March 2015 cape camera

CAPE CAMERAMarch 2015Official Newsletter of the

Cape Town Photographic Society

President’s message 2News flashes 3 Early photo techniques 4Red bus outing 8125 Year event update 10

AV news update 11Juhan Kuus report 12April E&D Africa focus 13Star trail weekend 14Introducing judges 15

Top images set 16Top images open 17Other top images 18Judging forum course 20125 Year Diary 22

In this issue

Cape Camera • February 2015 - 2 -

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

As each month goes by I need to think of something of note to share with you. When looking at my

bookshelves this month my eyes focused on two items.

The first was a book with the title Picture Perfect, Cape Town & Gar-den Route This is a photographic guide giving details on how to cap-ture the best shot in 50 top beauty spots.

There are little maps showing you where the different spots are. It is small and could fit into your cam-era bag.

On so many occasions friends and visitors come to Cape Town and they ask you, “Where can I get interesting photos?” The type of lens, aperture, shutter speed and flash needed are also listed.

The second book that drew my attention is one our daughter gave us. The book is called Hidden Cape Town, by Paul Duncan and Alain Proust.

This is more of a coffee table publication and it has im-ages of all the most exquisite places in Cape Town that

President’s message

On the coverThe Print Open Salon winner and PSSA senior entry: Innocence (26) by Marius-Lee Pretorius. “The com-position is just right and there is just enough light from the side of the face,” said judge Antenie Carstens, who also thinks the soft lighting works very well.

Monthly meetingsNB: April meetings on 8th, 15th and 22nd.

Monthly 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 2015Cape Camera is published after the last CTPS function of that month. Any contributions are most wel-come. Please submit at [email protected] deadlines:April 2015: 20 AprilMay 2015: 2 June

(after the CTPS Congress weekend)June 2015: 22 JuneJuly 2015: 27 JulyAugust 2015: 26 AugustSeptember 2015: 24 SeptemberOctober 2015 31 OctoberNovember 2015 23 November

only a few people venture to enter. The images depict internal scenes of most of the places portrayed.

Just some of the places portrayed are churches, museums, buildings of historic note, street scenes and landscapes.

I also have a book called Mas-ter Photographers. I would like to share some of the last words these master photographers had to say. I’m sure that these words will also influence your work to a certain de-gree.Ansel Adams: My last word is that it all depends on what you visu-alise.Harry Callahan: Photography is a modern medium. Like the roof of the Sistine Chapel, it should be for all the people.

Elliott Erwitt: All the technique in the world doesn’t com-pensate for the inability to notice.Arnold Newman: We don’t take picture with our cam-eras—we take them with our hearts and minds.

With active minds use your camera wisely.Yours in photography,Detlef Basel Hon PSSA, APSSA

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

Property Manager Richard GoldschmidtCompetitions Convenor Lesley ParolisAudio-visual Convenor Robert MaginleyPublic Relations Officer Steffne HughesPublications Officer Trudi du Toit

CTPS council members

- 3 - Cape Camera • February 2015


CTPS news flashes

2015 Set subject themesThe Set subject themes for 2015 will be:8 April: Monochrome6 May: Nature3 June: Hands and feet 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 & DApril 8 15 22May 6 13 20June 3 10 17July 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

PSSA cuts salonsDespite strong opposition from clubs in the Western Cape, the PSSA has decided to reduce the number of salons to a maximum of 20 per year “to ensure efficient manage-ment for both the salons and the entrants,” reports presi-dent Jill Sneesby (right).

“All salons currently on the calendar will be accommodat-ed, although, after discussion with the salons concerned, the timing will be changed.”

Full details to follow later.

Members do well in salonsJEAnEttE Du toit a Certificate of Merit for her entry Mysterious Misty De Hoop in the Scapes - Colour category of the Ermelo Salon. She also gained acceptances in this salon for Action Re-felction, Yummy ... Yummy, Face to Face and De Hoop 6.

Steff Hughes also got an Acceptance for her im-age Sunrise in the Scapes - Colour category of the Ermelo Salon. This image was also Accepted in the 1st Kathu Digital Special Theme Salon cate-gory Scapes: Sunrise or Sunset. She also received an acceptance for the image Sunset Fisherman (below) in the same category of this salon.

Mo Bassa got Acceptance for his image Cape Town Minstrels Carnival in the PSSA National Digital Salon in the Our Counrrt category.

Dawn Fishrman by Steff Hughes (23) was also entered as a PDI Open Advanced image in the March club competition.

Albums created for CTPS outings imagesPlease submit images of CTPS organised outings to the albums on Photovault under the heading My Club En-tries/CTPS 125 year celebrations that you wish to share for use in Cape Camera or the AV’s made by Robert Maginley and the AV group, and for any promotional use by CTPS of our 125 celebrations.

New member welcomedLinDA MurrAn from Gordon’s Bay is the newest member of CTPS. This brings the number of paid-up CTPS members to 135.

CTPS founder and mountain firesPhotographers played a big role in creating world in-terest in the devastation of the recent Table Mountain fires. In the first great fire recorded in 1894, another photographer, CTPS founder and first vice-president TW Cairncross, organised the army to protect the city when strong winds drove the flames down the mountain.

Lee Slabber’s im-age of Chapman’s Peak burning was one of the first of many images of

the Table Moun-tain fire which

created interest across the world.



JOY WELLBELOVED researched the photographic equipment and techniques used by members when they founded the society and bravely traipsed across Cape Town to take many of the early images

we still have on record

CTPS 125 years

Cameras, lenses & printingused by older members

Left: A donkey was needed to transport this early photogra-pher’s equipment.

Opposite page right: The in-vention of the motor car made a photographer’s life infinitely easier.

