24 Dec 10

Merry Christmas to all our Club Members and website visitors. Have a great holiday and drive carefully out there. And remember, our next club meeting in January will be our Annual General Meeting.

Our December meeting was held on the second Thursday in December instead of the traditional first Thursday due to event clashes at the Recreation Centre. Unfortunately I was unable to attend but there was a good attendance. George did the e-judging and like a good Father Christmas, dished out the Certificates and Golds in abundance.

26 Nov 10

The Coffindodgers Camera Club members all another year older and all still going strong! This picture taken at their annual traditional brunch at the DROS Restaurant in Alberton recently. Wonder who took the picture? Present were (front l to r) Neville Curtayne, Gottfried Knell and Peter Sagat. Back row, l to r: Theo Landman, Reppies Repsold, Aubrey Siebert, George Olfin, Bob Thorsen and Hans Busscher. "Dodger" inquiries to 011 435-4527.

18 Nov 10

Our Year End Function this year was held at the Irene Dairy Farm. It was well attended and there were lots of photo opportunities for those that managed to drag themselves away from the food.

Above, the SSCC breakfast table - eat as much as you like until 12:00!! (Sorry for the bad lighting - the lapa roof was made from sticks which just let strips of sunlight through).
Below, Henry showing how the kids chased away the heron he was trying to photograph.

14 Nov 10

Wow - another year passes us by. We had some excellent photographs shown through 2010 and the best of them were presented to our In-House Salon guest judges Reg Ansell, Michael Helps and Ditta Arnott last Thursday night. The event was a great success with plenty to eat and drink and in all a very entertaining show.

Many thanks to all our visiting judges, Reppies for the database work, Patrick for operating the projector and scoring system and organising the food, Don for arranging the medals, Martie for the drinks and everyone else who helped and attended to make the evening such a success. Below are all the award winners:

Print Image Winners Gold: Grey Heron           - Patrick Gorman Silver: Free State Farm           - Cliffy Els Bronze: Purple Gallinule           Strut - Cliffy Els Best Print Panel: Cliffy Els

E-Open Image Senior Winners Gold: White Water           - Cliffy Els Silver: In the Lead           - Don Brotherston Bronze: Diving Tackle           - Don Brotherston Best E-Panel: Cliffy Els

E-Wildlife Image Senior Winners Gold: Building the Foundation           - Nelson Lopes Silver: The Beast           - Nelson Lopes Bronze: Gemsbok Arguing           - Patrick Gorman

E-Open Image Junior Winner Gold: Stoking        - Lee van der Linde Silver: Dousing Fires        - Lee van der Linde Bronze: Fire Fighter        - Lee van der Linde

E-Wildlife Image Junior Winners Gold: Pile of Ellies           - Derek Marusich Silver: Gentle Mother           - Derek Marusich Bronze: Bosveldfissant           - Mark Matthee

Congratulations to all the medal winners and also to Marius for getting his work published on the cover and featured in the Camera & Image Magazine. Also congratualtions to Patrick and James who were presented with their SSCC Southern Cross certificates.

Please remember the December meeting will take place on the second Thursday in December where the Progress Awards will be presented.

02 Nov 10

A very productive Committee Meeting last night where some House Rule changes were discussed and implemented: Something for Nothing Firstly, you can now submit a picture for Salon acceptance points to a total of three Salons. Secondly, if you are 4 star or higher in e-colour and only 1 or 2 star in e-mono or prints, you can now apply for promotion to 3 star in those sections instead of working your way up with the juniors - we all know you know the basics having progressed to senior in e-colour. Finally, we are falling in line with the new PSSA ruling to not allow the extra colour in monochrome images.
		Thanks Reppies for capturing yesterday's Sun Ring for us. This phenomenon happens from time to time when very high thin Cirrus cloud is present and the sun's rays create a "rainbow" by reflecting through the ice crystals suspended in the high clouds. And the lamppost? Nice touch.

25 Oct 10

Purple Rain The Jacaranda trees are in full bloom in our suburbs at the moment. Take a drive through some of the quieter streets in Parktown, or wherever else the streets are lined with Jacarandas, for the most amazing photo opportunities. But don't leave it too late now as the green shoots are already starting to appear on some of those trees and pretty soon it will all be over.

