Excerpt from the Award Citation of the EISA Jury
“The Tamron SP70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD is a very compact, comfortable and easy-to-use zoom lens. Its greatest asset is the razor-sharp image quality that makes full-frame photos look like medium-format images. The near-silent auto　focus system makes the lens ideal for wildlife as well as street photography, while the superb image stabilisation makes it possible to take sharp and detailed pictures more easily in low-light conditions.”

The SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD （Model A005） uses one LD (low dispersion) element to correct chromatic aberrations and an XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) element delivering even greater correction capabilities, for sharp, high-contrast image performance.

Equipped with Tamron’s first USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive), as well as their renowned image stabilization: VC (Vibration Compensation), this lens is ideal for photographing fast-moving subjects. It delivers the power of a telephoto zoom to shoot distant, fast-moving subjects such as sports, high-speed trains and cars, as well as aircraft. With this lens it’s now easy to shoot hand-held in low light adding precision and clarity to evening, night, and indoor scenes. Ultimately, the lens dramatically improves the photographic freedom of the photographer.

With best-in-class resolution, the Tamron image stabilization mechanism, and an ultrasonic motor, this 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens reaches new heights.

This is a lens that can be enjoyed by a wide range of enthusiasts – used with a full frame 35mm-format SLR camera as a telephoto zoom lens it covers the full telephoto range for the mid-range of 70-300mm, and when used with digital SLR cameras with APS-C size image sensors as a zoom lens covers the ultra-telephoto zoom range equivalent to 109 – 465mm.

Tamron’s EISA Awards:
1. 2006-2007: SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR DiⅡ LD Aspherical [IF] (Model A16)
2. 2007-2008: AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 DiⅡ LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO　(Model A18)
3. 2008-2009: AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO (Model A20)
4. 2009-2010: AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 DiⅡ VC LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO (Model B003)
5. 2010-2011: SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005)

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1. Use a flash, which results in a well exposed foreground against an almost black background, or
2. Use a slow shutter speed (ideally with a tripod), using ambient light to illuminate the scene.

Slow sync flash, is a combination of both these techniques – using a slow shutter speed, with a burst of light from the flash – and results in a sharp subject frozen by the flash, and a lighter background illuminated by the ambient light.

Step 1: Camera Settings
Many cameras have a setting called “Night Portrait” which makes use of slow sync flash, however I recommend setting it manually to gain more control and different creative results.

Select Shutter Priority on your camera, and then select a slower shutter speed.

The actual shutter speed you use, will depend on the result you want.

If you merely want to illuminate the background, then select a shutter speed between 1/60^th and 1/20^th. However, if you want a more creative image with motion trails, then experiment with longer shutter speeds of 1/10^th – 1/4^th and longer.

Step 2: Flash settings
Front curtain sync
With most cameras, the flash fires as the shutter opens, freezing the subject in the starting position, and creating motion trails until the shutter closes.
Rear curtain sync
Specialised flash units allow you to set the flash to fire as the shutter closes, resulting in motion trails during the exposure, and a sharp subject frozen by the flash in the end position.

Step 3: Tripod or Handheld?
If you want to eliminate blur and motion trails, then without a doubt you should use a tripod. On the other hand, in some circumstances, hand holding your camera can create exciting effects. The flash freezes the subject, and in low light conditions, the subject or camera movements creates lights trails and motion blur.

Step 4:  Lighting
I like to use a diffuser, such as the Gary Fong Lightsphere and Bounce Flash techniques, as this produces a softer light source than direct flash.

Step 5: Creative Effects – Panning and zooming
Panning is when you move your camera horizontally while the camera is recording, stopping at the subject matter, and zooming is when you zoom your lens in / out while the camera is recording. The latter creates a tunnel like suction and combined with slow sync flash, creates exciting light and motion trails

Experiment with different shutter speeds, front and rear curtain sync, and with panning and zooming techniques, and you never have to use direct flash “deer in headlights” again again! Horray!

At the glittering event hosted by Master of ceremonies Jo-Anne Strauss and entertained by the group NUBIA, this year’s theme of Future Imprint was emphasized by Executive Director Marketing: Sappi Paper and Paper Packaging SA, Dinga Mncube:  “This year, Sappi not only wants to honour the craft of printing and the legacy of the industry, but also the resilience that businessmen and women in your position have exhibited during the tough economic environment of the last two years,”

A total of 345 entries, in 11 categories, were received from the Africa and Indian Ocean Islands region. After a rigorous two days of judging, 9 Gold Awards, 19 Silver Awards and 33 Bronze Award winners were selected.

The judges commented on the good finishing and varnishing applied in the winning entries which were of a very high standard, with good attention to detail and striking use of colour.

The panel of judging experts consisted of Johan Swanepoel (Seriti Printing), Richard Nichols (Multiprint Litho), Natalie Rogers (Investec), Erich Kühl (PIFSA), Barry Roberts (Pro-Print) and Ian Shepherd (Ian Shepherd Consulting).