Opposite page far right: A letter from CTPS president Eric Ver-tue thanking a mr Copley for the donation of the Kodak folding camera to the society’s collec-tion of photographic memora-bilia.

The early cam-eras used around the time when

CTPS was founded in 1890, were known by the size of the glass plates they used. As most early prints were contact prints, serious landscape photogra-

phers used full plate cameras, and portrait pho-tographers used even big-

ger cameras. Quarter plate cameras were used by amateurs.

But, even these ama-teur cameras were

big and heavy compared to the cameras

we use today. The most common plate sizes were: • Full plate - 6½ x 8½ (16.5 x 21.5 cm)• Half plate - 4¾ x 6½ (12 x 16.5 cm)• Quarter Plate - 3¼ x 4¼ (8.25 x 10.8 cm).Portrait cameras used in studios were even bigger — with huge 20 x 24 inch (50 x 60cm) plates, as can be seen from the photo left of our president Detlef Basel stand-ing next to a portrait studio camera in the CTPS collec-tion.

Several of these cameras bought by the society in the early years will soon be on display at the Cape Town Sci-

ence Centre in Observatory. The trend towards

small, hand-held cam-eras like the new Kodak

One of CTPS’s plate cameras from around

the turn of the previous century, showing the plate holder with dark slide al-most completely removed.



To p6

Box Brownie, were regarded as pass-ing fads (right).Lenses circa 1890

The single most important item in a camera system is the lens. Good lens-es are tricky to design as each colour of the rainbow comes to a different fo-cal point.

It was not until new glass types were developed in the late 1880’s that com-pound lenses with better optical proper-ties could be produced.

From around 1890, a lens that had a word like anastigmatic in its name, completely corrected spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism.

Left: A complete combi-nation lens set made by Darlot of Paris — one basic lens and seven ac-

cessory lenses, one adapter ring, eight waterhouse stops,

one pneumatic shut-ter, and a leather cap.

Shutters developed

When exposures were measured in minutes, there was no need for shutters. You simply removed, then later re-placed, the lens cap.

Early shutter developments included shutters that were driven by elastic bands or clockwork, while others used compressed air – you squeezed a rubber bulb, and the shutter opened – which is where the bulb time expo-sure term comes from!

Later still, as emulsions became more sensitive, shut-ters that were able to go down to fractions of a second

became common.Recording the image

Over the years the various processes by which images were recorded changed rapidly as new discoveries were made.

Initially, every recorded image was unique, as it could not be reproduced (e.g. Daguerreo-types and Ambrotypes). The discovery of the paper negative allowed multiple copies of the same recorded image to be produced.

Some early printing processes were: • Daguerreotypes – The term daguerreotype

refers to a unique process invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839. The image is recorded on a highly polished silver surface on a copper backing. Daguerre-otypes appear as positive or negative images, depend-ing on how they are viewed. By 1860, Daguerreotypes were being replaced by new less expensive processes.

• Ambrotypes – The Ambrotype process was in general use from 1855 to around 1865. It produced a positive silver image on glass. Although often confused with Daguerreotypes, an Ambrotype always appears as a positive image, no matter the angle of view.

• Collodion wet plate process – The Collodion process was introduced in the 1850s. By 1860 it had almost entirely replaced the Daguerreotype. Due to its ability to record microscopically fine detail, it was still in use in the printing industry 100 years later.

To take a wet plate pho-tograph you needed a portable darkroom in which to pre-pare, then coat, a suitably sized piece of glass with a light sen-sitive emulsion. This was then placed in the camera and exposed and developed before it dried — hence the term wet plate.



By 1880 wet plates were being replaced by commer-cially manufactured dry plates, which were far more convenient to use and much more sensitive, as all you needed to do was put the dry plate in its plate holder into a camera, expose it, then take it home for process-ing.

Photographers had to wait until about 1920 for glass plates to be replaced by much lighter sheet film.Making prints

Once you have an exposed and developed plate, you get a reversed image (black appears as white – what we now call a negative) which must be processed again to create a positive image, where black is black. The easiest way to do this is by making a contact print — either onto suit-ably treated glass to make a lantern slide, or onto suit-ably prepared paper.

Over the years, there have been many different types of print as advances were made and new techniques discovered. Some ex-amples are as follows: • Salt Prints were the earli-est form of a photographic

positive paper and the most common print produced up until the invention of the albumen print in the 1850s. Salt Prints are made by coating fine-quality writing paper with light-sensitive chemicals and sodium chloride (ordinary salt). They produce varying shades of brown or sepia with a matte surface.

• Albumen Prints were the most common photographic print in the 19th century. Albumen prints are made by coating paper with albumen (egg white) and sodi-um chloride (ordinary salt), producing a rich sepia col-our and a slightly glossy surface. Albumen prints were often toned with gold chloride to subdue the sepia tone and improve the permanence of the photograph.

• Calotypes (Also called Talbotype) – invented in

1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot, this revolutionary process allowed you for the first time to make multiple positive prints from a single image. By 1850 the Calo-type process was gradually superseded by the the col-lodian process in camera, then printing onto albumen paper

• Contact Prints – Until photographic emulsions became sensitive enough all prints were made as con-tact prints (often exposed by the sun in the early days). If you wanted an 8 x 10 inch print, you had to take an 8 x 10 inch glass plate, using an 8 x 10 inch camera.

• Enlargements – Silver bromide printing-out paper, which became commercially available in the 1880s, was so sensitive it no longer needed to be exposed by sunlight.

• Magic lanterns became the first enlargers from the 1880s. Magic lantern enlargers allowed photographers

to selectively influence the tonal content of the print by means of photographic techniques such as dodging (allowing less light) or burning (allowing more light) to fall on certain areas of the image during exposure.• Print ton-

ing – Once the print had been exposed, it still had to be developed, and here again we see many different developing agents being used, with disciples for each. Some developers were good for highlights, others for the darker areas. Toning is usually done af-ter the print has been normally processed.

