April May 2015 Cape Camera

CAPE CAMERAApril-May 2015Official Newsletter of the

Cape Town Photographic Society

President’s message 2News flashes 3 De Hoop congress 6Celebratory dinner 8De Hoop images 10

Tribute to Leslie 12Bein Wine images 13AVs in the old days 14Competition news 17PSSA entries 18

April winning images 20 Judging nature images 22May winning images 23Judging reviewed 25Calendar for year 26

In this issue

Cape Camera • April-May 2015 - 2 -

www.ctps.co.za • Copyright 2014 • Cape Town Photographic Society

2015 Is fast approaching the half way mark and our 125 year celebrations will soon be a thing of the past.

The weekend at De Hoop was surely one of this year’s highlights. We are most indebted to Pat Scott for making it such a memorable oc-casion.

From start to finish it all went like clockwork. The speakers were su-perb and the venue had much to offer. Pat, on behalf of all of us, a big thank-you. We all enjoyed the De Hoop experience.

While at De Hoop I was spoilt with a cake on arrival to celebrate my 80th birthday which was on 23 May. Thank you all for the many good wishes I received.

The climax of the celebrations was at the dinner when Nicol du Toit presented me with a certificate awarding me honorary life membership to CTPS. I say a big thank you to all of you for this honour.

Our celebrations are not over yet, as there are still things happening every month for the rest of the year.

In June we will have an outing to record the diverse architectural buildings in Cape Town. July is the exhibi-tion at Artscape with images taken over the 125 years of CTPS’s existence. August will take us to the West Coast National Park; September will be dedicated to the fasci-

President’s message

Monthly meetingsMonthly meetings are held in the St Stephens Church Hall in Pinelands at 7pm.1st Wednesday: Competition 2nd Wednesday: Audio-visual 3rd Wednesday: Education & Development.CTPS Contact details:Website: www.ctps.co.zaEmail: [email protected] : www.facebook.com/groups/1530153687246454.

Cape Camera dates 2015News updates are now sent to mem-bers via Snapshots, while Cape Cam-era will be published every second month after the last CTPS function of the second month (e.g. April-May after the Congress in May). Any con-tributions are most welcome. Please submit to [email protected] deadlines:July 2015: 27 JulySeptember 2015: 24 SeptemberNovember 2015 23 November

nating world of the production and displaying of Audio Visual presen-tations. Our final celebration will be our gala dinner on 30 October.

At the recent council meeting two items which had been on the agen-da for a while were ratified.

We thank all those who voted on the issue of judges as well as thank-ing you for your valuable com-ments, which will be considered in the future. As from June 2015 there will be only one judge at competi-tion evenings.

It was also agreed that no mon-etary awards will be given to the winners of the different categories at the monthly competitions. Win-ners will be announced and con-gratulated. We take pictures and enter them in competitions, not for

financial gain, but for the prestige of having our images recognised as items of good art.

Our web site is being redesigned by Peter Brandt to be more user-friendly and it will soon be up and running. Cape Camera, together with Snapshot, will continue to update us on all that is happening each month.

For now I wish you all good shooting,Yours in photography,Detlef Basel Hon PSSA, APSSA

President Detlef BaselVice-president Nicol du ToitDevelopment & Education Pat ScottHonorary Secretary Jacoba van ZylHonorary Treasurer Nicol du Toit

Property Manager Richard GoldschmidtCompetitions Convenor Lesley ParolisCompetition Judges Pat ScottAudio-visual Convenor Robert MaginleyPublications Officer Trudi du Toit

CTPS council members

On the coverThe Print Set Subject (Nature) Winner Salon and PSSA senior entry in the May competition was Understated Power (26 points) by John Spence.

- 3 - Cape Camera • April-May 2015


CTPS PrESiDENT for the past 8 years, De-tlef Basel, was award-ed Honorary Life Membership of CTPS during the Celebra-tory Dinner at the De Hoop Mini-Congress at the end of May.

According to the CTPS constitution “Members who have given long and out-standing services to the Society may be nominated by Council as Honorary Life Members”.

And as vice-president Nicol du Toit pointed out when he gave him the award, Detlef has spent his life in the service of photography and CTPS — to such an extent that he sacrificed celebrating her birthday with his wife, Barbara (who was appearing in a play) so that he could attend the CTPS congress.

Read more about Detlef’s long service to photography as, among others, committee member of the Pretoria Photographic Society , who also gave him Life Member-ship and the PSSA as board members, in the next issue of Cape Camera

CTPS news flashesJeanette du Toit wins salon medalJEANEttE Du tOit has excelled in recent PSSA salons, winning the PSSA silver medal, four Certificates of Merit and 15 Acceptances in the Sandton, Vereeniging and Kathu Salons.

Her image Face to Face (right) won the PSSA Silver Medal (for the winning image) in the Print Nature - Colour Print category of the Sandton Salon.

She also got Certificate’s of Merit in the same Salon for two images, A Midst a Dust Storm and Hard Working Bee, and Acceptances for three images: Skimmer, Praying Man-tis Feeding, Gently Stroked by Sun.

In the Vereeniging Digital and Print Landscape Salon Jeanette also got two Certificates of Merit for her Nature Landscapes entries Early Morning Mist — De Hoop and De Hoop Dune Detail (Monochrome) and Acceptances for six images: The Plains of Luiwa National Park Zambia, Canola Fields, A very Delicate Landscape, De Hoop Dune Scape,

New members welcomedDuriNg April and May four new members joined, to bring the number of paid-up CTPS members to 139. We wish to welcome:Rose Prew, Renate Handke-MacRobert, Jocelin Kagan and Alyson Riches.

Early Morning Visitors and Gently Stroked by Sun.In the Kathu Salon , the following six of Jeanette’s im-

ages gained Acceptances: Reflection E, Reflection O, Adorned with Shadows and Reflections, The Grande Finale, African Dawn Back Light and Warm Glow over Mountain Range.

