PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES with some How I did it revealed
My Years with PSNZ part 1
50 years Continuous Membership Completed Born 1938 Educated at Helensville District High School & Otahuhu College Qualified as a Pharmacist 1959 Photographic Society of NZ Councillor 1972-75 Pioneer in home Colour Processing. Retired member of NZ Institute of Professional Photographers. Winner of many awards in both PSNZ & NZIPP an Amateur Ornithologist Avid devotee of the digital age of Photography Tutor in Photography particularly in relationship to bird photography at Miranda Shorebird Centre . retired in 2011 after 57 years in Pharmacy. Other interests, are gardening and family history or genealogy. Having traced one branch of the family back to 688 AD in France via John of Gaunt and the Plantagenet's of England.
My Family Tree. in photographs Maternal Side
My Family Tree. in photographs Paternal Side
Born 1938 Helensville 1943-44 Primary School Papatoetoe 1944-1950 Primary School Waimauku 1951 High School Helensville District High School 3rd Form 1952-1955 Otahuhu College 1955-1959 Pharmacy Apprenticeship at Papatoeto1959 Qualified as a Pharmacist 1959 Joined Tauranga PS and learnt How to Judge, and Home process Ferraniacolor 1959 Presenter at Northern Regional in Tauranga. How to Measure Mix Photographic Chemicals. 1961 Attended the 10th PSNZ Convention at Taupo 1961 Founder Member Manurewa Photographic Society 1962 Founder Member Papatoetoe Camera Club 1963 Acceptance in Natural History & Pictorial Slides in NZ International Exhibition 1966 Joined as Member of PSNZ 1968 Gold Medal Honours Ribbon and acceptance in Experimental Prints One Honours and 3 acceptances Experimental slides, at Invercargill Convention 1968 Appointed to PSNZ Panel of Selectors in Pictorial and Natural History Prints and Slides 1969 Winner of Medcalfe Gold Medal at the Wanganui Salon 1970 Print exhibited in the International Exhibition of London conducted by RPS 1972 Elected to PSNZ Council until 1975 1972 Chaired Manurewa PS Committee to Run Northern Regional 1972-75 Sales Manager "Camera" PSNZ Bimonthly Magazine 1975 Keynote Speaker at PSNZ Convention Auckland " A Beginners Approach to Colour Printing"
as Sales Manager of "NZ Camera" the bi-monthly Magazine of PSNZ " edited by Peg Singleton. Every two months John Reece PSNZ Secretary at the time (he served 13 years in that position before going on to be PSNZ President and then Editor of NZ Camera ) and I would hand address envelopes for the I think about 1100 individual members and 125 Clubs enough for their affiliated members. Quite a task in a voluntary organisation, that PSNZ was in those days. Eventually we acquired the addressograph machine from Auckland Electric Power Board. , which saved writing but I think it took longer, as we had to type all the addresses onto the Aluminium plates, and maintain the changes of Addresses, and Club secretaries, which was a substantial task. The magazine was a full A4 Journal which I tried to market through Gordon & Gotch to the wider readership of photographers in NZ. As life was getting busy and complex for me I did not seek re-election to Council in 1976. I was very pleased looking back that two major developments took place during the time I was on Council. We established the PSNZ Honours system with its independent Board, and petitioned Government successfully to have Photography Included as a School Subject. Later I was invited along with Jack Sprosen to go to Tauranga and Select the Ilford Schools challenge images, and in the 1990s to see 4 Pukekohe pupils gain bursaries in photography. Little did I realise what we had started in the early 1970s. I was also invited by Joan Blundell during her tenure as Honours Board Convenor to assist the Board with Natural History deliberations, as a "call in" specialist, 1977
Workshop at National Convention in Tauranga. "How to Print Colour using Cibachrome or the Beseler Negative System " 1978 Appointed Life Member of Manurewa Photographic Society 1978 Joined the N Z Professional Photographers Association 1979 Along with Ron Willems was instrumental in getting PSNZ to accept Trade Processed Colour Printing acceptable for the National Salon. 1982 9 acceptances, including 2 Bronzes and 2 Honours Ribbons in the National Salon all in Pictorial Prints 1982 Awarded Associate of NZPPA now the NZ Institute of Professional Photographers For 15 years deeply involved with NZPPA ( NZIPP) 1996 Joined Franklin Camera Club Pukekohe 2000 Gained my Associateship with a Set of transparencies. at the Gisborne National Convention. 2001 Won an Epson Stylus Photo 890 Printer for a Portfolio of prints taken during the weekend of the Northern Regional at Hamilton 2002 Gained a Fellowship in Creative Pictorial Prints with a set on Sky Tower at Queenstown 2003 Keynote Speaker Northern Regional conducted by Thames Camera Club Using Digital Projected Images with Data Projector I presented a series of Digitally created Audio-Visuals using Pro Show Gold I have a favourite place ....Was a program introducing Miranda, the Seabird Coast, and the Migratory birds of the Shore line there. Also a program of 50 years of my Photography A program from Kaikoura from an Ocean Wings "Albatross encounters" trip to watch the deep water Sea Birds that congregate there
and one on Whale Watching also from Kaikoura Digital had arrived. Over these many years of PSNZ involvement I had been a guest judge in many many clubs in the Northern Region and further a field. My Mentor Des Howard got me to go to Waiuku as my first experience of outside Club Judging, and to Franklin Camera Club in Pukekohe in 1961-2 or thereabouts. My Optometrist friend Neil Ritchie a PSNZ Panelist Judge had me go to Henderson about that time too. These 3 clubs I have judged at on a very regular basis almost yearly, ever since. Seeing the clubs move premises, many times I have judged by travelling there and back in the one evening from as far away as Matamata in the South and Whangarei in North, with most clubs in between Many clubs are no longer in existence. Warkworth in the days of Geoff Moon, Tom & Clisty O'Rourke was a very live wire club holding a very popular "at home" with a slide battle, between all the Auckland area Clubs, and a day out at a private beach for judges and their families. Northshore had two Clubs Northshore PS , which is still going but there was also a slide and Movie Club. Onehunga Camera Club was a very strong club and held a very successful Northern Regional at the High School there in the early 60s. Dawn Kendall and Russell Waite were two of the leading photographers there. Auckland PS was very strong and had such notable photographers as Rich & Peg Singleton, Derek & Joan Blundell, Eric Young Father Martin, Phil Barclay, Olaf Peterson, Laurie Mansell, Harry Robinson, and many many more fine photographers. The Apex Group of Blundells and Singletons produced and hosted many wonderful Sound-Slide Shows, and it was a great joy for me to belong to APS for a Number of years in the early 70s OtahuhuMangere was another club I judged at, that sadly is no more, as to are Pakuranga, Papakura, Manurewa, Warkworth, Huntly. Judging or Critiquing .. I patterned my style of Judging on that of Bill Robb a former PSNZ President, and have always tried to be constructive and helpful and educational in my deliberations, using the process to advance the cause and improvement of photography, rather than to belittle the Author, I am not sure I have always been successful, but I gauge the results, by the fact, that I still get invited back Also quite a bit of critiquing has been done by written comments, taped comments etc. postage couriering and now drop-box to obtain the images. How computers, and digitising has expanded our abilities of communication. So in 2014 I have been involved in Club Judging since 1959 , making 55 years and I am still as enthusiastic today in helping people how to appreciate and create and interpret good images. I have judged the National Salon on quite a few occasions, both in Pictorial and Natural History , Many International Salons, the reason PSNZ set up a Judging Panel in the first place, the Wiltshire, The Bledisloe, Ilford Shield, and many outside Competitions Such as Tramping Organisations, and the Tiritiri Matangi Annual Calendar challenge. Visiting so many Clubs gave me an overview of changes and trends within Photography and in the early 2000s the trend was to digital. Pukekohe-Franklin was slow to incorporate the challenge, so I elected to change clubs to Howick Camera Club in 2004 2004 Joined Howick Camera Club 2005 Gained 2 Fellowships in Natural History Prints at Howick National Convention 2006 Silver Medal Natural History Prints and Honours Ribbon Christchurch
2007
2 Honours Ribbons NH Prints and Honours ribbon Pictorial PIs New Plymouth 2007 Dunedin Festival Salon Champion Nature Print and Honours Ribbon 2008 Timaru Honour Ribbon in NH Prints 2009 Panelist Selector for Natex NH 2010 Appointed to Honours Board 2011 Panelist Selector for Natex NH , I had been requested to join the Honours Board in 2010, a very great honour and privilege indeed, an experience I have thoroughly enjoyed. I completed my two terms of 3 years in Nelson March 2015 2016 50 years continuous membership in PSNZ. National Exhibition of Photography Panel Selector Pictorial Slides 1973..1975....1979 Pictorial Prints NH Slides 2009 2011 NH Prints 2009 2011 NZ International Exhibition Pictorial Prints Pictorial Slides NH Prints 1976 1983 NH Slides 1976 1983 and again at Napier later with Noel Manning in both prints and slides I have forgotten the year, but it may have been the last International PSNZ held Northshore Salon Panelist Slides 2001 Northshore Salon Panelist Prints 2008
and so my years with PSNZ have been an absolutely wonderful and rewarding passion, and although my exhibiting days are probably over, I will continue to judge as long as I am required, and or able and competent/ My First Convention was the 10th in 1961 and the 59th in 2011 possibly my last saw me attending Conventions for 50 years, having gone to a great majority of them taking my caravan back and forth across Cook Strait on many many occasions. Attending a majority of Northern Regionals as well throughout these years National Conventions attended I attended 32, that I remember and possibly many more Northern Regionals during the last 50 years
A dissertation on my years with PSNZ Initially I started to write this as an essay on "Impressionism" and then expanded it to leave a dossier for my children on my experiences within PSNZ A slide I came across the other day . Which I took in the late 1960s at a Rodeo event at the Pukekohe show, at night, by lights, using Ferraniacolor 25 ASA and home processed. Using a tripod of course. Solomon said many ages ago "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." I will post another couple taken from this period. Which just proves that "Impressionism" is a classical style of photography, that has been around for a long time, and although it is going through a resurgence of interest currently as a trend, this is not a "fad". Fad items are rarely expected to endure, but trends tend to survive . By pursuing the style of "Impressionism" another string is attached to your personal photographic bow, or perhaps another arrow in the quiver of photographic skills.