Sepia toning is a specialized treatment to give a black-and-white photographic print a warmer tone and to en-hance its archival qualities. The name originates from the pigment originally used called sepia which was ob-tained from a cuttlefish of that name found in the Eng-lish channelSelenium toning is a popular archival toning process, that gives either a red-brown tone, or a a purple-brown

The Crown and Woolpack – a fine example of the quality ob-tainable from a Calotype paper negative by J.M. Heathcote in 1852.

Calotypes, invented in 1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot, is a revolutionary process that for the first time allowed you to make multiple positive prints from a single image

CTPS early member and renowned architectural photogra-pher Arthur Elliott took this picture during the building of the Rhodes memorial, which was completed in 1912 .Opposite page: In the beginning of the 20th century Kodak was a leading camera brand.



tone — depending on the dilution of the toning solution. Turning disasters into special effects: Sometimes, while working in the darkroom an accident happens – some-one opened the door, or the developer got too hot, or any other number of things. Very occasionally, instead of completely ruining the image being processed, an in-teresting image resulted that traditionalists would dis-card, but creative types looked at and said WOW! So-larisation, and Reticulation are examples of this.Projecting images

The history of projecting images onto surfaces goes back to primitive people seeing shadows from the fire on cave walls. In the early days of photography, all images to be projected were made as contact prints simply by placing the developed glass negative on top of the un-exposed glass plate of the same size (emulsion sides in the middle), and then exposing the combination to light for the required time, then developing it. These positive images on glass were called lantern slides.

A photo of a magic lan-tern in CTPS Collection.

Note the chimney to allow the heat from the burning lamp to

escape.

Illuminants – the quest for brightness

Photography is all about light. The need for more light affected two main areas: while taking the photograph, and while projecting the image in a Magic Lantern.

When magnesium burns it produces a light like daylight. Photographers soon used it to illuminate scenes. Exposures were controlled simply — more magne-sium gives more light.

Magnesium ribbon was easy to measure and cut to the required length to get the

correct exposure.An alternative to magnesium ribbon was flash powder,

a dangerously explosive mixture of magnesium powder and potassium chlorate, which burned faster, and gave more light. Magic lanterns

The history of the development of the light source in Magic Lanterns is an interesting one. For the first 20 years, oil lamps and candles were the only sources of light available. Their low light output limited them to small audiences. However, by the 1870s, Magic Lan-terns started using dazzling white limelight.

Limelight is produced by directing a very hot flame onto the surface of a pellet of lime. The flame of a spirit lamp was placed near the pellet of lime and a jet of oxygen was used to raise the temperature of the flame and force it against the surface of the lime to produce a brilliant white light. An even brighter limelight could be produced us-ing an oxygen and hydrogen jet. With brighter sources of light available, magic lanterns could be used to project

larger images to larger audiences.The age of the Magic Lantern show was

born. Sometimes two or three Magic lan-terns were used simultaneously creating, simulated movement. And so a whole new genre of entertainment was born . . .

We hope this brief look back to the early equipment and techniques has inspired you – perhaps to do more re-search on your own. It will be a great loss to photography if future generations never experienced the thrill of work-ing in a darkroom and seeing an image slowly appear out of nowhere as it soaks in the developer

In this, our 125th Anniversary year, perhaps the time has come for CTPS to find some way of bringing these old techniques back to life in a more meaningful way than just as written articles – say perhaps in a series of 125th Anni-versary memorial workshops each devoted to a particular technique, or the establishment of a historical processes and equipment section of the society?

If you feel that there is merit in keeping these techniques alive please drop a line to the editor of Cape Camera at [email protected]. — Joy Wellbeloved.



CTPS 125 years: A topless view of Cape Town

As part of the March 125 Year Celebration CTPS members saw Capw Town from an unusual angle: the top of a Red tourist bus with a route and stops organised specifically for the trip by Keith Bull. This is what members caught on camera

Cape Town’s lights were captured from Signal Hill by Jacoba van Zyl (top left) and Karyn Parisi (top right), who also pho-tographed the star on the hill (left) with an alternative view by Pat Scott on the right. She also took the unique light images on the left and right.

Bottom left: Sunset on the way to Camps Bay by Johan Greeff.

Below: Returning to Cape Town harbour at night, by Richard Goldschmidt.

Sakkie Smit at the sunset pitstop, captured by Stella Coram.



This refreshment stop along the way to Camps Bay was photographed by Lorinda Rodrigues.

Far left and middle above: Statues by Elley Biggs.

Above: Seen in Hout Bay by Richard Goldschmidt.

Penny Cross captured the images of the Castle (be-low) and organisers Keith Bull and Richard Gold-schmidt herding the members on to the bus (left).

Hout Bay images by Rob-ert Maginley (left), Stella Coram (second row left), Johan Greeff (below mid-dle and right).

Third row left: The fore-shore by Stella Coram and middle: the coast line at sunset, captured by Lorin-da Rodrigues.



Visit the CTPS website (www.ctps.co.za) for up-dates on the exciting outings, exhibition, compe-titions and mini-Congress planned for the year.Bein Wein April 25: This outing to a private cellar and hike to a spectacular vantage point overlooking the Vlottenburg vineyards is fully subscribed. Contact Pat Scott at [email protected] to find out about last minute cancellations.

De Hoop May 29-31: The Mini-congress at De Hoop is also booked to capacity (60 people). Contact Pat Scott at [email protected] in case of cancellations. The speakers will be Paul Bruins (Photographing the Night Skies), Chris Fallows (Above, below and beyond), Nicole Palmer (Evocative Images), Martin Osner (The Art of Photography), and Guy Palmer (An Introduction to De Hoop Nature Reserve).

