A Bunch Of The Boys Was Whoopin' It Up...*

And they were ably assisted by a bunch of the girls - last night was a special launch party for the Murray Street shop of Camera Electronic - and it featured a surprising number of the movers and shakers of Perth photographic retailing. Not that there was all much room to move or shake - people pretty well filled the floor. Still space for selfies.

This sort of party report could easily dissolve into nothing but a series of shots of old employees and leave the average retail reader absolutely cold...except for a couple of interesting facts:

1. The people there included the cream of the Western Australian wholesale agents and reps...which means that the new premises will be well supplied with the best of new equipment. I didn't hear much business being talked amongst them but they all made their number to the Admirals so you can be certain that the new shop will not languish.

2. The old employees were there wishing the new premises well. Because they recognised the immense effort that had been put into the venture and the high level of finish that it exhibits.

There were speeches - industry figures that have dealt with the company since the earliest days in Angove Street as well as the principle commander on the floor right now - Domenic Papalia. There were speeches by Saul and Howard, and to their credit they were good ones.

And  I took away a few realisations too...

You couldn't get that many people to meet, greet, schmooze, booze, and lose their inhibitions in any other retail photographic store in this town. Camera Electronic has a unique style and position as an icon in the industry. It's a real place full of real people. Noisy real people.

CE's also got some powerful friends - the AIPP for one - and the other professional bodies, as well as their trade contacts. They got those friends by being able to do what people needed - sales, repairs, advice, etc.

The humourous phrase that came out in one speech -  " Ron had everything " - might sound funny when you remember the past but it was a foundation for a mindset on the part of the photographic public that drew them back and back to the shop. The fact that the staff also knew a bit of everything was also valuable - someone could always be found in the place with a cogent answer to a problem.

In some cases the answer was " Here, use this. " and in others " We can get it/repair it/make it, etc. ".
When Ron served a customer it was likely to be " You need one of these and one of these and..." And in my case I usually did.

Last night was a night of good humour amongst the guests. People who visit Murray Street today ( after they put the showcases back in place and scrub the suspicious stains off the new vinyl floor...) can be equally happy - the place is up and running well.

 

* At the Malamute Saloon. From the Land Of the Mounties. See - there's one now...

The Amateur Triumphant - Part Three

Well, you've finally done it - closed the doors of the professional practice and sent a farewell notice to the ATO. You've tossed the letterhead, invoice forms, and business cards into the fire and told the accountant that you will be doing your own lying in the future. You are set to be a real amateur.

No turning back. No doing jobs for money. From now on the only compensation you will be receiving will be "exposure", "a drink", and "recognition". And the occasional bucket of lemons from Mr. Valducci's tree. There will be more lemons than drinks.

The demands on you will change - while no-one can compel you to deliver the goods on time, they will expect you to hand over every raw file that you have taken so that they can have them printed at Officeworks. This might have seemed unreasonable when you were a working professional but that was when you were a person with a camera in hand - now you are a camera with a person attached. The camera has remained sharp but you have become fuzzy.

Do not despair. While you no longer will have money, you can still have fun. By all means turn over the raw files to the person who demands them. Just copy them all into 1993BFG.3.0PiX format on a 5" floppy disc and hand it over. And a pleasant smile when you do so doesn't hurt.

Your own photography will improve greatly in the future. You will no longer be asked to make tins of cabbage ends or anorexic teenagers look appetising. No one will ask you to take 3.2 metric tonnes of lighting equipment up the top of Bluff Knoll in relays to capture the magic of toilet paper. You can go to a wedding and drink.

Better still, you can go to a wedding and watch the wedding photographers at work and let them watch you watching them. If you know how to let out good strangled shriek or do a very slow face palm you can have fun all afternoon. A slow wink also does the trick.

Are you worried about the piles of gear that are still stacked in the locked cabinet? Well, if you haven't finished paying for them you need not worry too much longer. The leasing and finance companies will be sorting that/you out in short order. If it is yours freehold, you can either use it to take immensely detailed photo essays of spit or you can take it to the camera markets that they hold every three months. You can then bring it home again.

There is an opportunity for the new amateur to join the art scene. This can be effected on-line or in person by attending at local art groups. Sociability, kindness, and the ability to see good in everyone is an asset in this sort of affair. It is rewarding if you are prepared to learn the language of Artspeak and are not afraid to try a few halting phrases. " Awful Dreck " and " Ghastly Daub " are useful...

