FOCALPOINTThe Official MIPP Newsletter December 2014

www.mipp-malta.comIssue No. 46

Editor:Th erese Debono

Assistant Editor:Kerstin Arnemann

Design:Th erese Debono

Article Vetting:Vince DeBono

Articles:Various contributors

Editorial Advice:Kevin Casha

Contact:newsletter@mipp-malta.com

Newsletter Team

Finally December, 30 more days and we close off this year in style with 5 qualifi ed members and a great social year behind us!

I was totally honoured to judge two panels during the November Convention. Th e quality of work this year was astounding! No wonder members passed!

I also want to pass on big congratulations to Kerstin Arnemann and Romana Wylie for winning Photographer of the Year and the International Online competitions awards respectively. It is great to see women getting the titles this year!

For this fi nal issue we are featuring George Abdilla, who not only was part of the fi rst members of MIPP, but his dance

EDITORIAL If you want your photos featured on the newsletter’s front page just send the images to newsletter@mipp-malta.com. Your contributions are always welcome!

photography deserved to be featured fully!

It is also with great pleasure to see that three MIPP members have taken the plunge these past two months to exhibit!

Read all about it in this issue! Meanwhile I wish you all a great festive season and looking forward to seeing you during our very own Xmas Party on 7th December! Details inside!

Th erese & Kerstin!

hAssistant EditorKerstin Arnemann

Find us on:

CONTENTSpg 2 President’s viewpoint 24 Tips to help the Predatorpg 5 Featured MIPP member George Abdillapg 10 MIPP News Photographer of the Year Winnerpg 12 MIPP News International Online Competition Winnerpg 14 Exhibition Isle Landerspg 16 News MIPP Member at National Portrait Gallerypg 17 News MIPP Member at the Malta Society of Artspg 18 Exhibition MIPP Member First Solo Exhibitionpg 20 Out & About December Eventspg 22 News Qualifi cations Achieverspg 24 Photo Gallery Convention Hightlightspg 28 Calendar of Events Mark your Diaries!

DECEMBER 2014

cover artist Anonymous

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Name: SpineLocation: Valencia

Caption:“I shot this image in summer 2013 on a fi ve day trip to Valencia. Being a draughtsman and travelling with an architect, Santiago Calatrava’s work in the city could not go unnoticed and unappreciated. Th e City for Arts and Science off ers alot of photographic opportunities. I was lucky on the day with soft clouds which were not too sharp, so I could kind of get the eff ect of a long exposure, without actually setting up for it. I edited the image in black and white and highlighted the ‘spine’ part of the detail to get more of a 3D eff ect. I also had to remove some dust spots from the image to get it clean! Never change your lens on a windy day!”

24 TIPS TO HELP THE PREDATOR!

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Kevin Casha

These past years, I have been going back to my origins and doing more and more Street photography. I consider this type of photography to be very purist, in as much that the photographer, most of the times takes care not to interfere with the subject matter, as much as is possible. Here, I would just like to share with you my 20 top tips that should help budding practitioners of this genre of photography. A few might seem contradictory, but street photography opportunities are constantly changing, so the way on tackles this subject is very relevant to the situation:

1. CONQUER YOUR FEAR2. EXPLORE DIFFERENT CAMERAS SUCH AS THE MOBILE PHONE3. THE LESS GEAR, THE BETTER - BE MOBILE4. CARRY YOUR CAMERA ALL THE TIME5. PRIME LENSES ARE BEST6. YOU DONT HAVE TO SHOOT IN MANUAL - APERTURE & SHUTTER PRIORITY ARE FASTER7. LEAVE ETHICS AT HOME BUT NEVER BE RUDE8. TRY AND TELL A STORY WITH YOUR IMAGE9. SEARCH FOR ‘JUXTAPOSITION’ OPPORTUNITIES

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viewpoint

10. SHOOT ON SIGHT, DO NOT WAIT THEN REFINE THE SHOT IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY11. ITS USUALLY BETTER TO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH YOUR SUBJECT12. GET AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO YOUR SUBJECT13. EXPLORE DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS14. AT TIMES, TRY TO FREEZE OBJECTS IN MOTION15. AT TIMES, USE SLOW SHUTTER TO PRODUCE BLUR & MYSTERY16. BE EVER ALERT – THE DECISIVE MOMENT IS A SPLIT SECOND17. MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN FOCUS!18. PAY ATTENTION TO COMPOSITION19. LIE IN WAIT - A PREDATOR IS PATIENT20. SHOOT FROM THE HIP21. KNOW WELL HOW TO ZONE FOCUS22. KEEP MOVING AS YOU SHOOT23. STUDY SITUATIONS THAT MIGHT HAVE POTENTIAL EVEN IF SHOT FROM BEHIND24. KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE FOR DISTRACTING BACKGROUND ELEMENTS

