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

Self Portrait

We moved to Australia, with two young children, 25 years ago, having lived in England, Nigeria and Barbados. I taught Mathematics and later became an Actuary, but am now retired. I have been coming to Wadham House on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday since 1992. Photography had long been an interest, but it only became a real hobby after I joined the club. The club’s beginners’ course taught me B&W processing, and I spent hours in my blacked-out laundry trying to make images that were good enough for competitions. Not many were winners in those early years. The club was run by a small committed group and I did not contribute much until I took on the job of secretary. The newsletter editor role was added and I also wrote a monthly article for our local newspaper article featuring the winning competition shots.

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.

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.

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,

Just a quick follow up to a previous post where David had asked for help with some image manipulation and Warren Knower came to the rescue.

David had wanted some people cutting from a couple of images and pasting into a larger family image. Of course this wasn’t easy as you can imagine but I think you’ll agree that Warren has done a great job. It is reassuring that there are people like Warren around who give up their time to help others who are stuck especially when the outcome gives so much pleasure to someone as in this case.

From This

And This

To This With a couple of figures added to either end.

Have you got any photos that could be used to illustrate the “Green” walks booklet that Bushwalking Victoria is putting together? The locations are:

Jells Park
Botanic Gardens
Williamstown (foreshore from Williamstown Beach around past Time Tower to Gem Pier)
Ricketts Point
Grants Picnic Ground, Sherbrooke (the easy walks starting from there)
Station Pier to St Kilda pier
Merri Creek, north of Rushall Station
Bundoora Park
Maribyrnong River
Kororoit Creek

Each walk will have a map, walk notes and one or two photos to tempt walkers to try it out. Final format of booklet will be A5.

Please email Catherine Guli ( catherineguli@yahoo.com.au ) including a highly compressed image (small file please, say < 250 kb) for selection. Please also include the location and that you are a member of WCC.

If you can help then please do so now as the deadline is just a week away! Thanks, Ron ( secretary@waverleycameraclub.org )

David has asked me if I could put this plea for help onto the BLOG in the hope that someone can help him with a bit of Photoshop editing. If you think you think you can help, please contact David via this BLOG (make a comment) to find out how he wants them arranged.

A good friend of mine from Adelaide has asked me to complete the only full family photo he has.

The problem is it is missing the 4 people included in the other scans and he has set a challenge of having them (face or more) included in either one of the ‘group’ family photos.

This is well beyond my novice photoshop skills but I am really hoping one of our talented members might have a quick play around with it to get a semi-desirable result – it doesn’t have to be perfect.

In return for anyone willing to ‘give it a go’ I would be happy to owe a favour of equivalent time (or free use of any of my photo gear)

thanks, David.

Whilst on the outing on Sunday, it was discovered that one of the members had been sold a camera with twin lens kit by a well known electrical and furniture store and had been informed by an in store so called “camera expert” that they needed to purchase a polarising filter for each of the lenses. These had been sold using the ‘you must protect your lens’ trick to make you buy more things.

Now the more experienced of us know that these so called protective filters should have been UV filters and not polarisers but the person concerned, being a novice did not. They also didn’t know about what quality filters they were getting. This person has been taking shots with the polarisers on wondering why the viewfinder looked so dark when taking indoor and low light images. This isn’t their fault, it is poor sales tactics and bad advice and possibly a hint of the fact that they don’t care a hoot about the customer, only their money.

To help avoid this happening in future and just to give general advice as well. I’m sure that anyone who needs help with choosing their new investment can approach any of the committee for advice before they purchase the gear. We can’t tell you what to buy but can help with making your own decision and if we can’t help then I’m sure we’ll know someone who can.

If you do intend to buy some equipment from a high street store that doesn’t specialise in photography, I would take their advice with reservation. Their goal seems to get you to buy as much as possible instead of what you might actually need. I would recommend visiting a reputable camera store that comes recommended by someone you know. My favourites are Kirk’s Cameras in Ringwood (ask for Jason) and The Camera Exchange in Lonsdale Street(behind Michaels). There is also a camera store in Oakleigh which is owned and operated by a professional photographer, I’ve only been in once but he seemed very fair and gave honest advice. I’m sure that most of these will be at least as competitive if not better and will provide advice after you have spent your money.

It has also been suggested that the EBay store – Digital Rev is very reputable and can also be contacted by telephone if required.

I hope this has been of help to someone and it saves you some concerns in the future.