KATHy PriDAy’S image, One Man’s Wealth (left), won the Junior section of the PSSA Monthly Club Competition in April with a score of 37/ 45 (25/30). Clubs enter their winning junior and senior image every month. In the CTPS competition this image won the Intermediate Open Print section with a score of 24/30. It has also been entered in the PSSA annual interclub competition (See p17).

PSSA competition winner

Albums created for CTPS outings Please submit 1-5 images, NO bigger than 1MB, of CTPS organised outings to the albums on Photovault under the heading My Club Entries/CTPS 125 year cel-ebrations for use in Cape Camera or the AV’s made by Robert Maginley and the AV group, and for any pro-motional use by CTPS of our 125 celebrations.

Life membership for Detlef BaselPhoto: Richard Goldschmidt



CTPS news flashesInternational honours for Frank Reuvers

FrANK rEuVErS won the medal and certificate (right) for his Zebra image that won the 6th place in the 2014 Image Sans Frontiers (ISF) World Cup. He entered four images, and apart from winning a med-al, the two images below were accepted for exhibition.

Members do well in recent PSSA salonsSEVErAl OthEr CTPS members also had good results in recent PSSA salons.

Steff hughes had three Acceptances in two different salons. In the Sandton Salon her image Purple Dawn was accepted in the Scapes-Colour Digital section and in the Kathu Salon she got two Acceptances in the Open -Scapes Sunrise or Sunset section: Sunrise and Sunset Fisherman.

Mo Bassa had an Acceptance for Blou berg in the Ver-eeniging Digital and Print Landscape Salon as well as an Acceptance for No smoke without fire in the Photojour-

nalism section of the North Natal Salon.Sandton SalonIn the Sandton Salon the following members got Accept-ances:Andrew Denny: for Windy Sunset in Scapes-Colour DigitalAnna Engelhardt: for Great Expectations in the People-Monochrome Digital section.Karyn Parisi: for Wave Symphony in Open-Monochrome DigitalDante Parisi: for The Approaching Storm in Open-Mono-chrome Digital.

Left: Windy Sunset by Andrew Denny — Ac-ceptance in the Sandton Salon.

Right: Great Expecta-tions by Anna Engel-hardt — Acceptance in the Sandton Salon.



rank Name Nature entries

Open entries

Mono entries

Total points

148Jeanette du Toit 10 14 5 29

186Shaun

Laishley 16 5 21

252Marius-lee Pretorius 11 11

263 Nicol du Toit 1 4 5 10312 Mo Bassa 7 7336 Kim Stevens 1 4 5336 Joan ward 3 2 5356 Lesley Parolis 2 2 4356 Jan Swiegers 2 1 4

2015 Set subject themesThe Set subject themes for 2015 will be:1 July: Low key5 August: Macro 2 September: Scapes7 October: 125 year celebrations4 November: Shadows and/or reflections 2 December Rustic

Month Competition AV E & DJuly 1 8 15August 5 12 19September 2 9 16October 7 14 21November 4 11 18December 2 9 No E&D

CTPS meeting dates in 2015

Points needed for gold Silver redSalon 24 20 16Advanced 22 18 14intermediate 20 16 12Beginner 18 14 10

• Beginner to intermediate: 3 gold awards & 30 points• intermediate to Advanced: 5 gold awards & 40 points• To Salon: 5 gold & 30 points in club competitions & 30 in salon acceptances / or 50 gold awards.

Awards and promotions

Points awarded in club competitions count as follows: Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Red =1. Salon acceptances = 3 .

Impala Trophy interim resultsiN THE preliminary Impala Trophy Digital interim results (on 10 May) for the year ending June 2015, the follow-ing members are among the top 60%. These points do not include the results of the Vereeniging Salon, where Jeanette du Toit gained an additional 8 points, and Mo Bassa another 1.

CTPS news flashesPSSA honours for CTPS membersTHrEE CTPS members were awarded honours for their submitted panels in the latest PSSA honours awards. Antenie Carstens was awarded his third FPSSA, and Nel-lian Bekker and Juan Venter got Licentiateships

The PSSA has appointed a panel of 12 judges, who meet for a long weekend twice a year, to judge the digi-tal and print honours panels submitted. A smaller panel meet to judge the AV panels submitted.

According to the PSSA website “the judges, all of whom are active photographers, have been selected for their overall knowledge and experience and for their ability to assess, regardless of their own personal taste.”

CTPS member Antenie Carstens is a member of this panel and was awarded a Fellowship in Ap-plied in the latest round. During his close to 50 years as an enthusiastic and knowledgeable club photographer, he has been honoured many times, among them as recipient of the PSSA ServiceMedal (2006 and 2013) and the President’s Award. We’ll publish an article on Antenie in the next issue of Cape Camera.

Nellian Bekker got her LPSSA in AV. She also got Ac-ceptances in the George/Knysna AV Salon for two AV’s: All from the same tree and Freeing Ivar the Great.

Juan Venter was awarded LPSSA Mono for his Digital panel.

The next round of PSSA honour submissions close on 25 June, 2015.

Nellian Bekker was photographed by Leslie Maginley during the De Hoop weekend. Below right: Antenie Carstens.



CTPS 125 years:

De Hoop congress a highlightDuring the weekend congress at De Hoop CTPS members enjoyed six excep-tional lectures and a workshop by speakers who showed why they are leaders in their fields, stunning dawn dune and sea landscape photography, a celebratory dinner and plenty of opportunities to socialise. The result? A weekend that will long be remembered as a highlight of the 125 Year Celebrations

Paul Bruins, who explained the intricacies of night photography, in conversation with Melanie Neethling.

Guy Palmer (left), who introduced the conservation plans for De Hoop, talking to Anthony Priday.

Despite the heavy burden of or-ganising a congress enjoyed by 70 people, Pat Scott kept on smiling.

