Hi folks, one camera club outing has hardly been concluded and the next is being advertised on an e-mail close to U.

The Tooradin Tractor and Truck Show happens on Saturday the 15th of January, at Tooradin funnily enough.  The Family Day held at the Rutter Reserve in Tooradin begins at 10am and ends at 10pm, so a full day’s entertainment is offered.  The cost of this extravaganza is $25 if you arrive after 12 noon and $15 if you arrive before 12noon.  Part of the entertainment includes a Truck Show and Hellicopter Rides – I cant guarantee real hellicopters folks but there you go.

This show has been run very successfully every year since 1998.  The tractor pull is judged by class and includes classes for engine modifications, fuel modifications, weight modifications and size modifications.  I have heard that some of these monsters have a 1000 horsepower engine tucked away under the bonnet and some even have several 1000 horsepower engines tucked away under the bonnet.  As if that much horsepower is not enough some have centurion tanks hidden under there while others have ww11 jet aeroplane engines – dare I say it “…tucked away under there”.  “And what do they pull  Andy?  And well you might ask, “a weight transfer machine” I’d reply;  I have read that a weight transfer machine becomes heavier and digs further into the ground as it is pulled along.

So there you have it folks a fun family day at the Rutter Reserve in Tooradin, Saturday the 15th January 2011.  $25 if you arrive after 12 noon $15 if you arrive before 12 noon and you may stay till 10pm what ever time you arrive.

Cheers Andy

Hi Folks,

I do apologise for the lateness of this, but I must say that the new year has snuck up on me way too fast for my liking.

BBQ at Jells Park this Tuesday from 6PM.

The forecast isn’t great but for those brave enough to venture out into the elements we will meet at the electric BBQ in the Stringybark Picnic Area which is the same bbq hut as we did two years ago.

Enter Jells Park from the Waverley Road entrance and look out for us on the left, if you reach the Visitor Center/ Madelines you have gone too far.

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Cheers,
Pete

Sunrise shoots are meant to be exciting and leave a lot to the imagination.  This one was no different.  Rosie and I with Pete Davies, Ray Anderson, Albert Hutchins and Jenny Boyle arrived at the prescinct of the Monash Gallery of Art at 5.00am in time to get in tune with all the 1,000,000 other inhabitants of the area – the mosquitoes.  The frogs not to be out-done took on their own cacophany, the birds were not even awake yet.  After our last foray into the bush for a Sunday shoot, following the lead of all the other seasoned participants, Rosie and I have now actually put a tube of Bushmans into my camera bag, but, although I pocketted the little red torch, I left the Bushmans in the car. Got cleaned up ! Anyway thanks Jenny for the Aeroguard.

We looked around for something to take a picture of, but it was still dark, and the mosquitoes would not leave us alone, Rosie and I opted for the library building; awash in the glow of its own security lighting the library was the most prominent of the ‘things’ we could see.  At one stage there was a mouse scuttling around and its enormours shadow was something to behold but not to take a picture of.  The others wondered away elsewhere.  The light was soft and clean but disappointingly there was no real sunrise.  The pond in the gardens looked great in the rising light and so did the library building – i’m not so sure whether I was able to do it justice.

Andy Armitage

Happy new year to you all, I hope the celebrating hasn’t had any adverse affects on you.

The first Sunday of the month is this coming Sunday and we are going to kick the year off with a sunrise shoot. Being only a couple of weeks after the summer solstice means that the sun will rise pretty early in the morning.

If you plan to go you will need to be at Monash Gallery of Art (cnr Jells and Ferntree Gully Roads) by about 5am.

Yes 5am.

Bring tripod, camera and mosquito repellent.

See you there,
Pete

Hi all!
Rosie, Diana and I enjoyed another really great WCC Sunday outing at The McLelland Gallery & Sculpture Park in Langwarrin this morning together with Pete, Dave, Ian and Lynne Hanson, Donna, Jenny, Ron and Chris Weatherhead. We arrived around 10.30am; Dave, Ian and Mrs Hansen were there already. The great weather, which was promised anyway, helped enormously; We walked around the pond enjoying the birds, butterflys and dragonflies and in the afternoon we made the long walk through the sclupture trails.  A relatively easy exercise after we’d had a relaxed picnic lunch together in the shade by the lake. We had two experts on hand all day to deliver us out of tricky lighting conditions, blown-out sunspots and to help with apeture and depth-of-field issues. Thank you Dave and Pete. 

Once again we missed you.

Cheers Andy

Image by Andy Armitage

I took this shot of the group of us reflected in one of the pieces of artwork.

Image by Dave Sumner

The intention here was to get some of the photographers in whilst omitting myself from the reflection.

The McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park is a prominent gallery, set in eight hectares of landscaped bushland in Langwarrin, 4kms east of Frankston. It is the location of our December outing on Sunday 5th December.

