Recently Geoff Shaw (one of our members) presented a workshop and ran a hands on session about macro and close-up photography.

Geoff set up multiple workstations with various lighting scenarios. It was a fabulous opportunity to get help with camera and flash settings including focus stacking, to discuss the pros and cons of gear. Geoff’s enthusiasm for the genre of macro photography is contagious and we am sure that many of us will be inspired to further experiment. There was lots of discussion between members with more experienced members helping others.

More photos from our members can be found in our Macro skills session gallery.

As we embark upon 2025, there is a diverse range of interesting and exciting workshops ahead, some facilitated by our own members and some by external presenters, from Victoria, interstate and overseas.

Thank you to those who have submitted ideas and those who have volunteered to share their skills and ideas with others.

The first workshop is on Tuesday 21st January 2025 at 7.30 pm in the main hall. The topic is Macro Photography and the presenter is Geoff Shaw.

Macro Photography: Principles and Techniques

• Uses for macro/close-up photography
• Camera settings
• Equipment
• Lighting
• Post-processing (including focus stacking)
• Traps for beginners/things to be aware of
• Q and A

Please bring your camera in order to check various settings.

Looking forward to the year ahead and hope to see lots of you at this first workshop.

Our workshop this month on Tuesday 16th July 2024 at 7:30pm will be with Rebecca Stein, come along and learn how to construct a photobook.

Our workshop this month on Tuesday 18th June 2024 at 7:30pm will be with Len Metcalf. His presentations are always good, do join us by zoom.

Our workshop on Tuesday 21st May 2024 at 7:30pm will be in person at the Mount Waverley Community Centre with Glynn Lavender.

Last month seventeen members participated in a hands-on portraiture workshop at Southbank, learning to use the club’s Nanlites. Andreas Esposito, from Astir Images, showed us how to use the lights to create various effects with the city lights as a backdrop. Members worked together practiced posing the models and using various lighting colours, positions and intensities to create a range of great images.

More images from our members can be viewed in our smugmug gallery.

Unfortunately Roy Killen who was going to give an online workshop on Nature photography for us tomorrow night is not well.

I will now be giving a workshop planned for June in his place. It will be on Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and will be held in the main hall of the Mount Waverley Community Centre, 7.30 start. And a reminder this is our set subject for the August competition

Please bring your camera, a zoom lens with a good range, something colourful to photography in an abstract sort of way and be prepared to
play! Tripods optional.

Our next workshop night, on Tuesday 20th February 2024, has been designated a “Gear Night”.

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept (the last one was possibly before COVID), this night is where we focus on improving our familiarity with our camera equipment. But that’s not all, we also use this as an opportunity to swap/buy/sell gear amongst members – I’ll come back to this shortly.

Gear Discussion Groups

For the main part of the evening we will divide up into groups (tables) according to the make/vendor of our gear. Each table will have a designated member who owns the same brand of camera as the others on the table and will help lead the discussion.

To kick things off, there will be some prepared tasks that we will ask everyone to do – I hope this will inject a bit of fun into the exercise. More importantly, I hope this will get the conversation started at each table, and after those 6 tasks, each table can take the conversation forward according to the needs/wishes of the group.

Swap/Buy/Sell Gear

At some point in the evening, we’ll move over to the swap/sell/buy activity. If the gear involved is unique to a brand (e.g. Olympus), such as a lens, then this part of the evening may well start off at the ‘brand’ table. We’ll also have a couple of tables set up for selling ‘generic’ gear, such as tripods etc.

Advertising Gear For Sale

As preparation for the swap/buy/sell segment, members are invited (or even encouraged) to post items for sale on the club members Facebook group, or via the members email group (especially if there are more expensive items, such as lenses, camera bodies, etc.). The FB group is the preferred mechanism for advertising gear as each email to all members needs to be vetted and ‘sent’ which creates work for our team, so please only use email if you are not on FB. You may wish to negotiate a deal offline and simply use the night as an opportunity to exchange the gear.

To be crystal clear, any goods/monies exchanged through this event is a matter between the members concerned only – the club will not be involved in any way, and does not offer any warranties around goods, equipment condition, and/or advice on price or good value. Any and all issues relating to goods, payments etc., is a matter for the members involved only, and caveat emptor is advised. The club is only providing the opportunity for members to get together to ‘swap’.

This is usually a fun evening, involving a high level of interaction between members with ‘like’ equipment. There is a good chance everyone will take away something, if only the realisation that you really need to spend more time getting to know your gear!

I hope you are looking forward to it. I know I am. See you there at the Mount Waverley Community Centre, starting at the usual time of 7:30pm.