PPC Photonews Spring 2016

Photonews Spring 2016

Spring 2016

The journal of the Postal Photographic Club Welcome to the Spring issue of Photonews, the journal of the Postal Photographic Club.

As always, I would like to extend my very grateful thanks to everyone who has helped with this issue. A special shoutout to Barry Roberts for his unsolicited item which to my delight appeared totally unexpectedly in my Inbox a month or so ago - will you be the next to surprise me?

Congratulations to Francesca Shearcroft whose image graces the front cover as winner of the Christmas Photonews Forum competition, a selection of the runners-up can also be found within.

This issue sees the conclusion of Eric’s natural history/close-up articles and the start of a couple of new multipart articles from new contributors. Eric and I Take in the Washburn Valley just upriver from are currently working on Blubberhouses © Richard Bown complementary pieces for the Summer issue and I am also working with another member on a three part article with travel as a theme. If you have any ideas let me know; hopefully all of these contributors will confirm that collaborating on a Photonews article is painless and can be great fun.

Featured Articles 6 - Continuing the Family Tradition Roy Wilson 14 - Starting with film - part one Bill Martindale 18 - Still Snapping after all these years John Kay 24 - PPC Website Galleries Richard Walliker 28 - Photographic art: moving away from reality Steve Terry 34 - Member Profile David Ridley 36 - Macro & close-up part 3: Plants Eric Ladbury 50 - Rephotographing B&W negatives Barry Roberts 56 - Richard’s Rant!

Richard Bown

Regulars Classic Cameras - p54 Club Matters - p4, 5 & 33 Eric’s Corner - p64 Notes from the Gulf - p13 Photoshorts - p55 PPC Forum - p61 PPC Website - p62

Photonews is published four times a year.

All rights reserved. All materials copyright without exception to the Postal Photographic Club and/or the authors. Any opinion or statement expressed by the author of any article published in this magazine does not necessarily reflect the views of The Postal Photographic Club, the editor, or its members.

Cover image: “Explosion!” by PPC member Francesca Shearcroft

OPENING SHOT ”Looking Out” . Taken from inside the cave above Rydal Water in the Lake District on a drizzly day. The image was taken in November 1985 and I was using FP4 film developed in my darkroom which was set up in the garage. The camera would have been one of the best film cameras around at the time, the Nikon F90X . I wanted to get the inside of the cave walls with some detail showing which made the outside view overexpose but I think that adds to the “inside looking out” experience, so I made no attempt to burn it in.

Image © Barry Roberts ARPS

John Kay, General Secretary

Club Matters I have been contributing to Photonews for a long time and apart from the odd front cover picture I have been able to avoid being featured in the magazine - even when I was Joint Editor! As we all know, Photonews has gone from strength to strength since Dave Whenham took over as Editor and a big part of this has been due to Dave’s considerable success in persuading members to send in contributions. As you will see on page 18 in this issue, it seems that I have also been a victim of his charm.

Copies of the revised Club Rules and Constitution were sent out to all members in January. The last time we reviewed them was in 2010 and the main reason for doing it once again was because we now have Online Circles, and also because a significant part of the club’s management and communications are now carried out via the Internet. Even though the new documents may not appear to be significantly different to the previous ones, there was a lot of work put in by several committee member and I offer my thanks to all those involved.

publicity; shall we do the same for our 80th year in 2017?

Maybe having a long history doesn’t mean too much these days; the way most of us produce photographs has changed since 1937 but we are still doing it for the same reasons. Your thoughts on what we do are invited.

Welcome to new members A warm welcome is extended to new members: • • • • •

Douglas Carberry (IC2), Michael Freeman (IC1), Frank Kent (IC3 & DS), Maxwell Law (IC4 & IC5), Alan Phelps (DS).

Club membership numbers held steady in 2015. Do you know someone who would enjoy adding membership of the PPC to their photographic activities?

We can accept additional members into nearly all of our print and Internet circles.

Joining another circle

The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that one major amendment to the rules was the opening of PPC membership to photographers that permanently live outside the UK. For obvious reasons it only applies to membership of Internet Circles and I am pleased to advise that we now have a member that lives in Peru and another from Jakarta, in Indonesia.

Quite a few print circle members have added an Internet Circle to their membership but not many IC members have joined our B&W or colour print circles. A good number of Internet circle members entered prints into last year’s TE Annual Print Competition, so there are plenty of IC members that also enjoy producing a high quality printed image – so why not give it a try?

80 Years and still going strong

The members of our print circles have the pleasure of receiving their monthly folios from the postman, so get in touch with me if you fancy adding a postal print circle to your membership; the club website gives details about all of our circles – postal and Internet.

I haven’t really got to grips with how it is decided when an anniversary is deemed to be special. We all recognise 25 years and 50 years as deserving milestones, but what about 80 years?

The club’s 50th anniversary was celebrated with gold stickers on the print folders and a special edition of Photonews, and we did promote the club’s 75th year in correspondence and

There is no additional membership fee for being in more than one PPC circle; postal circle members receive one free pack of print folders but do have to pay for the postage to send the folios to the next member on the rota.

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John Kay, General Secretary

Club Matters contd.

Annual Rally 2016

Bookings are going well for this year’s annual rally weekend, which will be in the Cotswolds, over the weekend 7th to 9th October. The venue is the Mayfield House Hotel in Crudwell, which is near to Malmesbury; it is where we held the successful rally in 2014. Details of the venue and nearby places to visit can be seen on their website at: http://www.mayfieldhousehotel.co.uk The cost for the weekend with an en-suite room, including meals from Friday evening to Sunday lunch (Saturday lunch NOT included) is £160 per person. In recent years, quite a number of members have extended their stay at the rally venue by a couple of nights, a very favourable rate of £60.00 per person per night, for dinner, bed and breakfast has been negotiated for those wishing to add Thursday night and / or Sunday night to their visit. Deposits of £25 per person are required.

The hotel also has a limited number of upgraded Garden side and Courtyard rooms available at an additional cost of £20.00 per room per night i.e. £40.00 more for the weekend. These rooms are larger than standard and their extra features include a flat screen TV with satellite freeview, luxury mattress toppers and Cotton Oxford pillows. Complimentary mineral waters and filter coffee, also ipod / phone docking stations.

If you haven’t booked yet you can still use the booking form that was issued with your subscription renewal form last December, or send an email to John Kay prior to forwarding your deposit.

Founders Cup Competition

Committee news and update

This competition has two classifications; Print Circles and Screen Image Circles, with separate judges for each category. If you were awarded a top 3 place in one of the recent rounds in your circle, your photograph/jpg image will now be with Jon Allanson.

Dave Williams, our new Publicity Officer, has continued to concentrate on promoting the club on various social media sites and he has also succeeded in getting a full page write up about us in the PAGB online e-news magazine - 1st March edition. If you are also in a local camera club you will probably already get the PAGB enews, but anyone can register to receive it. The web address is - www.pagbnews.co.uk

The judging of the competition will be taking place soon and there will be top circle awards as well as individual image awards.

The results will be announced by e-mail and the winning pictures will be included in Photonews.

An updated committee contact list will be sent out shortly after this issue of Photonews is published.

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Continuing the Family Tradition

Roy Wilson

In July 1951 I went to live with my grandparents in Cork, Southern Ireland. My mother had died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage aged thirty-nine. We had lived in the university town of Bangor in North Wales for about four years. My father worked overseas with the NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institution) mainly in Germany but also in Cyprus, Singapore, Aden and Malta; in fact anywhere in the world where British Forces were stationed. He certainly wasn't in a position to have me live with him, so it was to my maternal grandparents I went to live.

I was aware that my mother had three sisters and three brothers, she was the second eldest, but as we had lived in England and Wales since the end of the war my aunts and uncles were rarely part of our lives.

During the first couple of years we lived in my grandparents rambling old house, with its enormous garden and huge trees. I settled in to my new surroundings and new school without too much effort, and I had cousins who lived not too far away that I saw on a regular basis.

It wasn't long before I came across a number of family photograph albums going back to the 1920's. It was quite a revelation to see this huge collection of small black and white photos of my mother's extended family. For the first time in my short life I was looking at the strange comings and goings of a family that had lived through a Civil War (1916-1922); my mother had been born in 1911. So you can imagine the sort of photos I was seeing for the first time - family gatherings, outings to the sea-side, First Communions, Confirmations and weddings, they were all there. There were even two albums of my mother's which included her two years when spent at school in Paris which was something I had only been vaguely aware of at the time. The second album was a set of photos taken when she and her school friends went to Rome in 1928 and attended an audience with Pope Pius Xl. This was something right out of the blue that my mother had never mentioned when she was alive.

My grandmother explained that my grandfather had a sister who lived in London and had married an Englishman of some 'financial standing’, which I took to mean that he was extremely wealthy. In the event my grandfather's sister did not have any children of her own. As a result at some time in 1926 my mother was given the oppottunity to attend school in Paris for her final two years and, understandably, she jumped at the opportunity to see a new and exciting world.

I suppose thinking about these revelations as they were told to me by my grandmother, combined with a series of old photographs which vividly brought it to life, it was no wonder they made such an impression. It was as if the family history was laid out in a series of small black and white photographs carefully pasted on to the brown pages of an album, complete with names and dates. I was totally fascinated, so much so that even today I'm quite convinced that all those 60 years ago I was determined to get myself a camera and continue what I believed was a family tradition.

Can we help you?

This well-spotted opportunity on the street made it to the shortlist for the recent Photonews cover competition.

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The Road to Elgol  June 2007, First Sticker C1 Canon 10 D f8 @ 1/125 iso 200 Polarizer

Bassenthwaite Lake in Flood January 2007 Equal First Sticker C1 Canon 10 D f8 @ 1/180 Polarizer

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Continuing the Family Tradition

Roy Wilson

It wasn't until the summer of 1955 that my frustrations to raise the necessary cash for a camera were finally overcome.

School holidays in the summer lasted an eternity, well 8-9 weeks at least. Surely, I thought, a young, eager and fit 14 year old would have no difficulty finding gainful employment?

My friend Michael who lived up the road suggested that I might go 'tinning beet' at a farm 3 or 4 miles outside the city limits. I should point out that the local lads of my acquaintance were not in the habit of pronouncing their th's, so the mystery of 'tinning beet' did not become entirely clear until the Monday morning the following week when I knocked on the farmhouse door shortly after 8.30am, having set out on my bike with a packed-lunch provided by my grandmother an hour earlier.

