My Years with PSNZ Continued from 1st Part I had concentrated in attaining a Fellowship in Creative Pictorial Photography for the 2002 Convention held at Queenstown. It would be a personal milestone for me, as I had taken office as a Councillor for PSNZ 30 years before at Queenstown, under Arthur Bates Presidency , then serving President Roger Brownsey whom I had gone through Pharmacy studies with in the 1950s in Auckland. He rang me some time prior to 1972, and said you had better get yourself on Council, because I want you on my team when I am President. I put together a set of images of Sky Tower , the Auckland Landmark, which incidentally personally, I saw as a blot on the landscape of the City. With the help of Geoff Beals a fellow member of the Pukekohe-Franklin Camera Club who was able to mentor me with objective eyes. I was successful in attaining the only Fellowship awarded that year I had put in a lot of effort to get the layout and flow correct for the images As only three rows were allowed it was difficult to get the layout as I truly wanted it, in the shape of SkyTower upper part. Each print was labelled on the back with its position in the final layout. Imagine my chagrine on findng that DPS had over-ruled my layout, as they had 9 display boards allocated for Fellowship Prints, they elected to hang my prints in pairs on each of 9 boards. Thereby committing the utmost sacrilege of optical ping-pong on each of 9 Boards Rather than the layout as seen below.
My Mission Statement above and layout design below
and now I (too) have a difficulty including the images here below in a correct layout
Symbol of a City
Onward & Upward
Central Cityscape
Metropolis
Lucky Strike
Vanity
Prima Donna
A Full Hand
Masculinity
Femininity
Two of a Kind
Another Spin
Triple Whammy
Graffiti
Family Affair
Celebration
Signs of the Times
Night Patrol
The shots were all taken on Fuji Sensia Film using my Z1ps and printed by Viko Image No 1 my very first image entered at Pukekohe under the Set Subject Looking Up when I rejoined the Camera Club World in 1997.Is a very straightforward shot. No 2 A wider angle view including the Broadcasting Building 3 Vanity . It appeared to me that Sky tower was looking at itself as a mirror reflection in a nearby building . A face being evident. 4 Masculinity. I had always viewed, as had many others this edifice as a phallic symbol, and a bit of wandering around, and choosing the correct lighting conditions, delivered me the result I required 5. Femininity.. Imagine my delight on another excursion around Sky Tower looking for prospective, seeing eye shots, I came across this distorted reflection of a very pregnant looking Sky Tower. 6. Graffiti . Created by sandwiching a shot from Ponsonby of the old house and Sky Tower on the skyline with a shot of a graffitied wall. 7. Signs of the times. Was the "seeing eye" at work The old Dairy in Herne Bay as foreground, with Sky Tower contrasting two differing eras. This image has been included in the Permanent Collection of PSNZ 8. Onward & Upward... A reflection shot in a neighbouring window, with frame included. 9.Metropolis. Using aperture stop down to create the star burst filter effect on the Street light and the moving tail lights of traffic , and adjacent buildings to give an in situ shot of how this building rises from and above the business 10. Prima Donna almost centre stage with a Star Burst filter. Taken from the Northshore during that twilight zone when the city lights are on, but still enough daylight to read a newspaper, so that the sky comes up a graded indigo. 11.Two of a Kind . Sky Tower and its reflection.. The "seeing eye " again 12. Family Affair...5 images on the same frame Carefully adjusting the positioning of the camera, and state of zoom for each of 5 shots. 13. Night Patrol... Fortuitously when in the city making images of Skytower a Biplane was doing stunts over the harbour, and by sandwiching an image of the plane with a multi image of the tower I was able to create this image, in the days before Photoshop. 14.Lucky Strike...... Again two transparencies sandwiched, a Five shot multi image and the stack of Coins, Dollar Notes and suggestion of luxury gifts. as a separate image
15. A Full Hand............I held the playing cards out in front of the camera and exposed them with flash during the longer exposure of the ambient light street scene. 16 Another Spin......... A double exposure. Straight shot, and a rotation of the camera during a longer exposure, gave me this stunning effect. 17 Triple Whammy... Had been taken originally for Pukekohe-Franklin Camera Club competition Red Green Blue. Was a Triple exposure each exposure through a Primary colour filter, sandwiched with a shot of a MoirĂŠ pattern created by photographing the sheet filters I had purchased some 30 years before from Edmund's scientific company USA an I had used the same system for "Harlequined Hippy" years before
Harlequined Hippy 18 Celebration .. Was shot on New Years Eve of the fire works display from below in Federal St.
and so I received my Fellowship from Matheson Beaumont Patron of PSNZ at that time.
