Seasons Greetings

MCC Insider (MCC Newsletter) Volume 2 | December 2013

PSSA Winning Photos for the Month | November 2013

We have come to the end of another year. Thank you to every chairperson and regional director for your dedication and support during 2013.

The Club Winning Picture of the Month as well as the Website Picture of the Month will be closed for December 2013. These competitions will open again in January 2014. You may enter both your December and January images (Junior and Senior) onto Photovault during January 2014.

The final winners for 2013 are:

Club Winning Picture of the Month 

Junior Winner| "Farrier"  | Jo McGowen | St Andrew (SAVAS) |

Senior Winner | "Moody Forrest" | Teresa Nel | Port Elizabeth CC

Website Picture of the Month

"Sneeu of Strand" | Teresa Nel | Bloemfontein KK

Congratulations to the authors and thank you to Rick Venter, Anton la Grange and Danie Bosman who judged the Club Winning images and Pat Tyler who judged the Website Entries.

PSSA North Gauteng Newsletter

Well we have come to the end of another year.   All Clubs in the Region have certainly done well in the Honours, Salons, PSSA Web site competition and PSSA  Monthly Club Winning Image and I congratulate you all in all these achievements.   Please continue to support PSSA in as many ways as you can in the coming year. Well done to the Clubs who have also ran very successful Salons and hopefully still to do so in 2014.

So that we can keep abreast with the goings on of the Clubs and PSSA, I would like you as a Club to always include me in your Newsletters etc.   I will be sending out a survey to all members of PSSA soon – this survey will be completely anonymous albeit  you will have the chance to add your name if you so wish.   This survey will be geared to the furtherance and benefits to us all as members of PSSA.   You will be allowed to have your say with regard all matters within PSSA.  I would strongly recommend that you participate in this survey – if you feel we are doing something wrong and can improve on anything, the only way to do it is to have your say – positive and negative.   We would also like to hear the positives about PSSA Please.

You will see I am attaching the Programme for the Gauteng North Congress which will be held on 25 JANUARY 2014 – please also note the change of venue.   Anton has done  a great job in setting this up and I cannot thank him enough.   It is at this event that the results of the Inter Club will be announced.  Thank you once again to the clubs that participated.    PLEASE PUT THIS IN YOUR DIARY NOW.     You will see there are some very interesting speakers on board – we can learn such a lot from all of them.

I would like to wish you and your families a very Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year, may all your dreams come true, may father Xmas bring you that long wanted new camera or lens whatever is on your wish list.  May you have lots of photographic opportunities, lots of winners for you and your club but most of all enjoy this wonderful hobby that we have.

Thank you for the continued support you have given me over these past 6 months, I so enjoy visiting and judging when necessary at your Clubs as I feel privileged to view the wonderful work being done in the clubs.   We can be very proud of our Clubs in this Region.

NORTHERN GAUTENG CONGRESS

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Foundation for Professional Development, 173 Mary Road, The Willows

PROGRAMME

TIME         ACTIVITY                                        

8:00 – 8:30 Registration and Coffee/Tea

8:30 – 9:30 The latest and greatest “nice to have’s |  ODP

9:30 – 10:30 Photographic Trips with ODP |  ODP

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee/Tea

10:45 – 12:00 Evaluating and Judging Photographs |  Evelyn Gibson

12:00 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 13:30 Creative Photography | Hein Waschefort

13:30 – 14:30 The Pearls and Pit falls of Street Photography and Photojournalism | Gus Waschefort

14:30 – 15:30 All the “A’s” in photography – Altered reality, Avant Garde, Visual Art | Laetitia Kenny

15:30 – 16:30 Ask the experts: Nature, Portraitures, Macro, PJ, Sport, Landscapes|Panel of 6 photographers

16:30 – 18:00 Cocktail function

18:00 Northern Gauteng Interclub Results MFFC

COST:

Full day event: R 150.00 per person attending.

OR

Cocktail function and Interclub Results Function: R 80.00 per person attending.

Please register for this event by doing the payment before or on 18 January 2014.  Please e-mail proof of payment to Anton la Grange at antonlagrange@gmail.com.  Always copy Evelyn Gibson into each e-mail.

Payments can be made to: Anton la Grange

ABSA Bank

Account: 4050413027

Branch code: 632005

Use your name and surname as reference when doing a payment.

Year End Winners AV

Here is the link to the AV that was presented at our year end function for the winners of 2013.