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featured member

featured memberDANCE PHOTOGRAPHYGeorge Abdilla

It was sometime in 1992 when I started to take photographs of events, mainly dance and theatre, and for me it was a sort of love at fi rst click. Recently, whilst reading Susan Sontag’s On Photography, I came across an interesting passage which reads as follows: “the pho-tographer is a super tourist, extension of the anthropologist, visiting natives and bringing back news of their exotic doings and strange gear. Th e photographer is always trying to colonize new experiences or fi nd new ways to look at familiar subjects – to fi ght against boredom. For boredom is the reverse side of fascination:both depend on being outside rather inside a situation, and one leads to the other.” Th is passage describes me perfectly, when it comes to dance, I would not go to watch a dancing show, unless I have a camera with me. Without a camera I would be bored, with a camera in my hands, I am fascinated.

Th roughout these past 22 years I have photographed innumerable shows, yet I still get the same excitement and fascination I did when I photographed the fi rst show. Back then I used to shoot only in Black and White, my fi lm being the Agfa 400 ASA, push processed to 1600 ASA. It was quite a grainy fi lm, but gave decent results under the right conditions. A few years later Kodak’s T Max and Fuji’s Neopan 1600 became available. I used to buy my Black and White fi lms in bulk form – 30 meter rolls, which I then cut to size, using a bulk fi lm loader. I had absolute control over the whole process from the initial exposure, to the fi lm processing and fi nal printing.

In these days, I used to do the occasional part time photography assign-ment and hence was invited to attend the very fi rst meeting MIPP held. I am proud to say, I witnessed MIPP’s birth, becoming one of the very fi rst associate members, but back then associate meant not being a full time pro-fessional photographer, and hence neither a full MIPP member. In 1997, a couple of years later, and whilst still studying at University, I joined full time, the then Th e People, a daily new newspaper based on the popular British Sun, and that meant I could apply for MIPP Full membership. It was also the fi rst time that ‘Photo Training Overseas’ came to Malta, for a weekend in February (1998). During this period, MIPP had established a relationship with the Master Photographers Association; a number of MIPP members applied and prepared panels for MPA recognition during the PTO weekend. Since I was working as a full time photojournalist, I presented a panel for a

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successful Licenciate at MPA in photojournalism. One of the pieces I presented, was a Black and White image of a Spanish dancer, a shot I still believe to be one of my best works depicting dancing.

A few years aft er, I joined MTA, and work commitments meant I had to stop working in photography, due to the long hours, and unpredictable commitments. For a num-ber of years my photography came to a halt, rarely using the cameras at all. I stopped all my memberships in photographic circles, and till 2006, I still did not have a digital camera, nor had the slightest idea how to use Photoshop. My entry into the digital World, was in fact rather hard, I shoot RAW, and my images looked fl at, due to my in-ability to even do basic editing, something which at fi rst I failed to understand. I tried competing again, but none of my images were even selected. It was only a chance encounter with my old friend Ramon that I fi nally understood that I needed to edit my images, and needed to learn to use Photoshop if I wanted to succeed with Digital images. My eldest daughter, wanted to do ballet, and through her, I restarted photo-graphing dance shows. My passion for dance photography was back. I try attending all the shows I know of, and manage to get permission to shot. Yes, I simply love it, love seeing the action, the emotion, the passion dancers put in their dance, I love to watch all this through my lens, and capturing these movements in time.

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My shooting philosophy is based on an old system called the zone system, a system we used to use for black and white fi lms. Here one exposes for the shadows and develops for the highlights. When shooting harsh light events such as dance shows, I work in a diff erent way, the reverse of this. Here I expose for the highlights and work out later on the shadows. My method involves setting the camera to spot metering, and setting my exposure on the highlights, this way I try to avoid as much as possible having burnt highlights, especially faces. Finding the right exposure is no mean feat, yet it is such a simple task from the days of fi lm, where we could not see instantly what our exposure was rendering.

I try to feel the music, foresee the movements the dancers will make, thus trying to know beforehand where and when to shoot. Motor drive helps, but is it not the se-cret to getting that right shot. Sometimes, I have what I believe great pictures, only to fi nd out when showing them to dance experts, that the position, is bad, depicting the dancer badly. When this happens, there is only one way out, sadly I have to put away that photo.