Forthcoming 125 Year celebration event reminders

CTPS members on the bus (cont.)Apart from photograph-ing Cape Town from an unu-sual vantage point, CTPS members had plenty of fun on the Red Bus Tour

1 2

3 4 5

6 7

8 9

The images on this page were taken by:

1. Julie Dyer;

2. Barbara Hallock;

3..Andre Wijne;

4. Richard Goldschmidt;

5. Tessa Louw;

6. Sakkie Smit;

7. Julie Dyer;

8. Leslie Maginley;

9. Jacoba van Zyl.



ROBERT MAGINLEY reports on the March AV presentation and events to look forward to during the rest of the year

Audio-visual news update

A t the March AV meeting we had a very interest-ing talk by Juan Venter, who showed us a differ-ent angle to making AV’s emotion, which was very enlightening and informative.

Further AV’s were shown and we discussed various items, such as the use of Internet images, sound and transitions used. We also gave members a salon update (see below), including salons without patronage. CTPS Salon

The CTPS 125th Anniversary AV Salon brochure and entry forms for groups as well as individuals are available on the PSSA website (www.pssa.co.za). This will form part of the comprehensive CTPS 125th Anniversary AV Salon in Octo-ber, which will include digital as well as print salons, and it is hoped that there would be a good entry from the AV Members..

There are two sections to the AV salon. The Documentary section will be judged by Thomas Niemeyer, Friso Woud-stra and Paddy Howes, while the Open section judges are Izak van Niekerk, Ronnie Hazel and Ingrid Gane.

The closing date for entries in this AV salon is 24 October, 2015. Contact AV Festival Director Nellian Bekker at [email protected] with enquieries.125 Year Celebrations

The AV section has been asked to produce an audio-visual report of the events and outings organised this year to cel-ebrate our 125th anniversary - so please put on your think-ing caps and let us have your ideas!

Members are encouraged to please load images they take at the events they attend to the 125th anniversary album created under on Photovault (see p3) so that we may in-clude them in the AV.

We have already had three very successful events, Table Mountain in January, Stanford in February and The Red Bus Tour in March. Images can still be submitted for any of these events. April AV meeting

Next month’s AV meeting will be on Wednesday 15 April April – this is a week later than normal, due to Easter. It will be a competition night and I am pleased to say that we have two entries already.

There are two sections – Open or enter one of our Chal-lenges, which are: Plant Kingdom; My Favourite Song; Monochrome; Tell us a Story with less than 6 images; Light Spectrum; Some Narration; 1 minute AV; Animal Kingdom; Abstract and Imagination.

You may only use a title once during the year. There are prizes for the best in each section and also for the best be-ginner

Please note that the club’s new projector can accommo-date 16/9 format and members are encouraged to use this format.

We hope to see your AV’s in April – closing date Sunday 19th April. Send details of your entry to Robert Maginley at [email protected] bring your actual entry to the club on the 15th by 6.30pm

Attention PTE usersRenowned AV maker from the UK, Linda Gibb, kindly forwarded the online address where training docu-mentation for the use of PTE software can be found, namely: http://docs.picturestoexe.com/en/main.

SALon DEADLinE EntrY FEE & DEtAiLS

Trophée de ParisFPF Patronage 4 April 2015 €15 - http://www.tropheedeparis.montageaudiovisuel.fr/

A Photoreporter - Theme: PhotojournalismPSA (rec.), FIAP, ISF, CEDF, FCDF 30 April 2015 €20 individual or €10 for clubs with more than 10 entrants - http://www.

aphotoreporter.com

Citta di Garda. FIAF Patronage 1 May 2015 €18 per AV - http://www.fiaf.net/diaf

Knysna/George National AV SalonPSSA Patronage 14 May 2015 See: www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-

ending-june-2015/1068-2015-05-14-knysna-george-national-av-salonPSSA National AV SalonPSSA Patronage 15 July 2015

PSSA Members R50 / R75 per group. Non-PSSA members R75 / R100 /group - www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2016/1064-2015-07-15-pssa-av-salon

CTPS AV SalonPSSA Patronage 24 October 2015 See: www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-

ending-june-2016/974-2015-10-24-cape-town-salon

Tauranga AV Salon (no patronage) 10 June 2015 NZD $23.00 for the first AV entry and NZD $11.00 for each additional AV - http://taurangaphoto.org.nz/tga-av-salon/

AV Makers-S.A. club. PSSA recognition, no patronage 01 Nov2015 Theme: Light. Entry is free - http://goo.gl/soh9aW

http://www.tropheedeparis.montageaudiovisuel.fr/

http://www.aphotoreporter.com

http://www.aphotoreporter.com

http://www.fiaf.net/diaf

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2015/1068-2015-05-14-knysna-george-national-av-salon

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2015/1068-2015-05-14-knysna-george-national-av-salon

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2016/1064-2015-07-15-pssa-av-salon

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2016/1064-2015-07-15-pssa-av-salon

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2016/974-2015-10-24-cape-town-salon

http://www.pssa.co.za/salons-mainmenu-81/salon-calendar/for-year-ending-june-2016/974-2015-10-24-cape-town-salon

http://taurangaphoto.org.nz/tga-av-salon/

http://goo.gl/soh9aW



E & D shows the unknown side of South Africa

Seen through the lens of Juhan KuusThrough his photos Juhan Kuus shows the uncomfortable truth of what hap-pens behind closed doors — whether it is gang members socialising, police misbehaving, transgressions during the civil unrest committed by security forces, right wingers or opposing forces, children in jail, or the gang bosses controlling some Cape Minstrel troops. Over the past 45 years he has photo-graphed people, places and events most South Africans hardly ever sees — or the famous only seen from a distance. KARYN PARISI reports back on his eye-opening talk at the E&D evening in March

Photographer Ju-han Kuus gave CTPS members the opportunity

to see some outstanding and thought provoking photography, taken during many South African his-torical moments over the past 40 years, during the March Education and De-velopment meeting.

