Budapest-Croatia-Dalmatian Coast 2015

Image: Andrea Boldizsar


Budapest-Croatia-Dalmatian Coast 2015

Photography and Cultural Tour

Information Evening: Wed 27 Aug 2014 6.30pm



ENQUIRIES 

One 'Our Father' a small price to pay

My education was steeped in Catholicity. 

I started at Saint Brigids in West Perth, continued at the Brigidine Convent in Wembley under the nuns. In late primary I became a student of the Marist Brothers at Saint Joseph's College in Salvado rd, Subiaco.

oOo

A part of the ‘Marist’ or ‘Marian’ ethos was to care for and educate boys who were less well off. Private Catholic schools were less well off than other private schools and they charged lower fees. And Marist Brothers Subiaco was at the lower end of all the Catholic Schools. So the Brothers thought up novel ways to save money.

That's me with my best mate Peter in our Marist footy jumpers

At Assembly one morning in 1955 the Brothers announced a building project – to build a new brick shelter shed and incinerator. But with a  difference. The Brothers also announced that they would grant a half-day holiday as a prize for the class that donated the most bricks. Wow, a half day holiday! Our Year Six class was highly motivated and I was particularly determined that our class should win the prize.

Luckily, where I lived was near the Wembley/Floreat Park boundary and there were a lot of new houses being built. Therefore there was a plentiful supply of new building materials. 

The big challenge was to transport clay bricks one and a half miles along Cambridge Street and up the hill to Marist Brothers, Subiaco. We called our hill trolleys into service. 

Each weekend we visited new building sites, loaded our hill trolleys with new bricks and pushed them to St Joseph’s Marist Brothers in Salvado Road. The Year Six pile was starting to take shape. Each Saturday we made two trips and on Sunday after Mass we made another trip. The Year Six stack was in the lead. 

As the competition neared its final phase, we started to do after-school runs as well. The Year Six brick assembly was the biggest and best of all! Year Six won the half day holiday and the shelter shed and incinerator was constructed from a mixed bag of bricks with the help of volunteer dads.

Then it was time for confession in the Catholic tradition.

'Bless me Father for I have sinned. It is three weeks since my last confession.

'Yes, my son and what sins do you have to confess.

‘I’ve been stealing, father’

‘My son, you’ve heard of the seventh commandment “Thou shalt not steal’?

‘Yes Father’

‘And what did ye steal, my boy’

‘I stole bricks, father’

‘Bricks?’ enquired the priest

‘Yes father’

‘How many bricks?’

‘Two hundred and thirty-six, but I had help’ I replied

There was a lengthy pause and an audible intake of air from the other side of the purple curtain.

‘And what did ye do with the bricks my son?’ he asked cautiously

‘We took them to school to build a shelter shed’ I said.

Silence

‘Now my son, stealing is against God’s law ...................... lengthy pause .............. but this was more like a donation than stealing as such. Isn’t that right, me boy?’

‘Yes father’

‘For your penance say one Our Father’

‘Yes Father’

A small price to pay for a half day holiday and a new shelter shed.

Don't Cry for Me My Cantina

This happened this morning.

There's a myriad of coffee shops, restaurants and boutiques  in Beaufort St Mount Lawley. After ambling past four or five I settled on Cantina. Good choice! Warm relaxed ambience, attentive staff, free newspapers and really top coffee. The sun was shining, birds were tweeting, I had enough money for coffee and nobody was shooting at me. This was going to be  a good day. At least that's what I thought.

Alston's cartoon in the West made me chuckle and I was two sips into my long macchiato when my mobile rang. Whoops! Long lost girlfriend was calling.   In my eagerness to answer I stood up, rattling the table and clean bowled my coffee over the paper, the table and a friendly lion. (not so friendly after the coffee stains).

Who said men can't do two things at once? I was simultaneously chatting to long lost GF and apologising to coffee shop staff and tentatively dabbing at the soggy lion. Maybe this won't be such a good day.  The lion's boyfriend did not look happy. As I chatted to my confused ex GF a young waitress cleaned up the mess and promptly returned with a replacement long macchiato. Lion was weeping brown tears.

By the time I had finished my second long mac and the call from my ex GF my pulse rate was back down to 190 beats a minute. I approached the counter to pay for two coffees at $4 each. The cherub-faced waitress had Marilyn Monroe style,bouncy blonde hair, bright red lipstick and smile like a Kimberley moon. She leant over and whispered secretly,
 'Tell me about your girlfriend'
'It was a long, long time ago; more than fifty years ago'
'That's soooo romantic' she gushed.
''Oh is it? How much for coffee?'
The smile broadened - I'm sure she could have done a Pepsodent commercial with no rehearsal.
'No charge, its on the house'

I was walking on sunshine, feeling so good. I glanced sideways.  The lion's boyfriend looked a bit dark.
Oh well, nobody's perfect.

Nikon D600 VS Pentax K-3 - what the Ad didn't tell you!