Jeanette Brusnicky applied the guidance supplied by Paul Bruins to create this ‘lightpainting’ of the fig tree at De Hoop.

Learning has seldom been so much fun: six top notch speakers kept CTPS members (and some family members) glued to their seats, clouds pro-vided just enough cover to deliver stunning sun-

rises (and one sunset) and to top it, CTPS sponsored the food and wine for a jolly celebratory dinner for 70 people. What a congress!

All courtesy of the boundless energy, organisational power and boer maak ‘n plan attitude of Pat Scott. As can be expected with a function of this size and com-plexity held in a brand-new conference centre, there were a few hiccups, but had Pat not mentioned them, very few delegates would have realised.

In addition, she organised goodie bags from sponsors like Orms, who offered attendees five free prints on their new next millennium printer and as-sisted with the printing of the conference programme, mugs from Canon, and treats from sponsors like Mantellis.De Hoop, past and present

Conservation ecologist guy Palmer from the Cape Nature Scientific Services, kicked off the conference on Friday afternoon

with An Introduction to De Hoop Nature Reserve, dis-cussing the history, reasons why this is such an important protected area and future conservation plans for the re-serve so interestingly that late arrivals were envious.Photographing night skies

Wildlife and landscape photographer Paul Bruins un-packed the ins and outs of Photographing the Night-skies, sharing tips on capturing night-time pinprick im-ages of the Milky Way, doing star trail photography, or painting with light. Self-taught Bruins showed some of his own exceptional scapes, which he likes to shoot as panoramas — vertical and horizontal — which he then stitches together.

He also explained the pros and cons of long exposures (up to 11/2 hours duration) compared to stacking multiple 30 second images in creating star trails.

The overcast conditions, com-bined with a near-full moon, were not optimal for a star-photography workshop after sunset, but Paul instead showed members how to paint with light, using the swamp-like Na-tal fig tree as a canvas (see im-age left).



Far left: Detlef Basel listening in-tently to art photographer Martin Osner.

Left: Chris Fallows and his wife, Monique, answering questions about his stunning wild- and sea-life photography.

Below: Pat Scott with Nicole Palmer, who ended the congress on an inspiring note, showing macros as art photography.

Passion for wildlife

On the Saturday morning, Chris Fallows shared some of his passion for wildlife Above, Below and Beyond. His interest and love of the bush and wild animals was born from, and nurtured by, the detailed email he received after he contacted Mark and Delia Owen after reading the book Cry for the Kalahari about their experiences with a pride of lions in Botswana — which Chris subse-quently photographed.

The awe and respect with which he introduces his un-believable images of lions in Kaokoland, elephants in northern Namibia, a tiger in India, a snow leopard in the Himalayas, wild dogs in northern Botswana, diving al-ligators in the Everglades, the millions of fur seals and thousands of king penguins on South Georgia Island, etc. illustrates how good wildlife photography contrib-utes to an understanding and love of nature.

Chris has probably done more than any other wildlife recorder or conservationist to encourage people to look at the great white shark with admiration, instead of re-vulsion. His portrayal of the magnificent wingspan of the albatross, which mates for life, forever dispels the dead albatross around the neck myth.

By portraying the birds, sea creatures and wild ani-mals in full glory in their own environments, Chris’ im-

Robert Maginley and Kim Stevens (front) Lambe Parolis and Kathy Priday (back) waiting for a lecture to start.

Brian Hallock and John Spence handing out ‘goodie bags’, to Cathy Bruce-Wright, Barbara Hallock and Jeanette du Toit (front)

ages does what the Medieval churches hoped to achieve by commissioning paintings: he con-verts.Saving Orca whales

Equally inspiring, was the award-win-ning presentation by New Zealand marine biologist Ingrid Vis-ser, a friend of the Fallows’, on Orca whales (actually dol-phins). She has done much to change per-spectives about the killer whales she has researched for and photographed for the past five years ... for example, that there are no record that they had ever at-tacked humans.

By portraying the individual personalities of the differ-ent animals and interacting with them, she shows her audience a completely different animal to the

Andrew Denny attending a lecture.

Let your imagination lead you. Clear your mind and focus on how to capture the subject to evoke feelings later on

To p9



CTPS 125 years: Celebration dinnerANNA MORRIS recorded the fun delegates were having at the congress dinner, sponsored by CTPS

1. Pat Scott shar-ing a joke with Detlef Basel.

2. The ‘Full Spectrum’ ladies and partners.

4. Jenny Powis with Joyce and Richard Gold-schmidt.

3. Len van Wyk, Margaret Col-lins and Nellian Bekker.

5. Dante and Karyn Parisi.

6. Babette Frehrlink and Mo Bassa.

7. Anna Morris and Detlef Basel.

8. Marius Stockenstrom and Jacoba van Zyl.

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3 4

5 6 7

8 9 10

11 129. Lorinda Rodriguez and Gaynor Do-novan.

10. Ariane Jenssen, Steff Hughes and Stella Coram.

11. Anthony and Kathy Priday.

12. Tessa Louw and Patricia Marais.



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1513. Lesley Parolis, Steff Hughes, Stella Coram and Jeanette du Toit.

14. Robert Maginley, Nicol du Toit and Ca-rin Hardisty.

15. Brian Hal-lock behind his wife Barbara and Jeanette Brusnicky.

16. A watery toast from Joan Ward.

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killing machine so often associated with Orcas.Photography as art

For centuries art had been a form of photography, but now photography as an art form that has taken the world by storm, says fine art photographer and gallery owner Martin Osner, who considers “a camera as one of the tools of modern art.”

Asking a photographer what camera do you use is the biggest slap in the face of a photographic artist, he says, equal to asking a chef what kind of stove he uses. The equipment does not count as much as the artistic inter-pretation.

“Photography needs to stand up as fine art.”The appeal of fine art photography is that it is contem-

porary — the simplicity compliments the interior decor of modern homes; it is believable; it alters reality, be-cause the camera sees images differently to the human eye. “Photography embraces error and through that brings new artists to the fore,” he says.

