Image of the Month 1st place: Twilight sharknet tussle, by Betzi Pierce

Sharp Focus October 2023

MESSAGE FROM YOUR CHAIRMAN

Hi all

On 29 October I ventured into the world of Sports Photography, and I must admit it was rather a rollercoaster of emotional moments. Asked by Keith to be one of the photographers of the Cape Town Triathlon (he was that desperate) I naively said “Yes”, and before I knew it I was getting messages welcoming me and advising me as to how to go about photographing it. Fortunately Keith had suggested that we scout the route beforehand and try to identify the perfect spots to capture the essence of the run. So with map in hand we went from swim start to run finish hoping that the spots we identified were the right ones.

So there I was, camera bag in hand, and a mix of excitement and nerves fluttering in my stomach as I geared up for a day where anything could happen. I had done all the camera settings days before – must be on Manual; Jpeg not Raw; fastest lens possible; Auto white balance; AI servo; at least 1/1250 sec; backup camera and lens; tripod. I hoped I was ready.

Race day arrived. Up at the crack of dawn, I was very nervous about getting through the road closures to my chosen spot. Fortunately the race marshals were really helpful and I got through easily. The only problem was that one of the sponsors of the race had erected a watering point and a blow-up archway right in front of where I wanted to be. So I had to be content with shifting position, which was a nuisance but manageable.

Then came the long wait. After all the tension of the last few days and getting up so early – I now sat and waited for two long hours before the competitors completed the swim and cycle sections, and before starting the run section and getting to my position. It was boring, but not all bad –  I had half a dozen girls entertaining me with singing and dancing while they were getting the watering point set up.

Then the frenzy as about 450 runners came charging towards me and the camera worked overtime.

Then boring again as I waited for the stragglers at the back of the pack to come toiling up the road, slowly but determined to finish.

And then it was over. I packed up, said “goodbye” to the girls and left. Quite an anti-climax.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. It’s always good to leave our studios and comfort zones now and again.

Geoff

 

From your editor’s desk

I’ve always loved monochrome images – and from monochromes in various rather subdued tones, black and white stands out for me. And strangely, given my predilection for B&W, I have managed very few successful images in those tones – and I’m happy to say that that one of those few was shortlisted in an Australian photo competition of that year, just after I had joined our Fish Hoek club.

But why oh why are my B&W images flat, grey or simply uninteresting? I’ve attended course after course, workshop after workshop, YouTube explanations, and listened to anyone who was kind enough to give me a hint or two. But still no success.

I think I’m improving, though, in photography in general, which must surely lead to good B&W images? Texture is a very important part of this genre of photography, I’ve found, as are outlines. Composition is perhaps even more important in an otherwise boring picture. One of my downfalls appears to happen each time I try, and that is detail vanishing in shadows. Am I underexposing? Surely I am. But when I try to correct this I get blowouts in the light sections. Which leads to a lot of frustration and a strong desire to kick my computer.

One thing I won’t do, though, is to resort to shooting in B&W. No way – that’s cheating!

Ah well, I guess “keep on practising” is the advice I would get, and also to keep on reading and trying out. That way one day I will hopefully end up with a world class monochrome image, and grinning as I type this I think “I should be so lucky!”

Judges’ corner

This is part two (of three) where I share content from Robert Adams’ book Why People Photograph, and we will look at three valid yet totally different approaches to looking at and critiquing three different photographs.

In this issue we will look at Robert Adams discusses a photograph by Sudan Meiselas:
(click on the photo to view larger)

Susan Meiselas’s picture of the shadows of bus passengers being searched by the Salvadoran military (plate XXV) makes me afraid both for the passengers and for her. I don’t think she wanted us to fear for her – I saw her once in a public interview and she was absolutely self-effacing – but in order to show the passengers’ danger she shared it. Only by standing with them and partly turning her back on the soldiers, by accepting that risk, could she make us feel what was happening. She records it so well that we can almost hear sounds – the chambering of ammunition . . . the
crying of a baby.

Even though I know that Meiselas survived the incident, I also know from the bravery it took to make the picture that she would probably do it again, and that things might end differently. It was unpredictable when one of Somoza’s soldiers killed television correspondent Bill Stewart as he knelt in the street in Managua, Nicaragua.

The setting of Meiselas’s picture, which suggests a mass grave, seems to be a cut by the side of the road, a ditch. We have looked at many such places. I remember watching on the news in the 1960s a report about a patrol that captured a man along a road during an African civil war. As the soldiers interrogated their prisoner he realized that they were going to kill him; he implored their mercy. weeping, stumbling into a ditch, pleading, until an officer put an end to him with a machine gun. ‘If you have no imagination’, Celine wrote, ‘death is nothing. If you do it is
too much’. Watching this person die, for whom it had been too much, was one of a number of filmed murders that helped awaken my imagination.

