Welcome to Cairns Photographic Society

Join one of the longest running photography communities in Australia. Keep up to date on outings, meetings, helpful tutorials and professional critique on your own club competition entries

Complete the form above and email to us to enjoy your photographic journey with other like-minded members of our community.
Then get a MyPhotoClub login below.

// Action for CLUBS
The Benefits of Membership

Find us Here on Facebook it you want a quick general view of our activity and events.

We meet up every month (3rd Thursday 7pm) where we usually have a core topic and talk from an experienced member or professionals from our community. We also get feedback on our monthly competition submissions from a judge – usually formally accredited external judges – which provides invaluable feedback to continually improve our art and techniques.

We often hold regular photography outings around a subject or techniques. You can join these on a casual ad-hoc basis for a small fee to cover insurance.

This website allows members to easily upload images to competitions and allows judges to review and comment directly online.

After you register here and get membership details from the club you will get an invitation code to allow you to join the club site.

Upcoming Events
Apr
18
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Apr 18 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
May
16
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
May 16 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Jun
20
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Jun 20 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Jul
18
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Jul 18 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Aug
15
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Aug 15 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Sep
19
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Sep 19 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Oct
17
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Oct 17 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting
Nov
21
Thu
7:00 pm Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Club Meeting and Monthly Competi... @ Stratford Library
Nov 21 @ 7:00 pm
Monthly Competition entries are due by 11:59pm on the day of the club meeting

Shooting Fireworks

Fireworks using focus pull method:

Need a good low light lens 24-70 is good f2.8 or f4 with a focus window so you can see where infinity focus is

Tripod

Red cap lamp is essential

Settings: 

Set camera up pointed to sky above launch pad with tripod at about chest height so you can see your focus window

Manual focus and start with it very out of focus

Manual mode

Noise reduction setting off so you can review quickly, generally not a lot of noise in these shorter exposures

Low ISO

F stop from 4-6.3 (f4 will give your fatter “petals”)

Shutter speeds from 1-2 sec may have to tweak this as you go

Take the shot when you see the firework explode then bring the lens back to infinity focus before the shutter closes, can also do the reverse of this.

Can practise before at home..youtube videos of fireworks on TV or computer screen in a dark room, they will look weird since you are shooting a screen but good way to practise and ready yourself for the real event, which usually only goes for 8-10 mins and you don’t have time to make too many adjustments.

Fireworks using normal method:

Same settings as above but start with focus set to infinity and lock it in.

You can shoot multiple bursts in one image by widening your view and use a shutter release cable to extend times, bringing f-stop back to f8 or 11. Can also do this using in camera techniques of multiple exposures, additive mode and chose 3 or 4 frames.

AND if you don’t have any of these built in features on your camera you can do the old black cardboard trick with a 30 sec exposure f4 low ISO – open shutter for 30 secs and hold cardboard over the lens until a firework goes off, expose the lens, recover after the explosion and wait for next one, repeat – you will get a series of bursts in one shot.

Theres a website where you can go and find out where the next fireworks will be in your local area, if they are classed as PRIVATE its not worth visiting it, usually just a wedding – look for the PUBLIC and OUTDOOR DISPLAYS ones, and obviously bigger events usually means longer fireworks and bigger budgets.

https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/fireworks

by Shaz Spannenburg, August 24, 2021