Whether portraying reality, impressionism or abstract, there is a rightful place for the genre in art photography. Photography is also archival, because we can now pro-duce prints that will look the same in 150 years.

“Photography over the past ten years have been going through what art went through the last century,” says Martin. “Technology and technique is changing public perception.”Evocative images

Nicole Palmer ended the congress on an inspiring note with her soft, artful, Evocative Images that show how

pushing the boundaries can create beauty from every-day objects. She showed how she combined macro pho-tography with her training and background as a graphic artist and potter to paint with light.

“Getting the artist out of everyone is what I enjoy,” she says of the workshops she conducts with her son.

She concentrated on macros because she found with a macro lens she could go in very close to her subject — she recommends, for example, that her students lie on their sides when photographing a macro, as they can stay comfortable in this position for longer.

“Think in colours, textures, images,” she advises. “Push the boundaries and enjoy what you do. A good image evokes emotion.”

When she took an interest in photography as an alter-native creative outlet to the graphic art and pottery she had been teaching for twenty years, she worked on find-ing her own way of expressing herself in selective focus-ing, says Nicole.

Selective focusing, combined with vignetting and depth of field, results in a soft background, complemented by textures. She likes to use vegetation as a diffuser, push-ing her lens through the border to focus extremely close-ly on the subject at a minimum distance.

“For a photograph to be successful the balance and composition must be impeccable,” says Nicole. She al-ways takes the colour wheel into account, either using complementing colours in her composition, or opposing colours for contrast.

But, “don’t confuse blur with artistic,” she cautions, “the focal point must be sharp. Let your imagination lead you. Clear your mind and focus on how to capture the subject to evoke feelings later on.”

16. Julie Dyer, Kim Stevens (and husband).

De Hoop Congress cont. from p7



CTPS 125 years: De Hoop imagesNot cold nor rain could keep members from making the most of photo opportunities in the Golden Hours

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1. Richard Goldschmidt caught the sunset over the vlei.2. Brian (Hallock) at Kop-pie Alleen, by Jeanette Brusnicky.3. Nellian Bekker captured members waiting for the sunrise on the rocks.2. Julie Dyer captured the sunrise over the dunes.5. Clouds over De Hoop, by Ariane Jenssen.6. Painting the tree red by Mo Bassa.7. Jean Bradshaw cap-tured Kathy Priday and Jeanette du Toit on the dunes.

DE hOOP offers exceptional varied photographic opportunities: dunes that remind of the Namib, rugged rock pools, beaches, a vlei where the waterbirds return to rest at night, herds of eland, bontebok, zebras, etc. and ostriches grazing among the cottages.

In addition, interesting vegetation like a giant wild fig tree at reception, make this nature reserve a photogra-pher’s paradise.



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8. Night tree by Robert Maginley.

9. Glow of the setting sun by Pat Scott.

10. Lofty view by Anna Engelhardt.

11. (Kim Stevens) ‘In a world of my own’ by Jeanette du Toit.

12. ‘Jenny Powis work-ing that scape’ by An-drew Denny.

13. ‘Disrupting the pat-tern’ by Babette Frehrk-ing.

14. ‘Beach drama’ by Kim Stevens.

15. (Lambe Parolis cap-tured) ‘In the thick of things’ by Anna Morris.

16. Margaret Collins created this intriguing altered reality image at De Hoop.



Lovable Leslie is sadly missed

MuCh-lOVED Leslie Maginley sadly passed away on June 10th after open-heart surgery. As can be seen from the tributes on the CTPS Facebook page, her engaging smile, ready laugh, wit, love for life and endearing per-sonality will be very much missed by fellow CTPS mem-bers. She was indeed a special person because she lit up the lives of everybody she came into contact with.

Leslie was an active AV group member and actively

participated in most CTPS activities. She loved her photography and rarely missed a CTPS outing.

The photos of her above left and middle during the De Hoop weekend were taken by her husband Robert, who also supplied the one right. Below left is how Len van Wyk captured her in the dunes, and below is her image of an eland mother and calf.

Our sincere condolences to Robert and family.

Above: ‘Sunset at the vlei’ was captured by Lesley Parolis at De Hoop.

Left: ‘Tree skeleton’ by Lambe Parolis.



Impressionist images from Bein Wine

The 125 Year outing in April organised by Pat Scott to the scenic Bein Wine estate in the Stellenbosch area resulted in Impressionist-style landscape and sunset images and much envy from other members who didn’t attempt the hike up the hill to enjoy the sunset picnic

Left: A Panoramic view by Jeanette du Toit.

Below far left: A Van Gogh-like im-age of the farmlands by Julie Dyer.

Left: Sunset Vines by Kim Stevens.

Below far Left:Peaceful Glow by Pat Scott.

Below left: Richard Goldschmidt cap-tured this sunset im-age.

Below: The CTPS group with the don-keys that transported the picnic provisions up the hill.

Bottom: An image of the landscape by Jeanette du Toit.

Above: Bein Wine by Julie Dyer.

Above right: Framed by Kim Stevens

Right: Firery Skies by Pat Scott.



AVs and cine have been an important part of CTPS activities since the earliest days, as can be seen in these excerpts from ERIC VERTuE book: Cape Town Photographic Society 30 October 1890—30 October 1990.

CTPS 125 years

AV & cine in the ‘old days’

To p16

The first record of an AV shown at the Cape Town Photographic Club was on 15 December 1891, during which we gained our first honorary mem-bers. Eric Vertue recorded it as follows in his book

on the history of the first 100 years of CTPS:‘Capt. and Mrs Hayes, who gave a lecture on photograph-

ing animal life and explained that when photographing a horse it was advisable to do so away from the stable as this would ensure that the animal would not give the impres-sion of being listless.

