Sharp Focus March 2024

MESSAGE FROM YOUR CHAIRMAN

February 2024

Hi all

At the risk of offending anybody who has ever been rash enough to agree to run a workshop, and that includes myself, I personally think that the workshop Patrick ran on Saturday, 9^th March, was the best organised one I have attended. The thought, attention to detail, and planning that went into it was outstanding. From an initial detailed instruction sheet, containing information on route, photographic requirements, camera settings, field craft, to additional information over WhatsApp, all went together to make sure everyone was comfortable with the arrangements.

 

Kind regards

Geoff

 

From your editor’s desk

This is not really about photography, except to say that we need cameras around our necks at all times!!

 

Maureen

Judges’ corner

Peter has been frantically busy over the past couple of weeks, so I’m taking this opportunity to usurp his word allocation to ask a question on something that’s been on my mind for a while – presets and sky replacement.

I happened on a conversation the other day that was dealing with sky replacement, which I have used on occasion, but mostly with a sky that I myself had photographed. The consensus was that it was fine to use any available replacement as long as the pic wasn’t intended for review, salons, or club competitions. For those, all aspects of the image, including the replaced sky, must be taken and edited by the author himself/herself. I can understand this, but my question now is whether using someone else’s replacement sky is allowed in any version of the photographer’s image? It seems to me that with the PSSA rules, and clubs that abide by those rules, these should apply in an author-edited image as well, even if used commercially? Otherwise permission should or could be obtained from the author of the sky part of the image, but this would add hours of extra time to the image edit.

And the same applies to presets, even if in a different format. I almost never use presets, preferring to change bits of my images to something that I do myself and can be proud of, but presets appear to be edits in terms of light, focus points and other things that some of us might battle with – using layers, for instance, for changing f-stops. And if we should go for a preset that has been sold to us by one of the ‘togs that haunt the email systems, and we feel that this has imroved our image a lot, is this acceptable to club or salon judges?

I hope that these questions can be clarified in simple terms, and that  you, Peter, can do this for us.

 

Winners of Digital Image of the Month (February 2024)

 

EVALUATION OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Digital Entries
Title	Category	Author	Star	Score	Award	Points
Bone Crusher	Wildlife	Johan Kloppers	MB	12	Gold	3
Chairs Mt Vernon	Landscape	Mike Wesson	3	12	Gold	3
Chance Meeting	Open	Mike Wesson	3	9	Silver	2
Fire Spreading	Open	Maureen Miller	3	10	Gold	3
Firefighters	Open	Maureen Miller	3	9	Silver	2
Flop Display Flight	Wildlife	Patrick Cardwell	2	10	Gold	3
Full Frontal Assault	Wildlife	Peter Franklin	3	12	Gold	3
Hyrax in a Man’s World	Nature	Geora Zadok	1	8	Gold	3
Landscape in Plaster	Open	Marian Shinn	2	8	Silver	2
Liquid Amber	Wildlife	Patrick Cardwell	2	11	Gold	3
Make A Wish	Open	Kate Graham	1	8	Gold	3
On Guard	Wildlife	Lorne Sulcas	4	10	Silver	2
On the Lookout	Wildlife	Derek Goldman	4	10	Silver	2
On the Other Side	Open	Ceridwyn Jamieson	4	9	Silver	2
Poised	Open	Geoff Jamieson	4	10	Silver	2
Pretty Posie	Open	Ceridwyn Jamieson	4	10	Silver	2
Protection	Wildlife	Lorne Sulcas	4	12	Gold	3
Rein Back	Open	Kate Graham	1	9	Gold	3
Remember When	Open	Peter Franklin	2	11	Gold	3
Safe at Work	Open	Margaret Silk	1	11	COM	4
Sleeping Street	Open	Peter Brandt	MB	10	Bronze	1
Splash	Open	Derek Goldman	4	9	Silver	2
Spot of Bother	Sport	Keith Lyle	4	12	Gold	3
Spirit of the Woods	Creative	Peter Brandt	MB	12	Gold	3
St Pauls London	Scapes	Geora Zadok	1	10	Gold	3
Stepping Carefully	Open	Geoff Jamieson	4	10	Silver	2
Take Off	Wildlife	Johan Kloppers	MB	12	Gold	3
Tea Party for None	Still Life	Marian Shinn	2	8	Silver	2
Tender Box	Open	Margaret Silk	1	11	COM	4
The Cat Stare	Wildlife	Marielouise Cardwell	2	10	Gold	3
The herd	Wildlife	Marielouise Cardwell	2	9	Gold	3
Thirst quenched	Wildlife	Didi Franklin	3	12	Gold	3
Tiber Evening	Open	Didi Franklin	3	11	Gold	3
Uppies	Sport	Keith Lyle	4	11	Gold	3

 

 

Winners of Theme Image of the Month – Chrome – (February 2024)