Yippee !!
I have been sorting old images recently, and came across these two which were taken in 1963, they both made The National Salon of Photography ( Natex... these days.) Taken when we toured the South Island in the Ford Prefect complete with Ferraniacolor processing kit. Photographed during the day, and processed at night, (the fore-runner of chimping. ) So I knew what I had, I couldn't wait the 3 weeks, that it took for Kodachrome to be processed in Australia. they have lasted well, being glass mounted. In those days I was keen on derivations, and landscapes.
"Solitude"
"Autumn Harvest" These two prints (following) were the first two I ever entered in Camera Club Competition at the Tauranga Photographic Society in 1959. They were taken on a Flexaret 6cm x 6cm format. Using FP3 Film 64ASA and probably a 2x yellow filter. Enlarged to 15 inches by12 inches on an Agfa Portriga Rapid White Art Rough Matte paper PRN114E, and mounted on 20 x 16 Mount boards. . Although showing the signs of storage for 55years . I am still thrilled I have them . The little old colonial farmstead was on the main road opposite West Rd at Clevedon ( my hometown then), and disappeared shortly after I took this photo. I made the error of levelling the photo by the spouting on the hip-roof and ignoring the verandah support at left, so the image appears to have a tilt. The old wagon wheels were taken on a trip to the South Island in 1958 somewhere on the Canterbury plains
. "At the Close of Another Day"
"Relic of Early Days"
After deciding my handwriting was not suitable for doing the "Titling" I discovered "Letraset" a dry-transfer lettering system from England. This system I used for many years. It was only released in 1959, so it was a brand new method. The idea soon caught on.
These two prints were my next pair entered in Tauranga. They were taken in my home church. St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Clevedon. It was a brand new Church in 1959, and not long before these images I had been commissioned to take the photographs of the opening ceremony. I was a member of the Bible Class, and had the Honour of ringing the bell, on a Sunday Morning at the start of service. .. For the image hand titled "Light through Darkness." I cut a mask to lay over the print after exposing the negative, I then flashed the area outside the mask with a torch, to create the dark "overlay" and lightened the cross, with Potassium Ferricyanide bleach, a process that was applied after fixing the print. It then required further fixation after this bleach process to prevent later staining. It was a fairly standard practice in those days, to slightly over print the print, then run through a tray of this bleach, to lighten ( brighten ) the highlights, then fix again, and of course the secret in the longevity of these prints was the thorough washing. Water was cheap in those days, so I would wash prints in a cascade of trays in my driveway over night with the garden hose supplying the feed. Farmer’s Reducer for Prints Stock Solution A: Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.0 ml Potassium ferricyanide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.0 g Potassium bromide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.0 g Stock Solution B: Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.0 ml Sodium thiosulfate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.0 g For use normal use, mix 1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) of solution A with 6 ounces (180 ml) of solution B and add water to make 16 ounces or 500 ml. This solution works quickly, so reduction must be carefully monitored. For a slower reducing action, increase the amount of water or reduce the amount of Solution A.
In the print "Light through Darkness" rather than dip the whole print, to brighten it, I just painted the wooden (varnished ) cross area, to increase the contrast in this area, so that the eye could go to the area of greatest contrast within the image, A ploy which aids the author's story line. Being a pharmacist, chemicals were my thing, and I was able to mix my own chemicals. The print "Father Forgive them" (the first I titled with "letraset") was taken in the same church at the session as the first using the pulpit as the dark base at the bottom. Because the pulpit was on the left of the church, I reversed the final image to create a better Pictorial composition. The dark segment of the ceiling, and the dark base of the pulpit and surround echoing one another's shape helps hold the eye in when viewing. When printing the image, to help overcome the converging-vertical syndrome, I had to tilt the easel under the enlarger, and stop the enlarger-lens right down, to keep the image in focus across the tilted paper.
Once again FP3 was used, exposed in the Flexaret Camera on a sturdy Linhof Tripod. Using the available Fluorescent light in the Church. Negatives Developed in Kodak D-76. and the prints in Kodak Dektol print developer. Using May and Bakers Amfix ( to speed up the fixing times) Later in the 1960s I was to standardise on Microdol-X as my Film Developer, D-163 as print Developer, and 4 Trays in the darkroom. Developer, Stopbath, First Fixer, Second Fixer, Then Wash (Thoroughly) I am trying to document here the processes used over the years, for the old timers to reminisce upon and the later members to understand, that what can be done in post digital processing, was often able to be done in the darkroom, although messier and more time-consuming. It was at this time I introduced my trade-mark, Black Borders , I had a Steel Tray which I laid over the exposed enlarging paper, and flashed a narrow and a long side ( simultaneously) with a pencil torch, then turned the paper around and did the other two (remaining) edges. Initially so that the reviewers could see a true black on the paper for comparison. Much later I added a white edge as well (examination technique ) once again as a reference if you are looking for a true white and a true black in the image, it is there, as the border!.
"Light through Darkness"
"Father Forgive Them "
LAYERING in the DARKROOM In the print entitled "Hurrying Home " I printed the sky in from another negative. I mounted a sheet of glass about 50-70 mm above the photographic paper beneath the enlarger, cut out a cardboard mask , in the shape of the sky-line, exposed the sand dune pattern with its bald sky then carefully placed the mask in place, being 50 -70 mm above the sensitive paper a feathering effect was achieved twixt land and sky, I then inserted the sky negative and re-exposed the unmasked portion of the print to that negative. Then I duly printed my black edge on, and processed as normal. With retouching dyes, the skyline was enhanced ( called spotting ). It was pain-staking work. In the image titled, "On The Beach" after Neville Shute. It was the occasion of Auckland Reaching its 500,000 population, in 1961 a fireworks display from on top of One Tree Hill, was arranged. Unfortunately the night was breezy, but I captured the fire-works, wind blown. Here I layered in the foreground. as per above. Colour prints were not introduced to PSNZ exhibitions until 1976. So to get that wow factor, and a bit of colour, I toned this with a Blue-Toner. made up from a Stock solution A & a Stock Solution B which were mixed together at the time of use. A was Potassium ferricyanide 1.7 Gms Concentrated Sulphuric Acid 3 mls and Water to 1 litre B was Ferric Ammonium Citrate 1.7 Gms Concentrated Sulphuric Acid 3 mls and Water to 1 litre This toner intensified the print so one had to print a bit on the light side. The yellow stain on the paper had to be thoroughly rinsed off. At first I titled this "On the Beach" but none of the judges were aware of the story of Neville Shute's book written in 1957 and filmed in 1959. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the northern hemisphere following a nuclear war. So I had to add "after Neville Shute" A valuable lesson I learnt in titling. Not every one knows what you know, The dockyard scene "At rest" Is a thio-carbamide toned print (similar to sepia-toning) but less smelly.. The mount has not weathered the years all that well Taken on the Auckland wharves. The layering in here, is the bird so conveniently placed on the upper right intersecting third.