18 Oct 10

Members attending the SAB Beer Tour outing in Newtown on Saturday morning were presented with many photo opportunities both on the tour and SAB building surrounds of our "new" west side of the City.

I was pleasantly surprised with the improvements in this part of Johannesburg. It's actually now quite pretty with lush lawns, well kept gardens and attractive walkways. The view north towards the Africana Museum has massive trees and palms and all around are older buildings contrasting with modern architecture. But unfortunately I still wouldn't feel too safe outside my car in the area. Above, Ikes and Martie shooting away in the old mining town section of the tour. On the right Gottfried pressing the buttons on one of the many media displays. The tour was a little overdone on the multimedia presentation side but overall very enjoyable and informative with lots to see, touch, smell and taste along the way. And not forgetting the good food and free beer afterwards. Keep an ear out for our year end function and Trophy Night/In-house Salon being planned.

And now for something completely different . . .

Saturday afternoon we went out to the Panorama Flight Park for their Oktoberfest Fly In. A good turnout of aeroplanes and spectators and some great stuff to photograph. But of particular interest was the Snake Formation Team Dusk Show. If you ever get the chance, don't miss this spectacular show. The four microlights had lighting in their wings and put on a fantastic spectacle of precision formation flying with pyrotechnic effects from their microlights after the sun had gone down. Very challenging getting photographs in the dark of moving objects in the sky, but here's the best of what I managed to get:

15 Oct 10

Great vibe at last night's meeting: Reppies, George and Geoff back from a successful PSSA Congress in Clarens and everyone in good spirit. Welcome to visitors Lerato Lekeba and Christo Steyn. After tea and some stunning videos on wildlife in Kenya, judging was carried out by James, Nelson and Patrick. Congratulations to Lee for winning the Best Picture Award with her "Dousing Fires" picture.

10 Sep 10

A good turnout for the Club Meeting last night and some great pictures shown. Thanks to Keith for the excellent judging. He was very nice and gave lots of certificates and golds (all well deserving, of course). He also filled us in on the latest camera technologies and trends - but very obviously a Nikon man. Congratulations to Peter Thomas for winning the Best Picture Award with his "Pale Chanting Goshawk" picture. Also good to see the Recreation Centre being well utilised - lots of activities in the center last night.

02 Sep 10

Well, not so "Latest", this news - but I think still worth letting all the members know what's been happening over the past month or so. And don't forget - next meeting on the 9th September. Visiting judge will be Keith Groenewald from Kameraz.

Latest scoresheets are now posted and congratulations to Malcolm Barnard (now Four Star E-Mono) and Mark Matthee (now Two Star E-Colour and Two Star E-Monochrome) on their promotions. Please note that if you have not submitted any pictures this year, your name will not appear on the scoresheet. Our members have done exceptionally well in Salons lately with over 140 acceptances this month. Congratulations to Malcolm (9 acceptances), Don (54 acceptances), Patrick (36 acceptances), James (30 acceptances) and Lee (12 acceptances).

On Saturday 24 July a group of members attended the Reef Steamers outing. We were at Germiston before sunrise and I'm sure most of us got some good photographs and learned a lot about steam locomotives. A leisurely coffee in the catering coach (thanks Delme) and we were back home by lunchtime.

Other outings were the SA Airforce Museum Airshow and Carnival City Rally but not much feedback from members on those yet. Can I please appeal to any members attending any outings to take a few minutes to shoot some of our members in action, write a very brief story or caption and send them to me for the news column. I know it's like appealing to members for articles for a newsletter, but it does make the news column a little more interesting.

A very exciting club meeting on 15 July was well attended in one of the more "posh" rooms at the Recreation Centre. Johan van der Walt showed us a preview on using his Photo Vault Online system for submitting pictures to salons. Most salons are now using the system for accepting images and plans are afoot for us to submit our monthly club pictures this way as well. But don't worry, we will have training sessions for members before we implement the new submission system. But in the meantime, check out the system at http://www.photovaultonlime.com and maybe even sign up so long and put some of your pictures on the vault. Johan then went on to give us the most amazing presentation on his 3D work. Reppies also gave us a summary of the new promotions system. Tables here.