Although I am sure I would have submitted other images from my Fellowship set I gained only one acceptance in the Pictorial Slides with "Prima Donna"
For the 2003 Natex Exhibition in Blenheim. I was now 65 and turned my attention to establishing a portfolio of Natural History images, and was successful in the print section with 2 acceptances and an Honours in the Print division, and one slide in the transparency segment of NH.
Pair of Nesting Variable Oyster Catchers (Haematopus unicolour) Black phase Taken from a hide on the SeaBird Coast North of Kaiaua. Hauraki Gulf. Honours Ribbon
Giant Stinkhorn Fungus (Anthur) with European Blowe Fly (Calliphora erythrocephala) feeding us archeri
Shaggy Brown Inkcap (Coprinus comatus)
The Inkcaps were shot on the Pentax Optio 330 a 3 megapixel camera at the Queenstown Convention of 2002
Inkcaps
I found I used more digital images than film, on that trip and was hooked that digital was the medium of the future. I had a brief flutter with a Fuji Finepix S602, but the digital delay, was horrendous, and I gave the camera to my daughter
.
In 2003 at the Northern Regional held by the Thames Camera Club Ron Willems was the main Keynote speaker, and I was the other. I presented a series of Digitally created Audio-Visuals using Pro Show Gold
They had all been created using the Pentax Optio and the Fuji S 602 Z I had also purchased an Epson Digital Projector to present the program on . 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" triip to watch the deep water Sea Birds that congregate there and one on Whale Watching also from Kaikoura. Digital had arrived !! I had made quite a few trips to Miranda usually starting there at dawn, and working through the day. Miranda was 40 minutes from my home and I was often found there roaming the area putting together a series of Short programmes Another I did at that time was "Why I love Miranda"
The limitations of digital delay, and the fact that my car and camera equipment was stolen with $38000 Insurance claim being paid out. I retooled , replacing my Z1p outfit with a *ist Pentax Digital Camera , which I later supplemented with a * ist D and later a K 100 I had been a Bird watcher since a child, and had been a life member of Forest & Bird since early days, and Likewise of the Miranda Naturalist Trust , and so I decided to try and put my photographic skills to documenting our bird life 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 since. Seeing the clubs move premises, many times I have judged by travelling there and back in the one evening from as far a way 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 in the Mahurangi College Hall, and a day out at a private beach for judges and their families at a private Beach on the Tawharanui Peninsular. 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 Otahuhu-Mangere was another club I judged at, that sadly is no more, as to are Pakuranga, Papakura, Manurewa, Warkworth, Huntly.
Bill Robb EFIAP 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, 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 My personal photography was now based on Natural History, Having been through, Landscapes, Derivations, Portraits, Dog Portraits, Architectural, Creative etc I had ever since childhood been interested in Nature Study, and from initially joining a camera Club in Tauranga in 1959, I realised the great difference in starting point and finished results, between Pictorialism and Natural History, and by virtue of the fact that PSNZ had tried to combine the two unsuccessfully9 somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s), I not only believed, but knew they were two different fields. So on shifting to Howick Camera Club as I had done many times before, unbeknown to anyone else, I put myself under the handicap, of only entering images of Birds in the Open segment of the evening. This led many newer photographers to call me the bird-man,
earlier in my career I had been known as Flower Power Joe, Op-Art 'Arry, MR Sky Tower and now "The Bird Man" Because I was running out of challenges I decided to try for a Fellowship using Digital in Natural History It was a personal challenge, because of my deep conviction that Open and NH were gulfs apart. I set about preparing a Fellowship set of Nature Images. On discussions with Geoff Moon he said remember the Honours Board has more Pictorialists than Naturalists aboard so I prepared the following set in 2004
However it was unsuccessful in that the panel considered it was only of Associate standard , was too pictorial in nature, and the starting with a warm image and ending likewise, disturbed the flow So back to the drawing board . Late in 2004 I decided to get a relief Pharmacist in. immediately after the New Years weekend, and I decided to go to Okarito a place I knew very little about, apart from the fact that was where one of our rarer birds bred, the White Heron or Kotuku of the Maoris, it had been our school emblem when I attended Otahuhu College in the early 50s. So much planning went into the expedition . I had my clothing and non-camera gear couriered to friends in Hokitika, and I flew down, having booked a rental car from Hokitika, and accommodation in a Backpackers at Okarito. I carried my cameras and tripod with me plane. Flying to Christchurch then transferring to a smaller commuter aircraft over the alps to Hokitika, I had 5 days at Okarito. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the trips to Waitangiroto Nature Reserve started from Whataroa some 30 odd Kilometres from Okarito. I took 4 trips at $90.00 over 3 days, so that I had differing light, and the opportunity to study the birds, their activities, and which chick was likely to bed fed when . The situation was contrasty with the white of the birds against the dark green of the native bush, fortunately the weather ( for the West Coast) stayed with me , and on my fourth trip I was able to secure the images that I required, using my Pentax digitals and a 150-500mm Sigma lens for equipment , but in .jpeg format it was later in 2005 I learned of RAW when Andy Rouse presented at the 2005 Convention, run by my home club Howick.