The farmer, a Mr Whiteside, looked a little like my grandfather but perhaps a few years younger. He enquired as to whether I had any experience of what was involved in what I was about to embark on? I readily admitted that I had no experience, but assured him I was eager to learn. I also explained to him that I was anxious to save enough money to purchase a new camera. This seemed to satisfy him and we set off at a pace in the general direction of the farm proper. As we walked he enquired if I played cricket? Confused about such a question, I said I played cricket at school. He then pointed in the direction of a couple of sacks which were hanging on a fence - these he informed me were to be my 'pads'. As we proceeded through the farm he handed me four pieces of twine which in due course would secure my 'pads' above and below my knees.

Just then we came to the gate of the field where I was about to be given a demonstration on the technique of 'tinning beet'.

Best of Friends 2nd Sticker Circle C1 January 1998.

With my 'pads' securely attached to my lower legs (in cricket Rolleiflex {F} Planar 2.8 lens. f5.6 1/60 - Ilford Delta 400 fashion), I watched Mr Whiteside as he got down on his knees Perceptol stock 11mins @ 20c beside the drill of what he told me was sugar beet at the early stage of its development, the plants were a continuous line of green growth approximately 8 inches high. The idea he explained was to leave a single strong looking plant at the beginning of the drill in place and remove the following 9 inches or so by hand, leaving the next plant in perfect isolation. This process was then to be continued to the end of the drill which was 200 yards away in the distance, all of which took place while I was on my hands and knees. If I got the knack of the technique required my remuneration would be 2/6d a day for the first two

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Carnival Capers

[Tavira, Portugal] April 2003 Nikon FE f5.6 @ 1/125 HP5+ rated at ISO 250 Ilfotech HC [8+292] 7mins @ 20C

Train Traffic Control [Bridgnorth]

The Matchstick People

A Labour of Love

[Canary Wharf] March 2001 First Sticker Circle One Olympus OMn1 28mm Zuiko lens - f8 @1/60 HP5+ Ifotech C 1:38 6.5 mins @ 20C

January 2001 First Sticker Circle One Nikon FE 1.8 Nikkor Lens f11 @ 1/60 Ilfotech C 6.5 mins @ 20C

[Bridgnorth] October 2003 3rd Sticker Circle One Nikon FE f8 @ 1/125 HP5+ Ilfotec 1:37 7 mins @ 20C

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Through the Gap

3rd Sticker Circle C1, April 2012 Canon 10D 50mm [ 80mm equiv]

The Dancer 2nd Sticker Circle C1 January 2012 Canon 10D 50mm [80mm equiv] f4.5 @ 1/500 ISO 100

Best of Friends II August 1998 Nikon FE 50mm f5.6 @ 1/125 Delta 400

Continuing the Family Tradition

Roy Wilson

days, after which I would receive 2/6d per drill. As I became more proficient I could earn between 7/6d and 10/- a day, a small foftune to me. For the next five weeks I earned £2.10.0 a week, moving to a larger field and being joined by several others my age, all 'tinning beet' as fast as we could go.

For the last few weeks we had a new task. But first we had to adapt our 'pads' to become 'aprons' (of a kind). The twine was knotted to two adjacent corners of the sack to become an apron, you tied the apron around your waist with the string, then with your left hand you held the remaining corners of the sack, you filled the apron with grow-more like fertilizer and placed a circle of the compound around the sugar beet plant which was by now growing larger each day. This meant that for a 200 yard drill you bent approximately 240 times per drill for seven hours a day - yes we had an hour off for our packed-lunch plus time to recover.

Within a few days of handing in my 'pads/apron' I spent £5.12.6d on a Zeiss Ikon Nettar camera with a F6.3 Novar lens and Prontor shutter (Bulb, 1/25th, 1/75th and 1/2OOth) It even had a leather case. Though the camera was named a 517/16 it actually took 12 x 6cm square photos on 120 film. So began my personal collection of small black and white images. To my mlnd I was carrying on a tradition started many years before by my extended family.

Langdale Pikes

1st Sticker Circle C1 February 2012 Sony DSC W170 Vario-Tessar [P]

© Martin Hart

The Zeiss Nettar stayed with me until 1959 when I traded it in for a Vo i g t l a n d e r V i t o B / L w i t h a 2.8/50mm lens (see picture). In 1968 I sold the Voigtlander to a colleague at work for £15. He happened to be Martin Hart who still has the camera, and he of course is a member of Circle One, which I belong to as well. Small world!

All images © Roy Wilson unless stated

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Notes from the Gulf

John Pattison

Dhows – traditional boats of the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf, still built in the local shipyards of the Gulf States. © John Pattison. Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens, 1/100s at f/13, ISO 250.

The image here shows working fishing dhows moored near to the Museum of Islamic Art Park in Doha, Qatar, which I was wandering around on the day. Taken around 5.00 pm in late April the sun was still high in the cloudless sky, the lighting was still quite harsh but starting to go into the golden hour. These Dhows go out every night and bring back their catches for sale in the local souks and also the local supermarkets. If one gets up early enough it is possible to buy directly from the boats when they land their catches.

I spent some time in post-production of the image, first to crop from the standard 35 mm horizontal format into the letter box format seen followed by basic adjustments to contrast, tone and clarity and to bring detail back into the highlight areas along the shore line. Finally I thought the image would suit an older look. Software used was Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 for the basic adjustments followed by further editing in Alien Skin’s new Exposure X, which for those of you who may not be familiar with this software has many fully customisable presets to simulate colour and black and white film types as well as basic raw conversion tools.

Museum of Islamic Art Park (MIA) - “A Wonderful green, open space in the City” Adjacent to the museum is MIA Park where you can stroll, participate in activities or just gaze at the Doha skyline from the best vantage point in the city. MIA Park is the perfect place to take a stroll or for your children to run around in complete safety.

Source: http://www.mia.org.qa/en/mia-park 13

Starting with film - part one Film is not dead it just smells funny, but that is probably just the chemicals.

Bill Martindale

Brought up in the digital age? Or perhaps you came to photography later in life and skipped the so-called analogue days entirely? If that is so then this short series of articles is for you.

Back to Basics - and assuming no prior knowledge!

Photographic film these days is a strip of clear material coated with a chemical emulsion which is sensitive to light and an anti-halation layer to stop light being reflected back through the film base which would give a halo effect round bright lights in the image (as can be seen on some older photographs).

Depending on the size it is contained in either a cassette or tightly wound in a paper wrapper; 35 mm cassettes and 120 roll film are the two sizes most commonly found today. There are still of course sheet films for large format cameras with 4” x 5” being in common use as are 5” x 7” and 8” x 10” but negative sizes can go as high as 20” x 24”.

35 mm film is usually sold in either 24 or 36 exposures. It produces images that are 24 mm x 36 mm in a normal camera - basically the same dimensions as a so-called full-frame sensor in a digital camera. There are exceptions such as half-frame cameras which give an 18 mm x 24 mm image or panoramic cameras which give various sized images depending on the way the camera is structured. 35 mm film is also available in a bulk length of either 17 or 30 metres so that by using a variety of available loaders you can load any length you need up to 36 exposures.

120 film is sold as a fixed length and the format of the camera determines the number of images obtained. For example 6x4.5 format camera will give fifteen or sixteen 6cm x 4.5cm images, 6x6 produces twelve 6cm x 6cm frames whilst a 6x7 camera yields ten. Those sizes are nominal in centimetres. There have also been adapter backs for some cameras allowing them to use 70 mm film in a continuous length similar to the bulk lengths of 35 mm but these tend to be rarer now.

Side Chapel Heptonstall.

Scan of a darkroom print.

Mamiya 7 with 50mm (wide angle) lens on a tripod at f5.6. Ilford FP4 Plus rated at 64 ISO and processed in Ilford Perceptol diluted 1+2 for 15 1/2 minutes at 24°C

To suit press purposes in the past both types of film have been produced in double lengths for example 220 film which dispensed with the backing paper in the middle of the roll allowing more film to be wound onto the spool and a 72 shot length for 35 mm which was on a much thinner base than normal allowing more film to be contained in a standard cassette. Both are now out of common use.

All images © Bill Martindale All scanned darkroom prints were printed on Ilford Multigrade paper and processed in Ilford Multigrade developer for 1 minute.

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Weathered Groyne.

Scan of a darkroom print. Taken on the beach near to Aldingham. Tripod mounted Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR which has a fixed 75 mm Planar lens.

Fuji Acros 100 rated at 80 ISO and processed in Ilford Perceptol diluted 1+2 for 16 minutes at 24째C

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In a World of His Own. Scan of a darkroom print. Looking down on to Hebden Bridge, this is very similar viewpoint to the 1978 Denis Thorpe photograph on page 89 of his book “On Home Ground”. If you look very closely in my version there is one guy in a white shirt at the junction of the roads hence the choice of title. It was taken on a tripod mounted Mamiya 7 using the 150 mm tele lens.

Ilford Pan F Plus rated at 16 ISO processed in Ilford Ilfotec HC diluted 1+49 for 6 minutes at 20°C

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In essence a camera is simply a light tight box with a method of holding the film flat and a hole to let the light in to form the image. A good example of that is the one shot pinhole camera many of us made at school in physics lessons. The modern camera is still a light tight box but now has a winding mechanism allowing a number of exposures to be made along the film, a pressure plate to hold the film flat, a lens with an iris to control the amount of light to enter the box allowing more light than a pinhole, a focussing capability and a shutter, again to control the amount of light entering in conjunction with the iris in the lens.

Mamiya 7ii with lenses and filters

There are a number of different types of camera available in various forms some of which are discussed below. The digital photographer will recognise each of these and no doubt appreciate that modern digital cameras still follow a similar taxonomy.

Regular readers of Geoff’s Classic Cameras feature will also feel at home here.

SLR - In this type of camera light enters through the lens and is reflected up into the eyepiece by a movable mirror which swings up out of the way at the moment of exposure. There have been cameras with semi-silvered mirrors that allowed light to pass through taking out the swinging mirror thus allowing for higher speeds when using a motor drive for example. SLR cameras are available in both 35mm and 120 format. The 35mm examples are usually fitted with focal lane shutters thus allowing for simple exchange of the lenses.

Those taking 120 film are more likely to be fitted with leaf in lens shutters although there are models with focal plane shutters. Examples in 35mm cover nearly all of the major makers such as Canon, Leica, Nikon, Pentax etc. They are more limited in 120 but marques such as Hasselblad, Bronica and Mamiya are the major suppliers although there are others.

Compact - These can range from simple box camera types to complex machines capable of producing excellent results. They usually have fixed lenses, often wider angle and in the later models auto exposure and wind on. Models such as the Olympus Trip, Rollei 35 and the Ricoh GR series are typical.

Rangefinder - These are sophisticated cameras that are focussed by aligning two images over each other in the viewfinder. They often use interchangeable lenses and in most models the viewfinder throws up a bright line finder to show the area covered by the chosen lens.

The most common marque in rangefinder cameras, especially in 35 mm, is the Leica. Lately though the Contax G series of fully automated cameras are their equal.

