2013 MIPP December Newsletter

The Official MIPP Newsletter

December 2013

FOCALPOINT

Issue No. 35 www.mipp-malta.com

EDITORIAL

And

here we are, another Christmas round the corner, another year coming to an end. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know you, but this year has flown by so quickly that I am not sure am ready for 2014. I wish to express my gratitude towards all MIPP members for their following and participation in our events during this year.

If you want your photos featured on the newsletterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s front page just send the images to newsletter@mippmalta.com. Your contributions are always welcome!

Without your participation we would not be here today so keep on coming! I also would like to thank the MIPP Executive Committee for their constant work during the year, and for their constant support and help whilst editing the monthly newsletter as well. I wish all of you a lovely festive season and may you get some lovely photographic gadgets under the christmas tree. Keep well and stay away from too many sweets! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Newsletter Team Editor: Therese Debono Design: Therese Debono Articles: Various contributors Editorial Advice: Kevin Casha Contact: newsletter@mippmalta.com

DECEMBER 2013 pg 3 pg 5 pg 9 pg 15 pg 17 pg 19 pg 20 pg 21 pg 22

cover artist

president’s viewpoint sergio’s blog mipp qualifications mipp notices past event review mipp notices mipp notices calendar monthly talk

CONTENTS A few words from the President First Impressions with the Olympus The Journey Your own page on the MIPP Website The View from Abroad MIPP ‘My Mentor’ Project Official Mentors Mark your diaries! Guido Bonett

Romana Wyllie Romana says, “This is a part of my Steampunk series. The model is my daughter and the setting is the Steampunk café which is in Holesovice in Prague. http://www. tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviewsg274707-d1134573-r168135743Cross_Club-Prague_Bohemia.html

I shot Tereza in studio and took the café images separately. It was January and –17C and we were freezing. I shifted the color of the café to gold which better suits my concept for this picture.” Name: Cogs of Gold

President’s Viewpoint I

just wanted to update you with some important matters that we are currently embarking on at the MIPP. The committee has been very busy reviewing our strategies and attempting to fine tune as best as we can. As you know, the new MIPP website (www. mipp-malta.com) was launched at our recent convention. We urge you to send in photos, articles and any comments you have on our content. We also really want you to avail yourselves of the offer we have for all members to have their own webpage in our site in order to showcase their images. This is totally free and all you need to do is to send us the images (please refer to previous emails on this subject which carried the full details). I would also like to announce that due to special requests by our members, the popular MIPP Online International competition will be back in 2014. The PTYA has also had some other amendments in the rules and I urge you not only to read these carefully, but also to participate in the forthcoming editions. One of the main changes is that ALL images entered into these two competitions will be publicly judged and assessed. You will find these new rules on our website.

There are also changes in our Mentorship rules both for Qualifications as well as for the ‘Mentor Me’ programme. Again, these are all on our website. You will soon all be receiving our tuition course structure, which will again feature the very popular foundation to photography course, as well as a foundation digital editing course and the highly requested MIPP Photoessential workshops. Another slight adjustment has been the closure of three Facebook MIPP Pages, namely MIPP Creativity, MIPP Mobile and MIPP Youth. This is because most members felt that centralizing all MIPP information, assessments and updates through our main Groups, the MIPP official Group and the MIPP Wall, would be more effective. Here again I suggest all those who are not on our two official groups to send us a ‘join’ request. We also urge any of our members who feel that they can offer themselves as committee members to come forward and contact me. The MIPP AGM will soon be with us again, and we are always looking for people who can give their support both in Committees as well as in sub-committees.

kevin’s thoughts

MIPP Facebook Pages: We urge all members of this Page/Group to join the MIPP’s official Facebook Groups/Pages. These are namely the MIPP Wall https://www.facebook.com/groups/mippwall/ and the Malta Institute of Professional Photography https://www.facebook.com/groups/52921714162/ official group page. The function of the MIPP official group page is to keep you updated with the latest news, events and notices from our Institute, whilst the MIPP Wall is mainly for common networking and image assessment. If you are still not yet a member of our Social media photographic community, just send us a ‘join’ message and we will gladly accept your request.