Juhan showed a vast ar-ray of his photography, covering topics as diverse as birds in the Bo Kaap, gangs and their bosses, violence and the tragic fu-nerals that followed, the Cape Minstrels — including behind the scenes images of white pipe smoking and gun toting — slaughtering rituals involving animals, animal rescue and euthani-sation, right and left wing aspects of Apartheid, police intervention with domestic violence and brutal mishan-dling of black people; MCPQ parades in Cape Town, and public figures such as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, FW de Klerk, Winnie Mandela, Betsy Verwoerd, Fidel Castro, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Michael Jackson.

Juhan’s vivid stories about photographing presidents Mandela and Clinton in Madiba’s Robben Island cell, the Cuban doctors and the pig, and Boipatong funeral where he narrowly escaped with his life, illustrate just how much determination, drive and commitment he had as a photographer, and how much he dared to engage and push the limits with the people he photographed.

Juhan's brilliant eye for photography and composition can be seen in even the simplest day to day scenes of

street photography and farm life he captures. He is a source of inspiration for us all.

He is especially fasci-nated by hands and feet, and the contrast of com-bining old age and youth in a photo. He mainly shoots in black and white and only uses colour when the image specifi-cally warrants it. When walking the streets, his eyes are constantly scan-ning the envirtonment for unusual shapes or images to capture.It was a privilege to

share his journey and ex-periences …. and also to see how he dares to break the rules!

“But, you must learn all the photographic rules so that you know how to break them,” he cautions.Juhan’s mentors

His approach as a press photographer had been to “get in and stay with it until the very end — do it so well that the guy who comes in after me cannot do it better.

“I am a photographer, adventurer and story-teller, not an artist,” he says.

His uncompromising work has often been compared to that of the famous Weegee, whom he acknowledges was an inspiration.

“The New York photographer that has had so big an in-fluence on me is Weegee (Arthur Fellig) was introduced to me by my number two mentor, Jimmy Soullier (late as in very dead) who was the chief photographer on

His approach as a press photographer had been to “get in and stay with it until the very end — do it so well that the guy who comes in after me cannot do it better.

E & D organisers Karyn and Dante Parisi flanking Juhan Kuus.



thE E&D speaker for April will be Anton Crone, better known as Ant, the editor in chief of Africa Geographic, an online magazine and blog that celebrates Africa and aims to inspire people to do good for the continent. It has an international readership of wildlife, culture and travel enthusiasts numbering over 200 000 a month with over 1 200 000 social media followers, reports Karyn Parisi.

Ant will be talking on Changing people’s percep-tions of the ‘Dark Continent’through photography and travel. The photographs he will show will include a range from some of the most viewed galleries and photo essays in the online magazine, and images from his personal travels in Africa.

One of the recent blogs that will resonate with most Capetonians is the photos and description of how life was returning to Table Mountain within days after the devastating fires earlier this month (see above from http://magazine.africageographic.com/weekly/issue-37/

the Sunday Times (Johannesburg), who in turn was great friends with Magnum (London) photographer Ian Berry (my number one mentor),” he explains. “Little Jimmy poached me from the Rand Daily Mail newspaper.

“I had studied Cartier Bresson and Weegee and Eu-gene Smith to try to come up with my own (hope-fully) unique approach. I admire the discipline of Cartier Bresson and the abandon of Weegee. I rec-ommend all three. They are all brilliant.”

Some of the photographc lessons Juhan learnt from the greats, which he tried to emulate in his work, are:Robert Capa: If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.Jimmy Soullier: Focus on the eyes, eyes, eyes.ian Berry: The less equipment I carry, the happier I am. Juhan nowadays mainly shoots with a Canon with

a 18 —135mm lens.

How an iconic shot was capturedonE oF Juhan Kuus’ images that is instantly recognised is the photo of then president Bill Clinton and the late Pres. Mandela peering through the bars in his cell on Robben Island. Juhan was part of the pool of photogra-phers allowed on the trip who were each given 30 sec-onds to get the shot of the presidents and their wives in the tiny cell... which he knew was not a good image. Photographer Louise Gubb and Juhan were the last two in line to take the picture, by which time the security and protocal people were already ushering the presidential couples out of the cell. Louise kicked butt, he recounts, and the White House representative asked Clinton to return to the cell. “Madiba knew his presidential press pool and when he saw me, he brought Clinton back to the cell.” They were the only two photographers of the whole press contingent who got that famous photo.

Within a week after the devastating fires on Table Moun-tain Anton Crone photographed this protea for an Africa Geographic blog on how the fynbos was being reborn.

Protecting their faces against the ash children help clear the moun-tain of broken glass that can cause future fires if heated by the glare of the sun. Photo by Anton Crone.

cape-town-fire-fynbos-table-mountain-life-in-the-ashes. He and Christian Boix, Africa Geographic’s travel director and resident ornithologist visited the mountain after fires devastated 5 500 hectares of fynbos. I didn’t expect to see it a landscape teeming with life, and yet it was, he writes. The sensation was one mixed with awe at the devastation, and wonder at the nature that has survived or is already emerging.