I simply cut a stencil from the black photographic paper envelope, and flashed through the hole, thus avoiding a somewhat barren area of the image, and adding a stronger focal point, to the maritime scene. Cheating ? Well people say that about "Photo-shopping" and this was over 50 years ago.
"Hurrying Home"
"On the Beach after Neville Shute"
"At Rest"
Reversing Black and White film to make transparencies from normal negative film. Throughout the 1950s although available, Colour Transparency" Film was rationed and was not cheap. A roll of Kodachrome 1 Film was sold with processing included for 31/7 and a 36 exposure was 47/4 i.e ₤1-11-7 and ₤2-7-4 . Quite expensive at the time my wage was about ₤10-0-0 a week in 1958. So I learnt how to reverse Black and White negative material to make projectable monochrome images, which could of course be toned etc. Occasionally, however, a black and white positive image is required for projection to screen rather than the usual negative images for printing purposes. In this case, reversal processing enables black and white transparencies to be produced directly from high quality film materials such as PAN F or, FP4 When exposing films for print generation, exposure is not that critical because any variation in negative density can usually be compensated for in printing. When a film is to be reversal processed, exposure must be accurate if good quality transparencies are to be produced. For general indoor/outdoor use, first adopt the published ISO setting and vary this, by trial and error, to determine the best exposure for your particular taste. The slower the film the better the contrast .
This is a slide I made from Pan-F film taken at Waiheke Island Probably the summer of 1958-59.
The reversal process starts with the development of the negative image. this leaves the unused silver halide untouched, but it is not fixed out, as it will later be used to form the positive image. After the negative image has been developed, it is totally bleached away using an acid bleach. This leaves the remaining silver which is light-fogged and then re-developed to produce the positive image. Between the various stages of processing, washes are used to prevent contamination of each new processing solution by the previous one. The process was First Developer to which some Hypo is added Between 8 and 12 Gm / litre according to film type 7 mins Bleach
1 ½ minutes
Clearing Solution
2 minutes
Take lid off tank and expose to light then Redevelop in Second Developer
7 minutes
Hardening Fixer.
5 minutes
With 30 second rinses between, and a normal good wash finally These slides depicted a greater amount of detail and a wider range of tones than expressed in a traditional print. Because Film has a wider tonal range than paper. Having mastered this, it was a small step to home process colour reversal film. So one winter's night in 1959 at Frank Gray's Mandarin packing shed at Brookers Rd Otumoetai, some of us keen Tauranga P S members gathered to learn how. It was a 17 step process taking 2 hours with the necessity of keeping the temperature accurate to 68 degrees F. Plus or minus 0.5 degrees. 1 First Developer 15 minutes 2. Wash 30 seconds 3. Stop bath 30 seconds 4 Wash 2 minutes 5. Tropical Hardener 3 minutes 6. Wash 10 minutes 7 Expose 1 foot from 100 W Bulb for 2 minutes each side of film. 8 Reload damp film back into tank spirals !@#$%?? & wash 30 seconds 9 Colour Developer 8 minutes 10 Hardener (No Rinse) 2 minutes 11 Rinse 2 minutes 12 Tropical Hardener 3 minutes 13. Wash 15 minutes 14 Bleach Hardener5 5-7 minutes 15 Wash ( to remove stain) 2 minutes 16. Fix 4 minutes 17 Final Wash 15 minutes.
A large water bath to hold the bottles of chemicals could be kept at the 68 degrees, and another large vat of wash water, was ladled into the developing tank, agitated and poured out 2 changes for each minute required, was the easiest way I found. Here is a shot from that first roll I developed, sadly it has suffered the ravages of dust and mould. Interesting that at the Mount, one could have a donkey ride on a Sunday afternoon. (1959)
and so from there on I used Ferraniacolor and always processed it myself. It was once again in 1959, an important year in my life, I was 21, newly qualified as a Pharmacist, managing a Pharmacy in Tauranga, and free from study, was able to join the local Photographic Society. Debates were ranging, as new clubs were formed. Photographic Societies, were taking the high ground, purist, arty, large format pushing monochrome as their "Raison d'ĂŞtre". Camera Clubs on the other hand were seen, as keen enthusiasts, entertaining one another with "slides" taken on overseas trips on recently purchased "duty free" rangefinder cameras, at ports such as Suez and Aden. A little bit similar to the recent transition from film to digital imaging. It was thought, there could be a lowering of standards, and quality, I will talk more on formats and negative sizes later in this series of discourses. Into this environment I came, and because of my skills in Chemistry, I was asked to do a demonstration at the Tauranga & District Photographic Society my home club, on how to weigh and mix photographic chemicals, this was so popular, that I was asked to repeat it, at the Northern Regional, being hosted by Tauranga that year. So started my involvment with the wider world of PSNZ.
Des C Howard Before going to Tauranga, from South Auckland( where I had served my pharmacy apprenticeship I had done a Night School Photography Course with Des Howard the local Professional Photographer, who suggested I join a PSNZ attached Photographic
Society. Des had served overseas in the Army , and on return became a professional photographer in Papakura with captive clients at Papakura Military Camp and Ardmore Teachers Training College with their large numbers of young adults, keen on having their image captured on paper. My brief involvement (less than a year ) with Tauranga Photographic Society, was to shape the course of my life. A movie at that Club had a profound effect on me, yes it was a movie, shown, in a stills club. Many Photographic Clubs catered for both genres at that time,. It was Edward Weston : The Photographer (1948). I recently purchased a copy of this film. However it can now be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sF8K1NfHnM .
Frank Hoffman "Hofmann Family Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library"
Northern Regional 1959 I duly presented my demo, on mixing and weighing photographic chemicals , but the highlight for me was, the major guest speaker with a one man show, which filled the walls of the Tauranga Fire Station, where the Regional was held. Frank Hoffman (1916-1989) a founder of Christopher Bede , the home-based portrait photography business in Auckland was the guest exhibitor and speaker. "By 1942 he had joined the Auckland Camera Club (later the Auckland Photographic Society), then mildly progressive. Although the business and his family occupied his time from the early 1950s, he maintained an active association with the club as exhibitor, judge, writer and officer. In 1959 he had his first solo exhibition at the Photographic Society of New Zealand’s convention at Tauranga." Cited from http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/5h27/hofmann-frank-simon.
I was impressed, and even more so when a member of the Tauranga club one Willy Witt a Canadian, psychoanalysed Frank's complex life from his images, with an amazing degree of accuracy, by Frank's own admission.
Russell Wallace Cooper APSA Sound slides ( Audio-visuals) were being mooted and Russell Cooper , for whom I had the highest regard ( as well as his wife Irene ) spoke on this subject aided, by local member Ron Melvin. (who sadly passed away in May 2011 aged 83) Ron was a founding member of the Tauranga and District Photographic Society in 1956. He judged the first New Zealand Sound Slide contest in 1962. More can be read on Ron's contributions to society (in general) at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plentytimes/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11029967. It was at Tauranga I first learnt to judge under the guidance of T C (Charles) Kingston an Englishman from Sussex, a Watchmaker whose dark room skills were impeccable, Frank Gray a wonderful nature exponent, and Bob Withers (1927-1994) an Aussie A.M.P. Agent and later a member of NZIPP in Auckland in the 1980s. A note I found written in a Photographic Notebook from the time Indicates a Point system was used for judging images. With 30 points for Conception... Did the Photographer have a story ? 40 points for Composition... Was the structure correct Shapes, placement of objects, balance of tones, light and shade, lines of view darker at the base, lighter at the top etc.
