Helderberg took the club honours by a narrow margin. The club scores were as follows.

The winning print was “Holding Hands” by Mark Chipps of Creative Camera Club.

And the winning projected image was “It’s a Big World Out There” by Marthinus Retief of Helderberg Photographic Society.

Marthinus’ image pipped Mark’s by one point to take overall honours.

The Golden Apple award for the highest scoring photographer went to Max Leipold of Hermanus Photographic Society.

A spreadsheet listing the detailed scores has been sent to each of the participating clubs.

Helderberg Photographic Society is honoured to have gained the services of the following Judges, who will judge at Interclub 2009 in the Endler Hall, Stellenbosch on Saturday 31^st October.

David Rogers

David Rogers loves Africa! He spent 9 years with Getaway as assistant editor, and during this time wrote over 100 features including 20 cover stories for which he won several awards.  He has started his own business and has photographed more than 150 lodges for a series called Safari in Style. As well as being called on by commercial clients such as Land Rover USA, Samara Lodges, and many more, David also offers workshops in various parts of the country.  He lives with his wife and two young sons, in Cape Town.

Clients include Steenberg Hotel, Garonga Safari Camp, Jacis Safari Camp, Wolwedans, Onguma, and many other top camps and hotels.

Preview Classic Safari Camps of Africa at http://www.davidrogers.co.za/docs/publishing.html
Join a Digital Photographic Safari on http://www.davidrogers.co.za/docs/workshops.htm
Journey through some exquisite lodges at http://www.davidrogers.co.za/docs/lodges.html
He is the author of the following recent titles: Southern Africa in Style (Africa Geographic 2004); Zambia in Style (Africa Geographic, 2005); East Africa in Style (Africa Geographic, 2006); Living Landscapes of Southern Africa (Struik, 2006); Indian Ocean Islands in Style (Africa Geographic, 2007); South Africa in Style (Africa Geographic, 2007); Classic Safari Camps of Africa (Hornbill Press, 2008); Winelands in Style (Africa Geographic, 2009).

Paddy Bouma

Paddy Bouma studied Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (BA 1967) and Lithography at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, (1968-69). She is an internationally published writer and illustrator, and recently illustrated the official picture book version of Nelson Mandela’s Long Road to Freedom for Macmillan Children’s Books (UK). Until recently she taught illustration and printmaking at the University of Stellenbosch.

She lives with her husband, Raymond, in Stellenbosch.

Diane Skinner

Diane Skinner started photography at an early age, learning from her father.  She is widely traveled, and from her home in Quebec, Canada, she has ventured across the Americas, Europe, Africa and beyond. She counts among her favourite places to visit

the dunes of Namibia, and the volcanoes on the Hawaiian Islands. She holds an APSSA from the PSSA and is a member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art. Whilst in South Africa this month, she lectured at the PSSA Congress held in Hermanus.

The annual Western Cape Interclub Photographic Competition will be taking place on Saturday 31st October, 2009, from 6pm, at the Endler Hall, Conservatoire, University of Stellenbosch in Stellenbosch.  Photographic clubs from the region will be displaying their best prints and digital images during the course of the evening.  Drinks and snacks will be served between 6pm and 7.30pm, when the digital show starts in the auditorium.  Tickets are R50 per person (drinks and snacks included), and can be booked via e-mail from nettie28@iafrica.com.  You are very welcome to attend!

Bernard Seymour-Hall, our Treasurer, will be Vice Chair in 2009, which means that he will be our new Chairman in 2010. Irmel Dunaiski organizes the Audio-visual Section, and Paddy Howes is the Secretary and handles all the Outings. Steve Crane is our Computer and Digital expert, while Michele has been handling slide entries and tea, Marisa has been organizing print entries and JJ van Heerden has been our Technical Expert, as well as being the sponsor of our prizes from Picture Works, Stellenboch.

I am pleased to announce that Eric Palmer has agreed to serve on the committee – he is well known for his Photoshop expertise and teaching abilities, and brings young blood, as well as young ideas, to the Club.

I would also like to mention that Eric has won the Getaway Gallery’s First Prize for 2008 with his image of ‘Simonsberg’ … Congratulations, Eric!