Finally, have you thought of finally settling down and writing the Great Australian Novel? Or the Definitive Outback Photoshoot? Or setting fire to paddocks? They are all equally attractive propositions, and as you are a free agent you can turn them over in your mind...

Onward. Excelsior!

Uncle Dick

Achieving Amateur Status - Part Two

Once the decision is taken and the die cast, the bridge crossed, and the Gordian Knot cut, it is time to decide how to become an amateur. Here are some first steps:

a. Get a photo vest. If you are an urban type, get a black one with lots of pockets. If you'll be out in the country choose a grey or khaki one with lots of pockets. If you are going to haunt the motorcycle and drag races get a blue denim one with lots of pockets.*

b. If you cannot afford a vest just get lots of pockets. You can wear them like a Mexican bandit's ammunition belt. Be prepared for Pancho Villa jokes.

c. Get a baseball cap. It does not matter whether you wear it forward, backwards, or sideways but you must wear it at all times. If they attempt to take it off you in church, change religions.

d. You no longer will worry about taking extra camera bodies, lenses, and batteries to an assignment. You'll no longer have to trail three roller cases full of lighting heads and extension cords. And you'll no longer have a poorly-paid assistant to set up, clean up. and throw up for you. Celebrate by paring your outfit down to one pre-1970 SLR with a standard lens and a smudged UV filter. Encase it in a brown leather ever-ready case with extra pockets down the strap for rolls of film and cleaning tissues.

e. Stock up on Ilford FP4 and Kodak Gold film.  Keep it on the back parcel shelf of your car.

f. Join 15 internet forum groups that deal with different camera brands. Play one off against the other by researching the minute details of each new product and making spread-sheet charts of the reasons why each one of them is worse than the other.

g. Go to random weddings and obstruct the professional photographer. You know precisely where they need to be to get the best coverage for the event and you are now in a position to prevent it.

h.  Practise your computer skills by making composited HDR shots of babies with harsh cross lighting and graffiti in the background - preferably against a pebble beach with lowering clouds. Print these with 100% sharpening and push the finished results under the doors of the local portrait studios. Eventually you will get a scream.

i. Haunt the shops. No, really, put on a white bedsheet and come in through the front door making a "Woooooo" sound. The staff get little enough amusement as it is and they will look kindly on you.

j. Tell people how you did it in your day. If your day was just before last weekend they may listen to you. If your day was just before last century they may throw chairs at you. You can sell the chairs for a decent price.

k. Make up one of those inkjet-printed plain paper advertisements offering cut-rate photography "for exposure" with a little fringe of tear-off phone numbers at the bottom. Tape one to the wall in the waiting area of every portrait studio in the town when the receptionist isn't looking.

l. Offer to lead a workshop photo tour expedition seminar event to a town in the bush that has no store, petrol station, pub, or supply of running water.

m. Write articles on photography and submit them to Dolly Magazine, The Watchtower, and Hansard.

* The pink lace vest is a dangerous choice...

Uncle Dick

Turning Amateur - Part One

Every working or professional photographer I have talked to - from the lowly international Magnum superstars to the most famous of the Santa Photos shooters in Boise, Idaho - secretly nurtures one supreme aspiration. They have a dream to become a full-time amateur.

All through their working lives you can see them shooting envious glances out the sides of the viewfinder at the chaps in the photo vests who are fiddling with the brown leather ever-ready cases festooned with lens hood holders. It is sad to say that if it weren't for the pressures of money and responsibility they would chuck their day job and reach for their goal.

I guess it is like a lot of things in life - they are set early onto the treadmill and there are few opportunities to get off. They get trained in photography somehow - university, technical school, or trade - and find a job and start to take pictures for money and then before they know it they are hooked. They want to eat every day and own more than one shirt and sleep in a bed. The sad slow decline into financial comfort and professional success starts and they never really see themselves slipping further and further into affluence. One day they wake up and have it all, and no where to put it, and another carton of it arriving Monday...

Then they long for the wonderful world of the amateur. No deadlines. No live lines. No lines at all.

No need to justify their camera purchases to the accountant or the ATO. No need to own the best and fastest before a competitor owns it. No need to go round and slander the other professionals in hopes of getting a client away from them. No need to sit there in a bare studio looking at a bare appointment book and whistling to keep up the spirits. Heck, when you are an amateur you can go to Dan Murphy's and buy spirits at 10:00 in the morning and no-one cares...

Oh, the siren call of the hot photographic news story...and how sweet it is when the siren goes on by their house and they don't have to get out of bed to follow it.