AV Presentation

Photographic Opportunity

PSSA Winning Pictures for October 2013

Message from the PSSA:

This month the newsletter is a little earlier than usual. The reasons for this is that the Photo & Film Expo in Johannesburg is coming up. There will be a PSSA stall from 30 October to 3 November and there will be a whole team of PSSA workers manning the stall.

Club Winning Picture of the month:

The winner of the junior section this month was Delmarie Skeen from George CC with her image "Druppels":

"Druppels" | Delmarie Skeen | George CC

The winner of the senior section was Cornell Nortier from Laeveld CC with "Bulgeveg":

"Bulgeveg" | Cornell Nortier | Laeveld CC

The judges were Marius Kemp (Boksburg CC), Koos Fourie (Vanderbijlpark FV) and Kathy Kay (Hibiscus CC).

Website picture of the month:

This month's winner was "Misty" by Ronel Broderick from Alberton CC:

"Misty" | Ronel Broderick | Alberton CC

The judge for this month was Valmai Le Grange from Magalies Foto Fun Club.

Well done to all the winners.

On the PSSA website you'll find all the great images for the month as well as the story behind them. Please remember to click on ALL articles on the homepage that you might like to know more about. There is a lot of information published behind each header. The monthly newsletter contains more information such as:

• the club advancement system;
• salon judging;
• the Image magazine; and
• the 2nd PSSA International Salon.

and much more.

October 2013 | Webalbum with all the Images

Here is the link to all the images that were submitted to the October 2013 club competition:

https://picasaweb.google.com/113232891701383193057/October2013Entries?authuser=0&feat=directlink

October 2013 | COM's

Here are all the Certificate of Merits for October 2013:

Give Way | Johann du Rand

Swooping Fish Eagle | Peter van der Byl

Going Home | Evelyn Gibson

On the Flight Line | Carel Landsberg

Alaska Glacier | Peter van der Byl

Flower Hmong Vendor in Sapa | Anton La Grange

Poetry in Motion | Evelyn Gibson

Spingbuck Panning | Pierre Smith

October 2013 | Category Winners

Here are all the various category winners for October 2013:

"In Full Flight" | Nico Strydom | Monochrome Category

"Swooping Fish Eagle" | Peter van der Byl | Nature Category

"Going Home" | Evelyn Gibson | Pictorial

"Just Another Singer In A Rock and Roll Band" | Anton la Grange | Photojournalism

"Alaska Glacier" | Peter van der Byl | Photo Travel Category

"Springbuck Panning" | Pierre Smith | Set Subject [Motion] Category

Northern Gauteng Regional Inter-club Competition 2013

MAGALIES FOTO FUN CLUB

Proudly presents the

Northern Gauteng Regional Inter-club Competition 2013


MFFC invites all Northern Gauteng Clubs, affiliated to PSSA, to participate in the 2013
Regional Inter-Club Competition.
The Competition will be conducted in accordance with the requirements and practices of
PSSA


The competition will be in digital medium only

CALENDAR

Closing Date for Entries : 16 November 2013
Judging by : 30 November 2013
Results : Announced at the Northern Gauteng Regional Congress
25 January 2014



ADJUDICATING PANEL

The competition will be judged by five senior photographers from MFFC.  Each adjudicator will score each image out of 15.

As the 2012 Regional winners, MFFC will not enter in the 2013 competition. The winning club of 2013, will judge and organize the 2014 regional interclub competition and will not be permitted to enter next year’s event.



COMPETITION CONVENOR CONTACT DETAILS

Competition Convener : Annelise de Jager
Email: annelise.j@mweb.co.za
Tel: 083 250 4049

AWARDS

Winning club - Junior: MFFC Medal Winning club - Senior: : MFFC Medal Winning club overall: PSSA Bronze Medal

Additional prizes to be confirmed later.




CATEGORIES

There will be 2 sections for each club to enter (1 x Junior Section and 1 x Senior
Section).

There will be 4 categories in each section
1.  Scapes
2.  Portrait (human only)
3.  Altered Reality
4.  Open/Pictorial


CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

1. The Northern Gauteng PSSA Inter-club Competition is held annually and is hosted by the winning club from the previous year.

2. Affiliated clubs may enter DIGITAL images in two separate sections with four categories each.

• Junior Section – 1 to 3 Stars – 10 entries in each category - 40 photographs in total
• Senior Section – 4 Star and upwards – 10 entries in each category - 40 photographs in total

3. Clubs may enter either one or both sections depending on the status of membership ratings within the club at the time of the competition.

