October 2014 Cape Camera

CAPE CAMERAOctober 2014

Official Newsletter of the

Cape Town Photographic Society

President’s message 2

CTPS wins Interclub 3

125 year celebrations 4

News flashes 5

Judges judged 6

November judge 7

PSSA club entries 8

October judge 8

Top images set 9

Top images Open 10

Members perform 11

E&D evening 12

Gifberg outing 12

Audio-visual news 13

PSSA Congress 14

Salon opportunities 16

Marike Bruwer award 17

125 Year Diary 18

Cape Camera • October 2014 - 2 -

www.ctps.co.za • Copyright 2014 • Cape Town Photographic Society

At this the start of the new coun-cil’s year, I’d like to welcome the new members of council. The outgoing members will be missed

and on your behalf I thank them for what they have given to CTPS. I’m sure that the new members will fill the gap that has been made. We work as a team and this will not change.

I also thank you all for the honour of re-electing me as your President during this prodigious year of CPTS’s 125 anniversary.

In this my first message in the new term, I thought it fit to give you a few quotes that I recently came across.• Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it

while the angels are debating the best way to use it (Alan Valentine).

• Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learnt at school ( Albert Einstein).

• Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We now have guided missiles and misguided men (Mar-tin Luther King Jr).

• Science is organised knowledge, wisdom is organised life (Immanuel Kant).

• The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible (Arthur C. Clarke).Much has been said and lamented about the system

that we use to judge the images that you enter at our monthly meetings (see article p6).

The word judging is a misconception because the imag-es are not judged, but a critique is given on the work. This

critique is always governed by the personal likes and dislikes and the past photograph-ic experiences of the judge. What one per-son sees as excellent, another person may not even want to comment on.

A judge may come from a space where he, or she, does not know what amateur photographers wish to portray.

It is for this reason that council has ap-pointed a sub-committee to re-examine the whole judging procedure.

Some of the other clubs, for example, use a three judge panel for their competition evenings. It is not always easy to find three

judges, which gives them the opportunity to provide one or two of their salon workers with judging experience and training.

In a month’s time our end-of-year awards evening oc-curs (on 27 November) at the Granger Bay Hotel School. This promises to be a grand affair and I’m sure you will all be joining us of this very special occasion. Tickets at R200 for members and R250 for non-members can be bought from Pat Scott.

As regards the future, 2015 is almost upon us. Please remember that there will be special events taking place every month throughout 2015, culminating with a grand dinner on 30 October 2015, so diarise this date now.

Wishing you all the best in photography,

Detlef Basel Hon PSSA, APSSA

President’s message

On the coverSalon winner PDI Set — Zebra crossing by Pat Scott (28) was one of two images with this top score in the October competition. “Well seen,” commented judge Gerda Genis. “A strong image, done very well.” She suggested Photoshopping some of the white marks out.

President Detlef [email protected]

Tel: 082 898 6759Vice-president Nicol du Toit

[email protected] & Education Karyn Parisi

[email protected] Secretary Jacoba van Zyl [email protected] Honorary Treasurer Nicol du Toit [email protected]

Property Manager Richard GoldschmidtWebsite Manager Steffne Hughes [email protected] Convenor Lesley Parolis [email protected] Convenor Joy Wellbeloved [email protected] Relations Officer Steffne Hughes [email protected] Officer Trudi du Toit [email protected]

Contact CTPS council members

Monthly meetingsMonthly meetings are held in the St Ste-phens Church Hall in Pinelands at 7pm.1st Wednesday: Competition evening2nd Wednesday: Audio-visual meeting3rd Wednesday: Education & Develop-

ment meeting

- 3 - Cape Camera • October 2014


C TPS is, once again, the Western Cape Interclub champion. The 24 CTPS entries scored 1565 points, to beat the ten other clubs in the 2014 competi-tion, organised by Paarl Photographic Club.

This year, we did consistently well, with our images in both the PDI and print section scoring an average of 65 out of 90 (or 22 out of 30). CTPS is the only club to score an average of 65/90 (or 22/30) – most others scoring an average of 21 out of 30.

In addition, Marius-lee Pretorius’ entry Pod shared the first prize in the PDI section with 76/90 points (25/30); Malcolm Jones’ First moments of a new life was the run-ner-up in the print section with 77/90 points (26/30) and Anna Engelhardt’s print In between showers (75/90 or 25/30) was judge Jean du Plessis’ favourite entry.

Karyn Parisi was the CTPS member who got the most points — a total of 145 for two images.

CTPS also won the print section with 777 points – an average of 65/90 (22/30) points per entry in a section where the judges were more likely to score in the 40’s and 50’s (14-20 out of 30). Other print entries that did well are Karyn Parisi’s Portrait of an American eagle, which got the 4th highest score of 75/90 (25/30) and Kim Stevens’ Victor Victoria (69/90 or 23/30).

In the PDI section Jeanette du Toit’s Action Reflection (73/90 or 24/30) and Karyn Parisi’s A man and his dog (70/90 or 23/30) were among the top scoring images.

This year two new clubs joined the Interclub compe-tition: Worcester and Durbanville. Clubs could enter a maximum of 12 PDI’s and 12 prints, although some clubs didn’t enter any, or only a few, prints.

Taking into account that all the entries were the par-ticipating clubs’ highest scoring images for the past year,

it was interesting to see how much lower the three In-terclub judges scored the images. They were especially harsh in the print section: of the 107 entries, only 10 scored 71/90 (24/30) and higher. Of these, three were CTPS images. In the PDI section, 21 of the 132 entries scored 71/90 (24 /30) or above – two CTPS images.