Last year, whilst reading for my Masters In Fine Arts, I was asked to work out of my comfort zone, and this meant letting go of my control of my picture taking, letting chance dictate my photography. It was no mean feat for me, but the results I got were great. I applied this approach to my dance photography too, and occasionally man-aged to produce a couple of shots which conveyed the movement, the atmosphere of the dance incredibly; a totally new perspective. True, out of every 100 shots, I would be lucky to get a single good image, but nonetheless, for this single image it would have been worth it. My advice if you want to do dance photography – experiment and let the dance get in you.

When three years ago I was preparing an associate panel, I was undecided if I should use dance related works. Back then I opted not to, yet in the coming future, aft er I hopefully fi nish my Masters, I plan to start working on a new panel based on Dance photography which hopefully leads me to my next target.

George Abdilla

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PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR WINNER

“First of all let me say that I feel very honoured, having been awarded Pho-tographer of the Year 2014. My main aim in taking part at the PTYA was not the fi nal award, but to improve my pho-tography by submitting regular images to a panel of judges and receiving con-structive feedback.

When the themes of PTYA 2014 had been announced, I started thinking about ideas for every single theme, list-ed them on a piece of paper and studied beforehand the chosen locations with reference to light etc. To boost my crea-tivity and refi ne my ideas, I did some re-

search on Internet. Working on a unifi ed series helped me to express to the viewer in a much better way, my vision and inspiration behind the images as well as my intentions.

I think it is a great learning experience, fun, stimulates your creativity and the fact that you are able to confront yourself and discuss with other excellent member photographers about your body of work is very important and oft en turns out into a small social event aft er the PTYA judging session, which I personally enjoyed a lot. So I hope to see many more of you next year wishing you the best of luck.”

Th is year’s PTYA competiton was fi erce and very competitive with the top two participants producing and submitting astounding images at every judging session!Ultimately the score was very close and the winner was announced.....Kerstin Arnemann got the award!

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Artist’s Favourite Image from the whole competition

Image Title: Rush Hour - Th is photo refl ects best the type of photography which I personally like most. Combining two subjects of equal importance, complement-ing each other “Architectural Street Photography”. It is a way to express the rela-tionship between the architectural structure and the people.

Left : Kersin Arnemann re-ceiving the PTYA Award from MIPP President Kevin Casha (right) and Martin Agius PTYA Coordinator (left )

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MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITION WINNERAnother fi erce competition this year was the MIPP Monthly Online Competion, however Romana Wylie came out as the top winner with 11 Golds for her submissions!

“I was really pleased to win the Monthly Online competition this year. I mostly used submissions as a way to check my Steampunk images for my Associate Qualifi cation but I also explored some other areas than Steampunk. I also participated in the Photographer of the Year Competition and I have included fi ve of my favorites from both competitions.“

Above: Romana Wylie with MIPP President Kevin Casha (right) and Competition Coordinator Martin Agius (left )

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Winner’s Favourite Image from the Submissions

Th is is my favourite image from the 2014 online competition. I was really happy with Mark’s expression; absolutely him teaching. Th e little pictures in the frames are all shots of Gozo from my walks around the island so it is quite special for me as it combines Steampunk and my adopted home.

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ISLE LANDERS

Isle Landers is a photographic art project ten years in the making by photojournalist Darrin Zammit Lupi of Times of Malta and Reuters, documenting the lives of asylum seekers and migrants through and aft er their journey across the Mediterranean Sea.Since 2002, more than 19,000 individuals have reached Malta by crossing the Mediterranean on rickety vessels. Several hundred thousand people have arrived in Italy during the same period.

Many others were much less fortunate. During the last decade, thousands of men, women and children have lost their lives as their rickety vessels succumbed to the sea. To date, in 2014 alone, more than 3,000 people have perished in the Mediterranean, victims of a cynical smuggling and traffi cking industry that continues to exploit desperate people on the move.

Together with its accompanying book, the exhibition covers everything from rescues at sea, life in detention camps, right through to refugees leaving Malta to be permanently resettled in the U.S. and continental Europe.

The exhibition at the Upper Galleries of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta is open to the public from December 6 through to January 4.

On Monday 8th December, at 7.30pm, Darrin and exhibition curator FabrizioMifsudSoler will be holding a talk about the project as well as a book signing session at St James Cavalier. Copies of the book will be available. All MIPP members are invited to attend.

Th e project is supported by the Malta Arts Fund, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Avantech – Canon, Ernst & Young Malta Limited, M.Demajo Group, Frank Salt, APS Bank and Photo INK.

www.islelanders.com

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MIPP MEMBER’S WORK at the NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY in LONDON

Earlier last month Joe Smith’s work was shortlisted in the fi nal 60 images chosen for exhibition from an entry of 4,193 images. Th e competition was part of the Th e Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014 and is currently at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Th e Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014 is a unique opportunity to see sixty new portraits by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers from around the world.Th e selected images, many of which will be on display for the fi rst time, explore both traditional and original approaches to the photographic portrait through intimate images of friends and family alongside revealing portraits of famous faces.