Best regards, Kevin Casha

First Impressions with the

Olympus OM-D EM-1 I

t has now been a few weeks since I’ve put my D700 and full frame equipment on extended leave to go mirrorless. While I have not yet had the opportunity to give the camera a real-life stresstest, I am confident enough to give some detailed first impressions about what I like, and what I don’t like so much about this little gem. First off, let me say that overall I do not regret my choice. I knew there would be some compromise moving from what is possibly the best DSLR ever produced to a camera with a sensor half the size. There was a significant financial risk involved, but I can say that until now, things have worked out quite well.

almost hear backs around the world rejoicing in chorus from the weight relief, and I must say mine is one of them. But let’s get down to the details. In terms of image quality, I have to say that although it doesn’t quite match my D700, it’s impressive to say the least (keeping in mind my adulation of the D700). The sharpness is astounding sometimes I feel it could also be just a tad too sharp but that will certainly be of benefit when blowing up images to exhibition-size. In terms of ISO performance, the positive is that it is almost as good as the D700 up to ISO1600. I probably wouldn’t push it over that for images which are to be heavily postprocessed. Further to that, the noise is quite elegant (for lack of choice of a better word), and similar to the D700 in nature. It is quite film-like and easily controllable in ACR. The bad news is that even at base ISO there is some noise present, and I have ended up giving every image a little luminance noise reduction. However the amount needed does not really affect detail and makes the image much more “processable”.

I’ve taken the camera out a few times and shot under different conditions. I’ve spent hours navigating a very complex menu and flipping through a not-sowell written menu, and finally I think that I’m starting to warm up to the new system. This is definitely a camera which has been designed with the professional or semi-pro in mind, and it is reflected in the myriad blog posts out on the net from pro photographers who have dumped their heavyweights for feather- In terms of RAW images, I must say I weights and have not regretted it. I can was equally impressed. Also keeping

sergio’s g blogg in mind that the final ACR profile for the EM-1 has not reached production yet as of writing, what I have seen is quite awesome. The dynamic range is excellent, and recovery of both highlights and shadows are very good, with good detail retention and acceptable noise levels. I can possibly say the two cameras are head to head on this, with the EM1 possibly having an edge. In all this, one should also keep in mind that the D700, while still current, is about 4 years old. Having said this, my view is that apart from improving video functions and ISO vs Megapixel performance, little has been done in these 4 years in terms of sensor technology. The autofocus is snappy and accurate, the camera is incredibly responsive, and coming from SLRs, sometimes shockingly so. The one thing that bothers me slightly is that I could leave my D700 on all the time without draining much battery, while the OM-D is less nifty in waking up and unless you want your battery drained, you’ll have to let it turn off after a while, which could catch you off guard having to switch it off and on again. However if it’s going to be an intense day of shooting, I suggest just letting it sleep without turning off. Which brings me to another point. I still can’t get used to the combination EVF and back-screen. To clarify - I absolutely adore the EVF. It’s impressive and easy to get used to. However, I have had to switch off the eye sensor as it wouldn’t let the camera go to sleep continuously switching from one to the other as I walked with the camera around my neck. This is one thing that needs some tweaking. One other thing I miss, is the shoot-fromthe-viewfinder-and-review-on-screen method from DSLRs. I’ve had to take down

image preview to half a second, since every time I was shooting, it would show the image on the viewfinder and obstruct my next shot. It would be fantastic to be able to set it to preview images on the screen rather than the viewfinder. The D700 had this great thing that you could see a short preview of every image after a sequential burst to get an impression of what you got. I guess that’s one of the little compromises, and the way of the future. I feel old already. There’s much more to say about the EM-1, however I’ll pause there for now and give some more time for practical shooting and editing before I move on to more detailed analysis. Over all, until now, I can’t say I regret my choice to move to featherweight at all. I said this and will say it again. This is the future. I just pity the big guys out there still clinging onto their DSLR roadmaps shooting out blanket statements such as “mirrorless is for amateurs”. I don’t know if they’re trying to convince us or themselves, but this feels so much like the film-switch and the fullframe switch. I guess we’ll have this conversation again in two or three years tops. Follow Sergio here: www.sergiomuscat.com

The Journey Ramon Curmi’s Associate Panel this past October was impressive to say the least! He really managed to capture nature in a way which I have never been aware of. Who thought that Nature Photography could be so creative! Read on to hear all about Ramon’s journey to get his Associate, and also Charles Calleja’s first experience in mentoring this genre.

