Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Tygerberg Photographic Society



One of the most educational and rewarding things I’ve done over recent years is to join the Tygerberg Photographic Society. To quote from their website: The aim of the club is promote photography, by bringing together photographers who wish to express their love for photography by taking photographs and by showing, sharing, evaluating and discussing with friends who share the same interests – those willing to learn more about photography from experts willing to share their knowledge – and those willing to share their expertise with others willing to learn more about photography.



Members are divided into 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Star categories according to their level of skill. New members start off as 1 Stars, and move upward over time depending on the number of points they collect from judged competition entries. After 6 months as a member, I am now in the 2-star category.



Competition meetings are held at 19h00 every 4th Wednesday of every month, January to November. There are four categories for entries, namely the month's set subject, in print or digital formats, plus an open category, also in print or digital formats. There is at least one external evaluator at each meeting. Every entry is publicly judged and priceless valuable feedback is given by the expert evaluators during the meetings.



Photographs are evaluated (out of 15 points) on the level of technical, compositional, and artistic ability shown. For a photo to achieve a Gold award, 1 star members need to receive a minimum of 9 points, 2 star members need a minimum of 11 points, and 3 star and above members need a minimum of 12 points.So the more one progresses, the more difficult it is to achieve Gold awards.



This has been (and is) an incredibly rewarding experience, and I am indebted to my good friend Daniel Rossouw, for introducing me to the club.



I have posted a page, TPS Entries, which can be accessed via the blog menu. It reflects all the entries I have posted so far, with the relevant awards received.

dobbino.blogspot.com



Early last year I spent a good deal of time setting up my personal photography website. I must say that I really like the look and feel of the site, but the fact is that it’s not achieving what I wanted it to achieve, which was to provide an easy way for people to view my photos



Updating the site and informing existing viewers also proved to be a mission. So I have decided to cut my losses and transform my old blog into the vehicle for displaying images and informing viewers of new activities and photographs. The basic tools built into the Blogger platform make this a much more efficient way of doing things.



In addition, I have decided to make use of the Aminus3.com facilities to display portfolio images, etc. These can be accessed from the new menu on this blog.



I have deleted all the old information from the blog, completely redesigned the look and feel, and start afresh with this being hopefully the first of many new posts on the new blog. I hope you enjoy!



All comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated – thanks.