WORD FROM YOUR EDITOR
Greetings all you fellow photogs
You might be surprised to see a letter from me instead of one from Keith, our Chairman. Unfortunately, Keith is undergoing some difficult times, and quite correctly has decided to resign for now from club activities, which include our monthly judging meetings and the Zoom meetings themselves, as well as the Interclub competition of which we are hosts this year. He feels, quite correctly, that at this stage he would not be able to give vital attention to his portfolio as Chairman.
Keith, all that needs to be said is a great big THANK YOU! Your contributions to the club over the last few years have been more than invaluable. You have been a staunch supporter of anything that has arisen, you’ve been on all the outings arranged prior to Covid, you’ve been at hand for any advice, lessons, arrangements and the myriad other things involved in running club things keenly and efficiently. I know that the club members will all join me in saying that we will miss your friendly leadership, and we wish you well. We know that the photography bug will not keep you away from us for longer than you can help.
Peter Brandt in his position as vice chair has now stepped up to the plate and assumed the chairmanship with all it requires. Thank you so much, Peter, it’s never easy to assume a role halfway through a year, especially with Interclub looming, but having encountered your more than capable experience in the past we know that the club is in safe hands. For those who have time on their hands, your committee needs you (ha ha – that makes me think of Uncle Sam with his pointing finger!). Seriously, though, if you can contribute in any way please contact Peter for a chat, he will find a role for you.
Go well, take care, and keep on sending those wonderful images.
Sincerely
Maureen
WORD FROM THE CHAIR
Hi, everyone
It appears as if 2020/2021 is not done with us yet!
As mentioned by Maureen above, our Chairman Keith has resigned with immediate effect, for personal reasons. These are words I would never have wanted to type or say, as Keith has proven to be a popular and dedicated chairman, and an amiable fellow judge. For those of you who are asking, what? why? please allow me to reassure you that it was for reasons unrelated to the club – we wish him the best in getting through what has been for a difficult period and hope that he will at least keep taking photos (and submitting them, hint! hint!).
Coming up
And so, taking stock: there are two important upcoming events/fixtures for us to give our energies and thoughts to: the interclub competition (and selecting our club’s submissions for interclub), and our AGM taking place towards the end of next month, with the attendant committee selections.
At this time of year you will always find the incumbent committee checking with members for those interested or willing to join the committee for a year or three, but this year it is especially important that we fill the gaps. Although it feels like just last week that I completed my stint as chairman and I was keen to take a lengthy hiatus, Keith was stuck without a vice-chairman last year – which is a requirement according to the club charter – and so I agreed to take the position till the end of this club year. See where that got me! What I am driving at, however, is that I see my current position as a temporary one (just as I saw the stop-gap vice-chairmanship), and as such have spoken with the committee about finding a new chairman and vice-chairman to be sworn in next month. So if any of you are at all keen or willing to step into the role, please let me know as soon as possible. Understand that you wouldn’t be dropped in the deep end – I would still be around of course, and there are other very experienced members on the committee.
Gaps in the committee
At this stage most of the current committee members have indicated a willingness to remain on board and help us through this difficult period (here I refer not only to Keith’s resignation but also to interclub and the continued lockdown situation), for which I would like to thank them. I would also like to thank Jane Bursey for being willing to take charge of the interclub committee and agreeing to represent us at the Western Cape Photographic Forum until the new chair is in place and that role can be reviewed.
The gaps we most need to fill at this stage on the committee are:
- chairman
- vice-chairman
- secretary (at this stage Maureen is secretary, but as she is also editor it makes sense to get someone new on board as secretary: currently the role mainly involves drawing up the minutes of the meetings, but if it became a standalone portfolio then the secretary could also deal with communications to and from the club Web site, which for a long time has been one of the club’s weaknesses)
- 2nd digital convener: this is a traditional role that has fallen on the wayside in recent years – basically the second convener just needs to know how the digital convener collates and ‘spreadsheets’ the monthly submissions, in case he/she needs to step in while Derek goes gallivanting off to Kgalagadi.
- Web site – currently I am doing this as a hang-over of creating the site, but would still be happy for someone to take on the role of putting up the monthly winners and gallery images (I put these up on the Flickr account, so it would be a simple matter of picking the winning images from there and resizing for the Web site).
Let me stop there – obviously the first two positions are the most important to fill at this stage, but for those who wish to nudge their way into committee activities more gently, please give the others a consideration!
