Ladies and Gentlemen the Cranbourne Rodeo 2011 is happening on the 29th of January and Waverley Camera Club has scheduled “A Day Out at the Rodeo” unfortunately Rosie is asthmatic and the dust, horses, cows, bulls, sheep goats and other, sometimes 2 legged critters even, make her very sick.  We were out at the Mareeba Rodeo in Queensland one year and she was very ill and her sisters from the surrounding aboriginal communities came to her aid. So Rosie and I will not be going. Embarrass!! But what’s even more embarrassing is that I can not find any details about the current rodeo on the web, all references to the Cranbourne Rodeo are from previous years and relate also to the Newspaper that reports the rodeo.  So please watch this space for a little longer, tomorrow I will call the newspapers in Cranbourne and have something up here for your information.

Cheers

Andy

Hi folks, one camera club outing has hardly been concluded and the next is being advertised on an e-mail close to U.

The Tooradin Tractor and Truck Show happens on Saturday the 15th of January, at Tooradin funnily enough.  The Family Day held at the Rutter Reserve in Tooradin begins at 10am and ends at 10pm, so a full day’s entertainment is offered.  The cost of this extravaganza is $25 if you arrive after 12 noon and $15 if you arrive before 12noon.  Part of the entertainment includes a Truck Show and Hellicopter Rides – I cant guarantee real hellicopters folks but there you go.

This show has been run very successfully every year since 1998.  The tractor pull is judged by class and includes classes for engine modifications, fuel modifications, weight modifications and size modifications.  I have heard that some of these monsters have a 1000 horsepower engine tucked away under the bonnet and some even have several 1000 horsepower engines tucked away under the bonnet.  As if that much horsepower is not enough some have centurion tanks hidden under there while others have ww11 jet aeroplane engines – dare I say it “…tucked away under there”.  “And what do they pull  Andy?  And well you might ask, “a weight transfer machine” I’d reply;  I have read that a weight transfer machine becomes heavier and digs further into the ground as it is pulled along.

So there you have it folks a fun family day at the Rutter Reserve in Tooradin, Saturday the 15th January 2011.  $25 if you arrive after 12 noon $15 if you arrive before 12 noon and you may stay till 10pm what ever time you arrive.

Cheers Andy

Sunrise shoots are meant to be exciting and leave a lot to the imagination.  This one was no different.  Rosie and I with Pete Davies, Ray Anderson, Albert Hutchins and Jenny Boyle arrived at the prescinct of the Monash Gallery of Art at 5.00am in time to get in tune with all the 1,000,000 other inhabitants of the area – the mosquitoes.  The frogs not to be out-done took on their own cacophany, the birds were not even awake yet.  After our last foray into the bush for a Sunday shoot, following the lead of all the other seasoned participants, Rosie and I have now actually put a tube of Bushmans into my camera bag, but, although I pocketted the little red torch, I left the Bushmans in the car. Got cleaned up ! Anyway thanks Jenny for the Aeroguard.

We looked around for something to take a picture of, but it was still dark, and the mosquitoes would not leave us alone, Rosie and I opted for the library building; awash in the glow of its own security lighting the library was the most prominent of the ‘things’ we could see.  At one stage there was a mouse scuttling around and its enormours shadow was something to behold but not to take a picture of.  The others wondered away elsewhere.  The light was soft and clean but disappointingly there was no real sunrise.  The pond in the gardens looked great in the rising light and so did the library building – i’m not so sure whether I was able to do it justice.

Andy Armitage

Hi all!
Rosie, Diana and I enjoyed another really great WCC Sunday outing at The McLelland Gallery & Sculpture Park in Langwarrin this morning together with Pete, Dave, Ian and Lynne Hanson, Donna, Jenny, Ron and Chris Weatherhead. We arrived around 10.30am; Dave, Ian and Mrs Hansen were there already. The great weather, which was promised anyway, helped enormously; We walked around the pond enjoying the birds, butterflys and dragonflies and in the afternoon we made the long walk through the sclupture trails.  A relatively easy exercise after we’d had a relaxed picnic lunch together in the shade by the lake. We had two experts on hand all day to deliver us out of tricky lighting conditions, blown-out sunspots and to help with apeture and depth-of-field issues. Thank you Dave and Pete. 