And the charm of attending a rustic wedding in a paddock in the wheatbelt. Amongst the grasshoppers and dust and hayseeds...and they won't have to change lenses because they're a guest instead of a worker. And they don't have to make small talk with the hayseeds unless they want to.

That wonderful dawn at 3:00 AM in summer. Not a breath of wind. Clouds glorious. The roseate fingers of light making for perfect balance between outside light and a desperate real estate agent. No need to haul three light stands and a Skylite reflector up to a third storey. No need to climb on a ladder to get verticals right. No need to spend the rest of the day spotting out the cat wee from the walls. Architecture photography as it was meant to be enjoyed...by someone else.

Well, now that I have set the glowing picture ( and it isn't all just halation ) read on in one of our next weblog columns for how to achieve this. Remember: Life was meant to be more than just getting the gravy spots off a sensor.

Uncle Dick

Coyne Collecting - A Seminar To Treasure

I hope the subject of this column doesn't mind me using his name as a headline - I'm actually talking about Michael Coyne, the internationally renowned photojournalist. No disrespect meant.

How could I - the man uses the beloved Fujifilm cameras to document diverse cultures around the globe. He's lectured before here at our own Shoot Photography Workshops and that was worth hearing. Now he'll be holding a seminar at the Central Institute of Technology later this month to tell more.

We still get a look in - and you can look in as well - as there will be an exhibition of his prints at the Shoot photography Workshops - 232 Stirling Street right next door to the shop - from the 18th of April to the 29th of April. It will be seen between 8:30 AM until 5:30 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. It'll be well worth a viewing, particularly if you go along to see Michael at Central TAFE. The name of the seminar is " Capturing Humanity ".

Well, what will you hear at the seminar? The background briefing and inside story of historic moments - including his recent tour of Fukushima in Japan. Consider that he's been shooting assignment photos in over 20 countries and any number of sticky - and non-sticky - situations. There's a lot of stories and a lot of insight for the photographer who also wants to observe mankind.

The seminar will be held at the main lecture theatre of the Central Institute of Technology on Wednesday, the 27th of April. It starts at 6:00 PM and goes until 8:00.

Costs:

AIPP Member                 $ 65.00
AIPP Student Member    $ 45.00
WAPF Members             $ 80.00
Non-Members                 $ 95.00

There is a booking site on the web run by the AIPP - Please click over there or give them a ring to see about going.

Mr. Coyne is well worth listening to - and if you are a Fujifilm user, his insights into how our favourite cameras operate in the field are priceless.

Yallingup Without The Surf

If you fancy a trip down south to talk photography with the AIPP people, it looks as though the 22nd and 23rd of February are the dates to aim for. They are calling it the South West Summer Sessions and organising it at Caves House, Yallingup.

Those of you who have been there know it for a rather magnificent resort of the 20's and 30's associated with the Yallingup caves and beaches and boasting a pretty magnificent period decor. They are turning on a number of high-poewered speakers for the two days as well as trade displays and professional workshops.

This is an eat, greet, listen, learn, schmooze, and develop Monday and Tuesday with David Dare Parker and Martine Perret. You'll be challenged by talks on photojournalism. business development, and creative thinking.

They'll feed you well - all day at various times - thought their flyer does note that the prices do not include accommodation - you book that separately with Caves House or other hostelries in the area. There is always sleeping on the beach but the bugs can get a bit much in summer.

They are running Earlybird prices for people booking between now and January 31st - don't neglect these as you can save yourself $ 100 by doing so. The price structure is:

Earlybird - AIPP Member $ 400,  Non Member $ 600, Student $ 180

After February 1st - Member $ 500, Non Member $ 700

Book Now - Summer Sessions - AIPP
 

A Cheerful New Year From The Editorial Desk

I cannot speak for the rest of the staff - who may be at their several homes lying down with cold cloths over their faces, but I feel fine this morning. New Years Eve swept over the house and nothing seems to have been dislodged.

Writing the weblog column has been a great deal of fun this last year - assisted not a little in the last two months by the fact that it could be banged out with no telephones shrilling in the ear and a better studio for photos. That latter point is still in the process of improvement - I think that all studios evolve as time goes on. The Little Studio has taken a new turn with the business of product illustration. All those old technical books on studio stuff are now fertile ground.