The judges come from diverse photographic back-grounds. Chris Hart from Riebeeck-Kasteel is a camera technician at Orms, who specialises in flower and black and white photography. Hentie van der Merwe is a sen-ior lecturer at the Department of Visual Arts, Stellenbos-ch University, who has won many awards as a visual art-ist. Jean du Plessis was the former chief photographer at Die Burger newspaper, who now works as a freelancer, travelling and photographing all over the world. He has received several awards for his photographs.

CTPS also won the Interclub trophy two years ago, and was the 2013 runner-up.

CTPS wins Interclub — again!Cape Town Photographic Society not only won the 2014 Western Cape Interclub trophy, but indi-vidual club photographers did exceptionally well

Nr entries Score Aver-

ageAver-

age/301 CTPS 24 1565 65 222 Creative Camera 24 1542 64 213 Fish Hoek 24 1538 64 214 Tafelberg 24 1536 64 215 Helderberg 24 1533 64 216 Tygerberg 24 1516 63 217 Paarl 24 1491 62 218 Worcester 24 1436 59 209 Durbanville 21 1233 59 20

10 Swartland 14 867 62 2111 Hermanus 12 770 64 21

Final scorecard of participating clubs

Detlef Basel with the trophy CTPS won, Anna Engelhardt who won a judge’s choice, and Malcolm Jones, runner-up in the print section. Marius-lee Pretorius, who won the PDI section, was not present.

Prints Score/90 Score/30First moments of a new life Malcolm Jones 77 26In between showers Anna Engelhardt 75 25Portrait of an American eagle Karyn Parisi 75 25Victor Victoria Kim Stevens 69 23Sea mist through the dunes Jean Bradshaw 67 22Flaps down Joan Ward 66 22Early morning ride Robert Marconi 65 22Velddrif dawn Lesley Parolis 63 21Hard working bee Jeanette du Toit 62 21River abstract Johan Strydom 57 19Seduction Anna Engelhardt 54 18Which hand to pick Antenie Carstens 47 16PDIs Score/90 Score/30Pod Marius-lee Pretorius 76 25Action reflection Jeanette du Toit 73 24A man and his dog Karyn Parisi 70 23Fisherman’s lot Pat Scott 69 23I see you Nellian Bekker 68 23Neon reality Ingrid Gane 65 22Shaft of light Babette Frehrking 64 21Sisterly love Lesley Parolis 64 21Heart valve replacement Malcom Jones 62 21Evening snack Pat Scott 61 20Curious Robert Marconi 61 20Towards the sun Joy Wellbeloved 55 18

Scorecard of CTPS entries



De Hoop Dawn by Lesley Parolis, entered in the Print-Open cate-gory in the October club compe-tition, gives an indication of the beauty of the De Hoop nature re-serve that members will be able to experience during the CTPS Congress at the end of May next year. The judge gave the image a score of 27 and commented on “the lovely sense of design. The wider angle lens brings the spread of the scene into one space.” She liked the “lovely colours” and the pink of the dawn.

CTPS 125 years celebrationSave the date for congress 2015!

AS PArT of the 125 year celebrations in 2015, a CTPS Congress will be held in the De Hoop Nature Reserve on the weekend of 29-31 May. This will be exclusive to CTPS members and as many members as possible are encour-aged to book for this unique event.

Pat Scott is hard at work organising an impressive line-up of speakers, who will make this Congress one of the highlights of next year’s celebrations.

Apart from attending workshops and lectures, mem-bers will be able to enjoy the many stunning photo-graphic opportunities in the reserve (see above).

The congress will start on the Friday afternoon and end on the Sunday. Members will therefore not have to take a lot of leave to attend.

Please let Pat Scott know if you are interested in attend-ing to facilitate planning ([email protected].).

Exciting outings plannedEARLy NExT year CTPS will be hosting a weekend out-ing to Stanford, which will offer plenty of opportuni-ties for birding, exploring the wineries, brewery and eateries and photographing the seascapes, quaint ar-chitecture, or even to enjoy an evening cruise on the lagoon. The date — probably end of February — will be confirmed.

Next year’s outings will all be planned around the 125th Year celebrations. Some dates and details will be confirmed closer to the time, but you can prepare yourselves for the following:• Table mountain hike (for fit members) and cable car

trip for the others with sundowners and a picnic at the top on Saturday 31 January.

• A red bus tour around the Peninsula in March(weather permitting).

• Bein Wine will offer donkey cart rides and a winetasting at sunset in April.

• An outing to Stellenbosch is planned for June.• The club is planning an outing to Postberg, part of

the West Coast National Park, in the wild flower sea-son (probably August).

• Current and old club members will be honoured at a smart gala dinner in October.

Plenty of photographic opportunitiesAPArT froM the monthly club competitions, club members will be encouraged to record the year in pic-tures and also to pit their skills against other photogra-phers in our celebratory National Salon.• Members will be encouraged to photograph the cel-

ebrations throughout the year, with the set theme for the October club competition the 125 year celebra-tions, and a book of members’ images celebrating the year to be published at the end of the year.

• The Cape Town Photographic Society 125th Anniver-sary Salon, planned for our birthday month of October, will include prints (run by Antenie Carstens), PDI (Les-ley Parolis) and AV’s (Joy Wellbeloved). Nicol du Toit will be the overall coordinator.

• A photo competition for schools is planned to promotethe club to the younger generation. Learners will be en-couraged to take photos during the July school holidays.

• An exhibition of members’ work from the past 125years is planned for the foyer of the Artscape to coin-cide with the performance of West Side Story at the end of July.

• The possibility of a moving exhibition of images, ourold cameras, etc. in shopping centres is being investi-gated. A possible date is in June.



AGM approves constitution changesAT The AGM during September resolutions were ap-proved to change the election of council members. The changes to the Constitution (Clause 4.2) will be imple-mented during the 2015 election of council members.

It was decided that members of the council will be elected for a two-year term (instead of one). In addition, to ensure continuity, half the members shall be elected in one year, and the other half in the other year. The president will not serve more than two (two year) terms in succession.