Changing perceptions of Africa at April E&D meeting

From the Himba Wild Born gallery by Alegra Ally. See: h t t p : / / m a g a -zine.africageo-graph i c . com/weekly/issue-15/gallery-himba-women-namib-ia-alegra-ally:



Star trail weekend in SutherlandO ne of the best photographic experiences,

wonderful weekend, action packed and fun are just some of the enthusiastic responses from the eight CTPS members who went with

Peter Haarhoff to Sutherland on a star trail photographic weekend from 13-15 March.

Shortly after arriving, we were given a very informative lecture on star trail photography. We then drove to SALT (South African Large Tel-escope) and with Peter’s guidance set up our tripods and evaluated our test shots for composition and exposure.”

Once it was dark enough, we could begin our first hour of remote shots — hoping for the best! It got very chilly during the course of the evening ... but it was worth it.

We only returned home to their cottages at about 1.30 in the morning and were up again four hours later to catch the early sunrise. Unfortunately, there was no sun-rise, just a freezing mist.

Being ever optimistic, we decided it would clear and waited while a very misty, ghostly SALT kept appearing and disappearing in front of us.

After an hour of waiting and some group photos, we decided to pack it up and returned to enjoy a lovely breakfast and set up our computers.

After a short talk by Pe-ter on Startrax (software developed primarily for star trails), we started to edit our photos. There was much excitement to see our remote images

transform into star trails!That evening, we drove to a farm to photograph star

trails, and incorporated various foregrounds, ranging from farm houses and windmills, to fallen tree logs and ponds.

It was a very exciting night with some light painting in-cluded as well. Much later that night we were treated to a viewing of planets and stars through Jurg's telescopes at Sterland.

As a follow-up to Peter Haarhoff’s talk on Star Trail Pho-tography last year, eight CTPS members recently joined him on a star studded photographic weekend in Suther-land. Several of them say that this was the best photo-graphic experience of their lives, reports KARYN PARISI. She and Dante Parisi liaised with Haarhoff to organise the weekend

Once it was dark enough, we could begin our first hour of remote shots — hoping for the best! It got very chilly during the course of the evening ... but it was worth it.



The next morning we had the unexpected surprise of meeting Divashen Govender, one of the five South Afri-cans selected to be a potential candidate to go to Mars in 2024. They were recently selected out of 100 world-wide applicants who made the first cut, after more than 200 000 people initially applied.

He is a very brave young man, who said his family had initially struggled to come to terms with the fact that

if he was finally chosen to go to Mars, he would never return.

On our way home, we stopped briefly at Matjiesfontein, where Peter set us the task of photographing something in the museum. The winning picture, chosen by voting on his website, will be awarded the floating Hubcap Tro-phy at our next CTPS meeting.

All in all a fantastic weekend, definitely to be repeated!

Joan Ward: Sutherland is synonymous with stars, add to that Peter Haarhoff’s well organised workshop on star trails, and the result is a wonderful weekend for those members who were lucky enough to take part,” says Joan Ward. “Thank you Karyn and Dante for the initiative.”Pat Scott: What a wonderful experience the trip to Sutherland was — probably one of the best E&D Out-ings in a long time. It truly was an educational outing as we learnt not only how to shoot the stars, but also about the stars.

Peter Haarhoff gave an informative lecture plus notes before we went out to face the challenge of capturing the most amazing sky; then once out in the field he somehow managed to give general guidance, as well as give us all personal attention. Not an easy feat in the dark, in the middle of the night!

The whole weekend took a great deal of organisa-tion and it was a HUGE success ... big thanks to Karyn, Dante and Peter!Jenny Powis: It was an action packed fun weekend in Sutherland. The program was balanced as there was downtime during the day. I am pleased we went to SALT on the first night as we were all shooting in the same area, same subject (SALT and star trails) so Peter could teach us as a group.

The second night we had choices of subject matter so we could spread out and at the same time I felt more confident about shooting star trails because I had been trained the night before. The second night was the most perfect location for star trails! I would do it all over again.Cathy Bruce: Thank you so much for the lovely week-end. It was a really a magical getaway, literally to the stars, which pervaded every part of the tour to Suther-land. I returned with wisdom to absorb and a great sense of enlightenment about Sutherland, the SALT ex-perience, celestial observation from the south and how to capture star trails.

All this, and a lovely place to stay in, delicious food, exceptional company, jokes, music and dancing.

I can't wait to get my camera out at midnight and to return to Sutherland. Peter Haarhoff made this a truly exceptional experience.Jacoba van Zyl: It was one of my the best — if not the best — photographic experience ever. I learned a lot and even though it was long hours, Peter's energy and fun way with which he presents the workshop just kept you going.

The other activities, food (way too much) and accom-modation all added to make the weekend an unforget-table experience.

A weekend enjoyed by all attendees

Opposite page left: Jacoba van Zyl’s star trail with a silhouette of SALT.

Opposite page right: Pat Scott’s photo of the Milky Way and SALT.

Left: Pat Scott photographed the CTPS members braving the chilly morn-ing mist, hoping for a sunrise: Cathy Bruce, Peter Haarhoff, Jenny Powis, Kathy Priday, Joan Ward, Dante and Karyn Parisi.



PSSA Entries: Every month a judge must nominate a c o m p e t i t i o n entry from a senior and jun-ior photogra-pher to enter in the PSSA club competition.

Competition News

Our April judges are Peter Brandt, Kim Stevens (middle) and Joy Wellbeloved.

FISH HOEK Photographic Society chairman and mono-chrome boffin, Peter Brandt, will be the judge comment-ing on images during the April competition evening ... which could be quite interesting, considering his quirky sense of humour. He has been asked to speak on Mono-chrome as part of the WC Judging Forum curriculum (see p20), and is therefore well schooled in the subject.

Brandt has a fine arts qualitfication from the Wits Tech-nikon and runs his own web and graphic design company. He says he became seriously involved with photography about five years ago, and has since then made a name as educational speaker, including at a CTPS E&D evening.

