Sharp Focus November 2025

From the Awards Dinner 2025

The End of Year Awards Ceremony and Dinner 2025 was held at the Simonstown Country Club with the festive tables beautifully decorated by Coral Surtees. After a welcome glass of bubbly it was down to business as Betzi announced the winners, struggling to be heard over the gale force South East Wind – summer is definitely here!
Keith’s photos of the dinner are here.

And the winners are…

Amanda Venter, the Grimes Trophy for the most progress 1 Star
Marian Shinn, the Waite Trophy for the most progress 2 Star
Margaret Silk, the Surtees Trophy for the most progress 3 Star

The Eric Barnes Trophy for most Theme Points went to Derek Goldman, with Betzi Pierce and Peter Franklin sharing joint second.

The PSSA Cup was awarded to Peter Brandt for dedication to club. And Betzi expressed how lucky we are to have Peter as a key member of the club but a special mention was made to his unique talent and unerring eye as a judge.

The Johan Kloppers Trophy for the most Digital Points was awarded to Lorne Sulcas, with Didi Franklin coming second, and Derek Goldman third.

The FHPS Trophy for the most salon acceptances went to Betzi Pierce.

Image of the Year – 2025 – Old man look at my life

The club was very fortunate to have Kim Stevens available to judge the entries.
Despite the high bar set by this years nominations for sheer impact there was a clear winner, Nikki Twomey, with Old man look at my life.
Congratulations to all the winners but also to the club for continuing to encourage our photographic journeys.

Details provided by Nikki
The photograph was taken in the tiny birding village of Wakkerstroom, Mpumalanga in April this year.

I was up early, hoping to take some early morning shots of the cosmos fields. An old man wandered down the road, jabbering away to himself. He stopped to talk to me. I asked him if I could take his picture as my camera was in my hand. He indulged me for a few shots. I showed him them through the display. He seemed unimpressed with my ability, mumbled and wandered on down the road.

I used my Sony RX 100 vii, with built-in flash as the light was behind him. Exposure 1/400 sec; f/4.0; focal length 76mm; ISO 100. In Lightroom Classic, I created a subject mask and a landscape mask to ensure that I could work on the brighter background as well as on his face, separately, and then played with the basic settings, clarity and dehaze.

Calibration – where to find the information at PSSA

Peter Brandt talked through the issues of blown out whites and areas without detail in his brief summary on calibration. You can download the images referred to from the PSSA calibration section here https://pssa.co.za/pssa-screen-calibration-information/

Photo Walk 7th December – Simonstown

After the successful PhotoWalk in Kalk Bay the next adventure takes us to Simonstown.

The town is steeped in history so there are lots of old heritage buildings, a fair sprinkling of colourful characters, penguins, unusual shops as well as the beach and harbour. After dark the Jetty comes alive with fishers, as does Long Beach if the wind is playing fair.
The centre of town is Jubilee Square and we are planning to be there to cover the Navy Band and Carol Singing at 6pm, running up to the official turning of the lights.

Meeting upstairs at the Yoga and Cake coffee shop at 4pm to discuss photo ops, techniques and ideas.

Themes 2026

These are being shaped by the committee from the suggestions made by members and will be posted on Strictly Photographic WhatsApp.

Grow our Club

We are actively recruiting members who can add to the clubs skill set (we need educationalists and organisers as well as talented photographers) so if you know someone, whether they are a seasoned photographer or just starting out, please consider introducing them to our club. It’s the perfect place to grow skills, share your work, and connect with fellow photo enthusiasts. Just invite them to attend any of our club meetings for the tiny fee of R20!

Salon Acceptances

Yet again Marie Louise Cardwell has been flying our flag, being the only member with acceptances in the 7th Rustenburg Salon.
Just for information/inspiration here are a few of the winning images.