Detlef Basel was re-elected president for 2014. The following members were re-elected to their positions: Nicol du Toit (honorary treasurer), Jacoba van Zyl (hon-orary secretary), Richard Goldschmidt (property manag-er), Lesley Parolis (competition convenor) and Joy Well-beloved (audio-visual convenor).

John Spence was unavailable for re-election and Nicol du Toit will succeed him as vice-president and Trudi du Toit as publications officer. Steffne Hughes succeeds Sakkie Smit as webmaster and she will also be responsi-ble for public relations. Karyn Parisi succeeds Pat Scott, who’ll concentrate on the 125 year celebrations, as edu-cation and development organiser.Financial statements approvedAlthough we incurred R92 000 in maintenance and re-pair costs on our building, it remains the main income stream on which CTPS relies, treasurer Nicol du Toit re-ported at the AGM. Membership fees contributed only 2% of our total income for the past year.

Expenditure reduced by 11% compared to last year, re-sulting in a net profit for the year of R229 000.

We managed to sort out our tax problems and ob-tained assessments for the 2007 to 2012 years, bringing our tax situation up to date, without incurring penalties or interest charges.

The long outstanding rental payments are in the pro-cess of being recovered. This was done by restructuring the rental agreement at the end the previous financial year. Although the tenant paid late on a few occasions, generally speaking he is honouring the new agreement and was up to date at year end.

News flashesMeeting on Jarvis StreetA SPECIAL General Meeting of all CTPS members has been called for Wednesday, 5 November 2014, to approve (or not) a reso-lution that the CTPS building at 28 Jarvis Street (right) be sold. The meeting will be held before the November competition evening at 7pm.

The building, which was built in 1890, the same year that CTPS was founded, has been the soci-

Book for end of year functionMeMberS Are reminded to book to attend our An-nual Awards dinner to be held on 27 November 2014 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cater-ing School, Granger Bay.

This is an occasion not to be missed! Come along and discover who has won awards and enjoy a superb meal at a rather special venue right on the seaside at Granger Bay.

Contact Pat Scott at [email protected].

Latest promotions The following members were promoted in October:• Anica Jansen van Vuuren to Advanced• Ross Shackleton to Advanced• Joy Wellbeloved to Salon• Lesley Parolis to SalonMembers are promoted to a higher level based on the following criteria:• Beginner to Intermediate: 3 gold awards & 30 points• Intermediate to Advanced: 5 gold awards & 40 points• Advanced to Salon: 50 gold awards.Points awarded in the club competitions count. Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Red =1. Salon acceptances count 3 points.

Points needed for Gold Silver redSalon 24 20 16Advanced 22 18 14Intermediate 20 16 12beginner 18 14 10

New members The following new members joined during October: John Basil Arseniou LPSSA, an AV maker formerly from East London Photographic Society; Daleen Nel Hall and Stokkies Stockenstrom. Welcome!

ety’s main stream of income. But, at the 2014 AGM members decided to accept a

motion from Richard Goldschmidt that the possibility of selling the building be investigated and a task team, con-sisting of Goldschmidt, Neels Beyers, Dante Parisi and Nicol du Toit, was appointed.



Who’ll judge the judges? What are the criteria for judging photographic images? This is an issue most clubs and salons have always been struggling with. That is why CTPS has appointed a sub-committee to take a fresh look at the whole issue of judging and the PSSA wants clubs to help train judges

A re there rules for judging a creative image? Had you asked Vincent van Gogh and his co-Impressionists rejected by the

French salon judges in the latter half of the 19th century, the answer would have been an unequivocal: NO.

But, on the other hand, the incredulous gasps from the audience when some of the scores were announced at the Western Cape Interclub competition, showed that for judges’ scoring to have some credibility, you have to have some criteria.

For example, is it credible that an image that has had several salon acceptances, won salon categories and a PSSA bronze medal, would be scored the equivalent of 18? Or, an image that was given a score of 26 by a club judge, came second in the PSSA competition, be scored an equivalent of 16 by the Interclub judges?

The problem is more prevalent when commercial or academic judges from outside the club system are in-volved. There are different rules for judging commercial, news, magazine, product, art or club photography.

That is why club photographers don’t respect a judge who suggests cloning out or moving parts of a wildlife im-age — as you would do to please a commercial patron.Drawing up criteriaJudging is a topic of concern for most photography clubs.

“I strongly feel that we should use only accredited judg-es, of whom we have a number in the Western Cape,” suggests Tygerberg Club chairman Robert Johnston.

“Let’s face it, a well-known photographer, or lecturer, is not necessarily a good judge. In the Western Cape we have a body of JAP accredited judges, the only ones in the country,” he continues.

He proposes that the chairmen of the Western Cape clubs, for example, draw up a judging criterium for the next Interclub competition and that the judges for the event be briefed accordingly.

Tygerberg have a set of guidelines on the criteria they wish club judges to fol-low. For example, that “it is important to start each crit on a positive note. First concentrate on what you see and what is positive. Then proceed to ideas of how you would improve the image.”

They then ask the judge to look at the following criteria, again with specific guidelines on how to interpret each one: photo fit and relevance to catego-ry (especially set subjects); various aspects of composi-tion; creativity; technical quality and overall impression.Training club membersThe Beachcomber club in Empangeni came up with the fol-lowing solution for club image judging after many (some-what acrimonious) discussions. Hendrik Louw explains:• Every member who wants to be promoted from 4 (our

Salon level) to 5 stars and beyond, must be prepared to give talks and become involved with club judging.

• They select three judges from these club members, whodon’t know who the other two selected judges are. They judge remotely, before the competition evening, and send their scores to the competition convenor and his/her as-sistant.

• The competition convenor and assistant draw graphs toshow the scores awarded by the three judges, each in a different colour. The convenor and assistant act as backups and also enter their scores. The median scores of the 5 judges is then established.