Capt. Hayes brought his own lantern, a Lanternoscope. The evening closed with Mrs Hayes giving an excellent rendering of Mary Queen of Scots during which the different scenes were very nicely illus-trated by suitable scenes. Capt. and Mrs Hayes were unanimously elected Honor-ary Members!

In the late 1890’s features (audio-visu-als) made their appearance. The author would stand be-hind Bill Kidd, the lanternist, read his script and tap Bill's left shoulder when the slide was to be changed. This was cumbersome.

Later years the lecturer would insert his jack plug and take the electric flex fitted with a bell push to the front of the hall — push the bell bush, a red light would blink next to the projector and the lanternist would change the slide. By today's standards it seems primitive indeed, but it worked. Even when the first simple tape recorders made their appearance, this system was in operation.

When the war was over the great strides made by the

manufacturers became apparent. Kodachrome was on the market, faster and finer grain monochrome film was available and the 35mm camera became a possibility. Fine grain film boosted the smaller formats.First cine members

In cinematography the 8mm and 16mm explosion took place. Here, in colour, the tiny 8mm found its niche but photographic societies did not cater for them so cine clubs were formed. In 1948 I (Vertue) was approached by Lewis

Lewis, or Bill Lewis, as he was generally known: could he and his cine friends come under the umbrella of the gener-ally respected Cape Town Photographic Society?

Not all members favoured the sugges-tion. Other, older, societies had found that their proceedings were disrupted.

My feelings were that, correctly administered through a constitution, it would mean more members, more sub-scriptions and a dream of our own Club Room would be realised faster than remaining as we were and carried on during the previous 55 years.

Bill Lewis brought in Pim Penso, a leading 8mm work-er. He was joined by Terence Stafford Smith, who had switched to 8mm, and then Ken Halliday, that stalwart member of later years, lent his weight. A member of long standing, Herbert French filled the post of secretary, and so a Ciné Section came into being, with their own rules and financial accounts.

Far left: The late Roy Johannessen, a legend-ary CTPS member, with two 16mm projectors which he used before he also started audio-visuals. Photo provided by Antenie Carstens.

Left: A flyer advertis-ing a film and slide feature presentation by CTPS during the Cape Town Festival. Does any member recall from which year?

Captain of None has been screened many times and does not lose its appeal. Pos-sibly because it is an extraor-dinary good documentary.



We know from historical records that shortly after the discovery of the basic principles of optics, images were created to be shone onto a surface to be viewed many times

magnified. This was one of the first versions of the mod-ern microscope.

As the only light sources in those days were candles, the projected images were very dim, and flickered in time with the candle. Also, as the brightness of the image depends on the magnification, and the brightness of the source, they could only be viewed in very dark small rooms. A final factor was the size of the object being projected, as larger images transmitted more light, and thus gave brighter images. These were usually hand-painted images on glass slides. All these factors re-stricted audio-visuals to small rooms with few lookers-on.

A modern paraffin wax candle with about 13 lumens light output is very much dimmer than the brightest mod-ern projector at 40 000 lumens. Although the Electric Arc lamp with an output of about 10 000 lumens was invent-ed around 1800, its widespread use was limited due to its complexity, and lack of a reliable electricity supply, and the next best was limelight. The earliest Magic Lantern shows must have been very, very dim by our standards.

AVs, as we know them these days, started with the per-son controlling the Magic Lantern, while narrating a story of what was being looked at.

Soon light sources became much brighter, allowing more people to view the show at the same time in larger rooms, and so an entertainment industry was started, with show-men trying to outdo each other by scaring the wits out of gullible viewers, who were presented with images of ghosts

and demons. These slide-shows became knows as Phan-tasmagoria, and the projectionist became Professors.

The professors would often hide the projector in an-other room, with only the lens peeping out, or even hide behind a sheet using back-projection.

After a short time, when audiences became more discerning, static images no longer satisfied, and the professors graduated to using two or three projec-tors, all projecting images on the same spot on the wall. By using such crude methods as opening and closing shut-ters in front of the projectors, it was pos-sible to create the impression of move-

ment, such as a building catching fire, a boy falling into a well, and suchlike.

Fancy projectors mounted on top of each other became highly sought-after tools of the trade with fancy names like Bi-Unial and Tri-Unial for 2-in-1 and 3-in1.

Meanwhile, the light-source was constantly being im-proved from candles, to oil-burning Argand lamps, to limelight, then finally to the electric incandescent lamp. The brightest light of all was the Electric Arc lamp, but that never made it into projectors until much later, and then only into cinema movie projectors.

The advent of photography using glass plates, and the discovery of how to make glass positive prints that could be used as lantern slides, really gave Lantern shows a big boost. And so things remained for many years until the miniature 2” by 2” slides became the standard when Ko-dachrome colour transparency film was introduced.

After WW2, as a result of technical advances made, the old Lanterns rapidly became obsolete as the new Kodak slide projectors took over.

AVs through the ages

JOY WELLBELOVED researched how AVs started and developed through the ages

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As the image depends on the magnification and the brightness of the source, they could only be viewed in very dark, small rooms.



This only lasted for a short period, when there was the unanimous request that the Cine section be integrated fully into the society. Originally, one of the two vice-presidents would be a still, and the other a cine worker. The president alternated as well.

More recently, with cine on the decline, it has not always been possible to carry out the original intention. Originally, every Wednesday was a meeting evening: prints, 16mm, slides, 8mm was the procedure. A fifth Wednesday gave the opportunity of having a joint meeting.

8mm Film had virtually disappeared off the market and not sufficient video was yet available to take up the slack,’ wrote Vertue.

Captain Of None

‘It is an acknowledged fact that there is no better training than training at the bench, so it was that in the late forties the Cine Section planned the shooting in 16mm, of a film in which as many cine workers as possible would be ac-commodated, even if only to be present at the shooting sessions,’ wrote Vertue.

‘In 1950 the script for Captain of None was complete even to the making of props and a dollie. The leading part was taken by Captain Frank Cauvin, a one time sailor before the mast, but now a pilot bringing ocean liners in for docking.