4. Photographers should enter the applicable section as per their current star rating within the club. However, a 1 to 3 Star photographer who is in possession of an Honours award may not enter as a Junior.

5. If a club member has only recently been promoted from the junior to the senior section their images may be entered in the junior section. However, a club member may not be entered into both sections - it is either the junior or the senior section but not both.

6. No one author may enter more than a total of three (3) images per category.

7. Where a photographer is a member of more than one club he/she many not submit the same image at more than one club. In cases where this occurs, the image will be disqualified in all clubs’ entry submissions resulting in a no score for that particular image towards the club’s total scores.

8. All images must be original and must not incorporate elements produced by anyone else. By virtue of submitting an entry, the entrants certify the work as their own and permit the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. The exhibition assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright by the entrants. All final work must be in digital format.

9. No entry fee is payable.

10. Clubs entering must have paid their annual subscriptions to PSSA.

11. Digital entries will only be accepted via PhotoVault Online.com.

12. Submission of entries signifies acceptance of the conditions of entry.

13. Closing of entries on PhotoVault will be at 23:59 on 16 November 2013.

15. With respect to the judging session, the decision of the Convener will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.



SUBMISSION OF IMAGES

1.  The images will be judged using IrfanView software. The gamma of the projector will be at 2.2 and the White Point of the projector will be Native.

2. Images must be resized so that the horizontal axis will not exceed 1024 pixels and the vertical axis will not exceed 768 pixels.

3. It is also strongly recommended that images be converted to sRGB colour profile, as it cannot be guaranteed that images, which have a different colour space, will display correctly when judged. Maximum JPEG size may not exceed 500kb.

4. Entries must be submitted via PhotoVault Online.com. Clubs will use the same submission instructions as those used when entering the “PSSA Club of the Month” competition. If a club has not previously entered this competition and wishes to enter the Inter-club you will need to register your club on Photovault Online.com.

4.1 Club entries are uploaded onto http://photovaultonline.com

4.2 A club representative uploads the photos on behalf of the CLUB using a PhotoVault Online.com Group Account. If you are not already using this method for the Club of the Month Competition you will need to register a login for your club.

4.3 The Junior and Senior sections must be entered separately on
PhotovaultOnline.com. Do not combine them into one entry.



4.4 To create a new account, if the club does not already have one, create an account on PhotovaultOnline.com and ensure that you select “Group Account” in the dropdown control for the type of account. Fill in the name of the club in the “Group Name” field. See below:



4.5 After logging in, upload the images into the group account’s Photo Vault. For each photo, enter the title in the field provided. Also enter the Author’s details (name, surname and star rating) in the fields provided. See below:





4.6 Once all photos are uploaded, select the “PSSA National Inter-club Competition”
event from the “My Events” menu.

5. The inclusion of a frame or border on an image is permissible as long as it stays within the above mentioned size restrictions. No wording or text is allowed on the image unless it is an integral part of the image.



CATEGORY DEFINITIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMAGE IDENTIFICATION

In all categories, monochrome as well as colour images will be allowed.  Manipulation will be allowed in all categories.

1.  Scapes

• (Land)scape is a term that covers the depiction of scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, forests, sea, cities etc. where the main subject is a wide view with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.
• A horizon often (but not necessarily) forms part of a “scape”.
• Scapes may be natural or man-made - and therefore include city scapes or scapes with human elements included.
• Human or animal forms may be part of the picture but must be a minor contribution.
• Digital manipulation may be used but must not alter the reality
• HDR images will be allowed
• Stitching allowed.

2.  Portrait (Human only)

• Any image where the main subject of the photo is a human.
• This can include studio photos, street photos, sport photos or photo travel photos where the main subject is the human.
• The image may depict a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation.
• Portraiture is not restricted to head and shoulders and may include just a part of the face, a back view or even a full length study.
• Digital manipulation may be used

3.  Altered Reality

• Altered Reality implies the photograph has been altered or manipulated to provide an image that deviates from accepted reality. Photos entered into this section should be clearly manipulated to alter the truth of the image.
• Digital manipulation must be used in this section.



4.  Open/Pictorial


• Any photograph that does not fall within another category is welcome in this category.
• Anything goes.
• Manipulation is allowed as long as it does not create an altered reality photo - these should be entered in the altered reality category.
• Images that fall within the other categories will be disqualified in this category.




May you have fun entering in our regional competition May the results bring a smile to your face REMEMBER - THE f-stops HERE !!