• Each judge knows which colour is his or hers, but not theothers, and can therefore compare his score to see if he scores too high or too low.

• This enables the competition convenor to keep track ofthe judges that are closest to the median and build up a database of the best judges in the club.

• On the competition evening one of the three judges isappointed to give comments — but he may not alter the combined score. The judge giving the crit may say if he/

At the October CTPS council meeting it was de-cided that com-petition convenor Lesley Parolis (left talking to Joy Wellbeloved) and a sub-committee would re-examine the club competi-tion judging sys-tem — a problem area for clubs countrywide, as well as the PSSA.

I strongly feel that we should use only accred-ited judges, of whom we have a number in the Western Cape



An image that scored 26 at club level, was runner-up in the PSSA competition, but was scored 16 at Interclub.

she differs from the other two regarding an image, as long as he justifies his opinion.

Training and accrediting judgesFinding and training suitable salon and competition judges was also a topic that elicited much discussion at the Forum during the 2014 PSSA (Photographic Society of South Africa) AGM, held in Skukuza during September.

Francois Roux will now run the JAP programme to train and accredit judges, assisted by a JAP committee: Roel van Oudheusden, Willem Botha and Pieter Venter. They have been standardising the material for accreditation of judges and will be training new judges at club level.

Delegates agreed that more salon judges should be culti-vated: the current judging panels are same old, same old, and many of the judges have become stale, some delegates commented. Fresh insights and perspectives are needed. But only people who kept their honours criteria up to date should be judging.

It was suggested that a survey be conducted among hon-ours members to find out if they are available to be trained as salon judges.

The JAP/JaP programme is split in two:• JAP is the Judging Accreditation Programme to get more

salon judges accredited, run by the JAP team. They will of-fer structured training programmes countrywide.

• The JaP group project – the Judging Appreciation Pro-gramme – are smaller groups that get together at club level to talk about judging under the leadership of an ac-credited moderator. The aim is to train people to get to the level that they can join the accreditation programme.Several delegates at the PSSA Forum stressed that it is

clubs’ responsibility to encourage members to qualify as judges and to help train members to improve their judging skills. Judging should be encouraged at club level and clubs should run judging appreciation groups.

Once club judges improve their expertise and the top judges emerge at club level, they should be encouraged to seek promotion to the top level by taking part in the JAP programme.

Not one of the other clubs we spoke to use professional photographers from outside the club system. Outside judg-es are people from other clubs, who understand the ama-teur and club rules and judging criteria.

Remote judging also contributes to the vast discrepancies in scores awarded in salon competitions, said PSSA presi-dent Jill Sneesby. She would prefer that judges get together and discuss images, and that only experienced, accredited, judges be appointed who keep their skills updated by taking part in salons. She even suggested that remote judging be prohibited for salons in big sentra.

They select three judges from these club members, who don’t know who the other two selected judges are

November judge Jenny Powis photographed by John Cross in a cave during the Gifberg weekend.

November club judge well qualified and accreditedNoveMber JuDge Jenny Powis ticks all the boxes for judging a club competition: she is JAP accredited and ac-tually helps train judges, she has been a dedicated CTPS club member — often serving as committee member — for so long that she qualified for life membership. And she is kind.

Her interest in photography started in 1980 when she was given her first camera as a graduation present.

She has won numerous awards and in 2002 became an Associate of the Photographic Society of South Africa.

She is especially keen on landscape photography and macro work — see some of her images taken during the Gifberg weekend on our website (www. ctps.co.za).

“Just watching a landscape change in the low light at dawn and dusk is ever so exciting for me,” she says on her website. “There is a special kind of magic, which I try to capture in the sweet light of dawn and dusk.”

She will therefore enjoy judging the November set sub-ject images: Low light.

See more of her images on www.jennypowis.com.



PSSA Entries: Every month a competition entry from a senior (Advanced or Salon) and junior (Beginner or Intermediate) photographer is entered in the PSSA competition. The club entry winners can be seen on the PSSA website at www.pssa.co.za.

More about the October judge

October judge Gerda Genis is a renowned fashion and celebrity photographer, whose Oranjezicht studio produced many magazine covers and spreads — and facilitated the introduction be-

tween rugby player James Small and model Christina Storm.Genis studied graphic art at the University of Stellenbosch,

where her photography lecturer, the late Alice Mertens, in-spired her to become a photographer ... even though she had never handled a camera until her father gave her a twin lens six months before she went to Stellenbosch.

She started working in Cape Town for a fashion retailer before going to Amsterdam to work as a camera assistant, because she did not believe that the very competitive Cape Town fashion photography industry would take kindly to a young girl starting out on her own.

The portfolio she brought back from Amsterdam in the

mid-80’s soon had her on speed-dial to most Cape Town fashion editors.

She soon be-came one of the magazines’ fa-vourite photog-raphers, who photographed famous peo-ple like Charlize Theron, Clau-dia Schiffer, Ryk Neethling, etc. Most TV person-alities and just about all the models in Cape Town passed through her studio. She was also commissioned to do several commercial shoots, including billboards for Sun International.

Mertens instilled in her a work ethic that you should never be complacent with your work. “Till today, I look at every picture and ask myself: is that the best you can do?” In com-mercial photography, you have to plan your luck, she says.

Genis is one of the Hurricanes Agency photographers as-sembled by Gavin Furlonger — among the other well-known names who work together to offer clients a full package of skills are Alain Proust, Alexa Singer and Jonathan Taylor.

After 30 years in the commercial world, she now does pho-tography for her own pleasure and teaches yoga. “I enjoy do-ing landscapes and photos of animals. I travel a lot,” she says. “I now shoot for the love of it.”

