2014 Year End Function

The Beachcomber’s Year End function was held at the NSRI on Tuesday, 2 December 2014 where the Club’s performance and was growth was highlighted, special thanks were made and, most importantly, trophies were awarded…

Highlights

• For 2013 one of our main goals was to get more members and for 2014 it was to increase the photo quality. Currently our membership stable (about 85 after it doubled in 2013).
• Salon participation: total number of acceptances went from 129 in 2013 to 307 for 2014 – without the last salon… We had 18 medals and 52 COMs so far!
• Judging changed in order to be much stricter with, especially, the seniors. To have everything judged beforehand also shortened our meetings considerably ensuring members are usually back home by around 21:00.
• A number of outings and training sessions were presented and hosted including:
  • Aerial photography – Gavin
  • Twilight and Night Photography in the Harbour – Hein, Nobby
  • Monochrome (a model shoot and then a monochrome workshop) – Hein and Daryl
  • Painting with light – Cornelius
  • Equestrian outing – Cornelius
  • Studio shoot – Jane and Brigitte
  • Shutter speed – Graeme
  • Macro – Hendrik
  • Imfolozi MTB Challenge… and many more!
• An external talk by Andrew Aveley was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.
• KZN Interclub: We were 4th in Nature and 5th in Open. 4th Overall out of 8 clubs.
• PSSA Interclub. Seniors were 17th and Juniors 16th out of 42 clubs. Up by about 8 places!
• Our Driftwood Newsletter and our website are still among the front runners within the PSSA.
• The KZN Photographic Hub on Facebook sees more and more participation by Beachcombers. But yes, there are a couple of active people there that we can also pull to Beachcombers. Our own facebook page as well as the Whatsapp makes a big difference – use it!!
• We had many Beachcombers with many achievements – too many to mention! I am particularly impressed with some of our novices! The participation that I see in various competitions by our members is just great! Just to mention a few:
  • Dudley and Christine Kelbe who won and came third in two respective categories of the Annual Durban Undersea Club Photography and Video Shootout. Dudley also won the Nature category in the PSSA Four Nations competition.
  • Nobby and Sias practically took over “Camera Club” with all their daily, weekly and monthly winners
  • Various people had photographs in various publications: Daryl, Nobby, Hein, Graeme, Sias, Dudley, Christine, myself (Hendrik) and most probably I missed many as well!
• The 9th Beachcombers Salon is currently underway. Good luck Nobby, Sias and everyone else helping out with this – it is a lot of work and you need dedicated people. Luckily we have them!

Words of Thanks
Special thanks to Jane Ferraris for always being there and always wanting to contribute. Whether that is by talks, sponsorships, ideas and many more. Jane is not part of the committee, but truly gives her all! She (and Canon) also sponsored many great prizes for our trophy winners.

Dave Savides (Zululand Observer): Thank you for always ensuring that Beachcombers have their pictures displayed in the media.
Gavin Fordham: For the effort in ensuring that we have the NSRI as a venue. Outside events is something the NSRI actually do not really promote, but Gavin ensures that all is running smoothly and even cleans and locks up afterwards. Special thanks alsofor his willingness to contribute via talks and outings. Things like this take a lot of preparation and commitment.

All our speakers and workshop leaders for the Year:

• Jane
• Gavin
• Cornelius
• Hein
• Nobby
• Sias
• Dudley
• Graeme
• Daryl
• Brigitte

Lastly: The Beachcombers Committee. Guys, you made this year a great pleasure. I know the hard work and dedication that is going on behind the scenes. Most members do not know how much work this is, but thanks. You guys are not only great – you are the BEST!

Nobby: The Salon is a LOT of very hard work with many hours of frustration. Thanks to everyone who forms part of your team. More importantly however for most, is the monthly scores and keeping the points up to date. You are ensuring that we get promoted when we should!

Chantelle: The Driftwood is still recognised as one of the best Club Newsletters in South Africa!!! This is a LOT of hard work. We can just look at it every month and say WOW!!!

