When you send me a request for an invitation to our Flickr group, please make sure that you have made me a contact first. Flickr has a mechanism in place to prevent spamming through the group system by only allowing me to invite people that have me as a contact. Although I can also invite you via your e-mail address this is problematic as people sometimes use different e-mail addresses and if the address doesn’t match the one used to open your Flickr account you might still not be able to join the group, even after being invited.
HPS Fun Challenge on flickr
February’s Fun Challenge is ‘Out of Place’ – just click on the ‘Helderberg’ Flickr site on the right-hand side of this page, and see what it’s all about!
HPS/Hermanus Joint Evaluation Meeting Wed. 11th Feb.’09 7.30pm
Our joint Evaluation Meeting promises to be a ‘not-to-be-missed’ event, and I hope that many of our members will take part. Provisos and logistics are a little different from what we normally do, so please read the instructions carefully, and do not enter your images later than noon Friday 6th February!!!! All the digital images are going to be sent by Steve to the two evaluators (Nicole Palmer – Helderberg and Max Leipold – Hermanus) on the Friday afternoon before the meeting, so that they have time to evaluate the images in the comfort of their own homes! Slides and Prints will, however, be evaluated at the meeting.
Please read carefully …
1) Up to two images each from only those members who are physically present at the meeting.
2) The images may be prints, slides or digital images, and may be a mixture of these, if desired.
3) Prints and slides should be brought to the meeting in time for them to be hung up or placed into slide trays. The hall opens at 7.00pm.
4) AV’s should be brought on flash sticks and will be loaded either before the meeting starts (if there is time) or during teatime.
5) The Helderberg evaluator will be Nicole Palmer, the evaluator for Hermanus will be Max Leipold, and the facilitator for the evening will be Nettie Warncke.
6) All digital images should be sent to Steve Crane at the followinging address by noon on Friday 6th February. helderbergphoto+entries@gmail.com No late entries will be accepted. Steve will mix the entries up so that there is no pattern in the projection of the (anonymous) images. The evaluators will evaluate alternately.
7) The following instructions refer to how members should submit their digital images.
‘Image files must be submitted in JPEG format and must be no larger than 1400 pixels wide and 1050 pixels high.
When saving the resized image, an appropriate JPEG compression ratio must be selected in the photo editing software to ensure that the file size does not exceed 350 kilobytes.
The club uses IrfanView to display the images at meetings It is freeware and may be downloaded from the IrfanView web site if you would like to use it to test the displaying of your images prior to sending them.
The following file naming format must be used;
DX_name_title.jpg where:
D is E for evaluation on evaluation evenings.
X is the number of your entry in the section, 1 or 2.
_ (the underscore character) is a separator.
name is the author’s name, maximum 12 characters including spaces.
_ (the underscore character) is a separator.
title is the photograph’s title, maximum 18 characters including spaces.
.jpg is the file extension, indicating a jpeg file.
The name and title need not contain spaces but each word must be capitalised. If the lengths of 12 and 18 for name and title are insufficient, you may use abbreviations; in which case you must include the full names and titles in the text of your e-mail message. These full names will be used on the scoring sheet.
Example:
D1_Mike Smith_Golden Gate.jpg
8) Our club will provide tea, coffee and substantial snacks during the break.
9) Audio-visuals from both clubs will be shown after the tea break.
10) Our evenings generally end at 10pm.
WnSoft PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.6
Wings Platinum is the de-facto standard software for preparing AVs in our club but others use PicturesToExe and seeing this announcement prompted me to publish this, thinking that some of you might like to give the trial version a whirl and see how it compares to Wings.
WnSoft recently announced the PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.6 application that lets you create slides which can be executed as screensaver (.SCR) files, HD video, DVD video disc or iPhone video. It supports 3D effects and Pan/Zoom effects and one can also password protect a slide show or assign an expiration date. PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.6 runs under Windows 2000/XP/Vista and requires 256-MB RAM and DirectX 9 or higher.
The Biggest Secret of Photography
The Biggest Secret of Photography
You’ll hear this over and over from the photographers that I interview: Take your dang camera with you everywhere!