Intermediate PDI Open winner: Simply India by Anica Jansen van Vuuren (27) is the PSSA junior entry. “Well seen, caught in the moment. A great photojournalism picture,” said judge Gerda Genis, who also commented that it captured the essence of India.

Judge selector Jeanette Brusnicky with photographer Gerda Genis.

Advanced Print Open winner: Dusk by Catherine Bruce Wright (28) is the PSSA senior entry. “A National Geographic cover!” said Gerda Genis. “It is backlit absolutely right — the sports and background don’t compete. A beautiful shot.”

Competition newsMembers may enter a maximum of three images in any category per competition. It is no longer compul-sory to enter an image in the set subject.

In October there were 97 competition entries: PDI Set 29, PDI Open 32, Print Set 10 and Print Open 26.5 November Set Subject: Low light. Judge Jenny Powis.3 December Set Subject: Portrait. Judge Jan Verboom.21 January Set Subject: Yin and Yang.4 February Set Subject: Windows and/or doors



Top scoring images OctoberSet subject: Graphic design

Left: Advanced winner PDI-Set: Flight of Fancy by Les-ley Parolis (27). “Sublime,” was judge Gerda Genis’ comment on this image, which she describes as a Alice Mertens type of image.

Right: Intermediate winner PDI-Set: Winged by Ani-ca Jansen van Vuuren (25). “Magnificent as a strong statement,” said the judge. “Beautifully lit.”

Left: Salon PDI-Set: Rhino sunset by Nicol du Toit (26). “Wonderfully sur-realistic,” said judge Genis, who compared it to a Salvador Dali image.” It makes an incredibly strong statement.”

Left: Salon winner Print-Set: Nauti-lus Spiral by Jean Bradshaw (23). “A beautiful image, depicting something graphic from nature. It is almost an Ansel Adams image with beautiful greys and strong graphic lines.”

Advanced winner Print-Set: Tweeling by Marius-lee Preto-rius (23). “Beautiful lighting,” commented Genis. “The nega-tive and positive elements work well together. The graphics are strong.”

Left: Intermediate winner Print-Set: youthful illusion by Lorinda Rodri-gues (18). The judge suggested that the basketweave be sof-tened over the girl’s face,to make it less dominant.



October top scoring images: Open

Above: Salon winner Digital-Open: Doornbaai by Neels Bey-ers (23). “A perfect calendar image,” said Gerda Genis. “Nicely looked at.

Left: Advanced winner Digital-Open: Watchful eye by Lesley Parolis (27). “Amazing! Beautiful sharp image,” said Genis. “I want to see a little more on the side.”

Left: Salon winner Print-Open: Graphic descent by Kim Stevens (27). “Nice composition, a very strong image,” said Genis.

Left: Salon Print-Open: Trappe in ‘n spiraal by Neels Beyers (25). “An arresting image that makes you stand still to look. Very well done.”

Salon Print-Open: Arum lily bud by Jean Bradshaw (25). “A beautiful and sensitive lit flower shot, nicely backlit. The reflection makes it strong,” says Genis.

Right: Salon Print-Open: Ka-leidoscope by Shaun Laishley (25). “So clever. I can see this as an art piece, a huge print on a wall,” said the judge.

Advanced Print-Open: Flower by Marius-lee Pretorius (25). “An arresting image. It will be a beautiful art print on a wall,” said Genis.



Members perform well

in other competitions

CTPS members have been very successful in recent salons held countrywide by the East Rand Super-Circuit, Heigel Fotoklub Salon, Swartland Foto-grafieklub Salon and Westville Digital Salon.

Twelve successes and COM for Shaun LaishleyShaun Laishley has been especially prolific and was awarded with a Certificate of Merit (COM) and 11 Acceptances for the following images:• Base guitar: in the East Rand Super-Circuit (ERSC) it got

COM for Digital Mono-Open and Acceptances for Digital-Open (Benoni and Springs).

• Artistic inmate: in the ERSC it got Acceptances for Digital-Open (Fstop and Springs); and in the Swartland Salon it was accepted for Open-Pictorial.

• Blowing the night away: Acceptance in the ERSC Digital-Open (Benoni); and it was also accepted in the Swart-land Fotografieklub salon for Portraits.

• Majestic old lady: Acceptance in ERSC Digital-Open (Benoni).• Meeting by accident: Acceptance in the ERSC Digital-

Sport (Benoni).• Let me light it: Acceptance in the Westville Digital Salon

for Photojournalism (including Sport).• Trying to get up: Acceptance in the Westville Digital Salon

for Photojournalism (including Sport).Winner and runner-up for Nicol du ToitNicol du Toit won a PSSA as well as club medal with two images, and was awarded seven Acceptances for:• Kolmanskop corner: PSSA medal (Benoni) in the ERSC

Print-Open category and Acceptances by Fstop and Springs in the same Super-circuit.

• Storm clouds over Venice: Club medal from Fstop in theERSC Print-Scapes category.

• Doorway to the desert: Acceptance in the ERSC (Benoni)Digital-Open.

• Jana on bentwood chair: Acceptance in the ERSC(Benoni) Digital Mono-Open.

• Tower reflections: Acceptance in the ERSC (Benoni)Prints-Open.

• Vlerksleep: Acceptance in ERSC (Springs) Prints-Nature.• Lagulhas maru: Acceptance in Heigel Fotoklub Open.Five successes for Marius-lee PretoriusMarius-lee Pretorius had five acceptances in the ERSC salon, namely:• Pod: Acceptances by Benoni and Springs for Digital-Open.• The mind of Jan van Wijk: Acceptances by Benoni and Fstop

for Digital-Open.• Easy Rider: Acceptance by Springs for Digital-Open.Lion Kill wins for Sybil MorrisSybil Morris’ Lion Kill image has been awarded with two Acceptances by the Heigel Fotoklub (Nature) and Westville Digital Salon (Nature - excluding birds).

