Congratulations to all members who entered the Federation of Camera Clubs Topshot Competition on April 19.

Our members scooped the pool in the small prints section of the competition and their awards were presented at our annual photographic exhibition held in April.

 FIRST PLACE: Allayne Foley: Watching the girls

SECOND PLACE: Helen Woodward:  Mellow Cello

Geraldine Lefoe received Merits for two entries in Nature Prints: Rocky Mountain Smile and Wakki Rocks; and a merit in the Australian Landscape section for Barwon Heads.

The 2008 Kiama-Shellharbour Photography Exhibition will be held at the Old Fire Station, Kiama between 22 and 28 April which includes the Anzac Day weekend.

Opening night is on Wednesday 23rd April at 6.30pm. All are welcome and members are asked to bring a plate.

Many of the prints are for sale so do join us for the opening night or drop in to view the spectacular photographs. 

Our presentation night was a great success on Friday night. We particularly want to thank our guest judge, Alan Hitchell, for stepping in at short notice. He shared a wonderful and inspiring collection of photos from China after the presentations. We also send wishes for a speedy recovery to Di Epoff.

Congratulations to the following winners of the Print and Slide of the Year.

Monochrome Print: Karen Csellich Daddy and me

 Colour Print: Tom Daley Spud

 Slide: Karen Csellich Jetty sunset

Small Prints: Sev Dal Molin Trio

President’s Trophy: Awarded to Peter Nolan for contributions to the club.

Point Score Awards were presented by Andrea Robinson, President FCC

Congratulations to the following members.

A-Grade Colour Prints

1^st Karen Csellich 62 Points 2^nd Eunice Daniel 52 Points 3rd Barry Daniel 51 Points 

B-Grade Colour Prints

1^st Peter Csellich 49 Points  2^nd Vicki Luckins 40 Points 3^rd Rhonda Boxall 38 Points 3^rd Geraldine Lefoe 38 Points 

A-Grade Monochrome Prints

1^st Peter Nolan 53 Points 2^nd Les Hope 37 Points 3^rd Max Baez 31 Points 

B-Grade Monochrome Prints

1^st Karen Csellich 60 Points 2^nd Geraldine Lefoe 45 Points 3^rd Sally Hall 36 points 

Small Prints

1^st Barbara Street 54 points 2^nd Leanne Zampa 36 Points 3^rd John Street 31 Points  

Open Slides

1^st Richard Fackender 67 Points 2^nd Klaus Doering 57 Points 3^rd Eunice Daniel 55 Points

Saville Property Group, owners of the popular Southgate tourist complex in Melbourne, has banned all photography within the centre, as well as over 250 other shopping centres they own. It’s supposed to protect us from terrorists.

ABC News Online has written an article on the issue, titled Photo ban at Southgate ‘over the top’. The headline is quoting Prime Minister John Howard, who said, “I don’t know who did this and I don’t mean to offend them and I’m sure they mean well, but I do think that is going too far.”

The Victorian Attorney-General has also weighed into the debate, and will be writing to the managers advising them to reverse their decision.

Let’s hope that common sense prevails!

Nikon has recently confirmed the existence of a banding issue with some early-production D200 digital SLRs. Affected cameras can be returned to Nikon for adjustment.

Club members with Nikon D200s are urged to read up on the reported problems, test their cameras and, if necessary, contact Nikon to have the problem fixed. Nikon’s announcement, along with D200 banding articles from various web sites, can be accessed via this page at One Stop Under.

One of our members brought the following recall notice in for the information of club members:

Nikon has announced a worldwide voluntary recall of around 710,000 camera batteries which were sold with the D100, D70 and D50 digital SLRs between August 2004 and October 2005.

The affected batteries can cause short circuits, overheat, or in the worst possible case catch fire, though Maxwell Optical - the distributor of Nikon products in Australia - says no such incidents have been recorded locally.

Maxwell is asking owners of genuine Nikon EN-EL3 batteries with a 4-digit production lot number beginning with 44A, 46A, 47A, 48A, 49A, 4AA, 4BA, 4CA, 51A, 53A or 54A to contact Maxwell to determine if their battery is one of those being recalled.

Owners of affected batteries will be provided with a replacement battery at no cost.

For more information, see Maxwell’s web site.

My wife has just given birth to our third child (and third daughter!), Hannah Lisa-Marie Collins. Everything went very smoothly, and everyone is healthy and happy. Grace and Sarah are fascinated with their new little sister, and we’re all looking forward to welcoming her home.

Web updates will resume when things settle down a bit :-).

The Sydney International Exhibition of Photography, each year, attracts entries in Prints and Slides from about 40 countries around the world. The most successful, ‘Accepted’ Prints from the 45th S.I.E.P. 2005 will be displayed at the Sydney Royal Easter Show from 18th to 31st March 2005.

The Slides will not be shown there. They can only be seen at screenings by three camera clubs – North Sydney Leagues Camera Club, Blacktown City Photographic Club and Kiama-Shellharbour Camera Club.

Kiama-Shellharbour Camera Club will be presenting a Twin Projector Audiovisual screening of the Open and Nature Slides in the Auditorium, Shellharbour Public School, Mary Street Shellharbour at 7.30pm, Wednesday 23rd March 2005.

In the Slide sections over 200 of the world’s best photographers (from around 30 countries) entered 933 slides. The best 294 of these will be screened. Major prizes went to such countries as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England and France.

Also on view will be an extensive display of quality colour and monochrome prints from members of Kiama-Shellharbour Camera Club.

After the screening a supper will be served.

ADMISSION IS FREE and there is plenty of room in the hall – please bring your friends.

Please be aware of two handouts outlining the rules of entry into the club’s monthly competitions:

• Bylaws of the Kiama-Shellharbour Camera Club provide a guide to categories and conditions of entry specific to our club. These have recently been updated by the Committee to coincide with the rules of the FCC.
• The FCC Competition Rules provide a more in depth description of size and degrees of manipulation allowed for prints. Please be sure to collect and read these handouts prior to entering prints and slides into monthly competitions.

After our web host’s server had a fatal hard disk crash, I’ve taken the opportunity to start over with a new content management system - WordPress. It’s been very quick and easy to set up so far, and I’m hoping it’ll be much more convenient to add fresh content and keep everyone updated with what’s going on.

In fact, WordPress is so simple to use, I’m hoping we might even be able to get our film-loving, newly-digital President to have a go!