Many weekends were spent in shooting with Bert Fisher, manager of a cinema film company, as director. Members learnt much from the editing crew and the correct way of doing things. Tape recorders had only just made their ap-pearance, with Staffie Stafford Smith using one of the early machines. Again a lot of time was spent on the commen-tary and the subsequent synchronisation.

In 1951 the film was ready for showing. It won much praise, but what was even of greater importance, was the enthusiasm it created.

Captain of None has been screened many times and does not lose its appeal. Possibly because it is an extraordinary good documentary.

The pilot climbs the rope ladder in a stormy sea, takes control of the ship, with hand signals steers the ship through the narrow dock entrance, the ship is tied up and the relieved Captain, and equally relieved Pilot, retire to the Captain’s cabin for a sherry!

Good story, well played and photographed. Plenty of in-terest and action.

The ladies were not going to be outdone – Maureen Bateman, Daphne Thayser, Mabel Chater and helpers pro-duced their film Dangerous Game. Great expectations, as it contained a lady having a bath — disappointing when all the foam virtually obliterated even the bathroom!

For a while slide-shows became totally boring events us-ing a single projector only capable of holding 2 slides at a time – one being projected, and one being replaced, with a black screen in between. Generations were bored still as everyone showed off the slides that they took on their latest trip, or of the new addition to the family.

Projector technology was dramatically improved with the introduction of the Carousel slide magazine that could hold up to 80 slides, and it was not long before enthusiasts saw the potential, and linked up two or more of these pro-

jectors with a tape recorder and pulse unit and audio visu-als as we know them were once more thrilling audiences.

Then came the digital revolution. Camera technology was rapidly improved to the point that image quality soon equalled, or surpassed, that of the old 35mm slides. Digital projectors, however, took much longer to get the image quality to match the camera images.

The simultaneous development of the PC, and with it slide-show software, finally set the audio visual world free of the restraints that made it a very expensive creative outlet for the few.

It is now possible to develop an audio-visual show totally on one PC, incorporating music that is synchronised to the images down to the last millisecond. And something that was only a dream 30 years ago – if you made a mistake, you just edited that portion of the show to fix your mis-take, and carried on.

Using Wings Platinum, for example, it is now possible to easily set up and project from 1 to 99 timelines of images, where each timeline corresponds to a projector containing an almost infinite number of (digital slides) images – and all this using only one digital projector

No wonder the old-time audio visual Professors, with their complicated 6 projector setups with tape recorders and dissolve units, look down on PC-based AV shows and say It just is not the same any more!

In the next Cape Camera, Antenie Carstens — one of the Professors — will share his personal audio visual journey.

AV history cont. from p15

How AVs & cine became part of CTPS cont. from p14



throughout the year, CTPS competition convenor Lesley Parolis has been submitting the winning senior and jun-ior images for the PSSA monthly club competition — see the winning images and club statistics on the website at www.pssa.co.za.

The scores are out of 45, and in April our junior entry won with the equivalent score of 25 out of 30.

We have also entered 15 junior and 15 senior images in the annual PSSA Interclub competition. These can be

PSSA annual club competition entries

Competition NewsWE NOW have a completely overhauled projection and sound system for competition and AV evenings: Les-ley Parolis competently arranged for the installation of a new motorised 4m HD screen, which needed a scaf-fold to take its weight (and subsequently required the repainting of the wall); and also purchased a new sound system in time for the June meeting.

These will complement the HD projector bought earlier this year for state-of-the-art viewing of images and AVs.

In April the competition judges, Fish Hoek Club chair-man Peter Brandt (external) and CTPS members Kim Stevens and Joy Wellbeloved, judged the Monochrome Set Subject (28 PDI and 23 Print) and Open (26 PDI and 16 Print) competition entries. The category winners and highest scoring images can be seen on pp20-21.

Kathy Priday’s image, One man’s wealth, also won the junior section of the monthly PSSA club competition (see

Members promotedThe following members have been promoted from Intermediate to Advanced:• Jenny Cole-Rous • Kathy Priday • Cathy Jenkins

p3). Newly born lion whelps by Jeanette du Toit (see p21) was the senior en-try in the PSSA club competition (see ex-planation below).

In May, Western Cape PSSA Director Johan Kloppers (see p22) and club members Jenny Powis and Jeanette du Toit judged the Set Subject Nature and Open competi-tion entries. See the winning images pp23-24.

The following images were entered for the PSSA club competition: Sunset cruise by Brian Hallock in the junior section and Understated power by John Spence as the senior entry.

Weathered by Kim Stevens is one of the CTPS senior entries in the PSSA club competition.

Lippizaners in transition by Jeanette Brusnicky is another one of the CTPS senior entries in the PSSA club competition.

July September October November December January February March April MaySnr 32 37 30 34 38 40 33 35 31 34Jnr 32 36 31 32 32 31 28 30 37 32

CTPS scores out of 45 per month

seen on pp18-19. The total points each club accumu-lates in each section determines which club wins this competition. An individual senior and junior winner is also selected. These winners will be announced at the PSSA Congress in August (see more p26).

While these entries have to be submitted by a club rep-resentative/judge, the PSSA also has a monthly competi-tion for the best website image. Any club member can enter their own images in this competition.



Entries in PSSA club competitionThese junior images (this page) and senior images (opposite page) were entered in the 2014/15 PSSA Club Competition

Left: An armful of window by Kathy Priday.Right: Jetty in Perspective by Paul Nuttall.Below left: Leucospermum Bal-ance by Cathrine Jenkins.Below right: Himba girl by Li-onel Willis.

Below left: Sky and Rock by Lionel Willis.

Below middle: Going sepa-rate ways by Jenny Cole-Rous.

Below right: Wow Bubbles by Brian Hallock.

Bottom left: A cup of tea by Kathy Priday.

Above: Sunset Cruise by Brian Hallock.