Plans are to have a picnic lunch, weather permitting of course. The gallery opens at 10am and there will be at least one club member there at that time. However, plans are to meet at the gallery building at 11am.

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Hi Folk!
At last a non-rainy relatively warm Friday night outing for the Waverley Camera Club. Hooray!

Rosie and I joined Steve, Leif, Jason – yes Jason with his wife – John and Jan, Pete, Diana and Ian at Brighton Beach for the Friday evening (twilight) shoot. A twilight shoot because we have been judged wanting – wanting light in the sky that is.

Anyway, the colourful beach boxes stood out in contrast against the yellow beach sand the huge brightly coloured and translucent kites presented a spectacular sight against a brilliant blue sky and the Surf Life Savers reminded us of the ever present danger that has become a major concern for Victorians at this time of the year. Drowning.

There were lots of people on the beach all enjoying the weather and members of the Waverley Camera Club were not the only ones swinging cameras on the end of tripods. There were a couple from South America with lenses like bazookas and others whose cameras reminded me of the little plastic camera shaped toys I had as a small boy but i’m sure these had steel bodies, ground glass lenses and 14 mega pixels.

Some of us took some good images and some of us, I for one, took some spectacularly bad ones. Having said that Rosie and I know that Brighton Beach is not far from home and we could be there again, time and weather permitting of course. For those of you who couldn’t join us “no worries” there will be other days and other outings, you will always be welcome.

Cheers,
Andy

This is more of a sunset shoot than a night shoot but given the subject it’s probably better to have some light.

The subject is Bathing Boxes at Brighton Beach.

The forecast at this stage looks quite good so come along and have a crack at a very iconic subject. Meet at the northern end of the boxes around 7pm.

If you want to bring partners/porters/models/chauffeurs or whatever please feel free to do so.

See you there,
Pete

After a few alterations to the start time due to the weather and being ousted the week previous by Hilary Clinton, we finally managed a trip to the Melbourne Uni Campus today. Ignoring the late start because of the weather, Dave Sumner and Leif Anderson met up at the original meet time and were rewarded with some of the best photography light seen this year, isn’t that just Melbourne weather for you? We walked around the campus finding perfectly lit buildings and superb old staircases etc which we couldn’t shoot quick enough. A quick coffee and cake saw 12.30 approaching fast so we headed back to the meeting point to wait for the others. 1.30 arrived and the numbers had swollen and we again set off into the campus looking for the perfect shots. Unfortunately for the late comers, the light had gone really flat and it looked like it might rain. Besides this we all took quite a few images and a lot of camera knowledge was banded about and it seemed that everyone was using or at least trying to use, HDR. John couldn’t remember where to set it on his camera whilst Alan didn’t know he had HDR and Diana didn’t have HDR thanks to Nikon (got that one in) and last of all poor old Andy couldn’t get his camera off 1/3rd stop difference between the exposures. Both Andy and I tried to find the setting but we couldn’t increase the difference which Andy has since mastered after reading the manual. At one point we were almost inundated with wedding parties all coming for the their photographs taking. When one party were coming towards us I really did think that they’d seen that we had that A Grader, Rosie with us and were coming for some advice on photography. We were all pleased when they went off to use the area that we had already shot earlier.

All in all it was a good day but I think that both Leif and I had the best light although I hope to see others efforts at the workshop night.

I’m looking forward to the next Sunday Outing as I hope you all are.

Dave Sumner  

       

Above photos by Dave Sumner

Photo by Andy Armitage

Hi all! Another great night-out on the WCC Friday Night-Outing.

Some of us went to Pete’s’ house to make some images of the night sky.

Pshaw!!! What night sky? The great cloud mass, that was predicted, decended soon after dark, and the huge orange moon that showed itself, (herself?), ever-so-briefly, ducked behind it for the rest of the night. Did I metion the rain? Well the rain began soon after the moon went behnd the clouds. Not wet rain, not drenching rain, but rain sufficeint to dampen the enthusiasm of lesser mortals; all thoughts of sparklers, glow sticks and baloon torches were forgotten.

No there is more actually! The ever watchfull Pete and Dave decided that the long piece of green “pretend grass” would make a great driving mat, and the little blue strobe light inside might just provide enough illumination to make some images of someone driving at the little white golf balls that suddenly appeared.

As we know golfers dont seem to mind the rain so Dave Sumner stepped out into the wet (as he always does at times like these) and took his stance and began swinging at the ball while we set up under the eves, our cameras on tripods “f stop at 2.8” “ISO at 100”, “shutter speed at 4 secs” and “press the button when I call go”.

Dave tired himself out, Pete took over and soon we were all taking multiple images of golfers taking mighty swings, under flashing blue strobe lights, at shutter speeds of 4secs, 2secs, and 1sec in light rain until 10.00pm.

Thanks Pete thanks Dave – Rosie and I had a great evening.