However there are examples of simpler cameras using rangefinder focussing such as the Olympus XA. There are 120 examples of rangefinder cameras, notably the Mamiya 6 and 7 series (see above, right) as well as the fixed lens series by Fuji. Changing a lens on these cameras is slightly more complex with the need to engage a separate blind to cover the film as these cameras use in lens leaf shutters.

We will leave large format cameras for another time but in short, users of digital cameras are certain to find something in the film line that feels familiar to their current camera - after all where do most digital cameras find their ancestry?

Malham Walkway.

Scan from a darkroom print, again on a tripod mounted M7 using the 80 mm standard lens. Ilford FP4 Plus rated at 64 ISO and processed in Ilford ID11 diluted 1+1 for 8 minutes at 20°C

In the next issue: tips for shooting with film, key differences compared to shooting digitally and choice of film and the use of filters.

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Still Snapping After All These Years

John Kay

Finally, after quite a lot of behind the scenes encouragement we have persuaded our General Secretary to step out of the shadows and share a little of his life story and a few of his images.

John likes to travel as this selection of what could probably be described as travel and street photographs shows, he also likes both visual and verbal puns as the almost perfectly alliterative “Peppa Pig Passing Pockets In Pillory Street” amply demonstrates.

It is very likely that many members think that I have been in the PPC since it started. In a way I have, because I oversaw the referendum that we held at the end of the last millennium, when it was decided that we should update the club’s name from The Half Plate Postal Club. Even in those days - when film was still king and the only way any ‘serious photographer’ would even consider digital imaging was to scan film - the club was having problems with people wondering what half plate meant. If they knew the term they often asked if the members needed to use half plate cameras. I organised a poll after asking members for their suggestions and our new name was adopted on 1st January 2000. Seeing as we now have as many Internet Circles as Postal Circles, the name that ‘does what it says on the tin’ no longer seems quite as appropriate. Personally, I don’t want to hold another poll, but I am quite happy to simply refer to us as the PPC. Why did I join? I had been using Olympus OM series cameras since the first OM1 SLR was launched and I was a member of the Club Olympus postal folios.

Unfortunately the chap who started it had to resign when his wife became seriously ill; the club folded because he had not set up a proper infrastructure.

An enterprising member of the circle I belonged to arranged for several of us to move en-bloc to the Half Plate Club.

I had upgraded to an Olympus OM camera about 1975, after using a Miranda SLR since the mid 60’s. Shortly after joining Club Olympus I was very pleased to get second place in a club competition, Olympus had donated the first prize; it was an XA2 compact 35mm camera. They also donated the second prize, to my great disappointment it was a pack of Olympus lens tissues!

Flowers at No. 22 So when did I join the Half Plate Postal Club? It was in 1982 - a mere 34 years ago. I am nowhere near the record for longest serving member but I am getting closer. Yes, we have several members who have been entering photos into the monthly folios for over 40 years – and still winning awards.

As you will have gathered I must have been very young when I took up photography as a hobby. I was given a Kodak Brownie camera for my tenth birthday and developed and contact printed the size 120 B&W films with my Dad. When I was in my teens I bought a 35mm camera - a Kodak Retinette 1a, it must have cost about a week’s wages. An enlarger followed and photography became a hobby. It has remained my favourite hobby ever since, waxing and waning when other activities had to take preference. The great thing about photography is that you can incorporate it into other hobbies and interests, and it can even earn you a few bob as well.

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Holding Hands

Siesta Time 19

Le Parapluie

Peppa Pig Passing Pockets In Pillory Street 20

Still Snapping After All These Years

John Kay

Over the years I have dabbled in most types and genres of photography - had a bash at most subjects but never specialised in any. I have developed and printed in mono and colour (thank goodness for ink jet printing - colour printing with film takes real dedication) and produced slide/tape audio-visuals. For many years I almost exclusively used slide film and the discipline of having to get it right in the camera is still with me now. Zapping off dozens of digital frames simply means extra time editing them with a computer – no thanks.

My photographs are rarely the result of research and planning and I don’t carefully check out where the classic viewpoints at famous places are. I like getting to a place and seeing what Airport Transfer encourages me to get my camera gear out. I really enjoy taking pictures and I find that photography makes you more observant and helps you appreciate the event or scene you are capturing, particularly when you witness beautiful lighting – not something you can define, but you know it when you see it. I just photograph what takes my fancy - yes; I simply do it for fun.

I have had reasonable success in competition but I don’t enter competitions outside my local camera club and the PPC. I don’t have the ambition or commitment needed to produce images for submission to national and international competition - although I recognise that achieving distinctions in this way is the true acknowledgment of success and the quality of your photography.

I stayed with the Olympus OM system for many years and the OM2n remains my favourite camera to this day. The decision to change to Pentax came when I put a couple of Zuiko lenses in for repair and was told that “they do wear out you know”, this was in the 1990s when the OM system was looking dated and Olympus were no longer enthusiastically supporting it. Ten years later I swapped horses again, when I ‘went digital’.

Pentax was lagging way behind Canon in both spec and price, so the Pentax gear joined the OM’s in my camera collection.

Red Rock Country 21

Shared Pleasure

Haymaking Time

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Still Snapping After All These Years

John Kay

Too Wet to Swim

I currently use a Canon 50D DSLR and a Canon G1X compact (with C size sensor) and I will be surprised if I change from Canon in the future - mind you lenses do wear out.

To conclude, I suppose I should mention some famous photographer or artist that has influenced my photography.

However I can’t say I have any big heroes; if there are any that I admire they are more likely to be on the PAGB lecturers list, rather than one of the world famous photographers that are feted in magazines.

All images Š John Kay

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PPC Website Galleries: Richard Walliker (C19 and IC4) http://www.postalphotoclub.org.uk

The PPC Website - members gallery area.

For some time now the club has offered members the opportunity to host a small gallery of their work on the club website. It offers visitors a chance to see the varied styles of photography enjoyed by members and adds a crucial visual element to the site. A photographic club’s website should really be about the images after all!

It is probably fair to say that this is a much under-utilised aspect of membership so as a way of rasing awareness we are featuring the some members galleries in Photonews. In this second instalment the spotlight turns to Richard Walliker.

It is now more than two years since I joined the Postal Photographic Group and I continue to enjoy both the challenge of posting my images in the folios and the opportunity to be in contact with other members within the circles to which I belong.

My interest in photography began when I was 11 and I was given a Box Brownie camera. In my youth I owned a Ilford Sporti, and a Praktica Nova 1b. I rarely had enough money in those day to buy film, let alone develop it!

Much later my cameras included an Olympus OM10 and a OM2SP. I built my own darkroom and enjoyed processing both B&W and Slide film. In particular I enjoyed Cibachrome process of printing slides. In 2001 I entered the digital world.

The main subjects of my interest is Landscape and more recently Street photography, but I also enjoy capturing images of wildlife and in particular birds. For wildlife I exclusively use a Nikon D7100. I optimised my kit in 2013 and bought into the Fuji X system and now have a X-T1 and XPro 1. Initially I sold my D800, but regretted it as all my lenses were FX. I bought a D800E to bring my setup back into order.

In a bid to broaden my photographic horizons I joined a local Society. Here I met folks who belonged to the PPC and this has enabled

Conway (Rolleiflex 2.8f) Š Richard Walliker 24

PPC Website Galleries: Richard Walliker (C19 and IC4) http://www.postalphotoclub.org.uk

me to put an additional element into my enjoyment of photography. I also got back into film and re-bought an Olympus OM10 and ON2SP. In addition I use a Nikon F100 and my pride and joy is a recently acquired Rolleiflex 2.8f. I do occasionally process my B&W films. I also belong to the North Wales Monochrome and Slide groups which I thoroughly enjoy.

My life has turned full circle in terms of photography and is a welcome distraction from writing and editing our community magazine and sitting on various community committees. The PPC has widened my horizons and I enjoy my involvement. I belong to Circles 19 B&W and IC4 Natural History. I hope from now on to use submissions for Circle19 in the medium of film.

I would urge anyone who is interested in meeting like-minded folks to join the PPC and add another ingredient to the joy of photography.

Above: The Meeting Place Top Right: Capel Curig Bottom right: Sedge Warbler All images Š Richard Walliker

If you would like your images to appear on the club website, please email webmaster@postalphotoclub.org.uk) Alternatively you can upload them to the website gallery submissions area of the PPC forum 25

Kings Cross Station Š Richard Walliker

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… and the winners are …

The runners up from the Photonews Forum competition

Waiting for Spring Lovely colours, the greens and browns working well together. The slightly flat lighting is entirely in keeping with the message: cushion-less chairs, autumn leaves and yellowing plants waiting for a Spring that is still some way off (and will probably still feel a long way off at the time this issue is published). © Barry Roberts ARPS

Water Loo Well spotted opportunity lifted by a witty and amusing title (a pun our General Secretary would be proud of). A superb example of vernacular art and the sign top left puts it into a humorous context. © Graham Snowden

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Photographic Art: moving away from reality Steve Terry

For most of my life I have been content to record what was in front of me, with little or no embellishment. I mainly used transparency film and the most daring thing I did was to fit a polarising filter to enhance the colour of a blue sky.

If I got the urge to be more creative, I would shoot a roll of monochrome film and play around in the darkroom until I got a few decent prints.

Neither of these activities produced anything that you could call art (certainly not on a regular basis). So, a couple of years ago, I made a conscious decision to move away from straight record photography and towards the realm of abstract art.

Since that time I have produced a number of images that satisfy my craving for artistic expression and some of them are reproduced here. I have used three different techniques to produce these images: intentional camera movement, the Orton effect and colour inversion.

Intentional camera movement (ICM) is used on a regular basis by sports photographers – they call it panning – but it was only towards the end of the 20th century that photographers began to use the technique on stationary subjects. ICM can be practised on or off the tripod and groups of trees have been the most popular subjects (above and overleaf). In order to get a sufficiently long exposure to record the required amount of blur it is necessary to use the smallest available aperture and the lowest ISO setting.

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The Orton effect - originated by Michael Orton in the mid 1980s - is a technique that blends two completely different photos of the same scene, resulting in a distinctive mix of high and low detail areas within the same image. The original method was to sandwich two slides - one sharply focused and the other very out of focus – but these days the effect can be reproduced in Photoshop using Gaussian blur (above and overleaf).

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Colour inversion is also not a new technique, but it has been used more in monochrome photography than in colour photography. If a monochrome negative is copied on to negative film and then printed, dark tones in the original scenes are reproduced as light tones in the print.

These days all that is required is one click in Photoshop.

Further reading The internet is a wealth of information on all things photographic - and some of it is both informative and useful.

Mastering the Art of Intentional Camera Movement | Photo ...

An interesting article relating to ICM by Juergen Roth includes shutter speeds and aperture details.