Middle: Nature using technology as a resting place by Jenny Cole-Rous.

Above right: Low key Flowers by Paul Nuttall.

Right: King of the shape shifters by Cathrin Jenkins.Far right: Kouebokke Veld Cold Front by Brian Hallock.



Far left: Watchful eye by Lesley Parolis.Left: Fleet at Anchor by Keith Bull.Below left: The Bigger Pic-ture by Marius-Lee Preto-rius.Middle: Our daily routine by Jeanette du Toit.Below: Eiffel Tower by Jacoba van Zyl.

Reaching Out by Jeanette du Toit. In a whorl by Kim Stevens.

Early morning ride by Rob Marconi.

Below: Pinnacle by Marius-Lee Pretorius.

Curious by Robert Marconi. Misty mountain by Daleen Nell Hall.

Action Reflection by Jeanette du Toit. Below: Dune Walk by Catherine Bruce-Wright.



Winning and top images AprilSet subject: Monochrome

1 23

4 5

6

7

89

1. Winner Advanced, Digital: Three Sisters Revisited (23) by Andre Wijne.2. Winner Intermediate, Digital: Yan-gon in Decay (20) by Kathy Priday.3. Winner Salon, Digital: Patterns in the sand (25) by Jean Bradshaw.4. Salon, Digital: Misty morning near Pienza (24) by Anna Engelhardt.5. Winner Salon, Print: Snowy Tree Grove (24) by Kim Stevens.6. Winner Beginner, Digital: Wa-terlily by Stella Coram.7. Winner Advanced, Print: Sym-phony in Black and White (23) by Karyn Parisi.

8. Winner Inter-mediate, Print: Spirit of St John (19) by Kathy Priday.

9. Advanced, Print: His Majes-ty (23) by Leslie Maginley.



April Open winners

More April high scoring set subject images

Salon, Print: Snowy forest path (24) by Lambe Parolis.

Salon, Print: Rain (24) by Marius-Lee Pretorius.

Advanced, Print: St Ives (23) by Steff Hughes.

Left: Winner Salon, Print: L i v e r p o o l (23) by Mari-us-Lee Preto-rius.

Winner Salon, Digital, and the entry for the PSSA monthly club competition, senior category: Newly born Lion Whelps (25) by Jeanette du Toit.

Winner Advanced, Print: Yellow Boat (24) by Vic Els.

Winner Advanced, Digital: Rush Hour (22) by Robert Marconi.

Winner Intermediate, Digital: Legacies of recon-ciliation and leadership (20) by Cathrin Jenkins.



Judging nature and wildlife imagesPSSA Western Cape Director Johan Kloppers is a renowned wildlife photographer who recently got his PSSA Fellowship with his wildlife panel. He was not only the external judge for our May competition (set subject Nature), he also gave a talk on how to judge wildlife/nature photography at the Western Cape Judging Forum in April. This is a summary of his talk

Wildlife is one of most dif-ficult photographic gen-res — you need techni-cal skills like exposing

the image correctly, you need fieldcraft skills to predict animal behaviour, you need patience, and it is vitally impor-tant to know your subject matter. So says Johan Kloppers, who has been an avid wildlife photographer for 44 years.

An experienced judge, he explained the intricacies of judging wildlife pho-tography to the Western Cape photog-raphers attending the Judging Forum skills development course, including 18 CTPS members.

“Anticipation plays a vital role in wild-life photography,” he continued. “You must have knowledge of the area, the time of day and position of the sun. You must know the best time of the year to go to a spot and you must know the rhythm of the veld. You must have knowledge of your equipment, know the dangers involved. And you must have lots of luck.”

When judging, you have to have wildlife knowledge to determine the authenticity of the image, he added, giving examples of several well-known cases where photogra-phers used models or manipulated the image to portray a dramatic encounter in the wild, which never happened. Manipulation and cheating

Representing the truth and nothing but the truth is crucial in wildlife photography, he quoted outspoken conserva-tionist and well-known wildlife photographer Mark Car-wardine. “It raise the hackles if you try and pass off heav-ily manipulated images as genuine, without explaining it in a caption.”

These instances include where TV footage had been shot in a zoo, without declaring that dramatic images — e.g. the birth of polar bear cubs — were shot in an enclo-sure. Another example he quoted was the prize-winning shot of a yellow mongoose and cobra fighting, which Bar-rie Wilkins had disqualified because he had the knowl-edge to realise that models, and not live animals, had been photographed.

“Manipulation removes the responsibility of the photog-

rapher to educate the audience about nature and wildlife,” said Johan.

When using software to enhance the image, the photographer must decide which lines to cross. You can dodge and burn a bit, but things may not be taken out.

Captive subjects could be acceptable if, for example, the photo is taken to show an endangered species. “It de-pends on what you do with it,” he cau-tions, pointing out that the behaviour and expressions of animals in captivity is different to an animal in the wild. Good wildlife images

He quoted wildlife photographer Mark Dumbleton who said that he mainly takes wildlife photographs to poten-tially create a photograph with enough emotion to tell a story.

For Susan McConell wildlife photog-raphy has a very important purpose, namely, that pow-erful images help people connect to nature.

When judging, you should not become too concerned about technical aspects, advises Johan. “Look at the com-position, exposure, and light – the building blocks of a good photo.”

As a judge he is fed-up with images of bees on flowers, butterflies, praying manits, etc. “Try and take a picture no-body else has taken.” Take into account when judging

• Subject matter: according to Diane Arbus the subject is more important than the picture.

• Composition: understand the rules and look for the ele-ments in an image, e.g. a good base line, L-line, a diago-nal line to the focal point, triangles, circles, an s-curve, placement of the focal point and highlights (off-centre/thirds). Movement from left to right is more acceptable than from right to left, and you may reverse the image.

• light makes photography: Aim for the warm early morn-ing or evening light and where it is not possible, convert the image to black and white, advises Johan. Avoid mid-dle of the day. “A flash can be used to balance natural light – if you shoot against natural light and can’t get behind it.”