Ramon says:

My photographic journey started when one day I was out with my girlfriend in

Gozo in some fields on the cliffs overlooking Dwejra. Since the start of the digital era I loved having a camera to take those special moments. Being always in love with nature since I was a kid, a bird of prey started flying over us and at one point it passed very close to us and I tried to photograph it using my point and shoot which resulted in failure. So I decided to invest in a proper camera and that’s when my love for photography started. A year after I bought my camera, I started attending

a course by a particular photographer who had told me that I am up to the level to go for the A. Well seeing it today I was far from ready for that journey but at least back then I had the courage and the ambition to go for it. So thinking what I should do as for the Associate panel I thought I’d go for something which isn’t a cliché and rarely seen…. So my main idea was to go for Bird photography but I didn’t have the right equipment so I opted for Macro wildlife instead of birds. And that’s how it started. A three year journey where I was immersed into a new

world which most of us, me included, generally overlook. The journey was a huge learning curve with its difficulties as I was trying to master the knowledge in how to shoot insects in an artistic view rather than documenting them. I took a few photos and back then, when I was doing the Fast Track course with Kevin Casha, I showed them to him who gently told me to format the card with everything inside it. Well I didn’t format the card and didn’t let myself get upset but struggled to get better. Back then I didn’t shoot with a flash and was only equipped with a 100mm lens and a camera. I joined a photography forum and they had a section dedicated to macro and a particular thread was people showing their equipment and ideas for light…. Just the other day I decided to have a look at this thread and laughed at the fond memories I have at remembering me trying different setups. Eventually I started getting pretty good at it until I settled for one and from there improved on it. I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to do it but learned mostly by myself. For the techniques used I don’t have enough room here to explain. I had my ups and downs. I’d wait for a weekend or public holiday to go shoot, only to find that it’s too windy or rainy. Many times I went out only to go back empty handed. I had to face various difficult situations, mainly the weird positions I had to stay in, to take a particular photo. Many times I actually hugged a prickly pear tree because the spider I wanted to shoot was in the middle of it, getting attacked by denizens of Asian tigers, but my main fear remained RATS. Not so fondly I remember shooting an insect a few inches away from my face when all of a sudden out comes a rat. Generally rats come out at dusk and that’s when I know I have to go home. Apart from the rats though the first hand experience I was living in and seeing from the other side of my lens had me hooked probably for life. You start seeing attitudes by this miniscule creature and how they live their life, their ways, their expressions and the way they hunt or forage for food. I soon forgot all other type

of photography and focused on just macro. I spent my summers in the middle of nowhere with a camera in hand surrounded by what seems desolation, whilst everyone is cooling off at the beach. But just looking through my faithful companion, the 100mm L, that desolation becomes a busy traffic with everyone going on their business. Time passed fast and the Annual MIPP Convention was approaching. I contacted Charles to see if he could mentor me. Having spent so much time alone I feared that what I saw as beautiful others would either be disgusted or simply not up to standard. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised when Charles said he found it amazing. He gave me much mentoring and we became friends. We did clash a bit sometimes where he’d ask me to remove something which I refused because in my eyes that small something is what made it natural. Eventually the day to print came and being such a critic to myself I started seeing faults in all my photos. Several times I decided to pull the plug; the last time was the day before the judging. But every time Charles managed to convince me otherwise. Well it was worth it. Now that the journey to for the Associate is over I’m planning to go for the same subject for the Fellowship. I am also planning an exhibition dedicated to just to the tiny Wildlife of Malta. But mainly I would love to thank people who guided throughout times. Mainly Kevin Casha, who thanks to his guidance I learnt how to use a camera and he saw my initial photos for the preparation though none of those photos made it to the panel. Albert De Marco who was the man who implanted in me the courage to go for the Associate, even though skill wise I wasn’t ready but my attitude was. And Charles Calleja who was with me for the last few months of my journey and for his encouragement everytime I was going to give up.