DIY Photoshop Brushes
One of the most popular searches involving Photoshop on the web is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, for free Photoshop brushes. Photoshop brushes can be used for a range of editing and creative tasks and while it’s fun to find and download great looking brushes it’s also possible to create them yourself and to do this very easily.
50 amazing Flickr streams
50 amazing Flickr streams by Photocritic
Beyond the stuff I’ve been posting in my twitter stream, I haven’t really had much time to post proper blog posts here on this blog recently – and my apologies about that. What I have been doing, however, is browsing Flickr to get some amazing inspiration, ideas, and tips for the whats and hows of photography. Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping bookmarks of my best finds.
I’ve found a whole load of amazing photographers who have made me smile, filled me with wonder, made me shy with inadequacy, and proud to be part of this whole ‘photography’ thing. My only shame in all of this is that there are many more than 50 good – nay, great – photographers out there – so I would very much like to encourage you to post a comment with your favourite Flickr streams…
So hereby, without further ado or messing about – my top 50 recent finds on Flickr.
Report: AV Evening Wed. 28th Jan.’09
A small group of members – including Harry and Susan who are once again out from France – attended the meeting. Contributors were Neels Beyers who presented two AVs – one on windsurfers, and the other on kitesurfers … he is a master at nailing the action shots. Elsa sent her AV on the Richtersveld (set subject slides by Paddy) using beautiful music from Lord of the Rings. Nettie showed an AV on ‘An Overberg Stream’ – depicting the waterfall and stream running through Volmoed. Furthermore, there were three AVs sent down from the Magaliesberg Foto Fun Club – one on the Richtersveld, one on ‘The Art of a Lily’ and one of a child eating an ice-cream. Finally we were shown a documentary audio-visual on the ‘Birkenhead’ – the informative and engrossing story of how the ship ran aground on what is now known as Birkenhead Rock, and of the men who sent the women and children out first in the lifeboats, knowing that they would probably lose their own lives with the sinking ship.
Irmel discussed audio-visual plans for the year – she and Paddy are finalising an excellent program which will shortly be put up on this website.
Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009
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Welcome to Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009. I’m delighted you are considering taking part this year and hope you do. For Mark Carwardine’s complete introduction to the competition and suggestions and insider tips to help you to win, see the February issue of BBC Wildlife (on sale 22 January – 19 February). Here’s some useful information on how to enter and what you could win. This year, we are proud to welcome Veolia Environnement as the competition’s title sponsor. Veolia is a world leader in environmental services. How to choose your images How to process your images THE CATEGORIES » Behaviour: All Other Animals. This category has huge scope, but you must show genuinely interesting behaviour. THE JUDGES |
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THE PRIZES » The title Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year will be given to the single image judged to be the most striking and memorable of all the category winners. » The winning photographer will be presented with £10,000 at an awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London, in October. Each category winner receives £500 and every runner-up £250. Special Award winners receive £1,000. » All winning images are displayed in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, and then toured around the UK and many countries overseas. » The pictures will also be published in a free supplement with the November issue of BBC Wildlife and in a hardback book. |
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HOW TO ENTER YOUR IMAGES
» Many of the rules and category definitions have been carefully revised to make them clearer, so even if you’ve been entering the competition for years and think you know what we’re looking for, visit www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto to check. » Translations of the rules will be available online in Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish. » New for 2009. The competition now accepts scans of transparencies (all formats) and digital images. Up to three pictures may be entered in each category. The original transparencies or original digital capture as it was recorded by the camera will be requested and must be supplied if an image reaches the final stage of judging. » Enter online at www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto. Closing date for online entries: Friday 27 March 2009. » Closing date for postal entries (CDs only): Friday 20 March 2009. » Fees: £25 for online entry (£20 if entered by 28 February) or £27 for postal entries (CDs only, please). » The Young Photographer competition is free to enter for photographers aged 17 and under. Read the full rules online. For more information |
Audio Visual Evening Wed. 28th Jan ’09 7.30pm
All members are welcome at our AV-evening (AV-workers, or not) – why not join us at this casual and friendly get-together?
Helderberg Photographic Society 