Manipulation removes the re-sponsibility of the photogra-pher to educate the audience about nature and wildlife



Winning and top images MaySet subject: Nature

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1. Winner Salon, Digi-tal: Hungry Hunter (25) by Joan Ward.

2. Salon, Print: Mar-tial Eagle Struggling in the Mud (26) by Jeanette du Toit.

4. Salon, Print: Frog fatality (25) by Joan Ward.

3. Salon, Print: Tiddler for Tea (25) by Joan Ward.

5. Winner Beginner, Digital: Oops dropped my lunch (20) by Paul Nuttall.

6. Winner Advanced, Print: Electrifying Defence of my Salmon Lunch (25) by Dante Parisi.

7. Salon, Print: Kalahari Gold (25) by Kim Stevens.8. Salon, Print: Belly full of Springbok (25) by Pat Scott.



May Open winners

May more high scoring set subject images9 10

9. Salon, Digital: Gib-bon Snacktime (24) by Jeanette Brusnicky.

10. Salon, Print: Rough play (24) by Pat Scott.

1. Winner Ad-vanced, Digital: Falling Diamonds (24) by Richard Goldschmidt.

2. Winner Salon, Digital: Approach-ing Elephant Group (25) by Jeanette du Toit.

3. Advanced Win-ner, Print: Oops. What Have I Done (25) by Dante Parisi.

Winner Beginner, Digital: Jetty in Perspective (20) by Paul Nuttall.

Salon, Digital: Inside Out (24) by Kim Stevens. Salon, Digital: Palermo Cathedral (24) by John Spence.



You gave the verdict: one judge only Members have cast their vote: the majority want to return to the one judge-system on competition evenings. As promised, members were given the chance to express their preference for one or three judges after a 4-month trial period between January to April this year

D uring the May E&D meeting members were given the op-portunity to discuss wheth-er we should have one, or

three, judges for competition eve-nings, whether we should train mem-bers to become judges, and whether we should have outside judges, or only people familiar with the club sys-tem. This discussion was summarised and sent to members by email.

Members then voted for the option they preferred, and indicated that they wanted to return to one judge only.

The awarding of monetary prizes for winners of the different categories was also discussed, and it was decided to discontinue the practice of giving mon-ey as prizes to category winners.

Thus, Michelle Slater was the sole

judge of the competition images in June (here choices will be featured in the next issue of Cape Camera).

During the first five months of the year some of the very accomplished and experienced judges who are CTPS members, as well as members who are attending the Western Cape Judg-ing Forum course with the aim of being trained as judges, joined an external judge as part of the three-judge panels.

It is very interesting to see how simi-lar the scoring of the experienced and trainee judges were. Most months the score of the individual judges, as well as the average score, was 22 (including in June).

There was also not much difference in the spread of the high and low scores (see table below).

External low Judge#2 low

Judge #3 low

Aver-age low

External high

Judge#2 high

Judge #3 high

Aver-age high

June 18 29May 16 17 17 17 28 27 27 26April 13 17 16 15 26 25 25 25March 18 17 17 18 26 28 23 26February 17 16 18 18 28 26 27 27January 18 18 18 19 27 27 26 27

Pat Scott is back on council to organise the E&D evenings and select the judges, in addition to or-ganising 125 Year activities.

Top speakers at PSSA 2015 congressAMONg thE interesting presentations by renowned photographers that attendees of the PSSA Congress in the Canolas can look forward to, are: • David Benn: Photography, Railways and the Anglo-Bo-

er South African War & Antarctica by Tall Ship• Manus van Dyk: Low Light Photography• Benny gool: Photographing SA icons (Mandela, Tutu)

& Gangs of the Cape flats• Antenie Carstens: PSSA in 60 years - 1954 to 2015 • Paul Bruins: The Magic of Nik Color Efex Pro & The

10 most valuable lessons that I learned to improve my photography

• Anne d’Oliveira and Franz Jesche: Making of “In Dark-est Africa”

• Hougaard Malan: The Exploration Factor - looking for new and unique shots

• Johan and Margie Botha: An Audio-Visual Potpourri & Landscapes from the Americas & The Quiet Kgalagadi - Wildlife photography during quiet times

• Francois roux: Sport photography• Johan Kloppers: Wildlife Photography

The congress will be held from Sunday 9th - Friday 14th August in Swellendam, and there are still a few places left. See more at www.pssa.co.za.



June 17, 2015 E&D evening with Justin de Reuck speaking on aerial photography

June 21, 2015 Deadline for uploading images of the City Walk outing on Photovault. NB not bigger than 1MB

July 15, 2015Marius van der Westhuizen’s practical work-shop Painting with light, at R150 each. Please let Pat Scott know asap if you are interested at [email protected]

July 20 to 4 August, 2015 Exhibition of members’ work across 125 years in Artscape Opera House foyer.

August 2015 Postberg outing during flower season. Date and details to be confirmed.

August 9-16

PSSA National Congress in Swellendam 9-14 August. Organised by Swellendam Photographic Society and Cape Pho-tographers. See p25 and PSSA website at www.pssa.co.za (Congress tab).

September 16, 2015 An illustrated talk on the club’s 125 years’ history. Possible AV shown?

September CTPS AGM and Council election

October 2015Cape Town Photographic Society 125th Anniversary Salon for print (Antenie Carstens), PDI (Lesley Parolis), AV (Nellian Bekker). Coordinated by Nicol du Toit.

24 October, 2015 Western Cape Interclub competition

October 30, 2015

The society’s birthday will be celebrated ex-actly 125 years after it was founded with a gala dinner at Granger Bay. An eminent speaker from overseas will possibly attend and old and current members will be honoured.

For updates on outings, consult the CtPS website at www.ctps.co.za

125 Year celebration diarySave these dates for 2015

Documents

April May 2015 Cape Camera