You'll see a post a day in the coming year - the experiment of morning and afternoon posting was interesting but if the stream of new products slows too much you can tun out of novelties. Of course there is never a dull moment in photography and Camera Electronic and Shoot Workshops seem to have such a diverse connection with the amateur and professional world that if the Weblog reporter - The Photographic Spectator as it were - ventures further than the shop racks there is always something going on.

Some years ago Camera Electronic adopted the slogan " We Love Photography" and I looked upon the phrase with a rather jaded eye. I've since come to see that the various people who make up the sales, service, and business team in the place actually DO love the sport. Err, hobby. I mean business. No - wait - it is art. Oh all right, it is science, if you must. Vice? Who said vice...? Well anyway, the team actually does think photography most of the time and this has real advantages for the clients and for themselves.

It means that if one person doesn't know the answer to a question, another may. Indeed we all have our special areas of interest quite apart from assigned positions or set tasks. It is the interests that make the different people most valuable, because they will know stuff far in advance of the current press release or warehouse blurb. In my case it is not so much knowing what is coming but what used to be - and I can tie this in to modern practice sometimes. And sometimes I haven't the faintest clue what I am writing about, but I poke the thing with a stick and stand back.

Well, on with the motley. I would appreciate it if each person reading this column would come into the shop in the next couple of weeks and buy a camera bag, because they are starting to increase in exponential numbers. Buy two - you can never have too many camera bags.

Uncle Dick

Worth Travelling To See - Steve Scalone And The Canon AIPP Awards

This is a column written in a fit of jealousy. The equivalent of an electronic tantrum. You see, one of our staff members got to do something and see something that I would have loved to experience....and I can only report it at secondhand*

The Digital Show has just finished in Melbourne. Our shop sent over a dedicated crew of sales people, stock controller, company directors, and the IT man - he's the one who is normally trying to figure out why the computer screen has gone all blue...It would have been a nice break for him to see other people's screens go blue. They showed Hoodman, Lens Coat, Cullmann, and lots of other goodies to the Victorian masses.

Aside from all this, the Canon company in conjunction with the AIPP holds annual awards for photographers upon a national scale. Camera Electronic was able to sponsor an award this year in the category of Australian Travel Photographer Of The Year - 2015.

This year the award has gone to Steve Scalone - a man based in Melbourne but who evidently travels world-wide for professional photography. Just how good he is can be judged by two investigations  - you can go to his website at:

www.stevescalone.com

or pursue the Canon AIPP web page that details this year's travel award. I googled both of them and am delighted I did. I'll pass over the commercial images from his site - though they are so good as to increase the fit of jealousy - and heap praise on the pictures presented in the travel section that garnered him the award.

They are imaginative - so far from the normal run of tourist shot as to leave reportage and enter art. They are colourful and powerful - even in the case of the snow shot that has no colour. They are perfectly timed -  look at the image of the brick towers. They are imminently rewarding.

Well, he got the award - Same Perejuan from our sales team was able to be present to see that - and he deserved it. And here is a picture taken by our Camera Electronic reporter of the actual hand over:

Yep. No picture. A shop full of cameras and people who know how to use them and...nada. Guys, next Digital Show take your blog columnist along with you. He has a camera and a memory card. And a case of jealousy.

* Well, we're licensed secondhand dealers...

Please Accept Our Congratulations

Here at Camera Electronic we wish to offer sincere congratulations to the winners of this year's most prestigious Western Australian photography awards. Here is a brief listing of the winners and runner's up but if you would like to see the actual pictures on your computer there is a link here.