There were some stunning prints from Don of the World Cup Stadium and this one of our city skyline and railway system below.

Well done to new country member Mark Matthee who took honours with no less than three well deserved Certificates (see the panel on the right). And congratultions to Ikes Myburgh on his promotion to Two Star E-Colour.

14 Jul 10

So with the World Cup now over, everything should be back to normal - just hope the Recreation Centre is still in reasonable condition for our meeting tomorrow evening. Our judge will be Johann van der Walt from Vaalpark who will show us some of his 3D work - don't miss it. Latest scoresheets can be found on the Members page. Congratulations to Lee van der Linde (now Three Star E-Colour) and Marius Henning (now Three Star E-Monochrome) on their promotions.

03 May 10

Soccer Soccer Soccer ... and a bit of work in between. I trust everyone is enjoying the World Cup and managing to get some great photographs of all the colouful fans out there. Due to some time restraints and with such a long break between our June and July meetings, the June club pictures are only up on the website now - check them out under the Members section. Congratulations to Lee van der Linde (now Two Star E-Monochrome) and Willie Nel (now Three Star E-Monochrome) on their promotions.

Judging for our June Meeting was by Sean Boyd of Alberton who first took the opportunity to fill us in on their planned PSSA Conference in September. Reppies then filled us in on how the scoresheets work and after the tea break Sean gave some excellent comments and scoring for our member submissions.

17 May 10

Wow! Over 2000 hits on the website now. Thanks to all members and visitors checking in on the website regularly. This month we've made a small but important update to the website: a "mouse-over" feature has been added to the thumbnail pictures in the members section which will display the award given to the picture when you run your mouse cursor over it. Interesting .....

There was a good turnout for our May meeting with Anne d'Oliviera attending to present PSSA awards to Geoff Armstrong and Don Brotherston. Congratulations to them both. Visitors were Helmut Baltes, Louis Kirsten and Annamarie and Peter Viviers. Annamarie and Peter joined the club - welcome and hope to see some of your pictures up at the next meeting.

Judging was by Professional modelling photographers Gerrit du Toit and his able assistant David. Gerrit runs the Vivid website (see the links page) and showed us a variety of his photographs - he specialises in making people look good. This was the first time they had ever judged at a club meeting and although there were probably some controversial awards, a very even spread of bronze, silver and gold awards were given - I think proving that the basic photographic rules apply for most photographs.

03 May 10

Last month's meeting was very well attended with Geoff and Reppies taking on the task of judging. Some excellent photos were submitted and many well deserved certificates were awarded. In fact, our judges were extremely generous with their awards: out of the total of 82 pictures put up, no less than 9 were awarded certificates and a staggering 55 were awarded gold. The certifiacte pictures are on the right. Congratulations this month to Marius Henning and Peter Thomas who are both promoted to Three Star in E-colour.

Lots of events on the calendar this month (keep an eye on the Yahoo groups for details) so get those pics together for the next meeting. Visiting judge will be Gerrit du Toit who is a professional photographer coming in all the way from Pretoria. He will give us a presentation of his work and hopefully some insight into his techniques. He specialises in modelling photography and runs the Vivid website. See the links page for links to the Yahoo Groups and Vivid websites.

06 April 10

Another month passes by quickly and time for another website update. All the pictures from the March meeting are now online and the Entries and Scoresheet documents updated. Last month's meeting was well attended and had a distinct African theme. Visiting judge Anne d'Oliviera presenented her a/v on Stonetown in Zanzibar (Africa's east coast) and a friend of Gottfried, Dr Garth Diers gave an extremely interesting presentation on his experiences travelling up the west coast of Africa.

Anne's judging was again very fair and with good commentary but she presented only one Certificate, that being to Malcolm for his excellent "Extreme Heat" picture.