Th is year the competition attracted over 4,000 submissions in the form of editorial, advertising and fi ne art prints and the selected works in the exhibition include the four prize winners as well as the winner of the John Kobal New Work Award.

Th e exhibition runs from 13th November 2014 to 22nd February 2015.16

MIPP MEMBER’S WORK chosen forExhibition at the Malta Society of Fine Arts

Kerstin Arnemann’s work has been chosen out of the 40 entries for this year’s First Solo Exhibition at the Malta Society of Fine Arts, Palazzo De La Salle, Valletta. Kerstin’s work together with 4 other artists’ work will be on exhibition at the Malta Society of Fine Arts till 19th December.

Above: Kerstin (2nd from left )

Above: Two Of Kerstin’s Images on display

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The photographs on display are a small selection from Simon Attard’s portfolio. Simon Attard who uses the nome de plume simonmalti is an avid amateur photog-rapher. Simon who is a Maltese native is in love with the Maltese Islands and also has a great passion for travelling. Most of his short trips are in Europe, however every year he spends longer spells in diff erent locations in Asia and Africa.

He documents his travels and the hidden niches of the Maltese islands through the photographic medium, some of which are displayed here. Simon’s passion for pho-tography has long been with him but only in recent years has he embarkedupon his passion with more vigour, enthusiasm and dedication. Th is has encouraged him to experiment with his camera and he has been on a learning curve ever since. In fact results are beginning to show with numerous successes in various competitions.

What does photography mean to Simon?“Photography gives me the opportunity to be creative and it distances me from the logic andrigidity required by my profession as a Certifi ed Accountant. It brings me nearer to people andallows me to share my colourful and joyousperson in me”

MIPP MEMBER’S FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION

EOS 5D Mark llljoins the rental family!... now available for rent.

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for full details and conditions visitwww.avantech.com.mt or call on 2148 88 00

Avantech BuildingSt Julian’s RoadSan Gwann SGN 2805

December EventsOUT AND ABOUTSince art is not only about photography, Kerstin came up with the bril-liant idea of selecting a few monthly events and pointing them out to our members so that you visit these interesting exhibitions/installations/book launches and be inspired! Enjoy!

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RENE ROSSIGNAUD BOOK LAUNCH

4th December22, Palazzo Pereira, Republic Street, Valletta20:30hrs

My First Exhibitionby Simon Attard

3rd DecemberTrabixu, Valletta20:30hrs

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ISLE LANDERSby Darrin Zammit Lupi

6th December - 4th JanuarySt James, Upper Galleries,Valletta19:30hrs

KURT ARRIGOA Collection of the Gallery’sFavourites at Sea

Hosted by Lily Agius Gallery, 54 Cathedral Street, Sliema from 29 November till 24 December

QUALIFICATIONS ACHIEVERS

Th is year’s panels were all a success!

Renata Apanaviciene & Sandra Hotrum got their Licentiate Qualifi cations in Portraiture and Travel respectively.

Romana Wylie got their Associateship Qualifi cations in Fashion & Glamour while Guido Bonett got his Associateship in Nature Photography.

Darrin Zammit Lupi and Ayman Loft y both got their Fellowship Qualifi cations!

Well Done to all! As from next month we will feature each member individually about their experience and achievements!

Above: Renata Apaviciene receiving her qualifi cation from Charles Calleja

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Above: Romana Wylie receiving her qualifi cation from Charles Calleja

Above: Darrin Zammit Lupi receiving his qualifi cation from Charles Calleja

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CONVENTION HIGHLIGHTS IN PICTURES

Th is Page:Top to BottomStuart Wood during one of his lectures.Stephanie S Scicluna during one of her lectures.Judging during panel judging.

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Th is Page:Top to BottomStuart Wood during one of his workshops.Ramon Sammut during one of his lectures.Ramon Sammut during his workshop.

Next Page:Th e Members during the convention weekend.

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CALENDAR

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9th DecemberExploiting portable Flash photography

19:30hrs, Le Meridien

7th DecemberMIPP Christmas Gathering19:30hrs, Le Meridien

6th JanuarySunlight - A lecture by Albert de Marco19:30hrs, Le Meridien

13th JanuaryInternational Online Comp - Juding 1

19:30hrs, Le Meridien

27th JanuaryDebate Night - Informal Forum19:30hrs, Le Meridien

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Celebrate with usthis Festive Season!