I hate my country’s part in most third-world politics, but to keep that abhorrence alive – it is almost the only virtue I have in the matter – I seem to have to be shown the problem again and again. I depend on others’ courage. I am saved in a different way from the people on the bus, who may literally owe their lives to Meiselas’s presence, but I owe her my caring.

There are many contexts in which it is embarrassing to say one is a photographer, but with the example of Meiselas’s witness it is too easy.

The word ‘artist’ is, on the other hand, not at all tempting to use about oneself in the presence of her photograph. Her goal seems not to have been art, with its eventual calm. but reporting that would move us. What pictures have artists made that deserve as wide an audience as does hers? There are some, but an economically perfumed aestheticism that has dominated the visual arts in the United States since World War II has resulted mostly in pictures that are, when set against the facts in Meiselas’s photograph, irrelevant.

The shadows in the picture are long. Is it morning or late afternoon?

Next issue we will look at Peter Godwin reflecting on a Rob Cooper photograph of Robert Mugabe.

See you at the next meeting
Peter

 

Winners of Digital Image of the Month (October 2023)

 

EVALUATION OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Evaluation of Digital Photography

Digital Entries
Title Category Author Star Score Award Points
Ancient Drama Open Lynn Toms 3 10 Gold 3
Best Friends Nature Lynn Toms 3 11 Gold 3
Black Eagle in Flight Wildlife Johan Kloppers MB 9 None 0
Bulls Eye Wildlife Lorne Sulcas 4 11 Gold 3
Call the Plumber PJ Peter Brandt MB 11 Silver 2
Coming in to Land Wildlife Johan Kloppers MB 12 Gold 3
Contrast PJ Derek Goldman 4 9 Silver 2
Eat Your Greens Wildlife Lorne Sulcas 4 11 Gold 3
Eye Spy Wildlife Margaret Silk 1 10 Gold 3
Finish Line Sports Action Keith Lyle 4 11 Gold 3
Firey Dusk Wildlife Didi Franklin 3 12 Gold 3
Kogelberg Beauty Landscape Derek Goldman 4 11 Gold 3
Late Winter Tranquility Landscape Betzi Pierce 3 11 Gold 3
Lips Portrait Peter Brandt MB 10 Bronze 1
Meeting an Old Friend Open Geoff Jamieson 4 10 Silver 2
Morning Swim Open Ceridwyn Jamieson 4 10 Silver 2
Pastel False Bay Dawn Landscape Marian Shinn 2 10 Gold 3
Skinny Smoker Street Marian Shinn 3 9 Silver 2
Splash of Colour Open Ceridwyn Jamieson 4 10 Silver 2
Stone Steps Open Geoff Jamieson 4 10 Silver 2
The Last Green Leaf Open Margaret Silk 1 10 Gold 3
Twilight Sharknet Tussle Landscape Betzi Pierce 3 12 Gold 3
Unwelcome Visitors Wildlife Peter Franklin 3 11 Gold 3
When Opportunity Knocked Wildlife Peter Franklin 3 11 Gold 3

 

Winners of Theme Image of the Month – Triptyche (October 2023)

There was only one winner in this category this month. Well done, Peter.

EVALUATION OF THEME IMAGES – OCTOBER 2023

Evaluation of Theme Photography 
Digital Entries 
Title Category Author Star Score Award Points
African Nightfall Theme Betzi Pierce 3 11 Gold 3
Golden Sunset Theme Ceridwyn Jamieson 4 9 Silver 2
Great Catch open Lynn Toms 3 11 Gold 3
Pin Cushion Theme Geoff Jamieson 4 10 Silver 2
Splashappy Theme Margaret Silk 1 10 Gold 3
Three boys in a park Theme Peter Brandt MB 12 Gold 3
Tools Theme Coral Surtees 4 10 Silver 2
Triple Jump Theme Derek Goldman 4 9 Silver 2

Salons

Salon dates for the following year are available from the PSSA website under the tab Salon Calendar and Results for the Year Ending June 2023, or from www.photovaultonline.com

All the brochures containing details are available on both the PSSA and Photovault websites.

Please see our record-keeping page for information on how to submit your salon acceptances to our club records.

Themes and Outings

Click here to view our themes and outings for 2023/24.

 

Formats and sizes of photo submissions, and naming conventions

Click here to see the specifications for digital and print submissions.

Our committee

Click here to view our 2024 committee or to contact them.