As reported in the September issue of Cape Camera, Steff Hughes’ Smoking the Milky Way was accepted in the Heigel Fotoklub Scapes category.

The CTPS entries in the Sep-tember PSSA club images competition both scored the second highest marks, 1 point behind the winner. In the senior section Jeanette du Toit’s Action Reflection (above) scored 37 out of 45, and Rob Marconi’s Early Morning Ride (right) scored 36 in the junior section. Left: Pod by Marius-lee Pretorius not only won the Interclub PDI section, but also got several salon ac-ceptances.



Education & Development and Outings

On Wednesday 15 Octo-ber, we were fortunate to have Marius van der Westhuizen conduct an

Advanced Photoshop course to 18 of our members.

He began by handing out a CD, containing the course contents for everyone to take home, followed by nearly four hours of advanced tech-niques, throwing in some extra tips and humorous comments and sto-ries, which made the evening most enjoyable.

At times he became quite excited about showing us his techniques. One in particular, was his photograph of a vin-tage car sinking in the middle of a lake, with the lights sud-denly coming back on. Another, a photograph of a woman with changing hair and eye colours.

Marius covered numerous areas, including techniques such as: Advanced Layer Styles, Layer Masks, Blending Lay-ers, Vignetting, Black and White, Dodge and Burn, Text, Writing Actions and Batch Processing.

He stressed the need to use layers to preserve the pixels of a photo and to be able to backtrack and add, or remove, processes non-destructively, while editing.

He also conveyed the importance of learning tool short-cuts, to save time while editing.

Marius was very willing to re-explain any techniques and

answer any questions throughout the night. He showed great enthu-siasm for teaching and sharing his wealth of information with others.

All in all, it was a most informa-tive and worthwhile evening, pro-viding members with many more advanced tools for producing what he would call oohs and aahs tech-niques for club nights and competi-tions.

Lastly, a big thank you to CTPS for generously subsidising this event and making it possible.

Haarhoff in NovemberOn Wednesday 19 November, after short notice, we are delighted to have Peter Haarhoff, well known photographer, return again, to present the last Educa-tion and Development session for the year. He will be speaking about portrait photography (the December club theme) and showing some of his amazing portrait shots taken on the township tours, which he offers.

He will also be talking about Star Trail Photography, as he has an upcoming one day Star Trail workshop in February next year, which members might be inter-ested in.

We hope to see you all there!

The Advanced Photoshop E&D evening by Marius van der Westhuizen was not only very informative, but also enjoy-able, report KAryn and DAnTE PArISI

Photoshop Guru shares insights

Beautiful images shot on Gifberg weekend

DeSPITe The 4-5 hour trip from Cape Town to Gifberg in August, twenty club members were rewarded for their effort with some stunning photographic opportunities.

“A great time was had by all,” says former outings con-venor Jenny Powis. She organised the outing after a work colleague, who had been on a cycling trip to the farm near Van Rhynsdorp, mentioned the photographic opportunities of the rugged landscape.

It is also a popular venue during the flowering season, as Nellian Bekker found when she tried to book an out-ing during her tenure as outings convenor.

The photographic expectations didn’t disappoint, as members could see from the slide show Lesley Parolis compiled from the six best images submitted by mem-bers shown at the last meeting. The images can also be seen on the CTPS website at www.ctps.co.za (Galleries).

Cave Magic by Jenny Powis. Gifberg Reflected by Johan Strydom.



Audio-vision (AV) news

Iam sure that all our members who attended the pres-entation by Linda and Edgar Gibbs this month had a most enjoyable and educational evening. To all our members that missed it, I can only say “Hard Luck”.

Not only did we see some outstanding AV‘s but it was also interesting to learn from true professionals.

With Edgar’s photography and Linda’s productions, I can only repeat myself that we had a great evening and I am sure that it was an advantage to understand the voice over and narration and realise this is something that we could possibly use in the future.

On behalf of the AV Section we would like to thank the Gibbs’ for their time and enthusiasm in their presentation.The Challenge

We would like to remind everyone again that the AV Challenge of A Place Near Here closes on 31st October. If you have mislaid the instructions, drop Robert an email and he will send them on to you. This is a fun event and the object is to get you to make an AV.

The challenge is not to raid your archives, but to go out and make an AV using all the things you were taught dur-ing the year.

The judges have been instructed to reward new work and to penalise AVs made before 2014.November Meeting

Wednesday 12th November will probably be our last meet-ing for the year and we will be showing some of the best AV’s submitted during the year.

Members are requested to bring a plate of snacks for afterwards.

Top AV makers visit from UK

Dear Detlef,Edgar and I want to thank you and the Cape Town Photographic Society for giving us the opportunity to show our work. We really enjoyed showing our AVs and hope that the section enjoyed them too.

We also want to put on record our very grateful thanks to the Council of Cape Town Photographic So-ciety for allocating a budget to Joy so that she could take us around the wonderful sites that Cape Town and its surroundings have to offer. The amount of her personal time that Joy put into the planning of our trips, as well as the two days we were taken out, was really appreciated.

It was also great that Robert, Leslie, Ingrid and Nel-lian were able to join us for some of the time on the Thursday.

Again, very many thanks from both of us. Kind regards,Linda

The presentation by the renowned UK AV couple, Linda and Edgar Gibbs, was a highlight of the AV year, reports rOBErT MAGInLEy

Introducing Linda and Edward Gibbsfor The uninitiated: Linda and Edward Gibbs are A-listers in the world of AV, with numerous international awards to their name. A recent addition was the FIAP rib-bon they received at the PECC International AV Festival for Talbot House.

The Cardiff couple are regular guest speakers on the UK AV circuit, giving live presentations on the use of sound, etc., as well as showing their own AV’s. They are both on the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain’s list of AV judges, judging together and inde-pendently.