Kim Stevens has not only developed into one of CTPS’ top photographers — who got her LPSSA in record time

Interesting mix of experience in April judging panel— during the past three years that she has been a mem-ber, she is also constantly expanding her horizons by at-tending photographic workshops (recently in Namibia), including the WC Judging Forum course. “I love learn-ing,” she says.

And it was through attending a course by Canadian Freeman Patterson that she became hooked on photog-raphy. “It was an epiphany,” she says.

Joy Wellbeloved, introduced to members in the January issue of Cape Camera, is a longstanding CTPS members and former president, who also headed the AV section. Always broadening her knowledge, she is experimenting with different macro techniques while doing historical research for the 125 Year articles in Cape Camera.

PDI Set Intermediate winner and PSSA junior entry: Eternity (25) by Kathy Priday. Judge Antenie Carstens liked the technique she used to create the image and tell a symbolic story. “The colours — light and dark shades of blue — are nice and the two images (right and person on the left) create a balance.”

PDI Open Salon winner: Arpeggios (25) by Kim Stevens. It is a good example of the importance of repetition, with the two birds that are different giving balance. “The high contrast works well, said judge Antenie Carstens.

The judges of the March competition were all seasoned club and salon judges, and are all members of CTPS. Detlef Basel (middle) has been CTPS president for nine years and has been judging sa-lons and competitions for many years. Antenie Carstens, who com-mented on the images, is not only a very experienced judge, but also developed a curriculum for the Western Cape Judging Forum (see p20). Alicia Greyling, who also assists with the judging forum, has also judged many competitions. As in the previous two com-petitions with three judges, the average score per image was 22, with the scores of the individual judges averaging 21, 22 and 23.



Winning and top images MarchSet subject: Composite images

Left: PDI Set Salon winner: Lippizaners in Transition (25) by Jeanette Brusnicky. “Well seen and well executed,” said Antenie, who compli-mented the use of different light sources.

Right above: PDI Set Ad-vanced winner: Treescape at Sesriem (24) by Cathy Bruce Wright is a nicely executed montage with pleasing colours that don’t compete.

Print Set Intermediate winner: Lisa Dreaming (24) by Kathy Priday.

Print Set Advanced winner: Fantasy (24) by Cathy Bruce Wright.

Print Set Advanced: Gorillas in the Mist (23) by Karyn Parisi.

PDI Set Advanced: Learning to Read (23) by Robert Maginley.

Above: Print Set

Advanced: The Intrepid Water Car-rier (23) by

Dante Parisi.

PDI Set Salon: Run through the Park (24) by Pat Scott.Above: PDI Set Salon: Venice through the ages (24) by John Spence.



Open section winners

Left: Print Open Advanced winner: Snowy Owl Cove (23) by Karyn Parisi.

Above: Print Open Intermediate winner: A day is long (21) by Kathy Priday.

Left: PDI Open Advanced winner: Blou berg (24) by Mo Bassa.

Left below: PDI Open Intermediate winner: Cheeky Face (22) by Cathy Jenkins.

Right below: PDI Open Beginner winner: Low key flowers (23) by Paul Nuttal.

Bottom left and middle: PDI Open Advanced: Leida on 4th of July (23) plus The birth of Solange (23) by Anna Morris.

Bottom right: Print Open Salon: Twists and Turns (24) by Malcolm Jones.



Top scoring images

PDI Open Salon: Arabian desert sunset (25) by Lambe Parolis.

Left: PDI Open Salon: Sea dawn in pastel shades (25) by Jean Bradshaw.

PDI Open Salon: Fly away with me (24) by Jeanette du Toit.Right: PDI Open Salon: Underground Basilica (24) by John Spence.

PDI Open Salon: Our daily routine (24) by Jeanette du Toit.

PDI Open Salon: Speeding off (24) by Joan Ward.Right: Print Set Subject Advanced: Chameleon web by Karyn Parisi.

PLEASE rEMEMBEr to give feedback to council about the new three judge-panel system introduced for a four-month trail period until April. Members will be asked to vote after the April competition evening on the best way to proceed. Apart from introducing the multi-person judging panel, images are now sent to the judges before the competition evening, but they don’t judge remotely.

Give your feedback on the new system to competition convenor Lesley Parolis on [email protected].



Judging training startThe course developers Celia Fourie and CTPS mem-ber Antenie Carstens. Western Cape PSSA director Johan Kloppers welcomed attendees.

T he new cycle of the Western Cape (WC) Judging Forum promises to be much more than judge a course on how to award scores. At the introductory meeting previous participants talked about lessons

learnt from the first cycle and issues like why do we judge, what is the difference between judging and critique, seeing an image from different viewpoints were among the topics discussed at the introductory meeting of the 2015 Western Cape Judging Forum.

“In the WC we don’t sit and wait, we do things, “ said PSSA Western Cape director Johan Kloppers, referring to the un-fulfilled promises from the PSSA to roll out the JAP pro-gramme.

The WC Judging Forum (Antenie Carstens, Celia Fouche, Johan Kloppers and Alicia Greyling) was founded in 2011 when they realised that poor judging at club level was disappointing members, yet the “PSSA JAP programme was going nowhere,” ex-plained Celia.

They decided to address the problem and devise a work-shop course open to all WC club members, whether they are PSSA members, or not. This year they opened it even wider to club members aiming to hone their skills, without neces-sarily wanting to become judges.

The aim of the forum is to develop standard guidelines for judging, to give judges continuous feedback regarding their

progress and to establish a pool of skilled judges that clubs can use with confidence, explained Celia.