Michael Orton Photography - ICM

Michael Orton’s website includes an article on ICM alongside details of the Orton Effect from the originator.

Inverting colours in Photoshop Quick Tip - How to invert colors using Photoshop YouTube

… and in Elements How to Invert an Image With Adobe Photoshop Elements ...

All images © Steve Terry

http://www.skyeinfocus.co.uk

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John Kay, General Secretary

Club Matters contd.

Print Folders Print circle members should have had their free print circle folders’, providing their subscription was received by the end of January. Another batch of folders will be sent out in March and the final set will go out in early April.

If you are in more than one print circle you will need to order some extra folders at some stage in the year.

Additional packs of twelve folders cost £4.50; including second-class postage. If you prefer to send a cheque then post it to the Treasurer, Stuart Carr, or to John Kay. Alternatively you can save the cost of a stamp by paying for them via the club’s PayPal facility, (access it from our website).

Club website and the PPC Forum Graham Dean looks after and updates the club website.

Don’t forget that we would be pleased feature your photographs in the Member’s Galleries section and also arrange two way links to PPC members own websites, as well as other photographic society websites. The website has a link to the PPC page on Facebook and Graham’s Spring update can be found on page 60 of this issue.

Print Exhibition Secretary David James is our Print Exhibition Secretary and the club contact for the Travelling Exhibition (TE).

Some new clubs were added to the TE Rota this year and David is already taking bookings for the 2016/17 Travelling Exhibition.

The TE has the top 80 prints from the Annual Print Competition, plus a PictureToExe presentation showing the judge’s selection of prints and projected images from both the Founders Cup and Annual Competitions.

Does your Camera Club take the TE? Why don’t you ask the Programme Secretary at your club to get in touch with David? We will shortly send out an updated committee list with David’s contact details. © Brian Viercant

Clive Piggott is our Forum Administrator, if you are not registered on the Forum you can e-mail Clive from a link on the website. Again, there is a Spring update from Clive which can be found on page 61.

Coming soon …

Work is already well underway on the Summer and Autumn issues which are due out in late May and late August respectively.

To whet your appetite we have an article in the Summer issue from David Ridley on polaroid transfers - the digital way, part two of Bill’s Starting with Film and the start of a new three-parter from Brian Viercant tentatively titled Have Camera Will Travel (see above). Our very own Eric Ladbury will also be turning his inquisitive photographic eye to chuches as he goes all ecclesiastical on us. … Watch this Space!

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Member Profile

David Ridley LRPS

One of tmy favourite parts of the annual Rally is the chance to see other member’s work through the Travelling Exhibition and of course to meet the members themselves.

At the 2015 Rally in Snowdonia I met David Ridley for the first time and he very kindly agreed to contribute an article which will appear in the Summer issue. The accompanying images here will give you a sneak preview of what to expect but in the meantime here are a few words by way of an introduction to the man himself.

Like a lot of people my interest in photography began when I was about 8 years old after receiving a Brownie 127 as a present but became more serious at about 14 years of age after making friends with a boy at school who had a passion for photography encouraged by his father who by profession was a Pharmacist and also an ARPS. We were allowed to use his purpose built darkroom which was as you may imagine state of the art at the time, and naturally I felt very privileged to have such access to his equipment. From then I had the ‘Photo Bug’ and once I started work created my own monochrome darkroom, although initially unable to afford the quality of gear he had, at least I had a darkroom!

JR’s Window

Many cameras came and went during my time as a single man and in the early years of marriage before our first son came along, included Praktica, Pentax, Canon etcetera. What with work and family commitments it became impossible to spend hours in the darkroom so process paid slides became the order of the day, and in the mid 1990’s it was slides I used for a successful LRPS panel.

I was for some years a member of what was then known as HPPC but as time became less available I eventually left the club. Since then photography became spasmodic until a couple of years ago, knowing that retirement was looming I decided to get back in the swing of things and decided to join or should I say re-join what was by then the PPC. I rejoined in 2014 and must say I’m very pleased I made that decision, and in 2015 also I joined one of the local camera clubs, which again was a good decision.

Sky High

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Member Profile

David Ridley LRPS

Toward’s the North Sea

I have considered putting together an ARPS panel but I don’t see this as a current priority in my life and at the moment although I do have more time for photography I don’t feel I have the necessary time to commit to what is required to achieve this distinction.

My wife (her name is Eveline) and I live near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and have done so for most of our lives save for about nine years when we lived on Teeside because of my employment. We have two married sons the eldest one is a Pharmacist and lives in South Wales whilst the youngest lives local to us and is a Lecturer in Electronics.

During my working life I started out in the carpet trade and quickly progressed to the estimating side of the business, but not long after being married moved into insurance and eventually ending up as a sales manager from which I retired early when I was 53 years old. About a couple of years later I stumbled across a vacant position locally for a Law Court Usher which I was successful in obtaining and have to say it was the best job I ever had (although also the worst paid) so much so that when I turned 65 I decided to stay on albeit on reduced hours for the following couple of years.

Now of course I’m fully retired.

All images © David Ridley LRPS 35

Part 3 - Plants

Eric Ladbury

In the Autumn 2015 edition of Photonews, I set out my preferred methods for capturing close ups of insects and in the Winter edition detailed the exercise relating to lens behaviour in close-up mode.

In this final part I will look at my skills and approach to photographing plants, mainly flowers but there are other possible subjects available such as leaves, stems, and trees and their bark. You will note that I also include Fungi (mushrooms and toadstools) although strictly speaking they aren’t plants but the techniques used are similar.

As a recap I have included the description of the close-up and macro, put into plain words it is: CLOSE-UP = anything usually from 1 to 5 ratio and 1 to 2 ratio. The size of the original is equal to a fifth to half life size, thus an object one inch long is depicted on the capture media as one fifth to half an inch in length respectively.

MACRO = 1 to 1 - the size of the original is equalled in the capture array or film base, thus an object one inch long is depicted on the capture media as one inch long on the preferred media.

This is not the size as viewed on a screen or monitor or any other viewing device. This enlarged view is simply magnification of the original, but this can be important for reference such as an entry in a technical article or book where indication of original size is required. Here I am just going to concentrate on skills, technique and gear required for close-up and macro work.

Cultivated member of the daisy family

Going closer still, beyond twice life size capture is normally known as “MICRO-photography, and is achieved by very specialist equipment such as ultra close (micro) lenses or viewed through a microscope system, with a camera body attached to the eyepiece tube of the microscope.

The same information relating to equipment and approach to alternative gear to use in the field applies with the exception of the support for the camera system, and of course approaching the subject is a little easier as the subject will not disappear when the photographers presence is detected. The subject will even accept the wearing of perfumes or deodorants but I would suggest although not a deterrent to dispersing of the quarry the act of smoking could put both persons and countryside at risk of fires even small amount of damage and flare-up can be alarming. I do use the same clothing as the article informed previously but not so much for camouflage, more to save on cost of extra gear and, just as importantly the accessories held in the specialised jackets or photo waistcoats can be left in place thus ready for quick assemblage and collection when gathering all the equipment and auxiliary gear to take on a shoot.

All images © Eric Ladbury

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Rosa gallica

The main points to watch out for when approaching your intended subject, is not to disturb surrounding plants along your path into the ideal photo taking position as there could be some delicate and/or important specimens which should not be distressed, it could even be against the law of the land to disturb, uproot, dig out or even pick the flower heads of protected species. So take a little extra care and leave only footprints behind and take only photographs away, letting the flowers remain in situ for others to enjoy and admire later.

When going into a wood to capture that perfect image of a bluebell amongst the trees for instance, the light to start with could be at a low level and so extra care is needed to check the route into the selected specimen for photographing, also being mindful when kneeling or laying on the ground to gain the best angle for the picture, not to damage any surrounding plants (or property). It is easy to forget about the other plants in the immediate area when one is excited to discover a new specimen or particularly beautiful wild flower in pristine condition. The quality of the plant selected to record should be the best condition, as perfect as possible, being without blemish or missing any parts. As, often in specialist competitions and exhibitions the rules usually state that apart from basic modification such as light balance, cropping and sharpening; no cloning or erasing of areas of the original picture is acceptable, thus the image should display the subject as found and not drastically altered or adulterated by the author.

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Hyacinthoides non-scripta (formerly Endymion non-scriptus or Scilla non-scripta) is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell (Campanula rotundifolia).

In spring, H. non-scripta produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves as shown above.

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Composition ~ The Surroundings

Eric Ladbury

Bluebell wood, Risley, Derbyshire

The first decision to make is just how much or little of the plant or plants is to be included in the framing of the image, should it be a group of similar plants such as the bluebell wood above, the whole plant or one specific part such as the flower head, or several heads, a single leaf, of group of leaves, part of the stem or trunk (see left and previous page).

This choice I habitually make whilst approaching the subject, often it can be influenced by the environment or situation the plant is found in. Maybe there are several flowers of a similar genus in one small patch and the choice is to find the best quality of the bunch. Look out for less than perfect specimens avoiding such defects as damage, cut or eaten parts perhaps a petal has been nibbled by an early morning visiting slug, insect or mammal. It could be the growth of the plant has been restricted in its development and has an unsightly shape or deformity, or has surpassed its best by shows signs of age or disease.

Single stem - bluebell

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Blackthorn blossom

Another point to watch out for is where in the group of flowers/ plants does the objectives position grow? Could surrounding flowers cause the background to look untidy or fussy, awkward and distracting as in the image top left? If so, I would suggest looking at the edges of the bunch as a lone growth towards the perimeter of the crowd has better potential with the background being further away from the subject allowing the undergrowth to be diffused rather than detailed scrubby stems. This also has the benefit of showing a pleasing soft out of focus shade of green as demonstrated by the single spike and more pleasing backdrop of the image top, centre.

Hawthorn blossom

Rather than spiky stalks or bright coloured blobs of misshaped red, yellow or white an overcast sky can be employed as backdrop, as demonstrated by the two images of hawthorn and blackthorn blossom on this page.

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Blackberry

Blackthorn

However having said that, try using just the select flower or group with a background of leaves from the same plant (above). It could be there’s no option but to shoot with other plants or blooms in shot, a method of getting around this is to use the s a m e v a r i e t y o f fl o w e r a s a n a b s t r a c t complimentary backcloth (top, right), by using a shallow depth of field, say f5.6 or f8.0, to push the blooms behind into a diffused gentle soft focus blur.

A further option lies in the time of day for the shoot, in the early morning or late evening when the sun is low in the sky, there’s a good period to obtain a backlit subject particularly if the flowers petals and or leaves are translucent this presents a wonderful separation from its parent plant or surrounding vegetation as the blackthorn and wild cherry blossom (right) demonstrate.