Sias: The website is also stated by the PSSA to be one of the best South Africa has to offer!!! Sias, you started a site with excess info and links. Always upgrading and ensuring it is the best. I cannot imagine anyone not utilising what you have done on our site. Big thanks for that!

Sias is always ensuring that photovault is running smoothly and all the judging is organised and done between him and Kobus. Sias did a lot of hard work with our new judging system and generally helping to increase our efficiency with both meetings and the Salon.

I cannot state enough how much work Sias is putting in for the club. He deserves special thanks!!!

Kobus and Sias: Always ensuring that we have all photographs loaded and ready. And for sending out all communication.

Brigitte: For organising the Year-end Function and Awards Evening for us. The BIG thanks is for heading all outings and activities. This is a lot of pain and effort!!
Jeremy: Thanks for the help with the Year-end Function and Awards Evening. Without finances we can also not do anything. He is always very strict and questioning every cent. It’s his job to keep us on our toes and to ensure that we do use our financial resources to the benefit of the club. He is also doing all induction for us.

There are perhaps many more I can thank for everything concerning the club, but please know that every submitted photograph, every suggestion, every person attending something, make a difference. Thanks for that!!

Trophies for 2014
First and foremost: As always it was VERY close with everything!!!! In some instances, one evening made the difference! Personally I do think that everyone this year was winners and that everyone had some winnings of their own. But, at the end of the day, there can only be one winner for each trophy.

Member of the Year: Gavin Fordham
Special thanks also to him and his willingness to contribute via talks and outings. Things like this take a lot of preparation and commitment. Just the willingness to share one’s hard-gained knowledge, is a great character trait in itself! But people see this willingness. Which is perhaps why Gavin has also been nominated by MANY to be our “Member of the Year”!!! Congratulations Gavin!! Please note that this is not the committee’s decision. We asked for nominations and he was nominated so many times that we did not even have to send out for a final vote. Gavin, you are the club’s man!!

Most improved: Cornelius van der Merwe
It is difficult to believe that a 4, and now 5 star, photographer can still improve so much. But this is all due to the willingness to play with ideas and to participate as much as possible. I cannot emphasize enough that participation in everything is where you will see rapid grown in not only one genre of photography, but in all!

Most entries: Nobby Clarke
Last year he was our Photographer with the Most Entries. This year he did it once again and did not miss even one opportunity!!!! That takes doing! If you look at all his involvement everywhere, you can see why he is now one of the most established photographers in Beachcombers with many publications and awards. Something all of us can learn from him is to use every opportunity in front of you!!

Most salon acceptances: Nobby Clarke
An amazing 64 Acceptances of which 1 was a category runner up! This realise when you are both as involved and active in photography firstly, but secondly entering whenever the opportunity presents itself! You can see why he’s also one of the contenders for Photographer of the Year.

Novice Photographer of the Year AND Photographer of the Year: Hein Beukes
Criteria for this are fairly high: the person with the highest average score for the year, with a minimum of 32 photographs entered.

Hein has been part of the club now for two years and picked up enormously! Why? Very easy: he is at every opportunity! He is not shy to play and ask questions. He’s not shy to show off his work for others to tear apart and then learn from it! Hein, you fully deserved this!

Photograph of the year: Brad Gray (Winter Joy)
We submitted our monthly winners (which all of you chose on the evening), to three of the most accomplished judges in SA. I was very fortunate to experience the judging “live” and five photographs immediately stood out for them. One of them was however a photograph where the following statements were made: “…. the one that really stands out for me is Winter Joy, the slow shutterspeed makes that image “alive” and moving – that is the one I will remember.” “Sally Mann would have been proud of this one had it been hers.

That a two star photographer must teach the “old folks” how to do it!!!

The Monthly winning photographs which were sent for external judging, from which Brad’s “Winter Joy” was selected as the winner appear on the following pages.