The new scoring system is now in place for two months and everything seems to be working out fine. Thanks again to Reppies for all his hard work. For those interested in the details, the new tables should be incorporated into the House Rules document soon. There were no promotions this month but due to a combination of the new scoring system and entries from the February meeting, promotions for March were Patrick Gorman (now E-Colour Southern Cross), Tom Giles and Val Valentin (now E-Colour Three Star), Lee van der Linde (now E-Colour Two Star and Willie Nel (E-Monochrome Two Star). Congratulations to all. And everyone please check your standing on the new scoresheet carefully as the new scoring system may have resulted in you being a lot closer (or further) to your next level than you think. Time to get your photos ready for the meeting on Thursday evening. See you there.

25 February 10

A very successful first "Know Your Camera" session was held at Patrick's house last night. With excellent support of over 20 members, Reppies put together a very informative presentation on the basics of camera operation which was followed by snacks and drinks and a practical session where everyone experimented with their new knowledge. Many thanks for all your preparations Reppies and to Patrick for letting us use your lapa for the event.

Reppies demonstrating how not to hold your camera

23 February 10

Our Website is now one year old. Thank you to all members supporting the website (just over 1700 hits) and keep checking for new stuff. I've been putting off the opening of the Blog until I get the time to launch it properly - shouldn't be long now. Also looking at a few more interesting links so keep an eye on the Links page from time to time.

We had a fantastic turnout for our February meeting and our guest judges Reg and Amy Ansel did a wonderful job with our pictures. Only one Certificate of Merit was awarded - well done Delme. His "On the Charge" will take top spot on the home page and we will now keep Certificate pics up for a few months to give the home page a bit of colour - some of them are really worthy of their Certificates. Winner of the "SSCC Best Beginner Trophy" was Tom Giles with his picture "Stairs to Somewhere".

Welcome to new members Ikes Myburgh, Coby Hansen and Danita Botes who joined up at the meeting. All 2009 members that have not yet paid their subs, please note that your subs are now overdue. Please get your money in to Don as soon as possible.

Those of you monitoring the Yahoo! Group would have seen that the Committee, and Reppies in particular, have been revamping the points system for club promotions. As soon as the tables are finalised I'll put copies here and update the House Rules. Latest Scoresheets also still to come but all of last months meeting pictures are now posted in the Members section.

06 February 10

The scoresheets were not updated last month and I didn't manage to get any of the Certificate of Merit Award pictures displayed. Sorry, the holidays and some other stuff just got in the way. Good news is scoresheets are now up to date and Certificate pictures from the last two meetings can now be seen on the right, last months on top and the previous months below them.

A great turnout for our AGM and first meeting of 2010 in January. Your Committee member portfolios remain the same as last year and some really stunning pictures were submitted. As you can see on the right, lots of well deserved Certificates. Judging was by Geoff, Nelson and Delme. Congratulations to Malcolm moving up to 5 star in e-colour in December and Claire moving up to 2 star in mono prints in January. And a big welcome to Lee van der Linde who submitted her first pictures last month and achieved three Certificates.

Don't forget subscriptions have gone up a wee bit to cover increased expenses (now R300.00 family, R250.00 ordinary, R100 pensioner memberships). Please get your subs to Don as soon as possible.

Remember next club meeting on Thursday evening. Due to a problem last month, Reppies has requested that all memory sticks handed in at the meeting must have only your pictures to be submitted for the evening in the root - there's just no time to hunt through folders to find your pictures. Judges for the meeting will be Past President of the PSSA Reg Ansell and his wife Amy Ansell from Benoni Camera Club - don't miss it.

09 January 10

Received this picture of the Coffindodgers Camera Club at their Year End Breakfast in Alberton with some information on the Club. Thanks Hans. Six of the members are presently SSCC members and all have had a connection with Suburbs at one time or another by either serving on the committee or being a member.


From left ot right: Theo Landman, George Olfin, Aubrey Siebert, Bob Thorsen, Gottfried Knell, Hans Busscher, Danie de Lange, Geoff Armstrong and Peter Sagat. To become a member of this very exclusive club you firstly have to be retired from the "rat race", secondly you've got to have a passion for photography and lastly, you must be able to slip away from the "little woman" on a Wednesday to go on photo outings!

We should have our updated scoresheets from Reppies next week and I'll put them up together with the last meeting's certificate of merit pictures next weekend.

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