Sharp Focus June / July 2023

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings, everyone

From a very casual offer by Peter to any members who would like to join him on a night shoot, suddenly it grew into a club outing. After some deliberation as to where it would be safe to do the ‘shoot’ it was agreed to meet at the Waterfront at 18:15 on 13 July. There were thirteen members in all, including a new member – Mark Diamond. The Waterfront is a great place to photograph – it’s safe, has a variety of locations, and plenty of light and mood. We must remember it for future outings.

After an hour and a half wandering around the Waterfront looking for that perfect image, we met at Col’cacchio’s for pizzas, and left for home just before 10pm. It was a great evening all round – fotos – food – fellowship. A big thank you goes to Peter for organising the event and arranging the permit. Talking of permits – I wonder why Derek was asked twice to show his permit while most of us weren’t asked once. Was it because he looked so professional or suspicious?

But all has not been ‘happiness’ within the club – as most of you are aware our dear Evelyn died on the 9^th June. Evelyn was very involved in every aspect of our club, doing a wonderful job as PRO, and she will be deeply missed. It came as a great shock to all of us that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died within a period of only 6 weeks. I offer, on behalf of all the members of the club, our deepest condolences to Keith and his family. She will always be remembered for attending every social event in Fish Hoek with a camera in her hand. Thanks go to Coral and Maureen for all the help they have given to Evelyn and Keith over this time.

Geoff

From the Editor’s desk

AI – the acronym of our age, and to me a scary one. I became super aware of it I guess around six months ago, and was involved in a discussion with someone who is adamant that we need to move with the times and use technology to its utmost to produce excellent art and writing and more.

But my question was and still is – what happens to the humanity, the creativity, the humanness in, let’s say, a painting? Yes, one can train algorithms to produce something along the lines of previous works on canvas, or a 600-page book that wins an award. But the bottom line is that it is simply computer science, with the ability to copy what it’s asked for, but with a total lack of creativity.

Harry Woodgate, author and illustrator, takes it further, saying, “These programs rely entirely on the pirated intellectual property of countless working artists, photographers, illustrators and other rights holders.” But where do we as photographers land in this maelstrom? I read recently that if we have a smartphone we are unknowingly already using many AI algorithms without recognising them. Worse is that a while ago a photographer (can’t remember his name now) conned competition judges into awarding him a prize, but confessed to his “crime” sometime later and returned the prize.

And are the judges of images submitted to a club sufficiently trained in AI to recognise when it has been used, or in fact when it hasn’t? How do we score an image that should receive a COM but in fact scores a silver because the AI applied to the image is obvious?

Here’s a link to a short video compiled by a writer and a painter, which still fascinates me. Please click on the play triangle and watch to the end, where you’ll find an interesting summation of how AI can be used to enhance the creative ideas of the original artists. (If it doesn’t start immediately, don’t worry, just give it a little time and it will go.)

 

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A post shared by Robyn Field (@aka.robyn)

The issue that worries me most, though, is AI plagiarism used by university students who seem to have the mindset that it’s quite ok, and if they scored high marks for their largely AI submissions, well then good for them. Entrepreneurs who are quick on the draw grab an idea, tart it up with AI and sell the resulting essays to fellow students at a certain price. How then can anyone be proud of their work that has secretly been drafted and finished by a computer science program?

Well, this is one issue that I’m quite prepared to argue about for hours, maybe days, even if my opponents let me know that I’m from another age and can’t possibly understand the modern world.

Ha! – Debate, anyone?

This month’s theme

‘Shadows’ may seem confusing as a theme – don’t all photos have  them?* When considering the oft-repeated translation of “photography” as “drawing with light”, and the cliched imperative to “chase the light”, one assumes that shadows are not only prevalent as a banal by-product of this directive, but also perhaps secondary, i.e. they are only there as an offshoot of focusing on the real star of the show, light.

Not so. Shadows can be used to bring compositional coherence to your image by linking elements that, in overhead light, would separate into fragments within the composition. As such, they can be a very strong organisational element. But more than that, they can be used towards over-riding style within your image, story-telling, illustration and allusion.

How then are you to convince the judges that the shadow in your photo is significant? If one looks at your photo and says it is a photo of a shadow, or a photo about shadow, or a photo about the possibilities the shadow bring to it, then you are on the right track. But if the shadows are merely incidental, i.e. it is about the light or the (non-shadow) subject, then you are straying from meeting the challenge.

The following examples are all but one taken from the Instagram page, “Shadows Magazine” – please click on an image and then go through them to see the accompanying comments as to why they work or, in the case of the last three images, they don’t.

Cheers
Peter

*Not if you are shooting in dense mist!

 

Winners of Image of the Month (June 2023)

 

Winners of Theme Image of the Month – Altered Reality (June 2022)

Evaluation of Theme Photography June
Digital Entries
Title	Category	Author	Star	Score	Award	Points
freedom	Theme	Peter Brandt	MB	11	Silver	2
Head in the Clouds	Theme	Ceridwyn Jamieson	3	10	Gold	3
Imaginings	Theme	Peter Franklin	3	9	Silver	2
Menace on the streets	Theme	marielouise cardwell	2	9	Gold	3
Mystic Days	Theme	Didi Franklin	3	10	Gold	3
Surfing the tsunami	Theme	Derek Goldman	4	11	Gold	3

Evaluation of Theme Photography – July
Title	Category	Author	Star	Score	Award	Points
After dusk	Theme	Betzi Pierce	3	11	Gold	3
Breathless Night	Theme	Didi Franklin	3	12	Gold	3
Christmas Fairy Lights	Theme	Lynn Toms	3	9	Silver	2
City Reflections	Theme	Margaret Silk	1	8	Gold	3
Colours of the Night	Theme	Ceridwyn Jamieson	3	11	Gold	3
Den Anker	Theme	Geoff Jamieson	4	10	Silver	2
Dock on the bay	Theme	Patrick Cardwell	2	8	Silver	2
Docks and city	Theme	Peter Brandt	MB	12	Gold	3
Holiday nights	Theme	Peter Franklin	3	9	Silver	2
Making_Bank	Theme	Kate Graham	1	10	Gold	3
Perth waterfront	Theme	Mike Wesson	1	9	Gold	3
Sparkling Waterfront	Theme	Mark Diamond	1	9	Gold	3
V&A harbour crane	Theme	Marian Shinn	1	8	Gold	3
Waterfront Lights	Theme	Derek Goldman	4	9	Silver	2
Wharfside reflections	Theme	Marielouise Cardwell	2	9	Gold	3