Charles says: “Are you sure you want me to mentor you. I am not proficient in Macro or wildlife, so why choose me”? When Ramon Curmi first approached me to mentor him, I was shocked. I was hesitant and wanted to refuse, but Ramon insisted that I could do it. So how about going through the process of mentoring?

What I then started to do for Ramon was first to understand his photography, something which was very exciting to do. I could see his ability to understand the insects and his keen eye for detail, light and composition. So there, I was safe. Therefore, it was a process of eliminating the lesser desired images from the collection that was presented. Ramon wanted to present a panel of 20 different animals, so it was not an easy task to complete. We looked at a large number of images, and continued to press for the excellence in the subject. Each image was superb on its own; however we had the task to make all the images work as a whole panel. One of the problems I first saw was that all the images had a different crop, so this was to be addressed first without compromising the subject and the composition of each image. Initially Ramon refused to change the crop, but when we did some tests, a different and more powerful image emerged with Ramon thinking that the new crop worked better. The reason for having the same crop and positioning the images correctly is to make the whole panel as one unit. During the process, I realised Ramon never had any of his work printed and what he was seeing on screen would not result in the print. It was only a technical thing, and Ramon understood immediately what I was pointing out for, and did some tests by printing a small amount of images. In the final stages I explained how to layout the 20 images as a panel. As is usually suggested, the strongest images should be in the middle of the set. This experience was very rewarding for me as I had to push myself harder due to the subject of the panel. When submitting a Panel for qualifications at any level, a mentor is always important even if the area you are submitting in is a specialised field and nobody is skilled enough in this field.

All Images are by Ramon Curmi and submitted for the Associate Panel

Your own page on the MIPP Website Dear Members, Through Committee member Clayton Abdilla (webmaster) and myself (as co-ordinator), we are currently restructuring the MIPP website. For this purpose we are again offering ALL fully paid up members the opportunity of having their own webpage with a selection of their images. We urge you to take up this free offer and send us immediately TEN (not more, not less please) of your best images. Subject is totally in your hands and they can be a mix of colour and monochrome. Images are to be no larger than 1000 pixels on the longest side, JPG and must not exceed 1 Mb per file. Name each file with your name and surname and Qualified or non Qualified. If Qualified, state Qualification. Eg: Website_Kevin_Casha_Qualified_FMIPP_01 With regards to Qualified MIPP members, please send us also your successful panel images so that these can also be put up in the website in a separate section. In both instances we would like you to send us a portrait picture as well as a short biography.

Please send all images to submissions@mipp-malta.com by the end of September 2013. Please co-operate with us so we can promote your work. If you have not done so as yet, we also suggest you join up our MIPP Facebook group so that you can keep abreast with last minute announcements and updates, as well as our MIPP WALL, where the main purpose is assessment and networking between photographers: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059569&id=1478396569#!/group. php?gid=52921714162&ref=ts http://www.facebook.com/groups/308867885792902/

the EOS 5D Mark lll joins the rental family! ... now available for rent.

for full details and conditions visit www.avantech.com.mt or call on 2148 88 00 Avantech Building St Julianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Road San Gwann SGN 2805

The view from abroad A perspective of the MIPP conference by a visiting guest Words by Tom Lee

n my several years of attending the MIPP conference, I have seen the prospectus change and evolve along with its membership. Far from just being a casual observer, I joined as full member of the institute last year and embraced the sense of family that I get from my own organisation. Although I cannot attend the functions that the organisers arrange for its local membership, I eagerly await the annual return to Maltese shores. this year’s conference has been no exception. The programme of events was as wide as ever and far from embracing the ‘safe’ subjects that are often offered to photographers, the more risqué and taboo genres of social conflict, journalism and nudity were explored and welcomed by all that attended. The bold approach showed that institutions such as the MIPP are not afraid to tackle all aspects of our profession and artistic endeavours and they should be applauded. I was exposed to aspects of photography that I could not envisage undertaking myself, but was intrigued by the complexity and difficulties that photographers such as Hedi Levine and Darren Zammit Lupi face.