Blackthorn

Wild cherry 41

Composition ~ Framing and Post Processing.

Eric Ladbury

Having established the subject and chosen the best representative of the assemblage available there is now the choice of how much to include/exclude in the picture.

Frequently I will start with a general all encompassing shot to include most or the entire subject pending on its location. This allows for a clean shot prior to closing in to the subject. Next I will consider the best attributes of the plant; does it have wonderful flowers full of character and appeal, or do the leaves hold my interest being of an unusual shape or attractive colour or markings as with the poppy opposite, far left.

The single bloom style of flower head (left) may offer the choice for a side view or an over head shot, again bear in mind how the background helps or interferes with the foreseen image.

Just where does the picture need to go for improvement? What is the optimum distance from which to take the portrait of a flower (or any other part of a plant); the answer isn’t simply the closest a particular lens will focus at. In fact I very rarely use a lens at its closest focusing point, not because it is difficult to judge, but more crucially is relating to composition again. Unlike the insects referred to in the first section of this trio of close-up related articles, plants don’t have a habit of flying away at the first signs of intrusion. So, there’s plenty of time to take several pictures of a subject, being able to recompose and reassess the subject matter many times throughout the session. As can be seen from the few images selected from a shoot of probably fifteen or twenty pictures taken at the time, the main interest upon first encounter with this poppy was the transmitted light through the petals. Therefore the first consideration was to assess the way the transmitted light reacted to the petals from different points of the compass.

The first shot doesn’t show any of these requirements, also the along the lower edge a disturbing section of a leaf is visible, although this could easily be adjusted in post processing its better to do as much as possible at the taking stage. A further point of this photo is the third element of the cluster, the seed head, is partially hidden by the front poppy. A move to the opposite side of the plant presented a much improved view with the light working by giving the petals a translucent appearance (left). Add to this the leaf at the bottom is now excluded from the shot.

Daisy

Lesser Celandine

Next take a look at the single bloom of the white daisy type flower and the Celandine (left), both surrounded by green foliage which is soft focused behind the main subject. The final crop and position of these l o n e fl o w e r s w a s envisaged during the taking stage and a slightly bigger amount of the surrounding greenery was included in the initial composition.

An interesting arrangement this, to place the main subject off centre, thus creating a very dramatic image; although a square crop could be applied later, the skill is to present a balanced photograph. In this case I have left a section on the right or left respectively, showing just soft focused foliage; this was deliberate to help the equilibrium of the shot.

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Presented with a multi grouped cluster or spike of individual small flowers it is worth searching for the more unusual as with the white foxglove opposite. Here the spike has an odd flowering arrangement, this due to being in a dark dell; the light has favoured the left side more than the right thus the more developed side has bloomed earlier, yet the single opened flower head on the right does act as a balance in the frame.

It might be the subjects position does not allow easy separation of the flower head therefore include some of the supporting (photographically) parts of the plant. In the case of the Hawthorn blossom the flower is one among many buds yet to present an opened form, and not being able to locate a suitable single or separated flower I decided to use the unopened flowers in a supporting roll by using several buds in a spreading pattern. Do not worry too much about even or odd numbers more important is does the cluster look “right� being balanced artistically? If YES then that is fine in my book as to disturb or heaven forbid cut away any unwanted part is sacrilege. The buds it will be noticed are slightly darker than the open flower this giving the main subject prominence within the frame; also further back are some soft out of focus buds (and foliage) which add to this support role.

The final two images on this page show a clean clear arrangement of blooms and florets; in both cases time was spent carefully moving around various plants in the location to select the best presented arrangement of the subject. When found it is a simple matter of deciding the preferred angle of the shot, taking into consideration the surroundings and other factors as mentioned previously in this article. The decision whether to crop across part of the subject or to seek out the perfect specimen depends upon the type of plant being photographed and the availability, the best presented flower or plant is the criteria.

As we have already illustrated, a vertical or overhead angle of view may be considered when taking a full flower. This works well with a bloom that has an interesting design or pattern especially around the petals and stamen or group of florets. I often make use of a soft background, presented by the plants own leaves. This I have found works particularly well with the flatter daisy like displays, making it easier to separate the head from the foliage with a larger aperture (for example f4 or f5.6). Depending upon the distance of head to leaves the toned background diffuses pleasingly.

White foxglove

Hawthorn

The further the separation of the two elements the narrower the aperture/stop can be employed going as high as say f11, but keep in mind how the backdrop is reacting to the increased depth of field when making this decision.

Field forget-me-not

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This final image of the “Poppy” group was taken into Photoshop and some basic modification was made. Upon importing into the program it opens in A.C.R. (Adobe Camera Raw), as a 16 bit file. In the “Basic” tab (left) the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity and vibrance were checked and very small adjustments made to each slider where necessary. This could also be adjusted in the second tab “Tone Curve” if that is your preferred way of working the raw file.

Next the sharpness is given a low level adjustment in the “Detail” tab by altering the amount, radius, detail and in this case the Masking is tweaked to soften the inner base of the bloom. I normally don’t use any further modifications in the raw converter but simply open the image in the full program of Photoshop C.C.

In Photoshop there are a few corrections and adjustment to be made. First the top left corner has a bright spot which draws the viewer’s eye away from the main subject. There are two options which can be applied; one, the area can be toned down by using the Burn tool on a duplicated layer (so as not to damage the original import), take care and use a low exposure value say in single figures e.g. 10% or less, set the range to Midtones and paint with a soft edged brush.

In my opinion a better method is to copy a section of “good” petal detail from one of the two bottom corners (screenshot, left). Simply make a selection of the bottom left corner to include the lighter triangular piece using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, note the selection will be square and thus include a section of darker inner colours of the flower. Copy this selection onto a new layer; this whole action is easier using the short cut keys as follows ~ with the selection made press the “Ctrl & C” keys at the same time, this copies the selected area, then press the “Ctrl & V” keys together and the section is placed on a new layer automatically. This new layer needs to flipped over vertically, so selecting the layer containing the “corner of the petal” use the Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. The small corner selection is now in the correct orientation but needs to be dragged to the top left by pressing the “V” key and then holding down the left mouse button to carefully position the selected layer to the top left. Go to the Edit>Transform>Scale, this throws a selection around the small “corner” piece called a bounding box with eight “handles” (at each corner and mid way along each sides), holding down the “shift” key press and hold moving into the vicinity of the lower right corner handle, the cursor changes to a double headed arrow, keeping the “shift” key press and hold the left mouse button also. In this mode drag the corner down and right a small amount, enough to cover the space needing mending, and when happy this is achieved, release both button and key.

To remove the bounding box press the “Return” key once. The final task is to hide the unwanted darker parts of this layer, making sure the “corner” layer is active (highlighted), add a layer mask selected from the bottom of the layers palette in the row of icons choose the third from the left with a left click, this shows a new rectangle in the layer with extra corner lines to show it is active. Now select the Brush Tool once more making sure the two small squares at the bottom of the “Tool Box” are showing black and white at top left and bottom right (if not displaying this configuration press the “D” then the “X” keys once). The brush tool can now be used to hide parts of the “corner” not required by merely painting the parts to be removed (hidden). Use a suitably sized brush, the easiest way to alter the size is use the [ and ] square bracket keys, left to reduce and right to increase the size. I find the straightforward method is to go beyond the area to be retained, then use the brush in erase mode (simply reverse the foreground and background boxes the black and white used earlier), by the shortcut of pressing the “X” key once. Now the brush can remove any colour shown, once a gap appears the brush tool can be returned to paint mode pressing the “X” key once more and with care fill in the space as desired. To make life easier working at an enlarged view is better, making the task of “joining” the old to new parts uncomplicated. It sounds long winded but once the skill is mastered it can be employed in similar situation with ease and speed. The final result, bottom left, looks tidier than the original .

Next lets turn our attention towards the small bright spot of white in the bottom right corner, the best approach to this is to sample the pink tones from an adjacent petal using the Eyedropper Tool then with the Brush Tool set the mode (in the top panel) to Darker Color and paint over the light region and the job is completed by a low “Opacity” Clone Stamp Tool at say 25%, restoring the finished item without any need for selections or careful painting being required in the into small corners.

One important final note relating to cloning and similar alterations to a Natural History image, if you intend using the picture for competition entries most (if not all) competition rules state modification to the image such as that described on the previous page is NOT allowed. So be aware of the rules and accepted adjustments to your picture under these circumstances.

One adjustment which is universally allowed in all competitions and exhibitions is the cropping of an image frame. Let’s take a look at the Hawthorn image for example.

The picture is fine as presented but would removal of one or both sides of the photo improve it compositionally?

By selecting the “Crop Tool” from the top of the “Tool Box” (or press “C” key once) the cursor changes to a + Taking this new cursor into the image I position it along the top boundary about a sixth in from the left corner. Holding down the left mouse key and keeping it depressed I then draw out a square by moving the cursor down and right across the image. There is now a square frame around that portion of the picture (see left) and along the frames boundary are eight small white squares called “handles”. Taking the cursor outside the “box” the cursor changes to a curved double headed arrow move it around the box to one of the corner handles. As you hover over the corner point the cursor changes to a straight arrow left click and hold the button down, allows the corner border to be realigned to any position suitable. This can be applied to any or all the corner handles.

When making the first or subsequent adjustments to a corner handle by holding down the “Shift” key a symmetrical perfect square is form for as long as the shift key is depressed. This of course is excellent to produce a perfectly square cropped picture. A further use of the tool is by going outside the corner handle (not on it), and holding down the left mouse button then dragging the cursor circularly clockwise or anticlockwise the selection rotates enabling the frame to be orientated to suit the contents.

Yet more, by clicking on one of the central points “handles” midway along any side the whole side border can be adjusted without affecting other parts of the framing. That is one powerful tool and can be very useful to take the smallest sliver from one edge to removing a huge chunk from the whole picture and swivel the remaining contents to any desired angle. The only drawback is if the framing is rotated to an angle including a section of “empty space” where the moved corner rests outside the original border there is a background tone which needs filling by some means, perhaps a touch of cloning! Once satisfied the crop is in the correct position press the “Enter” key once to apply the action.

Once a new border is in place it can also be adjusted as a whole by using the four “arrow Keys” on the keyboard, by simply pressing any direction the complete boundary moves across the original picture this is useful for fine tuning the position of the new boundary, and holding down the “Shift” key at the same time jumps the moves by a factor of ten.

The final image is shown right.

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There are some basic adjustments that need to be considered for the majority of images. By way of example, in the box above is a RAW file (left) together with the post-processed version (right) and a discussion on how I approached this particular image.