PSSA Gauteng North Newsletter for October 2013

GAUTENG NORTH NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2013

I've just returned from Congress, which, as always gives is something to take back to our Clubs.

I was officially appointed as Regional Director for this region and I thank you all for your support in putting me there, I will continue to serve the clubs in this region to the best of my ability and would encourage you to keep me informed of what is going on in your clubs. Hopefully I will be able to visit you all more than once in my term of office.

PSSA Interclub - it was disappointing that all the clubs in this region did not enter this competition. The overall winner of the competition was Ermelo Club, they were also the winners of the Junior and the Senior Winners were Midrand Camera Club and Westville Camera Club. The judges for this competition were AFO as they were the winners last year. The full results will be sent to you this week by Anne d'Oliveira.

The e-Magazine this year was won by Boksburg and the hard copy magazine was won by Magalies. The judges for these competitions were myself, Nicky Kenny, and the editor of Image, Annalene Rautenbach. This was also disappointing that many clubs in this region, who have e-magazines did not enter.

The website competition was won by AFO (50 or more members) and St. Andrews Visual Art Society (50 or less members).

Results of all these competitions will be on PSSA website, if not already, very soon. PSSA website is a great source of information and I encourage you to visit it on a regular basis.

The following people in this Region achieved their honours and I hope to visit your clubs to present them personally with their honor badges and certificates.

LPSSA:

Malie van der Vyver | Colour Digital | NPC

Eric Rautenbach | Colour Digital | AFO

Bernard Richard | Colour Digital | CCC

Chris Mulder | Mono Digital | CCC

Eddie Everson | Colour Digital | CCC

APSSA:

Johan Hosten | Mono | PPS

Connie Myburg | Colour | NPV / Visual Skills Club

Sarel Naude | Colour Prints | NPC / MCC

Ryno Oosthuizen | AV's | Visual Skills Club

FPSSA:

GB Joran (first time) | Colour | AFO

Henning de Beer | Colour | AFO

AFIAP:

Pierre Smith | MCC

Anton le Grange | AFO / MCC

EFIAP

Evelyn Gibson | MCC

Badges and medals for positions in the Impala Trophy and Mono League:

Francois Loubser (Magalies) | Impala Trophy and Mono League

Anton le Grange (AFO/MCC) | Impala Trophy and Mono League

Rick Venter (AFO) | Mono League

Evelyn Gibson (MCC) | Mono League

EPSSA (Cls) Evelyn Gibson (MCC)

Please, as Chairpersons of your clubs congratulate your members if possible, either at club meetings or in your newsletters. If I have missed anyone out please let me know - there were such a lot of great and impressive results from all over the country but we should be proud of our region.

The new President of PSSA who takes over officially from 1 October is Jill Sneesby and the First Vice President is Francois Rousseau and the Second Vice President is Anne d'Oliveria - we wish them everything of the best in their new positions.

I will keep you up to date with all the news but as I said, please visit the PSSA website on a regular basis. Next year's Congress is the International Wildlife Convention in the Kruger Park - a great exciting programme already in place - keep watching the website for all the up to date info on it.

I also want to encourage you all to enter the PSSA Club Winning image of the Month, Senior and Junior. It closes on the 25th of each month and PLEASE appoint someone to do this duty immediately after your club evening. When I checked the stats, not all our clubs in the region are entering which is very disappointing.

This region is also doing very well with their Salon entries, which is very encouraging, we certainly have a high percentage of acceptances and rewards.

The Gauteng North Congress will be held on 25 January 2014, at the Nikon premises. Please put this in your diaries now. I will keep you updated on the programme as soon as it is in place. The interclub or this region is being organised by Magalies, the winners from last year and notification of this will be going out soon.

Keep up all the good work in the Region, we do have a region to be proud of.

Evelyn Gibson, FPSSA, EPSSA(Cls), EFIAP, ARPS.

Regional Director, Gauteng North PSSA

Postnet Suite 62

Private Bag X1028

Lyttelton

0140

South Africa

Tel No: 012 667 1933

Cell No: 082 892 6250

Fax No: 086 540 4678

email: evelyng@mwebbiz.co.za

website: www.evelyngibsonphoto.com

www.pssa.co.za

Results for the PSSA Interclub Competition 2013

Attached find all the results of the 2013 PSSA Interclub Competition and as you will see, Midrand Camera Club did very well for a first time entrant.

Midrand Camera Club came joint 1st in the Senior section, joint 5th in the Junior section and 4th Overall.

Here is the detail scores per image:

Congratulations to everybody involved.