Congress Report
KZN Congress 2018
After many months of preparation and fine-tuning, the day finally arrived for our 2018 Congress. This year it was hosted by Amber Camera Club which is based in Howick. We were very fortunate to have the use of a functions room in the Amber auditorium – an ideal venue for a gathering of this size – and the local caterers who did a fine job of our finger-lunch which was held in the pub area of Amber Valley. We had a total of 90 delegates, including 3 speakers, our PSSA president, Anne d’Oliveira and National Director, Geoff Feldon.
Starting off the morning was Grant Pitcher (www.grantpitcher.com ) whose inspirational talk on architecture covered everything from the detail of interior design through to wonderful aerial shots of buildings and projects-in-progress, mostly in the Durban area. Grant led us through some of things he learnt along the way as well as high points in his career to date. SA will be the poorer for his emigration to Canada later this month.
Next up was Kevin Mullins whose coverage of rhino capture as an environmental photo journal opened up a new area of photography for many of us – that of telling a story through a series of images. While Grant’s images had to be technically excellent, a photo-journal of this kind focused more on the value of the story and emotive content. A very thought–provoking and educational presentation!
Our last speaker for the day was Evelyn Gibson who focused on the genre of street photography, with many outstanding images taken in the streets of Havana. The Cuban street scenes were particularly intriguing with their magnificent old cars and aging infrastructure telling a story all on their own. With her tongue firmly in her cheek, Evelyn showed us her “5 star accommodation” in the form of a “casa”, which I believe she decided to upgrade shortly after!
In between all of this, there were many spot prizes drawn to add to the excitement of the day. We were incredibly blessed by the generosity of our sponsors – large and small – who helped fill goodie bags to the brim and donated prizes.
After our AGM, the interclub images were shown and results presented. Much to our amazement this year, Amber Camera Club came first out of the 11 clubs that entered. Well done to the runners up – Westville just 8 points behind and Hibiscus in third place, a mere 5 points behind Westville.
Our committee would like to thank the Greater Ambers for the lovely venue, our 3 inspirational speakers, our sponsors, all those who participated in the Interclub, the judges (Anne d’Oliveira, Evelyn Gibson and Francois Roux) and the delegates who came and made it a special day with us.
Clare van Daele
Chairperson Amber Camera Club
Some pictures taken at Congress
(Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them)
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