leading the procession.

Slipping into the queue quickly we made a smart u-turn and joined up behind Tuck and Sue together with the new member, we think his name is John. (If your name isn’t John forgive me!) As we drove down to Phantom Falls our scheduled first stop Rosie and I spoke about those terrible fires and thought about the people in cars trying to get away from the raging inferno on poorly constructed bush tracks with smoke and the radiant heat beating down on them unmercifully – anyway, suddenly in front of us was a small marsupial mouse sadly so too was the front left side tire of the car in front – oops! .. and then again the car behind … oh dear! After a slip sliding ride in the muddy wet tracks of the cars in front of us we made it to the car park safely. The beautiful early morning day we started out with had deteriorated into a wet drizzly and dark late morning. In between the tall trees and the under story re-growth of ferns and bracken, there was not a lot of light to work with. We had all taken tripods, and the other new member, Rosie says his name is Peter, even had a set of neutral density filters. Great stuff.

More pictures and we took off to the next spot. Once again I think the darkness of the environment combined with the dark skies and drizzle made good photographs more difficult for slow learners like me, and it didn’t help that somehow the back of my camera, you know the place where you get to look at the completed image, had shattered. Now there’s an “oops” for you. John told me that he had learned well from Pete Davies who told him to raise the ISO levels in bad light which he had done. Just after 12 we stopped for lunch and a wee break at the bakery before heading off again, in the rain, down to the very interesting sculpture gardens ( have a look at Ian Hansen’s pictures).

From here as the weather deteriorated further Vicky wisely decided we’d better go indoors and she escorted us to the Crystal Way Museum (?) where among other souvenirs of that terrible inferno 2 years ago, Vicky showed us a huge image of her own home being consumed by the fire – an image made by her husband from the relative safety of the garage, because her own camera was still in the house. Sooner than we wanted to it was time for us to return home but not before we visited long time friends Beryl and Nat who run a ski hire shop out of a temporary shelter in the main street of Marysville. On the way home the sun broke out of the heavy clouds and once again Rosie and I stopped several times and took some acceptable pictures of the beautiful trees.

Soon enough, fast cars, traffic lights and more rain broke the peace and tranquillity that is the Yarra Valley. We headed home got to Springvale and settled in for a warm dinner and to watched the finals of Master Chef – what an anti-climax.

Andy.

Photographs by Ian Hansen

Hi All.

As mentioned at our meeting last night our monthly outing is to Marysville and it is this coming Sunday ( 7th August)

I’m reliably told it is 86Kms from Wadham House so you can make your own distance and time to travel calculations from your own abode. Of more importance however is that Vicki Moritz is going to meet us outside the new Marysville supermarket and act as our guide. From what I can glean from the lovely Vicki she has all the good photo shoot spots already soughted for us.

We meet near the supermarket entrance or foyer between 9;30 and 10AM. From memory the supermarket is on the left just before the river (creek). People have suggested its a 90 minute drive but I suspect by the time you wind through the hills it may be closer to 2 hours.

Ian Hansen

Always fancied taking images in the Melbourne Town Hall and Offices or what about the Origin Roof Top Garden? Well now you can if you attend the Melbourne Open House event on the weekend 30-31st JULY.

Other venues include the Plaza Ballroom, The Capitol Theatre, The Russell Place Sub-Station, University of Melbourne Campus walking tour, The Victorian Trades Hall, La Trobe Cottage, The Orica building, The Royal Australian College of Surgeons, The Victoria Law School and many many many more.

See here for more info and a full list of buildings – Melbourne Open House Website

Dave

The outing scheduled for this Sunday was supposed to be to Gulf Station but it is still closed for renovations so we have had to come up with another plan. Given that it’s short notice and the forecast is for rain I thought we’d stay close to home. It’s possible there could be some fog around with the way the forecast is at the moment.

If you feel like doing some shooting on Sunday morning be at the cafe at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery at 9:15am. The gates are open at 9:00am. Most roads seem to lead to the cafe so it should be easy to find if you’re not familiar with it’s location.

In case you were wondering photography is allowed as long as we are respectful of mourners. Because there is so much in the grounds you might like to do a recce before Sunday to scout out some locations.

Bigger More Detailed Map

Cheers,
Pete

Hi Folks,

It’s first Sunday of the month time again this weekend and that means another camera club outing.

This time around it’s Montsalvat which would have to be one of the most photographed locations in Melbourne. And for good reason too, check out their website to see for yourself.

Or better yet come along on Sunday afternoon, meet at 1:30pm outside the cafe.