Replete with my fill of images from the Breeding Sanctuary of the Great White Egret, Egreta alba modesta a fairly common bird world wide, but much rarer here wher its is commonly known simply as White Heron or Kotuku, I had two further days at Okarito. There was a large spit opposite the village of Okarito and I got a local boatie to ferry me across for $5 return. He came back to pick me up at 4.p.m as arranged, I had a marvellous day photographing a White fronted Tern Colony, Godwits, VOCs, Banded Dotterels. NZ Native Bees, Sand Patterns Driftwood and a great day of photography. This still left one day. I decided that as the tide was coming in during the morning and receding in the afternoon, I would hire a kayak. Many years before at the age of 40 I had kayaked the Wanganui River . So I did so and had about 10 hours out on the lagoon. Within an hour was within10 metres of a feeding Kotuku , early morning light, rising mists, a photographers dream . I had kayaker's dry bags with me and the kayak was fitted with a bungee net , so I could keep me cameras and lenses secure on the deck in front of me two camera bodies one with 150- 500 mm lens and the other with a wider angle zoom. I got so many wonderful and to me exciting images. I was so elated on my return in the late afternoon, that at the age of 67 I tramped to the lookout above Okarito village . The long twilight evenings extending the day . After cooking a venison meal for tea I slept very contently that night from my days excitement. So on my return home I had about 1 month to select process, print mount and submit my images as a Natural History Digital Print submission. Once again Geoff Beals was my sounding Board, I have a great respect for Geoff and his understanding of images in many fields. My difficulty was that although I had some wonderful individual images, the Nesting Colony shots had dark green bush backgrounds, whilst the capturing prey and feeding backgrounds were on a more high-key type blueish, sea and sky background, and two did not gel . So I prepared two sets of 18 . Neither I believed were perfect, nor could Geoff decide which was the better of the two. So I asked Terry Cockfield Honours Board Secretary whether 2 submissions were permitted, he went higher to Matheson Beaumont and the message to me was if I could afford it, and was silly enough to pay for the preparation and entry fee, to go for it. Imagine my surprise when one Sunday morning in March 2005 I got an email from my great friend Jack Sprosen. Congrats on a double Fellowship, I thought he was talking about the fact that I now had a n F in Pictorial and an F in NH . I rang him to thank him . He was absolutely mortified when he discovered that I had not received the President's letter advising me of the results of the HB deliberations. Because of airport closures and organisational difficulties unbeknown to Jack the letters had not got to President for signing and despatch. Jack had broken the no comment before the result letters have arrived, but our discussion revealed that both of my sets were successful. As I had mounted them, titled them in the identical fashion, and there was no effort to mislead the Board, I genuinely believed the two sets would be compared, as the board would realise the same authorship, and they would decide in their collective wisdom which was the better of the two. However a furore was created within PSNZ and changes were brought to the rules of submission for Honours.
My Sets
I chose to display the two vertical shots at the start and the end of the first row of 6 and to start and close with a strong image. For the Second Set Flight and Feeding Techniques
These were 18 shots presented in 3 panels of 6
I was rather concerned that the closing shot drew attention to the fact that the wingtip was touching the edge of the frame, and although I had the Photoshop skills to enlarge the space between wing tip and frame edge by cloning sea land and sky , I remained true to the ethics of Natural History Photography and refrained from cheating.