2015 AIPP Epson WA Professional Photographer of the Year...John Woodhouse


2015 AIPP WA Wedding Photographer of the Year...Nathan Maddigan

finalists: Erica Serena, Ross Wallace


2015 AIPP WA Landscape Photographer of the Year...Tony Hewitt

finalists: Scott McCook, Vittorio Natoli


2015 AIPP WA Illustrative Photographer of the Year...John Woodhouse

finalists: Leah Kennedy, Simone Addison


2015  AIPP WA Portrait Photographer of the Year...Nic Duncan

finalists: Steve Wise, Alan Di Bella


2015 AIPP WA Travel Photographer of the Year...Christian Fletcher

finalists: Rebecca Johansson, Jimmy Teo


2015 AIPP WA Family Photographer of the Year...Lisa Ivandich

finalists: Kristy Mannix, Tina Urie


2015 AIPP WA Commercial Photographer of the Year...Garry Sarre


2015 AIPP WA Documentary Photographer of the Year...Jimmy Teo

finalists: Johannes Reinhart, Daniel White


2015 AIPP WA Creative Photographer of the Year...Leah Kennedy

finalists: Simone Addison, Johannes Reinhart


2015 AIPP WA Album/Book of the Year...Nathan Maddigan

finalists: Erica Serena, Michelle Kiddie


2015 AIPP WA Emerging Photographer of the Year...Rob Petric

finalists: Gerrie Cooney, Missy Grant


2015 AIPP WA Highest Scoring Print...Leah Kennedy


2015 AIPP Epson Signature Worthy Award...Vittorio Natoli


2015 AIPP WA Student Photographer of the Year...Lisa Anfuso

finalists: Caitlin Walker, Liam Jones


2015 AIPP WA Print Handlers Award...Alan McDonald


2015 AIPP WA John Whitfield-King Award...Nic Duncan

The Initial Diagnosis

AIPP
WAEPPA
WAPITI
AIPP
WAPF
AAPP
APS
ACMP

Here's a puzzle for you to work on while riding the train to work - look at the list of organisations above and correctly identify the words represented by the letters.

Be careful - many of these fine organisations use similar names and ideas but arrange them in different ways.

We can give you a general hint - they have something to do with photography, competitiveness, and money.

And one includes a number of large hairy beasts who roam about and cause trouble by knocking down fences and rooting up vegetable gardens. Once a year they may be legally shot and eaten...and make superb gravy.

Important Event Coming To Perth - Book Now

If you are a photographer...not an impossible assumption if you are reading this on your computer...you'll have a vital interest in The Event.

It's the Nikon AIPP conference for professional...and would-be professional...photo people that meets annually in a different Australian city. This year it is here in Perth at the Crown. The block of time that you'll need to devote to it is from the 29th of June to the 1 July 2015.

Bookings are essential to get to see and do everything. AIPP members will know this already as they have had lots of publicity from their own organisation, but we urge everyone else to go to the AIPP Website for this event - sorry...Event - and see what 's going to happen.

This writer went to one in 2012 and was vastly impressed by the knowledge of the speakers, the quality of their work, the professional equipment and marketing ideas on offer, and the cupcakes with afternoon tea. Also with the urbane and sophisticated demeanour of the photographers as they met each other and discussed their businesses.

I daresay there was a bit of industrial spying and bragging going on as well, but then we get that round the local bowling club on prawn night as well, and no harm done. No-one was stabbed while I was watching.

Please dial on over to the AIPP site and see if you can't plan a great time for yourself and your business.

Uncle Dick

Part Two Of Part One - The Pentax 645Z Night

No, it's part one of part two. We changed the file numbers and the thing jumped...

C.R.Kennedy and Camera Electronic wanted to show and tell about the Pentax 645Z camera and its lenses so they called a meeting of the not-bored-at-all at the Oxford Hotel in Leederville on Wednesday last to discuss maters.

Star of the meeting - and chief speaker - was James Simmons. You'll remember he is the Canon/AIPP Wedding Photographer Of the Year and Canon/AIPP Photographer Of the Year for 2014. He uses the Pentax 645Z for wedding and fine art work. His topic for the evening was the 645Z at the wedding and for fine art work so he did indeed know whereof he spoke.

Well, it works. And to prove that it does he made it work right there in front of the room of people. He had his girlfriend pose in the midst of the photographers and got them to illuminate her with the LED lights on their mobile phones. Then he crawled up onto a ladder and made the shot with the 645Z - the great light capturing ability of medium format and the immense dynamic range of the camera made it all magic.

That business of dynamic range is sometimes forgotten in the welter of other specifications that people amass for their favourite cameras. They will obsess about megapixels or ISO or frame capture rates and forget that the cameras all need to see a very wide dynamic range to come anywhere close to the capability of our eyes. james showed a beach shot that went from black nothing to perfection with just a push of a slider - and the camera provided the detail and range to do it.

The ergonomics of the camera are also something that people do not think about when all they see is a net page or other people's opinions. Anyone who has handled a Pentax 645D or 645Z will recognise that there is far better handleability here than other medium format digital cameras. It is not small - nor could it be  - but it is balanced perfectly. James also pointed out the wonderful green button on the back. When he has been working with the camera in dim conditions or with it set up for some arcane ISO or shutter/aperture combination and his wedding work instantly draws him into a different light situation, a quick push of the wonderful green button resets the camera and takes a pretty good light assessment instantly - you are ready to run and gun.

More on James and the weddings on Part One Of Part Two...note that he was not making a phone call on the 645Z in that photo. Coverage in Leederville is spotty...