See you there,
Pete

View Larger Map

Ten of us enjoyed the day at Walhalla. We met a larger turnout from the East Gippsland Photographic Society, helped them with a group photo, and then dispersed and drifted and bumped into each other taking photos through the town.

There were autumn leaves, the bandstand, the fire station on a bridge, the old church, and the old strongroom which saw 76 tons of gold go by. There were pretty cottages, some larger new B&Bs, and there are some reasonably authentic restored buildings. And electricity!

Lunch was in an excellent cafe (good pies, good coffee, good people). The after lunch option was a visit to the mountainside cemetery, and a train ride down and back through Stringers Gorge.

On Sunday 3rd April at 2pm, around eight WCC members met under the gigantic face of the 99 year old Luna Park, later joined by 4 more members.

With an overcast sky, we knew there would be no chance of a good sunset while the park’s vibrant colours were challenging to capture without direct sunlight (but the flipside was, no blown out highlights) Nevertheless, the St Kilda area was abuzz with families due in part to the popular Sunday St Kilda Esplanade Market.

Luna Park is returning gradually to its former glory after a few faded decades and has been a Melbourne landmark since it opened in 1912, now with the world’s oldest, continually operated rollercoaster, the Scenic Railway.

Within the park we were presented with two general subjects of photography – the vibrant architecture or the candid expressions of the people on the moving rides.

Later in the day some of the members wandered down to the St Kilda Pier for a few evening shots.

David

Rosie and I went to the Healesville races on Saturday the 9th of April.  On the way we stopped in at the Beechworth Bakery and who do we see ambling through the car park but Jenny Boyle.  If I was telling the truth I would say Jenny told me she was going to the races too and she told me the Beechworth Bakery was the place to stop, that is if we wanted to stop for breakfast.  Jenny, Rosie and I then proceeded from the Beechworth Bakery to the Healesville Picnic Races together.

There were not a lot of people there when we arrived and we were able to get ourselves a great possie beside the fence, not too close mind in case a horse’s hoof came through the fence and broke your watch as it did at the Cranbourne Rodeo. We spoke to a few people sitting beside us and made ourselves comfortable; since we were photographers some of the members thought it would be a good idea if we went over to the President, John O’Brien, and introduced ourselves; John had been known to give visiting photographers the run of the course.  John was very nice but disappointed that we didn’t give him advance notice, “… because” he said “… you can’t run around the place making images of the people here”.  Re-assured that we were here to take pictures only of the horses running fast, John then made us welcome, but no he didn’t give us the run of the course as he had done for some other visiting photographers on previous occasions.

The first race began at 1.30 pm and we killed time organising ourselves and having something to eat before then. People in the know came up and spoke to us offering advice on the best places to be when the horses began their run and it soon became apparent we had already chosen one of the better possies. Not long after the first race while we were still looking dismayed at our efforts a guy came to us beer in hand and asked if we were “… doing a course or something” when we told him what we were trying to do he offered some tips, tricks and suggestions – he also admitted he was a ‘professional’ of sorts being the official photographer for a group of folk who race fast boats and have ski races, jumps and other fancy stuff behind really fast boats.  In the course of 4 hours of conversation he offered information that revealed he had done several photography courses for fun and had travelled a lot with his South-African born wife and was in real life an aero-engineer with Qantas.  His tips were authentic and when we showed him our results, he made fair criticism of the images we had taken.  Never intrusive or abusive of our own privacy this gentleman proved to be the real genuine find of the afternoon.  He went away from time to time only to reappear before each event to tell us how long the race was going to be, where the start was, where the finish was and how best to get the shots we were after.  His tips included about using low shutter speeds and panning, on focus, on faster shutter speeds and on making sure the story included that the animals were moving at speed.  Sometime during the afternoon the weather closed in and our images became more and more under-exposed; heavy clouds gathered and the announcer informed the by now restive crowd that the rain was bucketing down in The City.  Jenny had to leave early because she had other things to do.

Just before 4.30 pm Rosie and I wrapped up the picnic blanket, gathered up our gear and threw it into the boot; but before we left I remembered to go to the official tent and thank the President of the Healesville Racing Club for his hospitality and for allowing us to shoot pictures at the meet. He seemed chuffed at that.  We joined the throng of picnickers heading out of the race grounds.  It wasn’t long before the rain caught up with us but we were happy campers.

Next Healesville Picnic Race meeting is October 19th, Jenny will contact the President for permission to shoot images, in advance, and we may yet be offered the run of the course so let’s try to make it a club outing.

Cheers Andy

Images By Andy Armitage