Often there is a desire to use some form of “fill-in” lighting, this can take several forms and I use various methods to fulfil this need. By far the easiest way to apply extra light is to use a type of reflector, there are many in the commercial market, the simplest is a circular framed piece of reflective material. This is usually silver or white although gold is often used to “warm” the tones up as well. There are sets of reflectors which include white, silver, gold and black which normally come in a reversible sleeve to go over a translucent material on the hoop and if you intend to do a lot of photography it is probably the best type (economically), to purchase. Now you may be wondering why translucent, well this can be used to diffuse any bright sunlight falling on the subject so reducing specular highlights, and black, again this is useful for anti-glare, (more in the studio) for reflective surfaces by putting a dark reflection into the area. A recent edition to this circular reflector is a triangular one incorporating a handle on the apex, making it easier to control single handed very useful when out on a shoot without any assistant to help with holding such items, especially if the wind is blowing.

I have used other materials over the years such as a certain crisp advertising prop (Walkers) this being bright silver on one side with duller reverse, this is a plastic based cloth which allows easy roll-up for transportation, and even better was free (after a gentle persuasion). Other materials can be paper, even an old newspaper or magazine (not colour), card of any type, I use a lot of the cut offs from mounting board particularly black, as the reverse white base gives good reflection, and the black can be used as a temporary “French Flag” a flat rectangular board which is used mainly in the studio to stop light hitting the lens of a camera. Grey cards are good not only for assessing exposure but as a rule having a white reverse, double as small reflectors.

Anything which is light and clean can be put into service, like pizza base, packaging or plastic board etcetera. I have also used light tin flats from old equipment and similar.

One of the biggest problems with getting in close for macro imagery is the magnification also exaggerates the movement caused by breezy conditions; a slight draught of gentle wind can look like a hurricane through the viewfinder. If I know the intended subject on a shoot is going to be flowers, then I will take along an umbrella now available in clear plastic, to shield the subject to some degree and allow light in, they are light to carry, and easy to set up with the built-in handle. Being only £1.00 they are good for the pocket and are readily available from the “Pound Shop” or similar outlets. If the shoot is to a known site with a problem of windy conditions likely and I am not walking too far, I will pack a length of heavy duty polythene about five meters long and ¾ of a meter wide, with four thin canes or flat sticks, a meter in length, attached vertically at regular intervals, this resembles a miniature 46 seaside wind break, and the poly allows light through.

Another useful tool is a small LED panel; these devices are superior to portable flashguns in my view, as they are lighter, and with continuous light shows the shadows pre shot; much easier than assessing the out come of the flash, if you are not experienced in their use.

GENERAL GUIDES to All Natural History (including Plants) British Wildlife by P. Sterry : Collins : ISBN 0-583-33638-8 ~ good general, colour photos used.

Wildlife of Britain by RSPB : DK (Penguin) : ISBN 978-1-4053-2860-9 ~ good general, narrow format fits pocket but heavy.

With the subject attached to the ground, they are not likely run away, therefore, allowing the use of a focusing rack. There are two main types available the single line enabling the camera to be moved forwards and backwards in relation to the subject, and the cross style, basically two rack, one attached at right angles to the top of the other, this allows both fore and aft movement along with left to right, to produce centring of the subject. The first is my preferred tool in the field as it is lighter and simpler to operate. It will be noticed the two racks pictured are fitted with a Manfrotto quick release attachment, I find this the simplest and easiest method of setting up the camera for a shot.

BASIC PLANT GUIDES to Plants, Trees and Fungi Wild Flowers by T. Dickinson : Green Books : ISBN 1-903998-20-4 ~ good basic, subject listed by habitat, colour photos used.

Wild Flowers of GB by Aichele & Schwegler Hamlyn : ISBN 0-600-564-17-7 ~ Average, poor photos but sorted in colour groups.

Trees of GB by C. Emberson : Green Guide (New Holland) : ISBN 978-1-859-749-272 ~ good beginners’ limited contents, clear drawings.

Trees of GB by Aas & Riedmiller : Collins(Nature Guides) : ISBN 978-0-26-167401-1 ~ excellent pocket size, good photos & range of subject.

Mushrooms & Toadstools of GB by Pegler : Larousse ~ ISBN 0-7523-0050-4 ~ good basic in colour groups, fine illustrations, limited range.

Finally I have recently acquired Manfrotto’s latest pan and tilt head which has the unique attribute of a quick release lever for each of three planes, associated with each is a fine tuning knob for that delicate adjustment when framing any picture. Thus the combination of a highly controllable head with an in-line focusing rack, to me, is the perfect setup for macro work in the field.

1

2

4

5

IN DEPTH GUIDES to Plants, Trees and Fungi Wild Flowers of GB by R. & A. Fitter : Collins : ISBN 0-00-219096-9 ~ excellent, pocket size, good illustrations but small, fine range.

Wild Flowers of GB by various :Reader’s Digest (set) : ISBN n/a ~ good, excellent illustrations, poor photos, to heavy for field use.

Trees of GB by A. Mitchell : Collins : ISBN 0-00-219213-6 ~ good guide, good illustrations, average illus. very technical descriptions.

Mushrooms &T/stools by S. Buczacki : Collins : ISBN 0-00-219978-5 ~ good, excellent illustrations but minimal, good range and details.

Complete G. British M’rooms/T’stools by Sterry & Hughes : Collins : ISBN 978-0-00-723224-6 ~ excellent, good range and good photos.

SPECIALIST’S GUIDES Orchids of GB field & site Guide by A.& S. Harrap : A&C Black : ISBN 978-1-4081-0571-9 ~ excellent tomb, very clear photos, excellent site information.

Finding Wild Flowers by R.S.R. Fitter : Collins : ISBN 0-00-212189-1 ~ good basic information to sites and general information.

The Gardener’s Guide by P. Taylor : Pavilion : ISBN 1-85145-739-9 ~ excellent guide to gardens, arboreta, nurseries and more.

I often look for local detailed literature in Tourist information centres, National park information centres, and Country park centres; when visiting a new venue or site and check for informative local guides.

Key to illustrations

6 3

1 - Triangular reflector with four sided reversible cover.

2 - Makeshift reflectors (A: centre cut-out from mount board, B: base pizza, C: centre from Mount board, D: free grey card giveaway from magazine, E: piece of old lighting gear, F: small triple plastic cards for reference, G: a Kodak grey card (the only true 18% balanced here. ) 3 - Two focusing racks, an Elicar (left – also well known for macro equipment), a Manfrotto very precise (right).

4 - Two LED lights, one from Neewer 5” x 3½” 160 LEDs (left), a Manfrotto 4” x 2½” 48 LEDs (right).

5 - Wind protectors, £1.00 brolly and some second-hand plastic on poles.

6 - Manfrotto tripod head model MHXPRO – 3WG, with very precise and fine control

47

REPHOTOGRAPHING B&W NEGATIVES

Barry Roberts ARPS

One dismal day (week? month?) when the weather was driving rain and I was at a loose end I decided to revisit my old Patterson (remember them ?) B&W negative files. In those days I filed each film set with a set of contact prints and looking through these I saw a few images worth resurrecting. The question was, how to do it, I had dismantled my darkroom several years ago and I did not own a negative scanner / copier, but I did have an Ohnar slide copier. This is a device that screws onto the front of a lens and allows the slide to be re-photographed ( see image 1 ).

It was meant to screw onto the filter mount of any standard lens either with or without a stepping ring, as required. It also contained a lens to adapt a standard lens for close focussing, the slide being slotted into a carrier at the end of the tube then any light source could be used to photograph the slide with AF and AE all operating normally.

Two problems: firstly, the lens I had that fitted was not very good and secondly, the negatives would not fit the slide holder, it being designed for mounted slides.

1

Solution 1 - I had squirreled away a Nikon 60mm micro lens which, with a stepping ring, could be used. This raised problem number 3, being a close focussing lens it did not like the supplementary lens in the Ohnar and would not focus. Luckily the Ohnar lens is just screwed in so it was removed and the lens then worked fine.

Unfortunately the image in the camera was quite small so my brain went into thinking mode again and came up with the brilliant idea of using a tele-converter between lens and camera. A 1.4 TC was the answer and a sharp image of the negative filled the frame allowing full use of the 36Mp of my Nikon D800.

Solution 2 - the slide holder could not be adapted for negative use so I had to make one, this consisted of four layers of mount board cut to size and sandwiched together with a negative size hole in the middle. One of the layers consisted of two strips of card positioned to allow a slot for the negative strip to slide in. (See image 2)

2 48

REPHOTOGRAPHING B&W NEGATIVES

Barry Roberts ARPS

Four layers were used to give thickness so that the springs in the holder mount would grip. Image 3 shows the original slide holder for mounted slides as supplied with the Ohnar.

Next comes the taking of the image.

3

5

4

First, position the negative holder in the mount so that the cutout is totally visible in the viewfinder, then slide the negative strip into the holder, emulsion towards the camera, and position it in the cut-out of the holder. Point the camera towards a bright light source such as the sky or a lamp. Flash can be used if preferred. Flash reduces the shutter speed but as camera shake is not a problem it is not significant to the exposure.

Camera can be set to AF and aperture priority AE with a suitably small aperture to cater for any curvature in the negative, I use f/16. If possible use RAW rather than JPG as more detail is recorded from the negative. I always use a tripod for convenience but it is not necessary as there is no relative movement between camera and subject. Press the shutter button and you should get a negative image something like image 4 or 5.

Download the images into whatever software you use, I use Elements 11, then use filter/adjustments/invert to get a positive image, flip right to left because the image will be reversed, crop as necessary, apply levels as the image will be very lacking in contrast.

It will also be necessary to remove any colour cast caused by film base and exposing light if a pure B&W image is required, I do this by using hue and saturation and moving the saturation slider fully to the left. I don’t do any sharpening because it tends to emphasise the film grain. The final images can be seen as images 6 on this page and 7 overleaf. Image 6 has been sepia tinted in Elements.

6

All images Š Barry Roberts

49

REPHOTOGRAPHING B&W NEGATIVES

Barry Roberts ARPS

An alternative method to re-photograph negatives is to use a light box but that entails keeping the negative flat, and getting the camera sensor parallel to the negative. This can be tricky to set up and using the Ohnar removes those problems.

Ohnar slide copiers are no longer manufactured but they are still available on the internet from about £10 for used ones to around £90 for brand new.

Mine has been lurking in the back of a cupboard for many years so you might know somebody who also has one unused and unloved, and don’t stop at B&W negatives, you can of course copy colour negatives and slides as well to produce prints.

Various stockists sell slide copiers. Polaroid, Opteka, Reflecta and Dorr brands are all currently available via amazon.co.uk Nikon make the Nikon Es-1 Slide Copying Adapter which attaches to the Nikkor 55 mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens to copy 35 mm slides - but quite a hefty price tag of £70 and that is assuming you have the 55mm lens.

There is always eBay of course!