Knighthoods For All! - Photographers To Be Honoured!

The news is good. the Government of Ruritania has just announced that knighthoods will be awarded in their annual New Year's Honours list to photographers. Their Royal Heinyesses have placed the seal of approval*on the legislation that was moved in the Volksrat.

While we in the press will have to wait another 10 months to learn who will be beknighted, this gives an opportunity for ambitious young things...and crafty old things...to curry favour  with the palace. Whether it would be better to use the milder forms with yoghurt and mint or go for the tandoori spice is not known - time will tell.

Ruritania has many scenic views that invite landscape photography, so those workers who hike up mountains or over glaciers will have a natural advantage. If they carry cameras with them so much the better. For the gritty urban street photographer sorts, Strakenz, the capital has a wide variety of gritty urban streets. Some of the grit has been there since the last Roman invasion.

Of course, people are always a popular subject for photography throughout the world and Ruritania is no exception. The girls of the countryside pose willingly in their native dress and once one learns to set up the tripod up-wind of them many charming portraits can be taken. Of course the sturdy peasantry are also fine subjects and many of them have teeth, so smiles are possible.

One note of caution - governmental defence regulations prohibit photography, drawing, or playing peek-a-boo within 500 stroms  of any military subject in the kingdom. This is not too much of a problem as the Strakenz regiment lives at home with his mother and only parades on the last Tuesday of Lent.

The announcement of the Ruritanian photographic knighthoods follows on from the awarding of similar honours to every other crowned head in Europe that is still on its crowned shoulders - plus a special one-off award to the Queensland Minister for Roads. It will give the lie to the assertion that artists cannot be praised in their lifetimes - if Ruritania cannot do it, who can?

* it's a very good seal and can balance a ball on its nose and play a tune on horns.

Good Laud - We List the Canon AIPP Annual Awards

The annual event that Canon and the AIPP conduct to examine and display the work of Australian photographers has just been concluded. There are a number of divisions in which they consider photography can be divided and there are awards for the leading Australian practitioners - and one for an international person. It's a big ist, but the people who make it are the best for this year - take it as a good hint to look up their work and see why they have received the plaudits of their peers.

If you're in the market to hire anyone for photography...well this is also a pretty good shopping list of people - but remember that you're looking at the Paris end of Collins Street...

So, to the list. Please note that the Canon company's name is linked to the AIPP in each case.

1. Canon/AIPP Australian Photographer of the year - James Simmons
2. Canon/AIPP Creative Photographer of the year - Kirsten Graham
3. Canon/AIPP Wedding Photographer of the year - James Simmons
4. Canon/AIPP Family Photographer of the year - Kelly Brown
5. Canon/AIPP Portrait Photographer of the year - Peter Rossi
6. Canon/AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the year - Keren Dobia
7. Canon/AIPP Birth Photographer of the year - Victoria Berekmeri
8. Canon/AIPP Documentary Photographer of the year - Anthony McKee
9. Canon/AIPP Science, Environment, Nature Photographer of the year - Joshua Holko
10. Canon/AIPP Landscape Photographer of the year - Ricardo Da Cunha
11. Canon/AIPP Travel Photographer of the year - Nick Rains
12. Canon/AIPP Sports Photographer of the year - Matt Palmer
13. Canon/AIPP Commercial Photographer of the year - Aran Anderson
14. Canon/AIPP Fashion Photographer of the year - Peter Coulson
15. Canon/AIPP Advertising Photographer of the year - Matthew Everingham
16. Canon/AIPP International Photographer of the year - Luke Edmonson
17. Canon/AIPP Photography Book of the year - Peter Eastway
18. Canon/AIPP Album Photographer of the year - Nadine Saacks
19. Canon/AIPP Australian Tertiary Institute of the year - Photography Studies College
20. Canon/AIPP Emerging photographer of he year - Adam Williams
21. Canon/AIPP Student Photographer of the year - Jacqui Hogan
22. Canon/AIPP Highest Scoring Print - Kelly Gerdes

Thats a powerful lot of awardin'...

I noted the category of Birth Photographer and wish to accord Victoria an especial degree of respect. Never mind all the other camera businesses - she is the one in this list that is concerned with the essential part of life - and it is a tough time for everyone in the place. If she can cope with new babies, new mothers, new fathers, and old theatre sisters and get the top spot for Australia she is the star at the top of the tree as far as I am concerned. Yay!

And congratulations and an increase of business to all the other winners.