Cheers
Peter
Winners of Image of the Month
Winners of the Theme Image of the Month
Evaluation of Digital Photography |
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| Digital Entries | ||||||
| Title | Category | Star | Score | Award | Points | Pic of Month |
| A Cautious Quick Drink | nature | 4 | 4 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Ambushed | wildlife | 2 | 2 | 13 | COM | 4 |
| By the River | Portrait | 3 | 3 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| cape fox and pup | wildlife | 4 | 4 | 12 | Gold | 3 |
| Cape Winter | Open | 2 | 2 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
| Catch a wave | photo journalism | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| Chubby cheeks | Wildlife | 3 | 3 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Climber Cub | Nature | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| Clovelly sunrise | scapes | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| Come, make a dash for it | Open | 3 | 3 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
| Contemplation | Artistic | 4 | 4 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Deep in the valley | Pictorial | 3 | 3 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Elan Valley Bridge | Pictorial | 3 | 3 | 8 | Silver | 2 |
| Gemsbok Sunrise | nature | 3 | 3 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Just can’t catch them | Wildlife | 2 | 2 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Lunch | Nature | 3 | 3 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Mesmersing Bubbles | Open | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| my lockdown muse | portrait | MB | MB | 11 | Silver | 2 |
| Precious Memories | Open | 4 | 4 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Ready to fly | Nature | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| safely watched | wildlife | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| Shady Hide | Monochrome | 3 | 3 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
| Sunrise on Sea | Abstract | 4 | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| Swarthy soarer | nature | 2 | 2 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| The Red Devil | Macro | 3 | 3 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Tidal titbits | nature | 2 | 2 | 9 | Gold | 3 |
| Wait for me | wildlife | 2 | 2 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
| wearied | portrait | MB | MB | 12 | Gold | 3 |
| Where Skaters Dare | Monochrome | 4 | 4 | 12 | Gold | 3 |
Evaluation of Theme Photography |
||||||
| Digital Entries | ||||||
| Title | Category | Author | Star | Score | Award | Points |
| Blorange | Theme | Derek Goldman | 3 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Brenda | Theme | Coral Surtees | 4 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Butterfly yellow | Theme | John Engle | 1 | 11 | COM | 4 |
| California Poppy | Theme | Lynn Toms | 3 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
| Cat Nap | Theme | Evelyn Lyle | 4 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Complementary Diagonals | Theme | Karyn Parisi | 4 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| hearts in darkness | Theme | Peter Brandt | MB | 10 | Bronze | 1 |
| Karoo colours | Theme | Didi Franklin | 2 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Open doors | Theme | Peter Franklin | 2 | 11 | Gold | 3 |
| Ruby Red | Theme | Geoff Jamieson | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| seeing red | Theme | Lorne Sulcas | 4 | 10 | Silver | 2 |
| The Yellow Flash | Theme | Ceridwyn Jamieson | 3 | 9 | Silver | 2 |
| Waiting for the sun | Theme | Betzi Pierce | 3 | 10 | Gold | 3 |
For your diary
Meeting dates for 2021
The year’s important dates are shown below for your convenience.
| Monthly meetings | Theme for month | Workshops | Outings |
| 26 July | Complementary Colours | Ah well, we’ve just gone back up to Level 4 lockdown, so we still can’t arrange anything under these headings. There is a possibility that we could hold workshops on Zoom or Skype; if this comes about we’ll let you know at the earliest opportunity. In the meanwhile, please will you let the committee know if there’s a particular subject that would interest you and that could be done on Zoom – we’d like to include members in decisions of this type. We seem to have asked many times, without reply from our members, so here we go again. Please let us know if there’s any subject that would interest you as a Zoom workshop, and we’ll be happy to put it together. | |
| 23 August | Monochrome | ||
| 27 September (+AGM) | HDR | ||
| 25 October | Motion Blur | ||
| 22 November | Simplicity | ||
| December | Year-end dinner | ||
Salons
Salon dates for 2021 Salon dates for the following year are available from the PSSA website under the tab Salon Calendar and Results for the Year Ending June 2021, or from www.photovaultonline.com
All the brochures containing details are available on both the PSSA and Photovault websites.
Themes and Outings
Click here to view our themes and outings for 2021.
Formats and sizes of photo submissions, and naming conventions
Click here to find see the specifications for digital and print submissions.
Our committee
Click here to view our 2021 committee or to get hold of them.