Edgar, the photographer, has an FRPS in AV and is

the secretary and Advisory Board Member of the RPS AV Group. He has been a member of the AV Distinc-tions Panel. Linda, who studied art, is responsible for the production and creative aspects of their AV’s, es-pecially the scripts.

They have been working together as a team for more than 30 years and together received a Master in AV from the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain in Oc-tober 2011. They also won awards from the Interna-tional Federation of Photographic Art - AV-AFIAP

This month they’ve been sharing their expertise and AV’s with clubs in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.



Far left: Speakers Hen-drik Louw, the macro man, Cape Town ma-rine and wildlife pho-tographer Chris Fel-lows and BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year judge Tony Heald from the UK with their spouses at the gala evening that ended the congress.

Left: CTPS member Kim Stevens received her LPSSA honours certificate at the gala dinner.

Five CTPS members enjoyed the early morning and late afternoon wildlife photo opportunities, the inter-esting lectures, stimulating workshops and opportu-nities to share ideas with fellow club photographers

during the PSSA 2014 Congress / Wildlife Convention in Skukuza. In short, they had a jolly good time.

Kim Stevens had the additional incentive to travel to the Kruger Game Park: she received her LPSSA honours certificate. Joan Ward, Pat Scott and Nicol and Trudi du Toit were there to support her.

CTPS had also contributed R5 000 as a sponsorship of the congress.

The 60th PSSA Congress was combined with a Wildlife Convention and therefore many of the workshops and lectures were conducted by some of the leading wildlife photographers.

Capetonian Chris Fellows charmed the audience with his stunning images and interesting insights on great white sharks and predators — and if all goes well, CTPS members will be able to experience him next year at our congress in De Hoop.

Tony Heald from the UK, a BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year judge, shared tips on how to take better im-ages in the field, or improve them with Photoshop.

Shem Campion urged the audience to enjoy the bush, irrespective if you return with salon-winning images, af-ter he realised that he had become so preoccupied with

Fun and learning at the PSSA congressApart from adopting motions that can affect club salons and com-petitions during the AGM, delegates enjoyed stimulating discus-sions and interaction at the PSSA’s 60th celebration congress

getting a perfect shot that he would return from a trip, declaring that he had seen nothing.

Hendrik Louw from the Beachcombers Camera Club shared some of his secrets for macro photography, for example, using a wide angle lens.

Wildlife photographer Johan Botha and visual art bof-fin Hein Waschefort gave presentations in support of their MPSSA Honours. Waschefort’s presentation and hands-on workshops on photography reflecting major art movements like Romanticism, Impressionism, Mod-ernism, Surrealism and many more isms inspired many photographers to work outside the box.

PSSA finances healthy“When I attended the PSSA congress recently it gave me an opportunity to have a look at their financial report,” says Nicol du Toit. “Their finances are in a healthy state. They reported a surplus for the year of about R192 000. Membership fees amounted to R445 000 and is the largest income item, as can be expected, while printing and stationary of R149 000 is the larg-est cost item. This includes the publication of Image. Their balance sheet reflected cash of R2 197 000 at year end, although it also reflected an amount payable of R892 000, nevertheless leaving them with a healthy cash situation.”



JuDgINg and the training of judges were exten-sively discussed during the Forum at the AGM (see details on p7).

Limiting entries of images in salonsClarity was asked about entering an image in mono and colour for salons. After discussion, it was voted that in order to be counted for the Impala Trophy, one image may only receive 5 acceptances, whether mono, colour, etc. One image can therefore be entered in mono as well as colour.

This includes super circuits where one entry may get 3 acceptances.

The problem of policing the number of times an image is entered was extensively discussed, but it was decided that peer policing and shaming will have the desired ef-fect as other entrants and the judges will pick up when one image is entered too many times.

For a Diamond rating an image may only receive 3 ac-ceptances in one media and colour.

Too many salons?The problem with too many salons is that they require a massive number of judges. This results in judges be-ing appointed who are not qualified or accredited. Too

Hein Waschefort got the creative juices flowing with his workshops encouraging photographers to explore alternatives.

CTPS member Nicol du Toit in conversation with PSSA board members Roel and Adri van Oudheusden.

CTPS members Joan Ward, Nicol du Toit, Kim Stevens, Pat Scott and Trudi du Toit share a laugh during the PSSA Congress.

President Jill Sneesby paid tribute to PSSA direc-tor Barrie Wilkins, who died just before congress.

Decisions of interest taken during the AGM Forummany salons also result in a photographer getting hon-ours too quickly, which dilutes the quality of images that qualify for honours.

PSSA will therefore limit the number of salons per re-gion they approve per year. Francois Rousseau will send an application form every February-March for the fol-lowing year. 2015 Salons have been allocated, but they will accommodate the CTPS 125th Anniversary salon.

Cell phone imagesIt was decided that there should not be a special cat-egory for cell phone images because an image is an im-age and is not dependent on the medium. Hendrik Louw mentioned that the winning image in the Beachcomber salon was taken on a cell phone.

Image magazineA suggestion that Image magazine be published elec-tronically via ISSUU (like Cape Camera) will be put to the PSSA membership. This will vastly reduce costs and make it more legible as you can enlarge the image on the screen.

Image editor Hein Waschefort could not be present, because he was presenting a workshop. He wants to re-tain the printed version.



More opportunities for CTPS salon winners

Zombie Stopper by Heinrich Albrecht Krugersdorp Camera Club: PSSA Medal Open-Colour.

Dance Jump by Ernest Arnold from Vereeniging Photographic Soci-ety: PSSA Medal Open-Monochrome.

Far left: Face in the Wa-ter by Juan Venter from Tafelberg Fotografieklub: PSSA Medal Portraits-Mon-ochrome.

Left: Umhlanga by George Swart from George Camera Club: PSSA Medal Scapes-Monochrome.