Once again we missed you.

Cheers Andy

Image by Andy Armitage

I took this shot of the group of us reflected in one of the pieces of artwork.

Image by Dave Sumner

The intention here was to get some of the photographers in whilst omitting myself from the reflection.

Hi Folk!
At last a non-rainy relatively warm Friday night outing for the Waverley Camera Club. Hooray!

Rosie and I joined Steve, Leif, Jason – yes Jason with his wife – John and Jan, Pete, Diana and Ian at Brighton Beach for the Friday evening (twilight) shoot. A twilight shoot because we have been judged wanting – wanting light in the sky that is.

Anyway, the colourful beach boxes stood out in contrast against the yellow beach sand the huge brightly coloured and translucent kites presented a spectacular sight against a brilliant blue sky and the Surf Life Savers reminded us of the ever present danger that has become a major concern for Victorians at this time of the year. Drowning.

There were lots of people on the beach all enjoying the weather and members of the Waverley Camera Club were not the only ones swinging cameras on the end of tripods. There were a couple from South America with lenses like bazookas and others whose cameras reminded me of the little plastic camera shaped toys I had as a small boy but i’m sure these had steel bodies, ground glass lenses and 14 mega pixels.

Some of us took some good images and some of us, I for one, took some spectacularly bad ones. Having said that Rosie and I know that Brighton Beach is not far from home and we could be there again, time and weather permitting of course. For those of you who couldn’t join us “no worries” there will be other days and other outings, you will always be welcome.

Cheers,
Andy

Hi all! Another great night-out on the WCC Friday Night-Outing.

Some of us went to Pete’s’ house to make some images of the night sky.

Pshaw!!! What night sky? The great cloud mass, that was predicted, decended soon after dark, and the huge orange moon that showed itself, (herself?), ever-so-briefly, ducked behind it for the rest of the night. Did I metion the rain? Well the rain began soon after the moon went behnd the clouds. Not wet rain, not drenching rain, but rain sufficeint to dampen the enthusiasm of lesser mortals; all thoughts of sparklers, glow sticks and baloon torches were forgotten.

No there is more actually! The ever watchfull Pete and Dave decided that the long piece of green “pretend grass” would make a great driving mat, and the little blue strobe light inside might just provide enough illumination to make some images of someone driving at the little white golf balls that suddenly appeared.

As we know golfers dont seem to mind the rain so Dave Sumner stepped out into the wet (as he always does at times like these) and took his stance and began swinging at the ball while we set up under the eves, our cameras on tripods “f stop at 2.8” “ISO at 100”, “shutter speed at 4 secs” and “press the button when I call go”.

Dave tired himself out, Pete took over and soon we were all taking multiple images of golfers taking mighty swings, under flashing blue strobe lights, at shutter speeds of 4secs, 2secs, and 1sec in light rain until 10.00pm.

Thanks Pete thanks Dave – Rosie and I had a great evening.

Hi folks!

Rosie and I joined some of the other camera club members on a night shoot in The City last night. Wish you were there!

To begin with it was one of those beautiful spring evenings that we sometimes get in Melbourne. We even saw a meteor shower over the Yarra!!. It wasn’t warm, although to look at Steve sauntering around in his shorts you wouldn’t believe it; but it wasnt cold either. Still a clear, cloudless, inky black sky provided us with a beautiful back drop to colourful, crisp, pin-sharp images. Did I say crisp and pin-sharp? I wish! Mine were all blacked out, underexposed, shaken, stirred and indeed a wonderful kaleidoscope of mixed colours – in a word they were stuffed! So please dear president will you organise another night shoot at the same venue, as soon as the whether is a little bit warmer? Like Friday, next week!