The world of John Denton is well known to UK photographers such as myself and fellow Irish colleagues, however the location and nude workshops perhaps offered a different perspective to the work undertaken by local Maltese photographers. The Forum was also a key part of the convention that I enjoyed, hosted by Joe Zammit Lucia. The concept of branding was discussed with copious notes scrambled down as the panel of eminent practitioners dispensing their thoughts and values towards the subject of making a name for yourself and services. The final evening was another departure from previous years, as the culmination of the weekend was capped off with a slightly less formal presentation event and buffet style gathering. All in all, it was a triumph for the organisers who have not shirked from making changes in an effort to keep the event fresh for all attendees. Far from the usual suspects, I was pleased to see a much newer group of faces along with some more recognisable friends, showing that change can be good and far from frightening off

past event review

the stalwarts of the group, encourages new blood and fresh ideas to broaden the outlook of our sometimes stereotyped profession. The event was supported in part, as always by the Societies based in the UK but with widespread European appeal and was also attended by the CEO Phil Jones and his wife Juliet. Together with the MIPP and principally the convention organising committee, they have continued to develop and put together my most memorable MIPP convention so far.

Above L-R: Podge Kelly & Tom Lee during the MIPP October Convention Workshop on Friday Image courtesy of Martin Agius

MIPP ‘My Mentor’ Project P

rimarily our objective at MIPP is to promote professional photography. This aim can only be achieved by continuously tutoring and mentoring our members, thus giving them the assistance and support they require. To further sustain and maintain the quality and level of our members’ achievements, the MIPP will be embarking on a new initiative called ‘My Mentor’. The aim of this project is to provide a new customized mentoring service to members. A member who enrolls in this programme will be provided with a personal qualified mentor for a period of 6 months. Members can enroll for several sessions repeatedly. Each month the enrolled members will submit ONE email, with a maximum of five images, to their appointed mentor; the latter will provide the necessary feedback on submitted photographs via email. ‘My Mentor’ is not a replacement of the mentoring service already provided to those members who submit a panel for the MIPP qualifications; the panel mentoring is still an ongoing service. Our aim is to have this project working alongside the existing mentoring service and consequently working hand in hand; this will supply our members with an additional facility to further enhance their abilities. All members should benefit from this project, especially those who are new to Photography and all those who wish to start aspiring to acquire any of our qualifications.

Payment for this service will be €50, payable in advance.

If interested, contact us on courses@mipp-malta.com

Official Mentors The official MIPP mentors for Qualifications and the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My Mentor Programmeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are:

Qualifications: Charles Calleja Joe P. Smith Sergio Muscat Martin Agius

My Mentor Programme: Charles Calleja Sergio Muscat Martin Agius Kevin Casha Should you be interested, please fill in the appropriate form, making sure you select

CALENDAR 6th December MIPP Christmas Party! 20:00hrs, Le Meridien

13th December Photowalk - Archery (by booking) Castello dei Baroni Wardija; 9:30hrs

17th December Monthly Talk: Guido Bonett 19:30hrs, Le Meridien

Keep tuned 2014 Calendar! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wildlife Photography in East Africa

monthly talk

Join us for an interesting talk by Guido Bonett on Tuesday 17th December at Le Meridien at 19:30hrs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A photographic journey to Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar.

A 3 week journey to the plains of Eastern Africa to witness the annual migration of over 1 million Wildebeest from the Serengeti to the Massai Maraâ&#x20AC;?

Above: Image by Guido Bonett