Matters Financial: Bernard reports that we have a healthy balance in our account – this will be needed in the case of eventual upgrading of our equipment and for use when next we have to host Interclub.

Subscriptions for 2009 will remain the same as in 2008 ie. R220 per person with a discount of R20 if paid before 1^st April; R110 per person who are country members or students, with a discount of R10 if paid before 1^st April. Bank details can be found elsewhere on this site.

Tea and biscuits will be a minimum donation of R4,00 from next year.

Jannie, our car guard, is paid by us, and is reliable and helpful. Thanks to Paddy for organizing a Christmas hamper for him.

Outings: This year we enjoyed a number of successful outings, including one to Skurweberg (60kms from Sutherland) in winter. Paddy has quite a few ideas up her sleeve, including a weekend stay in Matjiesfontein. Other outings being planned are a visit to a wine farm, Gansbaai, McGregor and Camps Bay. Outings are a wonderful way of getting out to do photography in the safety of a group, as well as getting to know other members of the club.

Audio-Visual: Our AV department, steered by Irmel, has been active this year. As well as making our own presentations, we were asked to make an AV using 35 or so of Paddy’s scanned slides of the Richterveld, set to music of our own choice. The results were amazing in their diversity. 2009’s ‘set subject’ will be ‘Living from the Sea’.

Competitions: The list of competition subjects can be found elsewhere on this site. Our January subject ‘Silhouette’ will be judged by a lecturer from the Stellenbosch Academy.

Evaluations: A new twist will be introduced to the evaluation evenings next year. Hermanus Photographic Society has accepted our invitation to visit us on 11^th February, when we will hold a combined Evaluation Evening. Please note this date in your diary. We wait to hear from Tafelberg of their decision to join us too.

Slides: From next year slides are to be entered together with digital images under ‘projected images’. Bring your slides to Steve on the Wednesday evening so that he can add them to his list, and then show them on the slide projector, as normal.

Digital: Getting your digital images in to Steve by Tuesday 6pm is very important. Please follow the guidelines as set out elsewhere on this site.

Talks: It is not always easy to find speakers who are willing to travel all the way out to Somerset West – we do the best we can. Suffice to say that we hope to organize talks on ‘Judging’, ‘Calibration’ etc.

Prizes: Vouchers will be handed out to First Prize winners only. JJ has offered to sponsor vouchers for those who win First Prize in the four sections: Prints – Set Subject and Open; and Projected Images – Set Subject and Open. His business, Picture Works, is not a franchise – we appreciate his generosity. At the end of the year, a ‘Best Image of the Year’ will be selected (via the blogsite) and the winner will receive a print developed on canvas.

Interclub: Members recently discussed how Interclub could be improved. Our recommendations have been set out in a document which has been forwarded to all those clubs participating in Interclub. We do not yet know who will host Interclub next year. A new PSSA director still has to be appointed (Neil Swart has re-located to Gauteng), and when this happens we hope to be able to report to a facilitator who can evaluate and decide on a few new and improved guidelines for Interclub.

The R500 voucher received by HPS for coming joint second in Interclub 2008, was used to buy ‘lenspens’ for the 6 photographers who did well in Interclub – Andre(28 out of 30); Michele, Eric, Nicole, Ernst and Emma (all 27).

Blogsite: Instead of having a monthly newsletter, we are going to start a blog with WordPress.com, which is going to become our ‘ongoing’ newsletter. You will be able to click into it regularly, and will find all the information usually found in the newsletter, on the blog. Bear in mind that we also have a Flick site – http://www.flickr.com/groups/helderbergphoto to which all members may belong … Steve is the administrator and will ‘invite’ you if you indicate that you would like to take part … please join up – I seem to be the only one using it at the moment!

If you have your own flickr-site, or if you have a blog-site, or even a web-address, please let Steve know so that he can insert it as a ‘link’ on our blog.

Honorary Membership: It gives me great pleasure to announce that Nicole Palmer is being made an Honorary Member this evening. She is a past chairman of this club, and is well known for her teaching abilities, and presentation of popular workshops in Namibia and Stellenbosch. Congratulations, Nicole!