General Meeting 16th March 2015

At the March meeting there were two presentations. Firstly KRMB founding member, Bob Goodale, gave a talk that detailed the developments in Nature Photography Equipment – early 20th Century to Present. In delivering the presentation Bob also told us much about his own life as an avid photographer and nature documentary filmmaker. Rather than just talk about cameras Bob brought along a substantial part of his extensive collection of film, movie and digital cameras together with some accessories. Amongst the earliest cameras in his collection are two Kodak bellows cameras dating back to the early 20th century. One even had the instruction booklet. He then showed a Box Brownie in its case, and a small tripod (he also has a very heavy Miller Tripod but did not bring it to the meeting). He showed us accessories that most of us have used but forgotten about, such as the cube flash. He also had a film roller for loading 35mm cassettes from a bulk 100 foot roll of film to keep costs down.

When 8mm movie cameras, and then Super 8mm, became available Bob started to make wildlife films and was successful in winning several awards. He showed us a turret lens movie camera with interchangeable lenses. Film had to be loaded using a light bag into which you put your arms through two light proof holes. In the 1970’s Bob bought a second hand Pathe camera system from John Shaw, a senior cameraman with Film Australia. That served Bob well for a while until he acquired an Éclair 16mm movie camera, the classic documentary camera used by many of the top documentary filmmakers. During this period Bob was successful in making documentaries, such as one covering Shark Bay and Wilderness Regained, that were sold all over the world. At one time Bob had a team of 15 working for his production company and was contracted to local TV networks. Unfortunately the downfall of the network moguls, Messrs Bond and Skase, saw cuts in budgets that forced his company to fold.

The talk then moved on to 35mm still cameras, with Bob’s favourite,  the Nikon F2 on display. On these cameras he would use a mirror telephoto lens that was very compact due to its unique optics. Bob contrasted its size to that of his current 600mm lens – we all knew which one we would rather carry on a walk through the bush. He also had macro equipment, including a bellows for very precise focusing on small insects or flowers etc. He talked about how most images were shot on slide films, with the best made into prints using the Cibrachrome process.

With the advent of the digital era Bob has progressed through many point-and-shoot digitals , with his current carry everywhere camera, the Nikon Coolpix S4. His first digital SLR was the Canon EOS 50D and an 18 – 200mm lens, both of which produced excellent image quality but eventually both failed mechanically. Bob’s current set up is a top of the range Canon EOS 5D MkIII, with several high quality lenses including the 600mm F4 and the 70 – 200mm F2.8.

Bob then showed us some of the gadgets he has also acquired, such as a camera in a pen plus the film cartridge from a Minox spy camera. He also has a few camera traps, motion sensitive cameras that can be left unattended in a location to capture images of wildlife that pass by. Bob uses these on Goodale Sanctuary to monitor what species are present. He also has a camera on a fibre-optic probe that can be used to photograph inside hollows or burrows complete with a screen to that displays the live view. His latest acquisition is a quad-copter drone with a small action camera. This can be flown remotely and take photographs over areas that would otherwise be inaccessible.

He then mentioned how the mobile phone has made almost everyone a photographer. The audience was invited to take a closer look at the items on display.

 

Leaf mimic
Leaf mimic (Norm Pinsky)

The second presenter for the evening was Dr Norm Pinsky, who delivered a presentation on Camouflage in Nature. Norm is fascinated by the way that many species have evolved to mimic their surrounding environment in order to protect themselves from predation. He presented a series of photographs that showed various insects that are very hard to spot amongst their surroundings. These included a moth that looked like the bark of a tree, three moths found in Baldivis that had the same colour, texture and patterns as dried gum leaves and two types of moth from PNG that looked like a leaf. Another moth looked like lichen while another appeared to be a folded leaf, though its wings are flat, the optical illusion is a result of the colours and texture of its wings.

Norm then moved on to grasshoppers where there are species that are leaf mimics, and others that are wood mimics. A grasshopper photographed on a leaf in PNG was very hard to spot. Other photos showed grasshoppers that blend into the background; Norm had to point many out to the audience, so good was the camouflage. Others use alignment with twigs or stems to appear invisible. Spiders were also shown to use camouflage, one species had the same appearance as the buds of the flower on which it was patiently waiting for prey to come into range while another aligns itself with egg sacs and another looks like the bark of a tree.

Gum-leaf mimic
Gum-leaf mimic (Norm Pinsky)

Stick insects are masters of camouflage and very hard to spot amongst thin branches. Others use unusual patterns, such as a butterfly with a false head, and beetles that looked like pieces of rock. A katydid in PNG and a chameleon from Africa plus a moth that was almost invisible rounded off the very interesting and informative presentation. It left us all with one thought, how did Norm spot the subjects in the field to capture the photos? The audience thanked both Bob and Norm for two very interesting presentations.

Colin Prickett