Left: Star trail Rich-tersveld by Willem Kruger from Bloem-fontein Kamera-klub. PSSA medal: Scapes-Colour.

Right: Fireman by Laetitia Kenny from Boksburg Camera Club. PSSA Medal: Portraits-Colour.

T he winners of the PSSA medals in the Cape of Good Hope National Digital Salon organised by CTPS, pictured on this page, now have the addi-tional opportunity of winning further PSSA gold

medals.All category winners in PSSA sanctioned salons are also

entered in a competition at the close of the Impala Year to stand a chance of winning PSSA gold medals in the catego-ries for the Best Salon Images of the Year in Nature, Open and Monochrome.

This will therefore be an added incentive for CTPS mem-

bers to enter our 125 Year Salon in October 2015, as well as other PSSA salons.

The organisers of the CTPS salon received many compli-ments from the seasoned salon entrants — for example, medal winner Heinrich Albrecht wrote: Thank you for a well coordinated Salon, I will surely participate again.

Peet Mostert from Montanapark was impressed with the speed that he received the DVD he ordered. You can be proud how you handled your salon. There are salons that were in held in March and April that have not sent the DVD’s etc. Your promptness is appreciated, he wrote.



IT IS hard to believe that we had the 5th invitation to PSSA members to submit entries for the Marike Bruw-er Award this year. We received a total of 59 entries in 2014, the most since we (re)introduced the award.

Judging was done remotely by the four judges: Diane Skinner (Canada) and South Africans Izak van Niekerk, Johan Kloppers, and Antenie Carstens. As usual, it was not an easy task to decide on a winner as the entries represented so many different approaches to visual art, but eventually consensus was reached. As we have done in previous years, apart from selecting the winner, we also asked the judges to rate a first and second runner up. The judges used a 5 point rating scale with the op-portunity to rate half points as well.

This year's winner is Francina Swart with At a gallop, first runner up Hanli Smit with Ghost of Magritte and second runner up Alicia Greyling with Creatures of the dark.Judges comments.Judge Izak van Niekerk says: “It is a couple of years now since we have said farewell to Marike – and yet, the en-tries for the Marike Bruwer Award still increase every year. I have experienced more creativity in the work than ever before. The mere use of filters is on the decline.

“Many hours of post processing is noticed, and with great success. It will always be a great achievement to win this annual award, and this year, there are a couple of winners. I am not a fan of remote judging, and would always want to hear and get the opinions of other judges on why and so forth.

“Unfortunately, in the case of this award, the judges, who are Marike’s friends, are all scattered, and judging

cannot be done as a group together.”Johan Kloppers comments: “I was surprised to see so

many entries this year. The quality overall was also very high. Some really outstanding images showed the beau-ty and feeling of visual arts.

“My honest feeling is that, had Marike Bruwer still been with us today, she would have been very proud to have her name linked to this competition.

“This is a wonderful way of remembering Marike, whose love and passion was photography. May this competition still go from strength to strength and may we never forget who Marike Bruwer really was.”

Diane Skinner writes from Canada: “I would first like to say that I was quite impressed with the quality and the number of images submitted this year.

“It seems to me there were quite a few more images entered this year compared to previous ones, which in a way continues to keep Marike`s memory alive, as I still often think of her and her influence on creative photography. She certainly was an avant-gardiste, wiser beyond her years!”

CTPS member Antenie Carstens says: “It was good to see an increase in the number of entries in honour of Marike. I do feel, however, that more attention must be given by entrants to the briefing or definition of the cat-egory.

“Although we do not like to disqualify images as such, some did not fit very well in a visual art category. Even so, there were enough images to make this year’s event a success, allowing the participants to maximise their creativity.”

Creatures of the dark by CTPS member Alicia Greyling was the 2nd runner up.

At a gallop by Francina Swart was the winner of the 2014 Marike Bruwer Award,

CTPS member 3rd in Marike Bruwer AwardAlicia Greyling was the 2nd runner up in this award in honour of former PSSA director who encouraged an alternative visual art view of photography. She died in 2006. AnTEnIE CArSTEnS, one of the judges of the award, explains



January 31 2015Table Mountain outing - climbing for the fit members, via cable car (half-price after 6pm) for the not-so-fit. Meet on top for sundowners and picnics

February 2015 Weekend in Stanford. Dates and details to be confirmed

March 2015 Red bus day outing around the Penin-sula. Date and details to be confirmed.

April 2015Bein Wein Private Cellar outing in Vlotten-burg with donkey ride and wine tasting at sunset. Date and details to be confirmed.

May 29-31 2015

CTPS Congress for members in De Hoop Nature Reserve. Expect top speakers - still to be confirmed. Schools photo competition launched.

June 2015Outing in Stellenbosch area under guid-ance of photographer and graphic art-ist Nicole Palmer. Includes a braai.

July 20 to 3 August 2015Exhibition of members’ work across 125 years in Artscape Opera House foyer, dur-ing the run of West Side Story musical

August 2015

Postberg outing during flower season. Date and details to be confirmed.

PSSA National Congress in Swellendam 9-14 August. Organised by Swellendam Photograph-ic Society and Cape Photographers. See PSSA website at www.pssa.co.za (Congress tab).

September 16 2015 An illustrated talk on the club’s 125 years’ history. Possible AV shown?

October 2015

Cape Town Photographic Society 125th An-niversary Salon for print (Antenie Carstens), PDI (Lesley Parolis) and AV (Joy Wellbe-loved), coordinated by Nicol du Toit.

On October 30th, the society’s birthday will be celebrated with a gala dinner at a smart venue with a good speaker, where old and current members will be honoured. A book on the soci-ety’s 125 year history launched at the event.

125 Year celebration diarySave these dates for 2015

Documents

October 2014 Cape Camera