Part 2 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 and I 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-awalling
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 "Olé " with 3 other prints gaining acceptances. This image "Olé " 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
Olé
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 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, 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 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. . 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 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 chick
NZ Sun orchid..Thelymitra species
Celmisia spectabilis
Black Billed Gull at nest
Community of alpine plants
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 chick Black Billed Gull at nest 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. as I spent 3 days with eye glued to lens and ear on radio via earphone. 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 reelection 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 GovernorGeneral 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
Petite Fair lady Honours
Chicco Bronze Medal
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" This image I was my successful entry in the "Portrait" competition at Pukekohe-Franklin. 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
Concentration
Pomegranate Platter
Mr Plimmer takes a Stroll
Triple Whammy
Architectural facade
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 GoosenCooper. 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
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
Masculinity
Prima Donna
A Full Hand
Another Spin
Femininity
Two of a Kind
Triple Whammy
Graffiti
Family Affair
Signs of the Times
Night Patrol
Celebration
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.