The judges commented on the good finishing and in particular the die-cutting and varnishing applied in the winning entries which were of a very high standard, with good attention to detail and striking use of colour. Entries were also praised for print innovation displayed and the overall visual appeal and choice of substrates.

Dinga Mncube further commented:  “Print is a total experience. It is our excellence and craft that can influence minds and help speed a recovery back to the heights of previous times.” Dinga also explained how Sappi was refreshing its commitment to profitability by merging two of its southern African divisions, Sappi Fine Paper South Africa and Sappi Kraft, into a new division called Sappi Paper and Packaging South Africa (SA). “By consolidating our businesses we are ensuring that we remain well positioned to respond effectively to our customer needs, and to drive the key message that paper and paper packaging have a strong future and remain the best choice for many applications,” Dinga said.

2010 Award winners
Nine gold awards were presented to the following recipients:
Annual Reports – INCE
Books – Trident Press
Brochures – Pro-Print
Calendars – Trident Press
Catalogues – Seriti Printing
Digital – 24 Hour Photobooks
General Print – Colors
Magazine Sheetfed – Paarl Media Paarl
Packaging and Labels – Masterpack

A list of all the winners – Gold, Silver and Bronze – will be available on www.sappi.com

Dress appropriately
Children like bright colours and super heroes. Wear something cheerful.

Nap
When photographing babies and small children, ask the Mom to plan a nap time before the shoot. A photo session can be a lot to take in for a small child, and combined with tiredness, is not a recipe for success.

Learn their names & spend some time with them before hand
Before you start the photo session, spend some time with the child. Play with them, ask them questions, and let them get to know and feel comfortable around you.

Cute names and Coo noises
Many kiddies respond well to cute and funny names, a few of my favourites are Princess, Pumpkin Pie, Chicken and Rock Star. For babies, even just coo noises, like “goo-goo gaga” works!

Music
Most little people love music. Ask the Mom to bring an iPod with their favourite nursery rhymes, and bring along a portable docking station.

Rewards
Sometimes young kids need an incentive to keep them going. Bring a bag of treats, and tell them you have a surprise after the shoot. Give them small rewards after each great shot. Children love seeing themselves, so also show them the images on the LCD.

Props, activities & attention span
Plan out props and activities for the photo session. Remember that little people tire quickly and have a short attention span. Change props, activities and wardrobe often to keep them intrigued.

Hot Shoe Toys
Hot shoe toys can be useful for getting babies and small children to look up at the camera. Not only will this emphasise their eyes, but there will also be a genuine look of interest or amusement in their facial expressions.

How to make a Hot Shoe Toy
You will need:

• A small toy (A MacDonald’s Happy Meal toy works beautifully, and you can eat the meal while making the Hot Shoe Toy!)
• An old hot shoe adapter
• Heavy-duty leather or cardboard
• Strong glue
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Cutting knife

Step 1: Make the mount
Measure the space at the top of the Hot Shoe, and cut the leather to size. Now cut a smaller piece that will be glued on top. Allow the glue to dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Attach the toy to the mount
Check that your mount fits snugly into the Hot Shoe. Add a generous amount of strong glue onto the leather mount, and place the toy on top. Clamp if necessary, and allow the glue to dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Step 3: Attach the Hot Shoe Toy onto your camera
Slide the Hot Shoe onto your camera, and then slide in the mount with the attached toy. Now go and test it out!

The Ultimate Adobe CS5 Experience is a full-day workshop taking place on Thursday, 26 August 2010 at the Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein. Greg Rewis, Terry White and Jason Levine will make a stop in South Africa to demonstrate new and advanced features available in the recently launched Adobe Creative Suite 5, including web, design as well as in video production suites of products.

“Creatives will learn how to take advantage of Adobe’s integrated design and productivity tools, which will help them produce their best work,” says Leonard Rabotapi, marketing and PR manager at Adobe Systems Africa.

In addition, Adobe SA is encouraging all workshop attendees to bring a R50 donation to the event as part of its ‘Paint the Future’ CSI initiative. “With everyone’s generosity, we plan to donate painting sets to underprivileged children throughout South Africa. Not only are we asking workshop attendee to do their part by donating only R50, but we are encouraging our partners and all businesses to do their part to support creativity in Africa through this initiative,” Rabotapi adds.

Bring your donation along to this event and make a difference. Let’s show South Africa that creatives have heart.

Visit www.pointone.co.za/adobe for the full agenda and to reserve your seat.

About the presenters
Greg Rewis is the Principal Evangelist for Creative Suite Web Premium at Adobe Systems. With over 20 years of computer industry experience, Rewis spends in excess of 200 days of the year on the road, talking to customers, giving product demonstrations at trade shows and seminars, and speaking at industry conferences.

Terry White is the Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist for Adobe Systems. He has been with Adobe for over a decade and has extensive knowledge of Adobe’s Creative Professional product line.

Worldwide Evangelist for Adobe, Jason Levine travels the globe promoting Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection. Since 2005, he has presented to thousands of people, from San Francisco to Sydney and everywhere in between.