25 points for Photographic Technique 5 points for Presentation , Mounting , Matting, Titling etc. Interesting that structure was more important than technique. As too was "the idea, story or reason for the image "
The Old School gate My own photography continued with me printing via an Opemus Enlarger in the dispensary of the Pharmacy at night after hours. I was meticulous in keeping notes of the images I was taking in a notebook The Notebook reveals that "The Old School Gate" taken in 1958 at Hagley Park Christchurch was taken at f11 at a 1/60th second with a Yellow Filter on
Towards the winter of 1960 I went back home to the farm at Clevedon, to give a Pharmacist who was managing Meredith's Pharmacy Ltd. Manurewa, a 10 day holiday. Nineteen years later I was still there. I missed a Photographic club. There was Auckland, Onehunga, Northshore, Howick but in those days the journey from Manurewa to Howick was not as easy as it is today. So with the help of Des Howard, and a few of my customers, ( it was a Photographic and Veterinary Pharmacy) we advertised in the local paper, for those interested in forming a Photographic Club, to contact me. We duly met at Fred Norman's house at 20 Browns Rd, as that was a central location for most. Des Howard
was in the chair, and founder members as I recollect were Spencer Currie, ( founder of Colour Productions which later became Viko ) Ivan McLellan at that stage with Hannah's Shoes in Papakura.(later to found Chromatek at Pukekohe) the late Jean Hudson (Wiley) first woman to attain an APSNZ and a few others , memory eludes me. We duly formed a Club and at first met in the St Andrews Presbyterian Church Hall for a few months before moving to St Luke's Anglican Hall, where we were domiciled for many years. Like all new clubs, it took a little while for us to find our feet. We soon got underway with monthly competitions in Prints and Slides, and it wasn't long before Papatoetoe decided they would form a club and some of us became founder members there also. Manurewa called itself a Photographic Society, Papatoetoe opted for Camera Club. The chief Monochrome worker, at Papatoetoe was Jim Wilkinson a Yorkshire man, who also belonged to Howick Camera Club. He was an excellent darkroom technician and fiercely competitive, later he gained the first Fellowship for prints in PSNZ in 1975. He was a marvellous yardstick to measure ones ability against. and Jean (then Hudson ) and I grew by leaps and bounds pitting ourselves against Jim. I had married in Sept 1961 and the negatives my photographer used were 6cm x 9cm so I managed to purchase a second hand Gnome enlarger and equipped it with a range of Schneider Componon lenses to suit the formats of film 50 mm f/4 (for 24x36mm) 75 mm f/4.5 (for 6Ă—6 cm) and 105 mm f/4.5 (for 6Ă—9 cm). Ernie, Jean's husband built a small (about 4ft by 8ft) darkroom in the corner of their car-shed at Weymouth. I equipped it with the necessary hardware and electrical fittings. Although rudimentary this darkroom produced some magnificent work.
My first PSNZ Convention was the 10th held at Taupo in April 1961, it was organised by the Waikato Photographic Society. held at the "House of Friendship" The Nui-ATia Memorial Hall , Tongariro St (The Main St) Taupo. Irene Cooper APSA was president of PSNZ , George Chance FRPS 1885-1963 Pictorial Landscape Photographer ( father of George Chance 1916-2008 Nature Photographer ) was Patron, Ken Newton Immediate past President and Vice President was Laurie Thomas APSA a noted Landscape photographer whose genre was Slides. In 1997 Christchurch Photographic Society established a National Landscape Competition for Projected images now restricted purely to Digital ) in memory, using part of a generous legacy he left to the Society. The Secretary Miss D Thomas of Christchurch had her image published on the Convention Catalogue. Backlit Golden Poplars, which for many years was the subject hallmark of NZ photography. . The committee was Dr Robert Anderson. Wanganui, Russell W CooperAPSA Hamilton, Matheson Beaumont ARPS Dunedin, Wm M Robb ( of Kodak. .Auckland ) Fred Bowron ARPS APSA Christchurch , Joe Thomas ARPS Wellington, Len Casbolt ARPS APSA, Christchurch and Russell Waite Onehunga Auckland.
I noted my Mentor Des Howard was on both the Colour (slides only ) and Monochrome Pictorial Print Panels . His co-panellists for Colour were Russell and Irene Cooper. Some time after Russell had passed away, I discovered, that he and I had a forebear in common, a David Russell who arrived in Auckland from Scotland in 1842 via Sailing Ship " Jane Gifford. " not to be confused with the scow JG that plied Auckland waters in more recent years, and that we were in fact 3rd cousins once removed , making me a 4th cousin of Kay Goosen-Cooper. Guest Monochrome Exhibitors included Frank Hoffman Auckland, and Charles Kingston of Tauranga. The Bledisloe Cup won by Northshore Christchurch 2nd and Dunedin PS 3rd and the Wiltshire Cup was won by Dunedin PS and runners up were Cambridge Camera Club with Northshore PS 3rd. I was thrilled to see that Frank Gray my friend from Tauranga had won the Maadi Cup for Champion Print with a flowering bract of " Chinese Gooseberry". Matheson Beaumont taking out the Champion Slide with an image titled "First Light" Frank Gray also got Bronze Medals in the Natural History section one in each section Prints and Slides. The Judges were highly qualified Dr E B Davies M Sc, Ph.D., F.N.Z.I. C., A.R.I.C. Senior Chemist, Rukuhia Soil. Research Station, Hamilton. (son of W.C.Davies Curator and Photographer at the Cawthron Institute Nelson in whose honour the W C Davies Memorial Trophy is awarded ) and Russell W Cooper APSA who was Photographer at Ruakura Agriculture Research Centre at Hamilton. Irene Cooper was an elegant lady who often wore colourful kaftans, with a personality to match, a very talented photographer whose abstractions of coloured fabric material photographed through textured glass, and the images set to music, were extremely memorable, audio-visuals. One such I remember was "Elephant Tango" Russell was a showman, whose photographic ability was renowned, he was an entertainer, and had a superb set of Monochrome images taken in the Waikato fog, using a box-brownie, to prove the point, that "it was not the camera" but the photographer who created the image. Dr Bob Anderson later to be president of PSNZ presented a paper "35 mm technique", after all larger formats were still the norm, particularly in the print section. I was hooked. When I qualified as a Pharmacist, because I passed all my exams first attempt, my employer, presented me with a Diax 11b camera, one of the finest German interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras. of its day The “a” and “b” series were true system cameras in the mould of the Voigtlander Prominent. The Diax system included 10 lens types covering 6 focal lengths with a common filter thread size of 40.5mm, proximeters, a reflex housing by Sperling, reproduction stand, add-on rangefinder and viewfinders including a universal finder by Steinheil.
It represented a 6 week bonus for me in late 1958, and was extremely generous of my boss. I treasure this camera that served me well over many years. I have it still.
Late in 1961 Peter Meredith, my ( then) employers son, and a friend as well as colleague was upgrading to a Nikon SLR system, and I purchased his Diax 1a outfit complete with lenses , Proximeters etc.
and so my outfit looked and was impressive.
Somewhere in the early to mid 60s I purchased an Asahi Spotmatic SLR , and this became my basic camera outfit for the next 40 years, adding lenses and bodies, and upgrading models even to Digitals *istD and K100 , as one does, until changing to Canon Digitals about 2006. Manurewa Photographic Society became a successful and competitive club during the 60s and 70s winning most of the major trophies in PSNZ including the George Chance Landscape Competition 3 years in a row, breaking the grip that Christchurch and Dunedin Photographic Societies had previously had. We won the Bledisloe Cup, Runner up in the Wiltshire. Members won the Maadi Cup, The Champion Gold Medal for slides, The Richard Radcliffe Trophy , and I chaired a Committee that ran the Northern Regional in about 1972. I started exhibiting in outside Salons and exhibitions in the mid 60s and had a slide accepted in the International Exhibition of 1963 conducted by Waikato PS in each of the Pictorial and Natural History Divisions, and so my exhibiting career began with balance in both Open and Nature
Solitude I had taken this at Tekapo whilst on Honeymoon there in Sep 1961 The other image was Kotuku, taken in Dunedin Gardens on the same trip. Many years later I was to really engage with theses handsome birds in their own environment.
Kotuku Sadly many of my successful slides were lost when a Slide Library I had many images with, collapsed some years ago, and the receivers would not allow us to pick up our images and they were destroyed. I was really peeved about that, as you can imagine. So my first results were equally balanced between Open and Nature, in projected images. With 2 acceptances at the Auckland Festival salon of 1966 in Pictorial Slides, 946 slides submitted by 246 entrants representing 14 countries with 200 slides being accepted .
Harvest time In the same year. two acceptances in the 1966 NZ International Colour Slide Exhibition conducted by Northshore P.S. at Takapuna, in the colour slides Nature Division. I was quite pleased as in the Nature Section there were 902 slides from 23 countries with 185 acceptances. One image was of Speargrass and the other Coprosma australis In 1966 I joined PSNZ
In 1966 I attended the National Convention at Christchurch, where Papatoetoe were runners up in the Bledisloe, and Manurewa in the Wiltshire, and we had joined the big names of Auckland , Dunedin, Christchurch , Howick, etc.
