NEWSLETTER MARCH 2009

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME      

Apr 14th:    Monthly Competition - Abstract
                      Presentation  by Trevor Rees - Manipulated Images Using Photoshop Layers
                      Foto Forum - Monochrome - Arthur Kingdon 

May 12th:  Competition - Monochrome
                     Presentation - Cate Sparrow - Diving Fiji and New Zealand - Details TBN
                     Foto Forum -  Macro - Arthur Kingdon

June 8th:  Competition - Macro
                     Foto Forum - Green Water - Arthur Kingdon
                     Presentation - Simon Rogerson - Subject TBN   

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Apr 14th:      Monthly Meeting

The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map)  It is  easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.

The monthly competition theme is 'Abstract'. Send your digital files to Bob Anthony ( anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk ) and please include BUPG on the subject line. Unsure about entering? Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback - it's an ideal way to learn.

The Foto Forum is 'Monochrome' and this will be led by Arthur Kingdon

The main item on the programme is a presentation by Trevor Rees. Entitled 'Manipulated Images using Photoshop Layers' this should be a fascinating and informative presentation on what some regard as a black art. It's a technique that, if done well, can produce some stunning images and is a field in which Trevor has been very successful.

RECENT EVENTS

March Meeting

Monthly Competition - Fish

There was a whopping entry of 45 images for this popular subject so,to speed up the voting on a busy night, there was a paper vote with the following result:

The voting was spread very wide but the winner, with 4 votes, was Rob Bailey with this excellent image of a pike in Stoney Cove

Runner Up was Anna James with three votes
While David Stephens picked up two votes for this image
and two also for this one.
Also with two votes was this image by Martin Bailey

and this one by Rob Kemp.

Nine other images picked up one vote apiece

Image of the Year 2008

The winners of our 2008 monthly theme competitions competed for the Image of the Year trophy. Dr Alex Mustard judged the competition with the following result:

In First Place was Tamsin Eyles with this image of a Nassau grouper (winner of March 'Fish' theme)

In Second Place was Trevor Rees with this image of two pike (winner of the December 'British' theme)
In Third Place was Rick Ayrton with this image of the wreck of the Million Hope (winner of the April 'Wreck' theme)

In Fourth Place was Arthur Kingdon (Joint Winner of October  'Available Light theme)

In Fifth Place was Cathy Lewis  (Joint Winner of the October  'Available Light theme)

In Sixth Place was Arthur Kingdon (Winner of September  'Abstract' theme)

In Seventh Place was Arthur Kingdon (Winner of June  'Wide Angle' theme)

In Eighth Place was Arthur Kingdon (Winner of February 'Diver' theme)

Alex had intended to list the top six only but increased it to eight.

Trophy Presentation

Following the above results, Dr Mustard kindly presented Tamsin Eyles with her award and also presented Rob Bailey with two trophys for his recent wins in the Annual Print Competition and the British Portfolio competition

Presentation - Macro - Dr Alex Mustard

Although the title of this presentation was 'Macro' it was all about how to make your macro shots stand out. We mostly use the same combination of cameras and lenses for our macro work and much of the images are very similar, so how do we make them different? Well, Alex explained a variety of techniques to achieve this - often concentrating on improving backgrounds eg moving camera to give blue water background, using a larger aperture to give a blurred background, using wide angle lenses very close (eg fisheye plus converter) to throw the background further away, or by framing tightly to remove distracting background. The merits of blue water versus a black background was also discussed - if dark subject then blue works better, as it does with red/orange/yellow. Black works well with interesting shapes. Backgrounds can also be changed by using slow shutter speeds and moving the camera. You can even take your own background in with you such as coloured perspex.

This photo of a wonderpus octopus was not lit with strobes, but instead with a torch spotlighting the creature, which was aimed by my diveguide.

Directional lighting is a method of giving our macro images a different atmosphere. Flat lighting (left) allows us to see all the features of the warty frogfish clearly. Single strobe directional light (centre) creates a dramatic outline on the subject, but deprives us of any eye contact. Adding fill light (right) at a lower intensity keeps the drama of directional light, but still allows the viewer to see some details of the subject.

A snoot with egg-crate fitted to a single strobe creates a focused beam of directional light on this giant frogfish, creating a shadowy, textured result. Snoots are difficult to aim and the second image shows how just a small change in my position resulted in poor lighting.

Paired strobes can be used to create directional lighting, with some fill that suits many subjects. Flat front lighting (top) reveals the details of the subject and the background. With the right hand strobe turned down (centre) the waspfish now casts a shadow behind the head which helps it stand out from the background, while retaining detail in the subject. With the left hand strobe turned down (bottom), the subject is now lit with directional light, less detail is seen, but this lighting reveals textures and is well suited to filamentous subjects.
Alex went on the describe his experiments with his homemade ring flash. This gives a flat, even light and it suits some subjects better than others.

The above précis does little justice to the amount or quality of topics covered. This was an excellent, inspirational presentation that gave a great deal of food for thought - no excuses now for any boring macro images! Once again, we are indebted to Alex and we look forward to his next visit.

MISCELLANEOUS

BSoUP

I am pleased to report that the BSoUP Theme Portfolio has once again been won by one of our members. Trevor Rees was the winner with his UK freshwater selection that also took the honours in our Open Portfolio Competition.

You can read all about Trevor's win by visiting http://www.bsoup.org/News/2009/2009_03.php#Theme Just take a look at who Trevor beat and the subject matter that was beaten by images from Stony Cove - who needs to travel to exotic (expensive) destinations? Well done Trevor.

Keep bubbling,

Arthur