Some of the shortcomings identified in current judging ap-proaches are lack of knowledge about judging, lack of tech-nical knowledge of photography, lack of confidence to com-ment, lack of opportunities to judge and a limited vision and ability to look at images with fresh eyes, said Antenie. These will be addressed during the course.

Johan will try and get PSSA accreditation for judges com-pleting this comprehensive course compiled by Antenie. “To become a judge, you have to keep on learning,” said Johan.

“I’ve been doing photog-raphy for 40 years, and I’m still learning. I’ll be doing this course for the third time.”

Antenie pointed out that there is a difference be-tween judging and critique:

judging is a personal opinion based on certain criteria, while critique is more informative. If you judge in a balanced way, you will understand the image from the point of view of all four owners of a photograph identified by David Prakel: the photographer, subject, viewer, editor/judge/curator.

“The needs and rights of each of these people differ from image to image, and may be expressed even before an image is taken,” he said. A judge from a commercial background would, for example, look at an image from a different per-spective than a club photographer.

The new cycle of the Western Cape Judging Forum promises to be an interesting and thought-provoking journey. With more than a third of the participants from CTPS, the society will benefit from the knowledge they’ll gain over the next eighteen months

The aim of the forum is to develop stand-ard guidelines for judging and to establish a pool of skilled judges that clubs can use with confidence.



The course is a journey, and even though he found it frustrating at times, he real-ised how important it was to continue, said Jan Marais, who advised that the the value of the course will depend on how you interpret the experiences you gain for yourself. The course helped him to understand and justify why he agreed or disagreed with the assessment by oth-ers. The basics of visual design are at the core of all judging: patterns, rhythm, repetition, etc. The “rules” about what makes an image pleasing were devised more than hundred years ago when the first photographers compared their im-ages and identified some pointers, which are still valid. Ask yourself when look-ing at an image: what did the photogra-pher want to tell me and did he succeed?

He quoted Thomas Wheeler who said that an image can mean different things to different people, or even different things to one person at different times.

Personal preference or prejudice is a judging pitfall that was discussed at some length, especially when a judge is not really interested in a certain type of photography, or does not have knowl-edge of a genre.

A judge should practice refining his/her techniques to become skilled in the art of judging, and also be open to freshness and the successful breaking of rules, advised Antenie. Making wrong assumptions

“As a judge you should be aware you could be wrong about the assumptions you make, for example about a tech-nique: sometimes a photographer just enter to make judge sit up and think ... he did not use the technique you think.”

It is not really important how an ef-fect was achieved, what is important is what you see as the end result, sug-gested Jan Marais.

“Judging is not an exact science,” said Antenie, and therefore you might give a different score at a different time. The way images are assessed at clubs, when you only have a few brief moments to comment, is different to when it is as-sessed in a different environment like a salon, exhibition or for publication, etc.Qualities needed in a judge

A judge should try not to unduly fa-vour or penalise an image based on subject matter, the technique used, dif-ficulty in creating the photograph and personally knowing the photographer, or the club where the image originated.

A judge should apply scores consist-ently and compare quality, no matter what technique was used, he advised. “Merit must not be based on the image seen before or after — even if it is the third or fourth sunset that comes up.”

Use the entire scale to reward fresh-

An excellent course for everybody, said Claude Felbert. He found that he needed a lot of practice commenting and that writing down his comments helped. “You are under a lot of pressure when judging and a judge often sees new things when he comments, which might not tally with the score given.” Comments are more important than the score, because they teach the people who are present, he thinks. He recommends splitting into small groups and having practice ses-sions discussing images, perhaps with an experienced judge as mentor. He also cautioned that while people who had at-tended the judging forum are good at making good comments, but over-gen-erous when giving scores, because they don’t want to offend club members.

The initial course was excellent, said Roger Lee, who said he learnt a lot about different genres. “We are priv-iliged to have this unique course and it is a wonderful opportunity offered by the people here who put in a tremen-dous amount of hard work.”

Feedback from previous Judging Forums

ness and to differentiate between im-ages. “Just be honest and if a picture is very good, say so,” Antenie advises.

There are some personal shortcom-ings some judges have to overcome, like the inability to be open to sugges-tions from other judges, being stuck with old ideas or old technologies (e.g. condemning the use of Photoshop), an inability to see beyond the rules and an inability to look beyond the obvious.

If want you to judge, ask yourself some questions, he suggested: how often do I look at pictures other than my own, do I read photographic books (internet articles are often wrong) or subscribe to photographic journals?

Am I a member of an organisation like PSSA or similar, do I visit photographic or photo related exhibitions? Do I enter regional, national or international com-petitions or exhibitions?

It is not really impor-tant how an effect was achieved, what is impor-tant is what you see as the end result



April 25, 2015

Bein Wein Private Cellar outing in Vlottenburg with wine tasting at sunset. Donkeys transport cameras. Limited number can go — enquir-ies Pat Scott at p.a. [email protected].

May 29-31, 2015

CTPS Congress for members in De Hoop Nature Reserve. Expect top speakers like Chris Fallows, Paul Bruins, Martin Os-ner and Nicole Palmer. (See p12). Contact Pat Scott at [email protected] photo competition launched.

June 2015 Outing in Stellenbosch area under guid-ance of a renowned photographer.

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.

PSSA National Congress in Swellendam 9-14 August. Organised by Swellendam Photograph-ic Society and Cape Photographers. See 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?

October 2015

Cape Town Photographic Society 125th Anniversary Salon for print (Antenie Carstens), PDI (Lesley Parolis), AV (Nellian Bekker). Coordinated by Nicol du Toit.On October 30th, the society’s birthday will be celebrated with a gala dinner at Granger Bay with a good speaker, where old and current members will be honoured.

125 Year celebration diarySave these dates for 2015

Documents

March 2015 cape camera