Being a very patriotic NZ'der, (I have never left this country) I had a flutter by entering a few International Salons overseas to see if I was on a par Internationally. Costs, and hassles entering, along with a busy life in Pharmacy and not being able to leave the premises to organise postage. saw me basically restrict entries to Natex. and local Salons. However in the 10th Sydney international I had a couple of Acceptances in Pictorial slides and 2 in Experimental slides. , a Print accepted in the 1970 Royal Society's Salon of London After attending the National Convention in 1967 where I had been successful with 4 Slides in the New Ideas Exhibition, I added derivations, and images that pushed the envelope to my bow. meeting with Chris Beall of Hastings (promoter of the New Ideas Salon ) got me interested in the diazochrome process which I pursued briefly. In 1968 at Invercargill Manurewa PS was particularly successful taking out 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronzes, 3 Honours plus 23 acceptances. as well as the Richard Ratcliff Marine award which required a pair of images in those days. I took out the Gold Medal Honours Ribbon and an acceptance in the Experimental Salon Prints. and in Experimental slides 4 acceptances one of which was an Honours. One acceptance in Natural History Slides and 2 Acceptances in Pictorial Transparencies,
Cat-a-Walling Gold Medal Experimental Print At the Wanganui Salon that same year I had 3 prints accepted V.r.o.o.m.p.h , Rimlight and Cat-a-walling
V.r.o.o.o.m.p.h.... 1968 had seen me appointed to the panel of PSNZ selectors, initially instigated to allow PSNZ to run International Salons a requirement of the Photographic Society of America ( PSA ) to allow NZ to conduct International Salons. The Nineteenth Convention in Wellington 1969 under Marg Hale's presidency, is memorable for the Bombes Alaska dessert at the Banquet, being carried into the darkened banqueting Hall aflame. I had been successful in the Pictorial Print section with a Landscape "Rimlit" earning an Honours, and a photojournalism print getting an
acceptance. and also an acceptance slide in the Davies NH
The 1969 Wanganui Salon saw me successfully take the Medcalfe Medal with a Spanish Dancing Print entitled "OlĂŠ " with 3 other prints gaining acceptances. This image "OlĂŠ " presented on a Black Mount was a trendsetter, with the following National Salon having 25% entries on Black Mounts, previously white or cream was the tradition. I was pioneering 35mm negatives being blown up to full 20 x 16 flush mounted, from the traditionally 11 x 14 or 12 x 15 inch prints
OlĂŠ 1969 International Monochrome Print Salon in Dunedin I had 3 acceptances, The 1970 Salon in Nelson I had 2 Print acceptances in Pictorial, 2 slides, and in Experimental 4 prints and 3 slides. Manurewa won the Bledisloe Cup, and we were 10th in the Wiltshire. The same year I was successful in having a print "Fijian Firewalkers" taken at a demonstration at the Auckland Easter Show, hung at the International Exhibition of London 1970 run by the Royal Photographic Society . However costs of belonging to the Society saw me not take up long term membership or apply for Honours
Fijian Firewalkers 1971 International slides organised by the Auckland Photographic Society (by this time I was also a member of APS) saw me successful with 1 slide "The Tease"
The Tease but the rest of my score card did not look so good.
In the same year at Wanganui in the National Salon however I was more successful , Monochrome 4 prints accepted. The Wrestlers, Storm Approaching, No Title, and Westport 1970" , a Bronze Medal in NH Monochrome Prints for "Black Billed Gull" and an acceptance for White Fronted Terns" I was particularly pleased as the Black Billed Gull was of a series that documented the first successful nesting of this species north of the Rotorua Bath house. It was taken at Miranda in 1968.
Westport 1970
In 1972 I joined Council under President Arthur Bates at the Queenstown Convention, where I had on display 4 Pictorial Prints 1 NH Print and 1 Pictorial slide. The running a Northern Regional and joining council, was taking my focus from photography to administration. In 1973 along with J K Wilkinson ARPS AFIAP APSNZ and Mrs Joan Blundell I was on the Selection panel for the Pictorial Salon. shown at the Convention in Hamilton that year. I remember the Convention well, as I was over an hour late for the dinner, having had difficulty getting out of a cave near Hamilton known as Helectite hole. At this stage of my life I was doing quite a bit of Cave Photography. Speleology.
Heart of wood. by Raimo Gareis
Old Barque by Raimo Gareis 1974 Convention was in Christchurch, with the guest Speaker Dr Raimo Gareis EFIAP APSA FRPS DGPh of West Germany Marketing Manager for Agfa-Gavaert extolling the virtues of their optical brighteners in Photographic Paper. Later to be the cause of "tanning" of colour prints. 1975 The "Come alive in 75" PSNZ Convention in Auckland where I presented a program entitled "A beginners Approach to Colour Printing" Having established myself in the fields of Landscape, seascape, Portrait , Derivations and off beat ideas in home processed monochrome, and toned prints, and homeprocessed transparencies, I now turned my attention to "Colour Printing" and the field of Nature or as it was known then "Natural History" photography. We had bought our caravan in 1972 and spent three years gathering images from 3 Natural History Fields, Native Birds, Alpine Plants and Caving-or Speleology. I had built a darkroom under my house which involved digging out a basement, installing RSJs and building the luxury darkroom equipped with a Durst M601 Colour head enlarger, a Beseler colour analyser, and learning how to use the Unicolor sytem of printing Colour prints from negatives
. The show took the form of 70 colour prints 11" x 15" Mounted on 20 x 16 Black Exhibition Mounts. A twin Projector system using Back-projection to illustrate my family enjoying obtaining the negatives and a small portable darkroom (like a portaloo with enlarger and colour analyser inside. I was able in the one hour show on Tuesday morning to expose and develop wash and dry a colour print , using a rollerdrum in full light for the process, so the audience was entertained whilst I was exposing the paper and loading the drum, in the portable darkroom, with the slide show. This gave a great fillip to photographers taking up the colour printing process, although it took another 5 years of lobbying before trade processed colour prints were allowed in the National Salon. Brian Brake was a leading key-note speaker at that convention, and he was barred from exhibiting in PSNZ Salon's because he did not print his own work, but had the Professional Division of Viko (Colour Productions) do his. .
NZ Dotterel has a hole in the right leg
Wrybill Anarhynchus frontalis a within
between ankle & knee visible in print enlargement
NZ migratory plover, one of our vulnerable species
White Fronted Tern offering food to Black Billed Gull at nest chick Four of the birding images taken at Miranda using a hide and 200mm lens with Pentax Spotmatic Body on Kodacolor Negative Home printed using the Unicolor system
NZ Sun orchid..Thelymitra species
Community of alpine plants
Celmisia spectabilis
Celmisia incana
Ngauruhoe in eruption
Drosera arcturi, and Drosera spatulata
Stalagmite and stalactites
Gypsum Flowers and Horns
Helix or Gypsum Spiral
Gypsum Flower
Gypsum Horn Pool basin showing spar I was lucky indeed to visit the Puketiti Flower Cave, as it is a DOC permit cave and only 8 permits a year are granted, with a maximum group size of 4, including the leader. The cave begins with the standard vadose stream canyon passage, fairly unremarkable until we climbed out of it into a similarly shaped fossil section. Here began a section of hundreds of feet of the most remarkable gypsum passages I’ve ever seen. Flowers, flowers everywhere, and not tiny ones either: some as thick as my arm, some several feet in length. We carried only the camera gear into this area as the passage was relatively narrow, and a large pack could cause damage. The gypsum spiral in Puketiti Flower Cave is a One-of-a-kind, a piece of flagging across the floor alerted us to the presence of the gypsum spiral, one of the world’s most unique gypsum speleothems. It is a coiled spiral, about the diameter of a pencil, with about 30 turns. and is about 300 mm long.
As if the flowers weren’t enough for one cave to offer, the gypsum passage reduced to a crawl way that opened into a large, dried pool basin lined with spectacular spar. Some of the individual crystals were up to 6 inches long. As well as doing this program, I was also on the Panel of Selectors for Pictorial Colour Transparencies in the Salon of 1975 Along with two of my mentors. Bill Robb EFIAP and Russell Cooper FPSA. It was a wonderful experience at Penrose High School Hall my second experience at selecting for the National Salon in 2 years. By now Ron Willems was emerging as a Photographer to be watched. I received an Honours ribbon in Natural History Prints for my Pied Stilt Himantopus leucocephalus feeding. Taken from a hide in the paddock where the Vodafone ( formerly Telstra ) Stadium now stands at Manukau. and three Transparencies were accepted of Alpine plants all taken at Ruapehu, Celmisia spectabilis, Celmisia incana, and Ranunculus insignis.