Reflections On The Model As A Subject

I'm not being literary or philosophical or anything. I am just struggling with reflections from the shiny surfaces of scale models in studio photography.

If it was just depiction of the scale models in a bare space the problem would be easy - I would take home a Glanz light tent, pop the car inside and flood the outside with flash light. The reflections that bounce back from the little chrome bumpers and shiny paint surfaces would be an even white with no hot spots. Good advertising picture but not the artistic effect I want.

I set the little cars in little scenes and then add more in Photoshop, but the surfaces of the cars can betray the position of the lights...and the surroundings of the studio...in little vignettes all over the model. Silver slab surfaces, flat windows, and chrome hubcaps are like little mirrors reflecting the tripod, camera, walls, curtains, and me. A dead giveaway that it is fake.

This recalls the story I heard at the AIPP convention a couple of years ago*. The chap who shoots roadways and scenes for Mercedes and Dodge so that they can strip in their studio shots of the latest cars also takes a panorama sweep picture behind himself so that the digital artist can put elements of the scenery into the shiny bits of he real cars. I thought it was a little over-complex when I heard it but I am not so sure now - I can see the problem.

I am going to have to deal with it in-studio and preferably in-camera in one shot - 'cause I ain't that good a digital artist. The next series of coffee-fuelled experiments will involve large panels of Superior backdrop paper in sky-blue or light-grey to simulate the sky in various forms and some vague shapes to suggest mountains or buildings pinned to the panels. I shall crouch behind them and fire the camera with a cable release.

And then we shall deal with the sun. Creating the sun in the studio with a flash tube that is larger than the sun in the sky...

* Name dropping.

Congratulations To The Winners

Camera Electronic would like to congratulate all the winners of the 2013 national AIPP awards - presented recently at their convention in Melbourne.

In particular we would like to applaud Tony Hewitt for becoming the photographer of the year.

More details as they become available.

We Love Photography - We Hate Cockroaches

You can be forgiven for wondering at the conjunction in the title - our shop slogan with crawling insects. Leaving aside speculation about the characters of the sales staff, I can explain.

Someone in the shop asked me how I got good results for belly dance photographs and images of model cars. I think they wanted me to tell them a secret of a special lens or a special light - an item they could buy to improve their own pictures. I was delighted to tell them the secret, but it did not involve selling a piece of equipment - it involved selling an idea. And the price was cheap.

The real way to get good images of anything - cars, cockroaches, brides, or belly dancers - is to either love or hate the basic subject. You can choose for yourself which emotion you fancy, and you can freely switch between them as you like - provided you really do care one way or the other.

If you don't - either through general lack of interest in any topic or burnout from long exposure to it - any pictures you make will show this. And the people seeing those pictures will perceive that disinterest. That's a powerful clue for them to let them know how they should react to your work, and they will comply readily. If you don't care, they won't either, and you have wasted everybody's time.

I think this is a pretty good explanation for a number of photographic books and monographs that I have seen in bookstores in Melbourne over the years. The old Printed Image bookstore in Prahran had shelves of them - the NGV bookstores at the main gallery or their Federation Square branch are also pretty good ...errr...dump bins. Okay, not every picture book is Cowboy Kate but some of the depths of banality that are plumbed by small publishers...

Not talking about vanity photo books or self-publishing here - the things that we make of our holiday snaps or our hobbies. These actually have some substance - the audience may be limited to a family, club, or individual, but the book is often intense and treasured. At least the thick ones can be used to swat cockroaches with.

Heading image: Thanx to Jane and Henri

Modest Proposals - Foto Reports From The Guild

Greetings foto fans and welcome to a new season of Modest Proposals - your view of the photographic world through the eyes of The Guild.

First up is the news reported in the DP Review that a major Chicago newspaper has sacked its photographic staff, closed the darkroom and other processing facilities, and enrolled its reporters in a course on how to take pictures with an iPhone. This is an on-going story that will unfold with time, or as long as the newspaper can stay open. Sounds like this might be a measurable period of time...

The Guild applauds this move to downgrade the profession, and sees it as a land mark decision in the fight for poorer quality images. No longer will readers have to put up with seeing the faces and actions of newsmakers clearly and have to endure well-lit or carefully-composed shots. This sort of thing has been going on far too long - and it is time it stopped. From now on the public will be encouraged to use its imagination about news photographs - filling in the gaps between the pixels just as they please.