Pentax K-3

The back page of The Weekend Australian Nov 16-17 2013 carries an impressive full page advertisement for the new Pentax K-3 DSLR camera. The ad does what all good ads do in promoting the features of the camera. That's fair enough. However, it draws a direct comparison between the K-3 and Nikon's D600, suggesting that the K3 is the 'Leader of the Resolution'. I'm sorry to say that nothing could be further from the truth. The facts plainly don't support Pentax's claim. The ad would be more aptly headed the 'Leader of Deception'

Nikon D600

Let me be clear at the outset. I'm not bagging the K-3. I love Pentax. But I am questioning both the accuracy and the ethics of the comparison. I'm still the proud owner of two grand old Pentax 67 film cameras and half a dozen magnificent Pentax lenses. The Pentax 67 is not a 'pretty' camera. Its a classic old vintage model, born of an era when they made 'real' cameras - heavy, solid, simple, virtually foolproof, bombproof, thoroughly reliable performing for more than 30 years. (A bit like the author)

Now back to the problem of the misleading advertisement. What the ad does NOT tell you is that the sensor in the K-3 is APS size and the Nikon is full-frame. Sensor size is the single most important factor in determining image quality. The K-3 sensor measures 366.6 square millimetres and the D600 measures 861.6 square millimetres. In other words the D600 sensor is 235% larger than the K3. That is a massive difference.

Now, here is where the problems really start for Mr Pentax. Because they have packed 24 MP into an APS sensor the K-3's pixel density* has sky rocketed to 65,466 pixels per square millimetre. Whereas the pixel density for the D600 is only 27,855 pixels per square millimetre. In  fact the K-3's pixel density is higher than the tiny Panasonic TZ40 compact camera!

The ad also fails to mention that the Nikon D600 gives you 900 shots from a  fully charged battery while the K-3 can only squeeze out 560 clicks.

The K-3 also has a multiplier of 1.5X on all full frame lenses which further complicates achieving a true wide angle lens result. If you buy APS lenses for the K-3 you will have lost a lot of money when you decide to upgrade to a full-frame camera.

The advertisement is big and impressive and I'm sure Pentax will sell quite  a few cameras. However, the ad is deceptive and misleading suggesting that resolution is superior on the K-3. The facts speak for themselves - the D600 eats the K-3 for breakfast, with hardly a burp.


*The higher the pixel density number the lower the camera's performance.

Join Dale Neill during the UWA Summer School Workshops and find out what makes your camera click!
Talking of clicking, click HERE for details.

Down Memory Lane - The Hill Trolleys

Out of the history book - one of the very first photos I ever took in my life circa 1953 (yse 60 years ago).
In our backyard at No 2 Marlow St Wembley our pride and joy our hill trolleys. My mate Peter and I built them and terrorised neighbours by ploughing through their garden beds and racing them down Reabold Hill against the traffic.

In the backyard is our cubby house built by my Pop (grandad). You can see the chookyard and lemon tree in the background. Over the back fence is the Brigidine Convent where I attended school for three years with the Brigidine nuns. I still remember getting bthe 'long cane' from head nun, Mother Joan for letting down the tyres on Terry and Brian Burke's tyres. Some might say I should have let down more than their tyres but I would never say that.

You may have noticed the photo is not all that sharp; the main reason for this was I was perched atop a six foot step ladder balanced on the thick couch lawn to get a better view. Things were shaky and I am not all that great with heights. About that shadow; all I can say is it wasn't there when I pressed the shutter on my Pop's Brownie 620.  

Seven hot tips to save money on your next overseas trip

1. Use a travel money card - you pay no commission and you can 'work' the wthdrawals to profit from currency fluctuations.
2. Claim your TRS on departure
3. Check best baggage rates with airlines
4. Turn off International Roaming on your mobile
5. Keep a small amount of overseas currency from previous trips
6. Use a travel agent who monitors air fare fluctuations - even after you book and pay deposit!
7. Most importantly - get the very best guide you can and talk to them prior to journey. They are worth every cent. They will take you places average guides won't and will save you heaps.

Our guide Yomna in Egypt at the Great Pyramid of Giza

Three session Travel Photography Workshop at UWA Extension: 

Click HERE for details.

Unravelling Sensor Sizes

If you've ever been confused about the way sensors are named and their sizes, join the club! It looks very much like it was organised by a circle of confusion in a Siberian gulag. I mean who would have thought that there are 5 different versions of APS-C sensors!!

I've just spent a day, armed with a calculator and Excel spread sheet calculating the pixel densities for new camera recommendations. Really tedious but, believe it or not, very useful. DP Review used to publish pixel densities but they stopped several years ago. So, I've taken on the task as a labour of love.

Simply put, having a whole bunch of megapixels in your camera does not guarantee a top camera. Its like a farmer who owns 20 million sheep. The farmer has to have space to put the sheep, otherwise the sheep starve, get skinny and die. So a moderate number of sheep in a big paddock is the way to go. Then all the pixel sheep are fat and smiling and happy. And you have a top camera!

From a photographic perspective, noise reduces, tonal values improve and you get improved skin tones. Even sheep would be happy.

There are some really poor performers when you get into the so-called compact mirror less cameras. Some have sensors slightly larger than match heads with results that should be lit with a match.

As a  Nikon owner, I was surprised but honour bound to report that the top performing camera based on pixel densities is the Canon 5D MkIII. It narrowly edges out theNikon D600.

There are a dozen other factors that influence image quality. However, pixel density is one that is often overlooked when choosing a new camera. And nobody publishes the specifications!!

To see what workshops I'm running for UWA click HERE.