But seriously folk having experienced and expert shooters like Pete D, Dave S, Lief, Steve and John M there with us, Rosie and I the only “freshers”, it was a remarkable experience. We walked from 7.00pm, when we arrived to join the group on the steps of Parliament House, closely watched over by a policeman on the beat, to 11.09pm when we caught our train back home from Parliament Railway Station chaperoned all the way by Steve who very kindly watched over us when Dave pulled out and headed home. Truthfully, by the end of a long evening, patiently coached by Dave, Pete and Steve in turn, I did get a few decent images. But I got more than that; I learned that taking pictures in the dark was not simply a matter of setting your camera at 15 secs and f22 and pressing the buton to make the shot, but of making sure of all the other little things – “Is your tripod sturdy?” “No don’t lean on the legs!” “Where is your remote cable release?” “Have you taken off the steady shot switch?” “Oh bugger, there goes another tram he whole bridge is shaking!” “Is the ISO rating at the lower scale (100-) not the higher (200+)?” and lastly “Did you not bring along a wide angle lens Andy?”

Thanks gentlemen, and you too Mrs Mallett it was great to have you along too. Will you do that again – please Pete?

Cheers Andy

Ladies and Gents – the first club outing for the 2010 season will be to the Blue Lotus Water Gardens in Yarra Junction.  We will go there on Sunday the 3rd of January and aim to be there at 10.30 am.  Rosie and I have not been here ourselves but I know many club members have.

What to do there – Looking at the website I see the entire surroundings are most photogenic and for those of us interested in close up photography of flowers, particularly water flowers, this would be an ideal opportunity to get down and dirty and to test out those macro and close up lenses we got for Christmas!!  Maybe if I ask Peter Myers, Jill Myers, Dave Sumner or one of the other experts, nicely, to add some tips and hints to the blog site for the beginners among us before we go it would help!!

How to get there – The address is 2628 Warburton H’Way Yarra Junction; The Melways reference is Map 288-H8

Cheers, and have a great Christmas holiday season. And remember “…Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away”

Andy

Hi folk, I hope U all have been enjoying this spate of hot weather. I am listening to some people on the radio tell me that summer has come early this year. Not so, when Rosie and I came to Oz in the 60’s the weather in October was hot, damn hot, and we had already come from a tropical country!! Anyway the weather notwithstanding, here are some (more) photo-opportunities all of which were taken from todays Age.

Opportunity 1 – Head to the National Sports Museum where someone will teach U, or the children, or your partner, how to shoot an arrow – from a bow of course! The National Sports Museum is opened daily during the weekend and is located in the MCG

Opportunity 2 – Hotair ballooning at the Yarra Valley, really makes me take flight. This weekend from Balgownie Estate Winery; an hour in the sky, unthered, no RAAF pilot but very safe no doubt, and a 5 star gourmet breakfast when U come down. But call before U go 1800 468 247

Opportunity 3 – The Lavendula Swiss Italian Farm just 10 minutes North of Daylesford is, as The Age likes to call it, a sensory celebration. The aroma and the sight of it, a sea of purple lavanda. Fabulous. Seems they are opened from 10.30am to 5.30pm, they live out at Shepherds Flat, or try lavandula.com.au probably a daily occurance.

Opportunity 4 – …is out at the Great Otway National Park, Triplet Falls is “three distinct and impressive cascades” South-West of Melbourne via Geelong or Colac. parkweb.vic.gov.au

Opportunity 5 – Its Christmas so head out to the City and see the Big Christmas tree come to life with a burst of colour. Free tonight at 6.30pm. But Christmas in Oz goes on for months so get out there after the lights have come on. If U cant go today, go later. And finally

 Opportunity 6 – Shepherds Bush, Nortons Park at daybreak, listen for the dawn chorus of nearly 90 species of birds. The Friends of the Dandenong Valley Parklands will be there tomorrow, Saturday November 14th from 7.30 am to take U for a free guided walk to hear the morning calls. Nortons Lane Wantirna South Call 13 19 63 for more information or get on to parkweb.vic.gov.au.

So thats the lot … enjoy your weekend and keep logging into the blog site for more photo-opportunities – when they come in I will get them on to the blog site.

Andy