I self published through Blurb, basically as a gift for my children a Book on the Kotuku which may be viewed at
The story in Pictures of a Journey to Okarito, in Westland New Zealand to photograph the elegant Great White Egret at home. A boyhood dream fulfilled. As the Kotuku ( the Maori name for this bird ) was the emblem of Otahuhu College. Here are the resultant images which gained two successful Fellowships. Two sets of 18 Digital Natural History images for the Photographic Society of N.Z. Honours system. One set pertaining to the Fishing & Feeding techniques of this species. The other set from the Courtship and Nest behaviour, of feeding a young Egret. •
Dimensions Large Format Landscape 56 pgs
About the Author
Bruce Shanks, Manurewa, New Zealand 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 It was with mixed emotions that I attended the Convention at Waipuna Lodge Panmure in 2005. I had gained a double Fellowship with Digital NH Prints, a first for PSNZ. creating much adverse discussion. Geoff Moon had asked me to accompany his friend Heather Angel Author Photographer and Keynote speaker at the Convention, to Tiritiri Matangi so that she could photograph, Takahe, and Hihi, The Stitchbird, to show the dimorphism of the sexes, and at the same time my father passed away aged 94, leaving my brother to make the funeral arrangements.
Geoff & I at Convention 2005
Receiving my F's from Geoff Moon Patron of PSNZ
Heather Angel Photographing Takahe
Absolutely unaware that Greg the rogue Takahe was picking her jacket. So it was a sweet and sour Convention for me. As I had never left NZ and always had on my bucket list to visit the Sub-Antarctic Islands in November 2005 I flew to Invercargill and joined Heritage Expeditions on a 19 Day Tour of the Sub Antarctics to enjoy the Penguins, Albatrosses, Sea Lions and
Elephant Seals of the sub-antarctic along with the myriad other Seabirds. This Trip became the subject of my second self published book 19 Days in the Southern Ocean . Once again my Pentaxes, lap top and storage Hard drives went with me
To view this book go to http://www.blurb.com/b/954236-19-days-in-the-southernocean At the Natex Exhibition of 2006 at Christchurch, In NH Prints among 5 acceptances, one was awarded the
PSNZ Silver Medal for Pair of Southern Royal Albatross Diomedia epomophera Gamming
an Honours Ribbon for Red Crowned Parakeet (Kakariki ) Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae feeding on Bulbinella rossii flowers
Acceptances Japanese Snipe Gallinago hardwickii Forest Lake ( a Peat Lake) Hamilton NZ A very rare visitor to NZ.
Southern Royal Albatross Exhibiting 3.5 metre wing span, Campbell Island Dec 2005
Auckland Island Double Banded Plover Charadrius bicinctus exilis exhibiting moult Dec 2005 I was pleased with my results and felt I had established myself in a number of fields of Photography. 2007 At New Plymouth I received 7 acceptances. which included 2 Honours Ribbons NH Prints
Caspian Tern (Taranui) Sterna caspia about to feed hungry chick with Yellow eyed Mullet
Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia a Rare Vagrant in NZ
Australian Coot Fulica atra at nest , egg and chicks.
NH Projected Images
NZ Scaup (Papango) Aythya novaeseelandiae
Southern Royal Albatross Pair
Pictorial Projected images Honours Ribbon ..Eternal Conflict Acceptance ..Now Listen Hear
Eternal Conflict PI Honours Ribbon
Now listen hear Projected Image Acceptance.
At the Dunedin Festival salon in 2007 I received 6 acceptances including Champion Print and an Honours Ribbon. for
Adult Kokako N.I.Blue wattled crow Callaeus cinera feeding immature fledgling
Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia Rare Vagrant
Pair of Southern Royal Albatross Diomedia epomophora breeding display
Blue Duck (Whio) Hymenolaimus malacorrhyncus . A torrent duck in Natural environment.
White Heron (Kotuku) Egretta alba modesta courtship display
Red Crowned Parakeet (Kakariki) Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae feeding on Bulbinella rossi flowers Enderby Island and in Projected images 2 acceptances
Pied Stilt with fish prey
Kotuku in Flight On quite a number of occasions I had exhibited and judged at the Tokoroa Print Salon now South Waikato Salon.. and most recently in 2008 I selected the Nature images .