Note that we cannot get an official statement as to whether the displaced photographic staff will be given 457 visas and moved to Perth to replace our current lot of newspaper photographers. It might be a good idea if the relevant local people form a mob with pitchforks and torches and storm up the street. Around dusk with some side-lighting would be nice. Try 1/60 second and f:2.8. Focus on the front rank.


On to the next bulletin - the Bureau of Statistics has released the report on weddings and has highlighted the number of these ceremonies that are being done for second, third, and fourth marriages.

This has led to an enterprising studio here in Perth instituting a service for these customers in the form of a book of tear-out coupons to be issued at the first ceremony but allowing for discounts for second and subsequent ones.

Dear old Elizabeth Taylor is long gone, and she would have got a roll of tickets on a dispenser - but there will be lots of others. The studio, Radish Foto, has been so named because it repeats on most people.


For our final news we would like to offer the readers of The Stiletto the chance to go into the 2014 Photographic Competition.

As usual there will be a historic images section devoted to photographic representation of great moments of treachery in the past. This is always popular, and has become more so with the introduction of digital filters that simulate old plate and film camera work.

There will also be the usual BGA Year In Review section that awards a prize for he best photograph of a Guild-registered stab in the 2013-2014 period. These are generally more modern images.

This year we are also going to include an Apprentice Section so that Guild apprentices for the current year may also compete. Time to start snapping, kids.

Here is a picture to keep you happy in the meantime.

A Modest Proposal - Guard The Presidents

The recent inauguration of the American president would appear to be the subject of some little controversy - and not just whether or not the President was entitled to stand for office. You may entertain your own opinion on that one, and if you are an American citizen, attempt to express it. Good luck.

No, two questions seem to revolve about whether the singer who assaulted the national anthem and the Marine band who opposed her were using canned music and lip-synching to do it, and whether Bravo Company - the ceremonial troops who provided the USMC contingent in the march-past - were compelled to parade with M1 rifles that had been stripped of their bolts.

Leaving aside the singer, please, the Marine guard question is moot. I have seen images that seem to show just that, and I have seen websites that claim it to be a furphy. If done, it would be one branch of government controlling another ( SS vs USMC ) and either  a valid security decision or a deadly insult.
I am still trying to get further sight of footage of the troops in motion at such a resolution that I can see for myself.

The real point of this is we must consider whether or not to implement the same idea for photographic society and association meetings here in Australia. Every one of the organisations - AAPP, AIPP, WAPPY, etc. has a president, vice president, and such and at an open meeting they are sitting targets for anyone in the audience to take a pot shot. At an eastern states conference I myself squeezed off half a dozen exposures of the speaker at a high ISO and had I done so with a dodgy white balance, the consequences could have been grave...

Perhaps we should require the audience members to parade before each meeting to be frisked by the guards, then have their batteries confiscated, and upon leaving sign a statutory declaration that they do not have any live cards or produce on their persons. This, and a strict watch upon their web sites, work computers, and families should do it. With a little common sense and a docile attitude on the part of the association members, hangings should not be necessary.

If they are, at least there should be good lighting, a catalogue, and wine and cheese at the opening ceremony...

Uncle Dick

Gala

I am on holiday and not wearing Camera Electronic uniform. I am outside of the shop and I get to say what think.

I think I had a marvellous time at the AIPP Nikon Event up in the Hunter Valley. You've read my daily reports but this one is the last of that series - the gala dinner.

It was not stewed parrot, as I had feared - entree, mains and dessert as per usual and plenty of red and white on the table for all the guests. You've all been there and done that - but you haven't been there to watch hardened dour professional photographers go nuts at a print auction.

The premise of the auction as well as the Nikon/Kayell/Epson photobooth was to raise money for breast cancer research. A number of the lecturers and participants donated large prints done on Epson machines to the auction and our own Western Australian - " Old Hickory " himself - Tony Hewitt was the auctioneer. If you ever want to sell your house at auction employ Tony. He has the fastest patter in the business and the sort of sense of humour that dragged the prices of the artwork up into the multi-thousands of dollars like an F-18 going straight up.

It made me wonder at the amount of money that professional photographers and trade leaders have at their disposal - it might be worthwhile following them down a dark street and knocking them over for their wallets. Don't knock over Alicia Sinclair, though, as she is so nice....

All joking aside, the professional photographers there were magnificent in their generosity and deserve our praise. Old Hickory won another battle!

And as for me - as I left to get to the Newcastle railway station I was treated to the spectacle of an FA -18 doing touch and go at Williamtown so I reckon my day has been perfect.