Bill Robb EFIAP PSNZ President 1964 and 65 I had a great admiration and friendship with Bill Robb EFIAP who when I first met him, was a Kodak employee, he later joined Air NZ. and I patterned my style of judging upon his, combination of teaching while analysing.
For Our 2016 Annual Calendar I based the images used, in the calendar from this series from 1975, with accompanying legend to explain the images This years Calendar is based on a set of images taken in the early 1970s. From the 1975 "Come alive in 75" PSNZ Convention in Auckland where I presented a program entitled "A beginners Approach to Colour Printing" Having established myself in the fields of Landscape, Seascape, Portrait , Derivations and off beat ideas; in home processed monochrome, 3Dimensional, and toned prints, as well as home-processed transparencies, I now turned my attention to "Colour Printing" and the field of Nature or as it was known then "Natural History" photography. We had bought our caravan in 1972 and spent three years gathering images from 3 Natural History Fields, 1. Native Birds, 2. Alpine Plants and 3. Caving-or Speleology. I had built a darkroom under my house which involved digging out a basement, installing RSJs and building the luxury darkroom equipped with a Durst M601 Colour head enlarger, a Beseler colour analyser, and learning how to use the Unicolor sytem of printing Colour prints from negatives
. The show took the form of 70 colour prints 11" x 15" Mounted on 20 x 16 Black Exhibition Mounts. A twin Projector system using Back-projection to illustrate with 400 slides, showing how the images were gathered, my family enjoying obtaining the negatives and a small portable darkroom (like a portaloo with enlarger and colour analyser inside. I was able in the one hour show on Tuesday morning to expose and develop wash and dry a colour print , using a roller-drum in full light for the process, so the audience was entertained whilst I was exposing the paper and loading the drum, in the portable darkroom, with the slide show. This gave a great fillip to photographers taking up the colour printing process, although it took another 5 years of lobbying before trade processed colour prints were allowed in the National Salon. Brian Brake was a leading key-note speaker at that convention, and he was barred from exhibiting in PSNZ Salon's because he did not print his own work, but had the Professional Division of Viko (Colour Productions) do his. .
NZ Dotterel has a hole in the right leg between ankle & knee visible in print enlargement
Wrybill Anarhynchus frontalis a within NZ migratory plover, one of our vulnerable species
White Fronted Tern offering food to Black Billed Gull at nest chick Four of the birding images taken at Miranda using a hide and 200mm lens with Pentax Spotmatic Body on Kodacolor Negative Home printed using the Unicolor system The alpine flora were taken on Mount Ruapehu in the summers of 1973 and 1974
NZ Sun orchid..Thelymitra species
Community of alpine plants
Celmisia spectabilis
Celmisia incana
Ngauruhoe in eruption
Drosera arcturi, and Drosera spatulata
Stalagmite and stalactites
Gypsum Flowers and Horns
Helix or Gypsum Spiral
Gypsum Flower
Gypsum Horn Pool basin showing spar One of our younger photographers in the Manurewa P.S was Philip Round a keen caver and as I had done a bit of caving , having cut my teeth at Mannering's Caves Waikaretu, now Nikau Caves in about 1969. Philip invited me to join the NZ Speleological Society and as a member , I was lucky indeed to visit the Puketiti Flower Cave, as it is a DOC permit cave and only 8 permits a year are granted, with a maximum group size of 4, including the leader. The cave begins with the standard vadose stream canyon passage, fairly unremarkable until we climbed out of it into a similarly shaped fossil section. Here began a section of hundreds of feet of the most remarkable gypsum passages I’ve ever seen. Flowers, flowers everywhere, and not tiny ones either: some as thick as my arm, some several feet in length. We carried only the camera gear into this area as the passage was relatively narrow, and a large pack could cause damage. The gypsum spiral in Puketiti Flower Cave is a One-of-a-kind, a piece of flagging across the floor alerted us to the presence of the gypsum spiral, one of the world’s most unique gypsum speleothems.
It is a coiled spiral, about the diameter of a pencil, with about 57 turns. and is about 300 mm long. As if the flowers weren’t enough for one cave to offer, the gypsum passage reduced to a crawl way that opened into a large, dried pool basin lined with spectacular spar. Some of the individual crystals were up to 6 inches long. Hence I built up a large file of "nature" negatives, birds, alpine plants and caving ready for printing, of which I chose 100 to print to 11" x 14" (280 x360 ) size. Mounting them on 20x 16 Mount Boards. The January image of the "Kingfisher" was taken at Kaiaua. We often went and camped in a camping ground, behind the Kaiaua store, long since gone. The Road from Mangatangi Kaiaua direct, descends through a slope of Pung, and Convolvulus "Morning Glory" with a bank at the left when approaching the township of Kaiaua. In this bank a Kingfisher had tunnelled a nest and was feeding chicks, I set up two hides, one on the nest tunnel, and the other directly opposite focussing upon a branch on which the birds would land before flying to the nest, to deliver the food. I spent three days in those hides in the January of 1973. Listening to 'cricket" on the transistor radio with ear phone, whilst monitoring the nest. I was using an electronic flash, mounted on a pole attached to the hide. The major difficulty, using wet cell batteries for the Mecablitz Flash, was the warm up time for the precharge on the flash, and the drain on the battery to keep the flash at the ready. Often I missed the arrival at the nest because the flash had not charged. This was a great frustration. Sometimes the bird would spend some 20 minutes before crossing the road to feed, and then depart, Other times it would approach the nest from a different direction, from where I was not able to see, as there is limited visibility, from a hide.
Kingfisher feeding chicks and removing excrement from nest site The best image I got from 3 days effort Our Cover photo for our 2016 Calendar shot is from the branch on the other side of the road from the nest
I could not move my camera further to the right, to place the bird against the highlight behind it, because of the constrictions of the hide. However the image was quite successful for me. From this experience, I was enriched, by garnering patience, and an understanding of the 5 day cricket game. JANUARY 2016
Evening feed.
Was taken on a farm at Wiri Great South Rd. Managed by Mr Bill Reynolds whose home was opposite Ash Rd Wiri Gt South Rd intersection. The paddock where the Pied stilts were nesting was opposite where Cadman ( later Kirk Motors ) had an old Schact car mounted on a pole.
Today it is the site of the Vodafone Stadium It is interesting that a symbolic bird flying is on their promotional information today Shortly a new White water park will open on the site. I have indicated about where the Pied stilt was photographed in about 1968
I had my hide set up on the pied Stilt nest , but also could see, a shallow surface pond in the paddock After work, and before work each day I would spend some time in the hide. I was pleased to get this Pictorial nature image, which I called "Evening feed" Another from the same series but at the nest was
Pied Stilt Himantopus himantopus at nest
Pied Stilt doing "Broken Wing Act" Unfortunately curiosity got the better of Bill Reynolds, and he wandered over to see if he could see the nest, and his farm dog cleaned things up. Proving that "man" is probably the worst enemy of 'nature". I had leaned another lesson.
FEBRUARY 2016
Blackbilled Gulls at nest In 1968 whilst checking on White-fronted tern colony at White Bridge Taramaire slightly North of the Miranda Shorebird Centre, where the shellbank was in those days ( now down at the old lime-works area, showing the huge shift in 50 years) I had discovered a small colony of Black-billed gulls Larus bulleri nesting. This was much to the surprise and disbelief of the ornithologists of the day Dick Sibson and my friend and birding mentor Ross McKenzie of Clevedon
Ross, with war injuries from WW1,(he had a wooden leg) , he jumped in his car drove to Taramaire Kaiaua and stomped out to the shell bank through the full tide tidal streams to confirm. This was an ornithological first and a feather in my birding cap. As previously this species had not nested further north than the Bath house at Rotorua. Ross and his wife Hettie were great friends of mine at Clevedon, and Ross gave me a handwitten draft of his (then yet to be published book prior to 1973) "NZ Birds" How and where to find them " There we were driving through NZ with a Bulldog clip of Ballpoint handwitten manuscript on foolscap paper, doing a " pioneering bird tour" MARCH 2016 A pictorial nature image from the same series "Grandpa says..."
A family grouping of Black billed gulls. APRIL 2016 On 27 Feb 1971 when relaxing during the social after a wedding I had photographed , of the local Manurewa Primary School dental nurse Merle Shepherdson to Fin Finlayson a Weymouth chap. I was chatting to the bride's adoptive or step-father , he asked if I did photography as a hobby, and we got to chatting about bird photography. During the course of our discussion he advised me, that each year he had a harrier hawk nest within view of his cowshed at Horeke on the Hokianga Harbour nesting in a Mangrove and reed area at the edge of the harbour. Where it fed its chicks on fish. One thing led to another, which saw us caravanning to Horeke that year Labour weekend. Where I was able to be one of the first in N.Z. to get a Harrier at nest. I had built a meccano like timber scaffolding system (which I carried up on my roof rack) ,
on which to place my hide, to lift it above the shrubbery in the foreground. I photographed from about a chain away using a 300 mm lens and cropping the resultant images.