Also in 2008 Kay Goosen-Cooper, John Reece and myself selected the Prints in Abstract, Monochrome and Open Colour Prints at the Northshore Salon. In 2008 Natex Timaru I received an Honours for a pair of Southern Albatross at nest Campbell Island. in Nature Prints and in PIs an Acceptance for Anisotome latifolia Auckland Island
It was a great thrill to witness Bruce Burgess receive his Fellowship with his magnificent set of PIs on Hoar Frost in Central Otago, I had been privileged to help Bruce assemble his set. For the 2009 Natex Judged at Tauranga to be exhibited in Wanganui Geoff Beals, John Greenwood and I selected the Nature, Prints and Projected images. Normally in years when I was selecting at Natex, I did not enter images in any field. At the Dunedin Festival Salon in 2009 I was successful with 3 prints in the Open section
with Wet day Onehunga The camera Club competition was "In the rain". This image was a previsualised image. I had found a spot in Onehunga ( I live in Manurewa) An Indian friend of mine lived at Harp of Erin and in the afternoon about 3.30 she would travel to Mangere Airport to pick her husband up from work via Onehunga. On three occasions we rendezvoused at Onehunga to get this shot. However on every occasion, rain failed to appear, although forecast. In desperation I took a base image at 1/8 second to achieve some blur on the figure in red sari, with umbrella, on the pedestrian crossing. I sandwiched a shot of the windscreen of my vehicle with rain drops with this crossing image and voila, what I had preconceived. The camera does not lie, but does not always tell the truth.
Piercing Eyes.
Muriwai 2008 The Triptych at Muriwai ( where incidentally from 7 to 13 years was my home district) was also a previsualised image. Necessitating the same lighting in each shot same angle of view, a differing focal length lenses for the background and foreground shots. Some careful cutting and pasting gave me an image which I get much satisfaction from. It is on a wall in my home.
and in Natural History Prints
Antipodean Wandering Albatross
Pied Stilt Shepherding Young In 2009 I travelled to Greymouth to attend the Southern Regional and had a wonderful weekend, we flew to Christchurch and with a Rental car went to Greymouth and back
I had never been actively interested in pot hunting or collecting a bunch of trophies but at Howick one member seemed to take out all the trophies, with many members grizzling they couldn't compete. So as a Challenge I had a bash and successfully brought home some of the trophies with a collection of images . I think the following were some of them. Bruce Burgess was the Judge at our Annual Competition.
and Jim Hanton Engineer took out overall Champion other successful images I think included
The Old Wooden Gate Taken on the trip to the Southern Regional at Greymouth near Darfield. The hint of a rainbow added to this image.
The Whitebaiter from the same Trip two images layered and merged together
For the 2010 Natex and Convention at Nelson In Nature Prints as acceptances I was successful with
Recently rediscovered NZ Storm Petrel Oceanitus maorianus I was privileged as a member of the NZ Ornithological society to go out on the Hauraki Gulf a number of times and capture images of this rediscovered Gulf bird.
White Faced Heron Feeding
Tui on Grevillia and in NH Projected Images
Antipodean Wandering Albatross Diomedia exulans In Open Prints
Tasman Roller
Jim Hanton Engineer In 2011 Once again I headed the Natural History Selection Panel along with Geoff Beals and Alistair McAuslan it was a great experience once again meeting at Bret Lucas studio in Penrose it was a very hot day an some wonderful images were
viewed. I was in the process of winding up my Pharmacy Career of of 56 plus years, and readying myself for retirement. getting ready to once again meet with the Honours Board in Takapuna, 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 will complete my two terms of 3 years in Nelson 2015. I was readying myself to attend the National Convention at Albany in April 2011 and planning to retire from Pharmacy at 31 March 2011 . I had had a friend arrive from India in February and I was to take her on a tour to SI for 6 weeks. My trusty caravan which I bought in 1972, and had attended so many PSNZ conventions as my annual holiday was packed ready to go. As I was entering retirement and the prospect of supporting a wife I had decided that sadly Albany would have to be my last convention for financial reasons. Should I be fortunate enough to live as long as my parents, I would have to fund my way through 20 years of retirement In 2012 I had a wee flutter and got an acceptance with
In The Woods An image I made near Arrowtown when Aloma ( now my wife) and I were in the SI in 2011 So my years with PSNZ have been an absolutely wonderful and rewarding passion, and journey. 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, and saw me attending Conventions for 50 years, having gone to a great majority of them 32 I can remember, taking my caravan back and forth across Cook Strait on many, many occasions. Attending a majority of Northern Regionals as well, throughout these years . During the years I did not attend PSNZ annual conventions I would have been at the NZIPP Annual Conference. as one or other of the Conventions was normally my annual holiday, my three employers over the years knowing to book a relief pharmacist in advance, to release me.