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.

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.

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

WA Press Photographer Awards

It is awards time for WAPPY - the West Australian Press Photographer of the Year 2012 - and here are the results hot off the press...err screen...err phone. Well here they are anyway:

Category 1     West Australian Press Photographer of the Year

                       1st         Theo Fakos                  $ 1200     The Sunday Times
                       2nd        Matthew Poon              $ 300       Community Newspaper Group
                       3rd         Lee Griffith                   $ 160       The West Australian


Category 2      Best Spot News Photograph


                       1st          Lincoln Baker               $ 500        The West Australian
                       2nd         Ian Munro                    $ 220        The West Australian
                       3rd         Michael Wilson             $ 110         The West Australian


Category 3      Best News Feature Photograph


                       1st          Nic Ellis                       $ 500          The West Australian
                       2nd         Nic Ellis                       $ 220          The West Australian
                       3rd         Theo Fakos                  $ 110          The Sunday Times


Category 4      Best Portrait Photograph


                       1st         Karin Calvert                $ 500           The Sunday Times
                       2nd       Sharon Smith                 $ 220           The West Australian
                       3rd        Lee Griffith                    $ 110           The West Australian


Category 5      Best Sport Photograph

  
                       1st        Daniel Wilkins                $ 500           The Sunday Times
                       2nd       Paul Kane                     $ 220            Getty Images
                       3rd       Lee Griffith                    $ 110            The West Australian


Category 6      Best Feature Photograph


                        1st       Robert Duncan              $ 500              The West Australian
                        2nd      Tony McDonough         $ 220              Freelance
                        3rd       Matthew Poon             $ 110               Community Newspaper Group


Category 7        Best Picture Essay


                         1st       Michael Wilson             $ 500              The West Australian
                         2nd      Nathan Dyer                 $ 220              The West Australian
                         3rd      Lincoln Baker               $ 110               The West Australian


Category 8        Best Suburban Newspaper Photographer


                         1st       Bruce Hunt                    $ 600               Community Newspaper Group
                         2nd      Elle Borgward                $ 220               Community Newspaper Group
                         3rd      Jon Hewson                   $ 110               Community Newspaper Group


Category 9        Best Country Newspaper Photographer


                         1st       Nathan Dyer                   $ 600              The Kimberley Echo
                         2nd      Clare Alcock                  $ 220              The Kimberley Echo
                         3rd       David Bailey                   $ 110              The Kimberley Echo


Congratulations to all the winners from Camera Electronic.