EOS magazine ran a comparison between using an Ohnar copier and a flatbed scanner (link below) and concluded that unless you are planning to print at A3+ you won’t see much difference. http://www.eos-magazine.com/articles/viewfinder/ slidecopying.html

7 50

… and the winners are …

The runners up from the Photonews Forum competition

Distant Shores (Dingle Bay) A tranquil and peaceful lake view with a beautiful serene colour palette. A well balanced composition that is anchored nicely by the weathered posts. The subtle light has been expertly captured too. © David James

In the coffee shop window The exposure has been handled well resulting in a nice sparkle to the image and harmonious colours. The amber spots in the background help make this shot jreally capture the viewers attention The inclusion of the background menu text works well helping to add context and explanation to an otherwise abstract scene. One can almost smell the coffee - mines an espresso! © Alan Phillips

51

Classic Cameras -

The Brits part 1

Geoff Leah

You may be surprised to learn that approximately 385 British camera makers have existed. Some of these businesses changed their trading names, thus increasing the total number to over 500. The majority of these were English, making “brass and wood” cameras. Sadly, all these names have disappeared, and cameras are no longer made in the U.K. An equally large number of companies produced lenses and shutters, and like the emulsion makers, spectacular claims were made. As roll film displaced cut film and plates, cameras became smaller and cheaper. Most were of the folding variety, but rigid box-type cameras were popular due to their low cost.

This saw a dramatic rise in the number of people becoming photographers.

After the second World war, cameras became more sophisticated, especially with the introduction of 35mm. film. By now, however, the vast majority of British manufacturers had disappeared. This was due to the effects of the war, and the rise of foreign imports from Germany and Japan.

The last of our “home-made” cameras disappeared some 35 years ago when the Gandolfi brothers finally closed their factory. Some British names remained for a while, but the cameras were all made abroad.

It is impossible to cover every British camera maker (excellent books are available) so the choice of what to include in this series has been dictated by the models I own. I hope you will enjoy the selection.

Some of these I have used, and some are capable of impressive results, even by today’s standards. All are simple mechanical devices with no electronics to go wrong. The vast majority are strongly made from metal, and have stood the test of time. Will my modern digital cameras last as long?

Somehow I doubt it.

Geoff

http://www.filmsnotdead.com/englands-oldest-camera-manufacturer-gandolfi-sons/

Initially, images were recorded on glass plates coated in various emulsions, all giving black and white negatives. Cut film on a celluloid base gradually supplanted plates, with roll film being the final stage of progress.

Sizes of negatives varied enormously, from 10x8” and larger, down to 21/4 x 31/4”. Not all the images produced were rectangular or square, some showed the full “circle of confusion”, producing a circular negative.

Many companies produced plates, and later, film. Each had their own special formulae for emulsion, but by modern standards the ISO rating of these would be in single figures.

52

Classic Cameras -

The Brits part 1

Geoff Leah

AGI: A subsidiary of Aeronautical and General Instruments Ltd. of Croydon. Founded in 1936 to manufacture military cameras, the Company started making cameras for the public from 1954 to 1965. After this time production of amateur cameras was ceased in order to concentrate on military and commercial cameras. It is not known if production still continues.

AGIFLEX 1 (far left) Three versions were made, starting in 1946.

It is an interchangeable lens SLR with a focal plane shutter, producing 6x6 cm negatives on 120 film. The standard lens is an f3.5 80mm Agilux anastigmat, with wide angle & tele lenses being available.

AGIFLASH (left) Made from 1954 to 1958, the camera has a simple Bakelite body with fixed lens, focus, aperture and shutter speed.

It has a clip-on reflector for the flash whilst the battery & capacitor etcetera are contained within the body. 6.5x4 cm negatives are produced on 127 film.

AGIFOLD (above left) Produced in 1955, it is a folding camera producing 6x6 cm negatives on 120 film. The fixed lens is a 90mm f4.5 Agilux anastigmat. On top of the body there is an uncoupled rangefinder and an extinction exposure meter. The shutter is speeded to 1/300th and is synchronised for flash bulbs.

AGIMA (above right) Made in 1960, this is a 35mm compact camera with interchangeable lenses. It features a coupled rangefinder whilst the large lever surrounding the lens advances the film, sets the shutter and releases the shutter. The standard lens is a 45mm, whilst an 80mm was also available. A neat camera capable of good results.

53 Pump House, Dorothea Quarry Š Geoff Leah

Classic Cameras -

The Brits part 1

Geoff Leah

CORFIELD: Formed in 1948 and producing not only cameras but darkroom equipment also. Many other products bore the name, including overdrives for LandRover, and alternators. Guinness took over the Company in the late 1950s, and the Company moved to Ireland. Camera production ceased in 1961, with the Company closing in 1971.

Eglwys Gadeiriol Llanelwy: St Asaph Cathedral. Even an out of date roll of Delta 3200 did not faze the elderly Corfield 66. Š Geoff Leah

66 (top right) Made towards the end of Corfield’s camera manufacturing, only 300 were ever produced. It is thought that few survive. It is a 6x6 cm SLR camera with a focal plane shutter, mirror lock and range of slow speeds. Both cut film and 120 roll film can be used, by means of separate backs. Although it has an inter-changeable lens system, only one lens was ever made, a 95mm f3.5 Lumax (all Corfield lenses were branded Lumax). I have the fitted leather carrying case, both backs, Corfield extension tubes, original instruction book and flash calculation card (the latter being extremely rare). A desirable and very rare camera (especially in working order).

GOLD STAR (bottom right) Made in 1961, this was one of the last incarnations of the famous Periflex, still retaining the periscope viewfinder and focussing screen. Using 35mm. film, the camera has inter-changeable lenses which use a screw thread. A variety of different focal lengths are available, all capable of superb performance. Corfield made most of their own lenses, and 54

Shoot at different times of day. You'll get more variety and see things in different ways. And don't be afraid of the midday sun, it can produce some really interesting results!

• Return to the same spot, and try to paint a fuller picture of the place by showing small details and changes.

• Get variety (composition, light, subject, etc.), especially if you aren't sure what your output is going to be.

• If you have a particular shot in mind, stick with it, even if you fail a couple times while trying to get it.

• Put your subject in each corner of the frame for a quick way to try out different compositions.

• Follow your instincts when it comes to framing your shots.

• Try out a lot of different things while you're shooting, and then carefully analyse the results afterwards on your computer.

Who said that?

Photographic Fables

Answers below

The Flamingo and the Crows

1. “It’s an immensely liberating feeling when you’re out in the landscape, concentrating on creating a photograph, and you’re absolutely flying.

HERE WAS once a Company of Crows who Greatly Admired the Beautiful Plumage of a Flaming Flamingo of their Acquaintance.

They therefore said to one another, '' Let us discover the Nature of his Food that we, also, may become Glorious.

Now having Ascertained that Green Frogs, Black Tadpoles and an occasional Gold Fish constituted their friend's Menu, they provided themselves with a like Fare at Considerable Trouble, but with Unsatisfactory Results. At last they consulted a Venerable Owl who dwelt in the Neighborhood.

"You are but Fool Crows," said the Owl, "for though you should eat nothing but Cochineal Insects you would still be Black, but the Flamingo, while he might die eating Carrion, would yet die Crimson.

2. “To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.”

3. "I don’t want anyone to appreciate the light or the palette of tones. I want my pictures to inform, to provoke discussion – and to raise money.”

4. “I'm concerned with pushing images to the edge of sanity.”

Truth, the whole truth …

“It amuses me when people castigate the use of Photoshop and other programs that ‘distort’ reality.

In the darkroom days, skies were often burnt for dramatic effect and toners applied - were they not themselves changing the reality? Truth is also affected by the viewpoint, the timing of the exposure and the cropping.”

I still wish I could remember where I read this

Walter Benzie HonFRPS. President of the Royal Photographic Society

Erase or Format?

Seeing in black & white (I)

“Erasing (your memory card) is kind of like rubbing out all the writing on a page instead of starting a new page (formatting)”

Landscapes with moody textured skies Scenes with blue skies and fluffy clouds Portraits Reportage Interior shots with mixed lighting Individual flowers

Spotted on the Guild of Photographers Facebook page in the Members general chatter

Common subjects that work well in mono: Digital Camera Magazine

DO not Flatter Yourselves that if you knew the Emulsion on your Neighbor's Paper you could achieve his Results.

J B Kerfoot, from "Photo Work" by Stieglitz.

Submitted by Geoff Leah

Stereotyping “The last bit, squeezed in at the end. When using 36 exposure films, it was expected that a Yorkshireman would manage to get at least one more frame out of the film.”

Yorkshire News, Newsletter for RPS members in the Torkshire region, September 2015

1. Charlie Waite 2. Paul Valery 3. Sebastiao Salgado 4. Tony Ray-Jones

Landscape Quick Tips

55

Richard’s Rant!

I am a big believer in the importance of the Notebook system, particularly in the Print Circles and am always keen to see what gems have been included when I get the folios.

I came across something in the CPC1 Notebook recently which made me laugh out loud and I just had to ask Richard for permission to include it here - thankfully he agreed and he also let me have a few photos of the January snow into the bargain.

Richard’s Rant, see opposite, will I suspect appeal to many. It recalled to mind a comment I made in the September Notebook: “I’ve just printed my next offering and the grey ink in my Canon 9500II has expired and having replaced it I now have no spare grey ink cartridges left. At around £10 a cartridge (or £90 for a full set of ten cartridges) OEM cartridges are not a cheap way of printing even ignoring the cost of the printer. I am increasingly thinking of moving to an online printer for my printing and gradually phasing out my own printer.”

Richard’s experience has not changed my views! I have discounted the use of non-OEM inks following a very bad experience when one burst in my Epson printer a few years back rendering the printer a write-off as the cost of cleaning was going to be more than the printer cost me to purchase.

I wonder if 2016 will be the year I finally ditch the printer?

All images © Richard Bown

Taken on a walk beside Fewston reservoir.

January 2016 Š Richard Bown

57

Taken from the Skipton Road.

January 2016 © Richard Bown

Taken in the Washburn Valley just upriver from Blubberhouses.

January 2016 © Richard Bown 58

… and the winners are …

The runners up from the Photonews Forum competition

Aquilegia An image such as this needs a good quality flower to work well and this is an immaculately detailed specimen. The black background works well and shows off the bright colours perfectly. The cmposition is well considered particularly in the way that the yellowish petals nicely merge into the red ones. A beautifuly lit, crisp image which thoroughly deserves its place in the judges final selection. © Richard Vale

Sorry, No Photography A well-timed amusing capture that tells a comic story.

Great fun and a bit out of the ordinary, - pin sharp, well exposed, and good composition with no distracting elements. © Gary Barton

Thanks again to everyone who took part in the competition hosted jointly by Photonews and the Forum. The response was fabulous and we had a tough time whittling them down to our final selection.