Harrier hawk at nest
We travelled up Friday night, sleeping at a rest area at Towai north of Whangarei, arriving at the farm early Saturday. Putting the hide on its scaffolding in place Saturday afternoon at about 50 metres from the nest. Just before dark. I halved the distance, and on the Sunday I took some shots of the bird when it returned to its nest. Monday we dismantled the hide, and returned on our journey home. Staying at a small camping ground at Warkworth called Kowhai Park, long since gone. Coming on to Manurewa first thing Tuesday morning, in time for work. Thrilled with what I had achieved. The children had a great time gathering tadpoles at the farm . I made a small aquarium out of glass and tape, and got a "tadpole" shot.
We also were able to photograph a "Banded Rail" at the edge of the mangroves, skulking, as they do.
Banded Rail
MAY 2016 The next segment of 4 photographs represent images from the "caving experiences" Cave photography introduced a whole new set of skill factors necessary for success. The dark, the claustrophobia, learning to paint, with electronic flash. The wearing of suitable clothing, the keeping equipment dry, yet available . Assembling equipment using just a carbide head lamp and so forth. The left image is of a Stalagmite, about 1.75 metres in height. It is interesting to note, that this is a second one that has established at this site. Giving some insight into the insignificance of man in the realm of nature. The right hand image is the Helix or Gypsum Spiral, described earlier in this discourse.
The Helix grows out from the wall about 40-500 mm then spirals down describing spirals for about 300mm This extraordinary spiral has 57 turns and is another gypsum formation in the lovely Puketiti flower cave.
Entrance to cave Looking back .and A Cave Weta above our head at the entrance was a bat colony and below our feet "bat guano"
JUNE 2016
Gypsum flowers "grow" in profusion on the wall of the Puketiti Flower Cave here in New Zealand. They are rocks, not living plants, despite the flower-like shape. They seem to grow and curve out of the wall, like toothpaste forced out of a tube. Some say
they come out of cracks in the wall, but it would be vandalism to break them off to search for any cracks and so I cannot confirm this theory. Usually gypsum flowers are white. In this passage the tips of the flowers are brown. Probably water flowed through the cave at some stage depositing mud from a flood. The flowers continued to grow and the base of the flower once again showed the normal white colour
Further Gypsum extrusions In the right hand image the cave wall is lined by gypsum, but for some reason it has peeled off here, to reveal gypsum "needles". The gypsum "cotton wool" is a rare phenomenon The fibrous form of gypsum is called Anhydrite, meaning gypsum without water. JULY 2016
gypsum "objects" on the flower cave's wall. All sorts of shapes develop and we choose certain ones to photograph because they look like familiar objects. Gypsum is hydrated calcium sulphate. It is often associated with sedimentary rocks, like limestone, because it is one of the first crystals to form when salt water evaporates. If gypsum is ground up and then heated to drive off the water, it becomes Plaster of Paris.
Some more Calcium salt examples from Puketiti Flower Cave From 1973 AUGUST. 2016
Calcite Pool Spar
Calcite crystals have precipitated under water. The water has long gone, but we can see the old surface of the pool, clearly marked by the flat top to the crystal formation. (in the next photograph) This is only a portion of the "jewel box" in the depths of the Puketiti flower cave. The chamber is big enough for two people at a time and is lined by the jewel-like crystals
SEPTEMBER 2016 In the post Christmas period of 1972 and 1973 we took the caravan to Chateau Tongariro on Mount Ruapehu, and had summer holidays, walking the tracks across to Ngauruhoe, and to the Silica springs etc on Ruapehu, and photographed the flowering alpine plants available in this part of North island of N.Z.
Celmisia incana or White Mountain Daisy. Here I shaded the background, to give some separation, by using an umbrella as a "gobo" projecting the shadow across the background, I printed in a "vignette" to the foreground during printing.
Ngauruhoe was spectacularly active those summers.
OCTOBER 2016
Celmisia incana (again) & Ranunculus lyalli Once again the background has been shaded by projecting a shadow onto it. Enhancing the "painting with Light' aspect of photography, from skills learnt in the darkroom of shading and dodging.
Celmisia spectabilis
Helichrysum bellidioides
Leek Orchid
Celmisia gracilenta Celmisia spectabilis (group) It was a wonderful place to have a break from the busy life of Pharmacy NOVEMBER 2016
Thelymitra longifolia Sun orchid
An Alpine Habitat
One of the delights of a summer tramp is coming across, a beautiful flowering sun orchid. Here I have used selective focus to isolate the flower from its background. .It is New Zealand's most common species of Sun Orchid. The image on the right is a
grouping of alpine flowers against an algae covered rock . The mountain Harebell Wahlenbergia pygmaea and Celmisia spectabilis, the common Mountain daisy. DECEMBER 2016
Here we have two species of Drosera in one image Drosera arcturi is one of New Zealand's two species of alpine sundew. It is a summer grower and reverts to a hibernaculum to survive the cold winters. It's first upright leaves emerge in spring and are folded along their length before opening like a book when fully grown. The leaves may grow up to 10cm long but are usually less than 5cm. After the first two or three leaves have formed a solitary white flower, 13mm across, is then borne in early summer, positioned near the tops of the leaves. After flowering the leaves gradually reduce in size to eventually form the hibernaculum. The hibernaculum is normally buried near the surface of the soil or moss and is usually covered with snow for several months during winter. and Drosera spatulata This photo lower right corner, is of the species Drosera spatulata, commonly known as the Spoon-Leaf Sundew. As a carnivorous angiosperm (flowering plant), it feeds on invertebrates, primarily small flies and other insects. Drosera spatulata is found throughout New Zealand, eastern Australia, and South East Asia, and is thought to have evolved in New Zealand and then spread west and north. I was very pleased to be able to illustrate this interesting species, with both alpine varieties flowering in one image . Of course this is seeing-eye photography. and that is our Calendar for 2016
As mentioned before I was not exhibiting as much, at this time, as my focus had been on this presentation, and administrative duties, as Sales Manager of "NZ Camera" the bi-monthly Magazine of PSNZ " edited by Peg Singleton. Every two months John
Reece PSNZ Secretary at the time (he served 13 years in that position before going on to be PSNZ President and then Editor of NZ Camera ) and I would hand address envelopes for the I think about 1100 individual members and 125 Clubs enough for their affiliated members. Quite a task in a voluntary organisation, that PSNZ was in those days. Eventually we acquired the addressograph machine from Auckland Electric Power Board. , which saved writing but I think it took longer, as we had to type all the addresses onto the Aluminium plates, and maintain the changes of Addresses, and Club secretaries, which was a substantial task. The magazine was a full A4 Journal which I tried to market through Gordon & Gotch to the wider readership of photographers in NZ. As life was getting busy and complex for me I did not seek re-election to Council in 1976. I was very pleased looking back that two major developments took place during the time I was on Council. We established the PSNZ Honours system with its independent Board, and petitioned Government successfully to have Photography Included as a School Subject. Later I was invited, along with Jack Sprosen to go to Tauranga and Select the Ilford Schools challenge images, and in the 1990s to see 4 Pukekohe pupils gain bursaries in photography. Little did I realise what we had started in the early 1970s. I was also invited by Joan Blundell during her tenure as Honours Board Convenor to assist the Board with Natural History deliberations, as a call in specialist, 1976 Saw me on the selection Panel for the International Exhibition of Photography which was organised by the Howick Camera Club and Onehunga Photographic Society. it was displayed at the Auckland Museum venue for the 1975 Convention, and was opened by Sir Denis Blundell Governor-General of NZ . My fellow Judges were Dr A E Orchard Botanist from the Auckland Museum and Geoff Moon ARPS I very well remember the Champion wildlife image a study of Roseate Spoonbills at nest. and a surfeit of Humming Bird images. One American photographer unethically signified true Natural History with a 'w" (place of its own choosing) on his 4 images of different species of snakes, all taken in the same snake pit, or what appeared to be a concreted stone and vegetation human made environment. We selected 165 images from 604 entries. In the print section Neil Ritchie took the place of Geoff Moon (Neil was an optometrist from Papakura) We accepted 37 of 125
1977. The 26th National Convention Run by Tauranga Photographic Society I did a Workshop On Cibachrome and the Beseler Negative System . Three of my Cibachromes being accepted in the Print Section of Natural History, and one in the Open Prints. Cibachrome was a system of printing directly from a slide (transparency or positive) to photographic paper. Kodak later produced a similar system.