The group consisted of ACP Students and we were joined by ACP’s resident wildlife and travel photography expert, Graham Baird. The idea behind this weekend was to give students the opportunity to learn about wildlife photography and put theory into practice on the game drives and hikes on which we went.

We all met at the camp on the Friday evening, and the weekend kicked off with an introduction and equipment run-through.  Although we had an itinerary for the weekend, the atmosphere was very relaxed and it was nice to see a group of photographers who were all just interested in learning and soaking up as much information as possible. As one tends to do in the bush, we congregated around the campfire after dinner, and joined in the informal photographic discussion. This evening set the mood for the rest of the weekend and apart from a few depressingly cold mornings, everyone was in high-spirits.

Our first game drive was on the Saturday morning and even though the wildlife was scarce, we stopped at a watering hole and managed to snap a few amazing images of the sunrise. With our experts at hand, we could fiddle with our camera settings and ask for advice when we were unsure about something. Unlike other game drives I have been on, this one was geared for photographers so we would stop often when something was worthy of photographing and we would hang around for a short while to explore the vicinity. We did four more game drives over the course of the weekend.

Although wildlife was our primary focus, we also explored other photographic techniques that weekend. The Saturday evening was spent painting with light and we even attempted a few star-trails photographs. Painting with light was definitely the most popular option and we had great fun experimenting with various light sources and numerous subjects.

There is no doubt that we learned a lot that weekend and when we had our Photo Review session about two weeks later, we could see and compare everybody’s images. It was a great experience all round and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to spend a weekend away, learning about photography and sharing notes with other like-minded individuals. ACP will have another Photo Safari weekend later this year. For more information, visit www.photoacademy.co.za or call 08610 photo (74686).

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ISO speed affects the shutter speed and aperture combinations to achieve correct exposure. This means if you increase your ISO from 100 to 200 you will notice that you can shoot at faster shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures (big f/number) because the image sensor has become twice as light sensitive.

The most important thing to remember about ISO is the lower the ISO setting, the lower the sensitivity to light, and the finer the grain will be.

Lower ISO settings (such as 100 ISO) are generally used for brightly lit conditions, while a higher ISO (such as 1600 ISO and higher) are typically used in low light conditions. There is however a cost… the higher the ISO, the grainier your image will be.

Back in the days of film, you may remember the grainy effect higher ISO films produced. Grain in digital photography is better known as Noise, and is a speckled disturbance affecting areas of similar colour, especially darker shadowy areas. By increasing the sensitivity of your image sensor by selecting a higher ISO, this allows the sensor to record a fainter light signal. Unfortunately, the increased sensitivity also allows the sensor to record more noise.

Generally, Noise is not desirable, this is why you should use the lowest ISO setting practical, and then adjust the shutter speed and aperture to get the right exposure.

Practical considerations
Ask yourself the following questions to help you choose an appropriate ISO:

How much light is available?
If you camera is using a shutter speed too slow to hand-hold, you do not have a tripod handy, and you can not open up the aperture anymore, you may be better off selecting the next highest ISO setting in order to get a faster shutter speed.

Do I have a tripod?
Mounting your camera onto a tripod will allow you to shoot at a much slower shutter speed, meaning you can decrease your ISO to get less noise.

Is the subject moving?
If your subject is moving, you may need to increase your ISO in order to use a faster shutter speed to produce a sharper image.

Experiment with your ISO settings and take notice of how your camera performs at different levels. Once you have got the hang of how changing shutter speed, aperture and ISO effects the end result of your image, then you have pretty much mastered the technical basics!

Aperture is measured in f/stops, for example f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22 and so on. Moving from one f/stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the opening, as well as the amount of light entering your lens. Photographers refer to the adjustment of this opening as “opening up” and “stopping down”, this simply means, making the size of the hole bigger or smaller.

The most important thing to remember about aperture is that a large aperture (represented by a small f/number) produces shallow depth of field, while a small aperture (represented by a big f/number) creates a large depth of field with much more of the image in sharp focus.

Let me explain this a little more in detail…

A large aperture (small f/number) allows more light to reach the sensor, allowing you to chose a faster shutter speed. Using a large aperture is especially useful when shooting in low light conditions, or when photographing fast moment. Opening your aperture means you have a better chance of freezing action.

A small aperture (big f/number) allows less light to reach the sensor, meaning you can choose a slower shutter speed. A small aperture also increases the Depth of Field, resulting in much crisper, sharper images, especially with long distance shots such as landscapes.

Depth of Field

By adjusting the aperture, we control the amount of Depth of Field in the photo.

Depth of Field is the amount of the photo that is in focus. A large Depth of Field means that most of your image is in focus, while shallow Depth of Field means that only part of your image is in focus, and the rest is blurry or fuzzy.

Shallow Depth of Field
To create a blurry background, chose the smallest f/number possible, zoom in, get close to your subject, and create as much distance between yourself and the background as possible.

Large Depth of Field
On the other extreme, to create a large Depth of Field that is as sharp as possible, chose the biggest f/number practical, stand back from your subject, and zoom out.

Stay tuned for the next lesson on ISO and the Exposure Triangle…