New Zealand Camera 2021

Fantastic Response to New Zealand Camera

By Paul Whitham LPSNZ, Councillor for Publications

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2021 edition of New Zealand Camera closed on 31 March and the response far exceeded those received in 2020. In total, 387 photographers submitted 749 images for consideration. This is well up on the 274 photographers who entered 538 images in 2020.

Members will be aware that only images taken after 1 January 2019 were eligible for selection, and those submitting were asked to confirm that the image complied. It was therefore very disappointing that seven images from six photographers were disqualified as their metadata indicated that they were taken before 1 January 2019.

Our intrepid group of selectors - Toya Heatley APSNZ, Annette Johnson APSNZ, Suzie Whelan APSNZ and Daniel Wong APSNZ - will have a mammoth task whittling the images down to the 150 that will appear in the book. As a first step, all of the images were put into a Lightroom catalogue and this showed up some interesting stats.

Of the 751 images, Lightroom was able to recognise 574 which had been shot with a total of 119 different cameras brands/models. Table 1 below shows how the 574 were spread amongst the brands.

The images were then categorised into their major groups and it was interesting to see what most people were shooting (Table 2).

The selection process will take place through April and results will be emailed out some time in May. We hope to have the book distributed in September.

Table 1 by Brand

Canon Nikon

Total %

228 39.7% 153 26.7%

Sony

112 19.5% Olympus 28 4.9% Panasonic/Lumix 19 3.3% Phones 11 1.9% Fujifilm 8 1.4% Pentax 8 1.4% Leica 4 0.7% DJI (drone) 3 0.5%

Table 2 by Category

Total %

Landscape People

209 27.8% 127 16.9% Birds 111 14.8% Creative/Abstract 103 13.7% Flowers & Plants 56 7.5% Photojournalism 37 4.9% Animals 36 4.8% Still Life 27 3.6% Structures 20 2.7% Insects 13 1.7% Transport 12 1.6%

Audio-Visual News

by Trish McAuslan AV-AAPS FAPS APSNZ EFIAP Coordinator of Audio-Visuals for PSNZ

Tauranga AV Salon

THIS SALON IS open to all members of PSNZ and members of PSNZ affiliated photographic clubs. All the information for this Salon is on the Tauranga Photographic Society website: https://taurangaphoto.nz/ In the banner across the top of the home page, you will see Audio-Visual Salon. From there you can see the guidelines and rules. Complete your entry and use web transfer to upload your entries. Entries will open on 12 May and close on 9 June.

Audio-Visuals — from a Judge’s Viewpoint

Judging an AV is not quite the same as judging a still image. Generally there is more time to watch an AV, which is just as well. The judge has to consider the interest of the concept or storyline and the way it has been constructed, the quality of the images and the structure of the audio - and how these three elements work together to provide the overall experience.

To start with, the judge must be aware of the storyline or concept. Was it interesting? Did it hold attention right to the end?

What can you do as the creator of an AV to hold the interest of the judge? Think about the audience and construct your AV to be interesting to your target audience. When you are creating an AV for a competition like the Tauranga AV Salon or the Jack Sprosen, your target audience may be strangers. An AV about a family event will be of interest to members of the family but probably not to strangers. An AV about a local event to show to a local audience will include well known local people and possibly what they said. But an AV about that same event for people who were not there and who do not know the locals will be more factual. It will explain what the event is about and describe some of the things that happened. Be aware that the people watching your AV were not there and don’t know the people in the story. It is most likely to use impersonal style language.

A story about a trip you did to Paris to show your family is likely to include something like, ‘Here we are, waiting in a queue for an hour to get tickets for the Eiffel Tower’. However, for a competition you can use the same photos but the narrative will be different. It may be something like, ‘The Eiffel Tower is the mostvisited paid monument in the world. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, more than seven million people went up it each year.’

Know what the story is that you want to tell. Judges are often heard to mutter, ‘Less is more!’ In other words, tell the story concisely and resist the temptation to add just a bit more — because you have some good photos you want to use or to include some extra photos because you have not yet reached the time limit.

The second part of an audio-visual is the audio, so at the same time as being aware of the concept, the judges are also aware of the quality and complexity of the audio track and how well it supports the concept.

The simplest form of an audio track is to find a piece of music which supports the main idea of the AV and which is the length of the AV. If done well, a more complex audio track that combines, several pieces of music, a narrative and sounds should score more highly than the simple audio track. The emphasis here is on learning how to prepare a more complex audio track well. Judges are always very quick to notice problems with the audio track such as unsuitable music, music which stops and then another piece starts or music which comes to an abrupt halt, as well as poorly written and/or poorly recorded narrative.

The third part of an audio-visual is the image quality. Judges are frequently still image photographers, and possibly also judges, and they are very quickly aware of images which are not quite sharp, have poor composition or have areas of over exposure. When you are taking photos for an AV, take as many as you can and select the best ones to tell the story or illustrate the concept. Put them up on a storyboard such as Bridge or Lightroom, and remove any duplicates and poor quality images before putting them in order to tell the story. It is expected that the image quality will be of a good overall standard. Finally, post process all the images you plan to use to make them the best they can be, before importing them into your AV creation application.

You need to have enough images to cover the whole story. For example, if your story starts at sunrise and you don’t have a photo of the sunrise, either change the storyline to leave out that bit or be creative, such as starting with just a sunrise sky (no land) you have just taken. Your viewers won’t know that you took it from the backdoor at home rather than in Mexico where your story takes place.

Finally the judges will be aware how well the images, audio track and concept work together. For example, do the photos change quickly when the action is fast and more slowly in a quieter part of the story? Do the photos change with the rhythm of the music? Overall, an experienced AV judge will take a lot of things into consideration when judging. As the creator of an AV, being aware of how AVs are judged will help you to create an audio-visual that your viewers will enjoy watching.