Pied Fantail at Nest in Mahoe Tree
NZ Fur Seal
NZ Kingfisher Banded Rail at Nest The first 3 above were accepted in 1977. The fourth image of the Banded Rail at nest was also a Cibachrome Print . I had found the nest in a swamp at Whangateau, in Geoff Moon's backyard, and I set up a hide on the nest, and Geoff and I jointly worked this nest
A note left in the hide by Geoff The 1979 PSNZ Convention and Exhibition was held in Masterton. The Exhibition conducted by Lower Hutt . I was on the Slide Selection Panel with 4 other selectors. John Boyd APSNZ Roy Boston, Vonnie Cave FPSNZ ARPS and Dorothy Comley We met in Wellington and from Memory there were over 1200 slides natural History and Photo Journalism were indicated on the entry form by the exhibitor. and I think up to 10 images per exhibitor were entered. We accepted about 25% . With the Gold Medal Champion overall slide going to Ron Willems with a derivation, and another
emerging photographer received a Silver medal for a High key child study from Rosita Manning. The AGM centred around the allowing of Trade Processed Colour Prints 1980 I went through my marriage breakdown and divorce proceedings and took no part in PSNZ, but 1981 I attended the Convention in Taupo. During the late 1970s I became a member of the NZ Professional Photographers Association as well as being a full time Pharmacist, I was active as a wedding and Portrait Photographer in Manurewa, I had also been appointed a Life Member of the Manurewa Photographic Society, which later in the 80's became a defunct Society, and as I have often quipped when visiting Clubs to Judge, It is far better to be a Life Member of a Dead Society, than the alternative. In 1982 I was back with 9 Acceptances in the National Salon at Christchurch , including 2 Bronzes and 2 Honours Ribbons. in the Colour Print section.
Winter Up Central Bronze Medal
Chicco
Bronze Medal
Petite Fair lady Honours
Morning Sentinels
A New Day Dawns
The New Day dawns earned me a Silver award at the NZIPP exhibition. where it was titled "Work resumes" it was taken of the Harbour Crossing at Onehunga to Mangere, from the old bridge, the first day that work recommenced, after the 2 year long strike, had held up proceedings. I was amused that the only action on the bridge, was a man and his wheelbarrow. A sad comment on the society of those days 1981 or 2. Morning sentinels was taken at Papatoetoe West School grounds a few minutes before "A New day dawns" Both taken on my way to the Pharmacy I was managing in Hillsborough. Using my Bronica Camera
Winter up Central was purchased by Colin Kay Mayor of Auckland for his office
Colin Kay CBE In 1983 for the 26th International Photography Exhibition organised by North Shore P S I was on the Panel with my friend and colleague Geoff Moon and in prints joined by Lois Morrow Treasurer of PSNZ and in Slides Don her Husband replaced her . By now there were 46 Countries contributing to the overall exhibition of slides and 38 to the prints. Out of 566 slides submitted we accepted 115 and prints the ratio was 44 out of 152 Once again I remember flying to Napier to be on the selection Panel for an International, possibly the last we held. Noel Manning was also on that panel
By now my time was taken up in the Professional World with me attaining an ANZPPA an Associate of the NZ Professional Photographers Association later to become the NZ Institute of Professional Photographers ANZIPP. It required the submission of 20 Prints, each to attain 70 points out of 100 to gain acceptance. I was successful first attempt. These days points accrue from the Annual exhibition, and when sufficient acceptances have been attained within a certain time period, the award is given. For a number of years I served on the selection panel of the NZ Institute of Professional Photographers. Unlike PSNZ each image is judged individually without any connectivity to others in the portfolio. By this time I had moved on from the pair of Mamiya Twin Lens Reflexes and was using a pair of Bronica ETRS Cameras.
Mamiya TLRs
Bronica SLRs 15 on a 120 Film
The above are the twenty images that gained me my Associateship in the Professional Institute. How each image was taken, had to be stated on the back and what lighting, and Camera Controls used. and each image was judged on its own not as a portfolio Unlike PSNZ. Each Print was a glossy laminated 16" x 20 " print mounted on hardboard. Some were 35mm and many taken on the Bronica's Now I was entering the Professional Exhibition each year or Judging in it with quite a bit of success.
Portraits were now my bread and butter.
My life got hectic, Managing the Pharmacy during the week, and operating my Portrait and Bridal Studio, nights and weekends. In the late 1990s as I approached 60 years of age I elected to close my studio down , digital was coming, and who wanted a 60 year old, photographing their wedding. So I elected to rejoin a camera Club rather than be just an individual member of PSNZ I chose Franklin Camera Club ( now Pukekohe - Franklin ) As the Manukau Camera Club meeting in Manurewa and an amalgamation of Papatoetoe Camera Club and Manurewa Photographic Society unfortunately met on the same night of the month as my South Auckland Ornithological meeting.
The first competition Set Subject that I entered in Pukekohe was "Looking up" My son had invited me to have my Father's day dinner at a Middle Eastern Restaurant in the city near the base of Sky Tower . I took my camera in , so started the series of images that eventually earned me the Title Mr Sky Tower and later a Fellowship in Creative Pictorial Prints in PSNZ. As a self imposed handicap I made all my Set subject images at Pukekohe - Franklin Camera Club to be limited to Sky Tower shots because (although I had never been a "pot-hunter") I knew that a Professional Exhibiting in a Camera Club would not be received with open arms. Over the coming years up to about 2004 when I changed to Howick Camera Club I was quite successful . It was during these years I attained my APSNZ and first FPSNZ
"Looking up" and "Concentration" Concentration was my successful entry in the "Portrait" competition at PukekoheFranklin. It was a profile, window lit portrait, I had taken whilst doing a demonstration on window lighting at the Camera Club Lighting Workshop, and I sandwiched an image of Sky Tower with it. Fulfilling my desire to always have Skytower in my shots, and satisfying the "Portrait" criteria.
A straight portrait the basis of the "Concentration" image.
Triple Whammy Was my entry in Red Green Blue at Camera Club. So 1997 saw us attend the National Convention at Blenheim where I had 3 pictorial Print acceptances and 1 Natural History Print acceptance. 1998 I was successful at National Exhibition of Photography with a set of 4 slides in the Pictorial section. at the Taupo Convention which we attended.
Symbol of City, 2 Lucky Spin, 3, Celebrations and 4 Status Symbol.. a Set of 4 from my Sky Tower series. Nature Prints .. Alto-Cumulus clouds showing lower level jet stream air flow, 2000 Gisborne hosted the National Convention featuring AndrĂŠ Gallant & Doug and Barbara Mullins. I gained my Associateship in Slides and Pukekohe-Franklin won the Wiltshire Trophy and runner-up in the Bledisloe Cup.
In Pictorial Prints I was successful 3 images gaining a Bronze with Mysterious Landscape, and two acceptances with Louis Vuitton Cup Final 3000- Prada wins start. and Dawn at Carey Bay My successful APSNZ Set
Morning Departure
Morning Flight
Touch down Rodeo Style
Morning Stroll
Pomegranate Platter
Mr Plimmer takes a Stroll
Architectural facade
Concentration
Triple Whammy
Celebration
The trotting shot is similar to, but not the actual one in the set, which was same format as other images. Unfortunately I discarded a Courier satchel thinking it was empty, only to find it had contained the trotting shot, which had been returned from a Club set. I was now using Pentax Z1Ps with Fuji Sensia Film
In 2001 I was fortunate enough to serve on the Panel for slides at the North Shore salon. to select abstract and open slides, along with Terry Barnett a Photography Magazine editor and Kaye Goosen-Cooper. At the Northern Regional at Hamilton 2001 I had won an Epson Colour Printer with a portfolio of images taken during the weekend. This was duly installed in the Caravan with a computer and we took it to the Queenstown Convention in 2002 where I was able to use a small 3.1 mega Pixel Pentax Digital Camera that I had recently purchased for an exorbitant $1500 It was an excellent entry level image maker. I was able to display 10 x 8 images soon after each outing. While everyone was photographing peaks through mist across the lake at a stop on the bus trip to Glenorchy, I was the butt of much humour, as I lay on my belly with my small point and shoot photographing an "Inkcap Fungi group" This image was accepted the
following year at the Blenheim Convention the 52nd NZ National Exhibition of Photography Contnued in Pt 2