In the end the winner was a unanimous decision and each judge chose two images from the final shortlist as our Runners-Up. We hope you enjoy seeing them here.

Clive, Dave (Wi) and Dave (Wh)

59

The Postal Photographic Club Website

Graham Dean

Your website needs you!

There are lies, damned lies and statistics (possibly part 1)

Our website platform provides some very basic statistics: these include graphs showing visitor numbers and page views on for the last month. Trying to interpret these is mostly guesswork – so below are some of my guesses and observations!

The graph opposite shows page views for the previous 31 days: the first date is Boxing Day – I’m quite surprised that about 170 pages were viewed on that day – only matched on January 19th. I think many of the page views on January 19th were possibly due to one member: earlier in the month John Maule had asked me to make changes to the Digital Slide Circle pages (below, left). I eventually carried out the update on this date and emailed to let John know. I suspect he was checking out the new page and images. This is possibly borne out by the Digital Slide Circle page being the only circle page to be among the “Top Ten” most visited pages (see table. right).

Other interesting points are the discrepancies between the number of views which the membership application page had with actual number of people who completed the form: 3! The renewal page had 48 views – yet only 7 members renewed (but at least that’s a higher percentage).

Page Page Views home page 963 about.html 165 galleries.html 140 photonews.html 84 contact.html 76 membership-applicaAon.html 72 links.html 71 digital-slide-circle.html 54 january-2016-gallery.html 52 renewal.html 48

http://www.postalphotoclub.org.uk

60

Clive Piggott

The Postal Photographic Club Forum http://forum.postalphotoclub.org.uk

As you will have noticed from the stunning front cover the winner of the Photonews Forum fun competition in December was Francesca Shearcroft.

We felt this was a very striking and original square format image which would make an excellent PN cover. Francesca had clearly thought about the brief as both her entries were in the square format (the competition flyer specifically mentioned the square format) and if you’ll pardon the pun this image simply exploded off the screen. It was also the only image to make the shortlist of all three judges.

Explosion! © Francesca Shearcroft

The runners-up are featured elsewhere in this issue and I’m sure that members will have their own view as to the judges choices but that is the joy of the hobby - we all see things differently.

By the time you read this, spring will be well on its way (hooray!) though at the time of writing we've just suffered a severe frost and the early emerging daffodils look very vulnerable. But now the darkest days of winter are hopefully behind us, we can look forward to the freedom to roam around unencumbered outside again for a few months. Photographic activity for many of us steps up a gear now and on the forum we will be looking forward to hearing news of members' holidays and photographic expeditions, or perhaps about that new purchase of a camera or lens etcetera that will make such a difference in the coming daylight months.

Sometimes I'm amazed by how relatively easily photographers have adapted to and embraced the huge changes that have come in to the hobby over the early years of the 21st Century - and indeed photography in general is thriving as a result. As a member of both CPC1 (a print circle) and online via the Website, Photonews, social media pages, and (of course) the Photonews Forum, I feel privileged to be able to enjoy the work of our members, photographers of the highest quality, on a regular basis and at very little cost. Many of the members who regularly frequent the forum are highly experienced and talented, often with specialist knowledge and skills and always willing to offer help where they can.

Their advice is invaluable and freely available thanks in no small part to the facilities of this forum.

Finally, a few numbers. We now have more than 50 registered members of the forum and looking at the statistics it is fair to say that many of these are regular browsers. At the end of December there were a total of 287 topics which had attracted 1,792 individual posts from members. Since this, the second incarnation of the PPC forum, went live in November 2014 we have had more thanr 111,000 page views, 98,060 of those in 2015.

The forum is in part an attempt to give members the feeling of belonging to a larger club – not just a Circle(s). It aims to provide a sense of history for members by accruing a record of club events, e.g. TE award winners, rally reports etc., and making it available to all. Any member who is not currently a member of the forum but fancies having a look, even if just to browse, would be welcome (see panel to right).

The PPC Forum has two main sections: The Forum Community area comprises a number of memberoriented discussions.These are spaces which offer members unlimited opportunity to share questions and thoughts about the hobby, share their photographs for appraisal or simply to show their work to other members. There are also general non-photography conversations and Forum news updates.

The PPC area contains discussions and news items relating to the club Circles and their operation for example. There is news and updates about the club's Website, Photonews. Annual Rally, Committee members, annual competitions etc.

The forum is completely private and the only way to join is by emailing your details to us at: forum@postalphotoclub.org.uk

All the best Clive 61

Tricky Ladbury?

Hello again!

I was reading an arAcle in a well known photographic magazine a couple of weeks ago; the words were describing how to apply certain seLngs to a camera and the associated processes in order to achieve a specific result. The author was stated in the opening sentences the following pages would reveal the “trick” to gaining this subjects’ final result. Really that’s interesAng I thought; izzy wizzy lets get busy.

Now I have during my many years of imagery learnt a huge amount from magazine arAcles, books, club members, colleagues and friends, and most recently via the internet in the form of video lessons and emails. I’ve even aTended the occassional professional seminar or tutorial. In all these areas of “learning” I have never been offered the opportunity to gain the knowledge relaAng to any photographic procedure by the use of a “trick” this must be some modern magical method I’ve not heard of… I’m thinking.

Chestnut in the Woods ~ original raw image taken as full colour (Canon 7D) modified in Adobe Photoshop CC adjustment to basics plus minor crop, exported to (Google) Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for full conversion to monochrome with minor adjustments returned to PS and tweaked basics including desaturating the background.

I have used “skills”, “lessons”, “techniques” , “tuiAon” and even trial and error, but in no way do I recall the mysteries or amazements of applying a “trick”. Is this something from a New Age which I have yet to discover? Does this mean the “Auto” seLng will no longer work as a “save all” plan, the easy answer to any problem or dilemma which I find myself in photographically speaking? Will I no longer need to read the instrucAon book included in the packaging of my newly acquired piece of camera equipment?

I fear not!

One will sAll require the ability to apply the essenAal newly gained knowledge achieved by so called experts [definiAon: ex meaning - has been, and spurt refers to a (water) drip - a past fool?]. Will a magician’s licence need to be obtained prior to giving out useful (or useless) informaAon or passing on wisdom gained, for the benefit of others?

The Yellow Canoe ~ original single raw image taken as full colour (Canon 40D) basic adjustments in Adobe Photoshop CC. Then a composite layer above the stack was created, so as to include all the adjustment layers into one new layer. This new top layer was duplicated and toned a single blue colour, to which a layer mask was added. Then selecting the mask a paint brush of the appropriate size was used to “brush” in the layer mask mode taking care to select both the canoeist and the coloured ripples this simple bit of magic is often known as colour popping these days.

62

Red Tulip ~ original raw image taken as infrared colour (590nm internal filter converted Canon 40D), opened in Adobe Photoshop CC channel swapping with fine adjustment to all three channels followed with basic adjustments then background modified by making a selection and adjusting saturation and tone.

63

Slow Tide ~ original raw image taken as full colour (Canon 7D) modified in Adobe Photoshop CC adjustment to basics plus letter-box crop, the movement is simply a long exposure of Âź second, with the camera mounted on a tripod low down at the edge of the sea.

Storm over Hoy ~ original raw image taken as full colour (Canon 7D) modified in Adobe Photoshop CC adjustment to basics plus minor crop, exported to (Google) Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for full conversion to monochrome including adding grain and grunge with minor adjustments moved to Adobe Lightroom further minor adjustments including a long narrow letter-box crop. Also a lot work on the lighthouse to create a focal point.

64

Shadowlands ~ original single raw image taken as full colour (Canon 40D) modified in Adobe Photoshop CC adjustment to basics plus square crop and some minor cloning across top border. Look carefully and notice the shadow is different to the jumping boy.

This is not a double exposure or copied two images into one, but a straight shot on a hazy sunny day. The SKILL (trick) used was keen eye sight and observation, for the “shadow” is the local council’s painting a series of shadowgraphs along the seafront promenade. I simply asked a couple of lads to run and jump the gap four or five times to get the view seen. Just basic tidied up in Adobe Photoshop CC and removal of original shadow.

65

Right away, one area of magic comes to mind in my view, which is from the good old days of wet processing in the darkroom, when an image is being swilled around in a dish of developing fluid to reveal the picture on a piece of blank but chemically treated photographic paper. The mysAc began with the first photo processed, a picture appearing gradually on the surface of this pure white innocuous piece of (seemingly) plain paper, the grey faint lines and shapes turning steadily increasing in depth of tone and contrast to finally display a full range of tones from black to white through all the grey shades imaginable. That was magic, that was!

Then came along the “digital age” where we suffered the iniAal shock of being able to handle paper in full daylight and load it into a printer; a task which took some accepAng afer years of fumbling around a darkroom in the faint red or deep yellow glow of a safe light. Once the ability to be safe with a piece of treated paper in bright white condiAons was overcome, the next big step I feel was to be in a posiAon to alter reality by cloning, adjusAng sizes, altering colour and tone, or even to go completely of the scale and use curves or other methods to produce totally abstract false colours. In the past film only days the one easy way into false colour rendiAon was to use infrared film, chemically altered film to produce a completely unique colour range. The changing of any aspect of the original image seen today is to me once again is certainly truly magical with amazing tones and shades never envisaged in the Ames of yore.

The ease with which the image can be changed and in complete daylight or room light condiAon of working is a pleasant mystery and enchantment; that and the spell checker which tries to predetermine the thoughts in our minds when spelling a ward (see, word it should be, but ward exists so is accepted as correct), and I never did see the point of a calculator as I could make one plus one equal three every Ame.

The Psychedelic Band ~ original raw image taken as infrared colour (720nm internal filter converted Canon 30D), opened in Adobe Photoshop CC, basics adjusted then channel swapping followed by curves drastically altered and levels and colour saturation modified.

Risley Copse, Derbyshire ~ original taken as seven raw vertical colour images (Canon 7D) opened in Adobe Lightroom CC converted to a panoramic in Library>Photo>Photomerge> Panorama (Ctrl + M) when finalised, the picture cropped and minor adjustments made in both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Using skill, technique and even the way of approaching photography I’m not a one trick photographer; now where did I put that “copy” to email to Dave (the editor), for my next arAcle…

Bye for now… see you round the corner soon!

Memorial Garden ~ original raw image taken as infrared colour (665nm internal filter converted Canon 40D), opened in Adobe Photoshop CC channel swapping with fine adjustment to all three 66 channels to suitable tones.

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Photonews is published four times a year.

All rights reserved. All materials copyright The Postal Photographic Club and/or the authors. Any opinion or statement expressed by the author of any article published in this magazine does not necessarily reflect the views of The Postal Photographic Club, the editor, or its members.

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