Our history
Our timeline
The club year by year, from the minutes, the club magazines and the memories our members have sent in. Click a year to read what happened.
A notice on the radio called a photographic meeting in a hall in Birchleigh. The club started again there and later took the name F-Stop Fotografiese Vereniging.
The club affiliated to the Photographic Society of South Africa. Derek Pearman became its key contact with the Society, and he and Norma Pearman were central to club life for years.
The constitution was unanimously accepted at the AGM at the Kempton Park Civic Centre. It set out nine committee posts, including a Grading Secretary and a Print, Slide and E-Photography Coordinator.
Andre de Kock emigrated but stayed a member of the club for some years afterwards.
The committee was reduced to at least five members, the AGM moved to January, and the club year was set from February to January.
At the year end Marthinus Odendaal was Best Print Worker and Rickus Barnard Best E-Photo Worker.
A new committee was elected. Stefan Jacobs and Mike McLaughlin stood down and Janet Hartley took over the magazine.
The club ran the salon with the Springs and Benoni clubs. More than 3,500 images were entered and F-Stop members took 80 acceptances.
Twenty-eight paid-up members, with an average attendance of twenty-three. Ron Cox became the magazine editor.
Thirty-one members went, and Arnold Bester, then a junior member, was Photographer of the Year.
The September 2016 club competition, as revisited in Deidre Schnetler’s “FrameShift Rewind” series (FrameShift, September 2026). At the time the club competed in both digital images and prints. The photographs and results were shared on the club’s Facebook page, but the posts do not always say which awards were for digital images and which for prints, so they are listed together here.
- Heinrich Kirstein – My Oom se Motor: Certificate of Merit, Best of Grade 1 and Best Junior
- Monique van der Merwe – A Looong Story: Gold and Best of Grade 2
- Dawid Hollenbach – Grens Toe: Gold and Best of Grade 3
- Prim van Zyl – Nesting Dikkop: Gold and Best of Grade 4
- Arnold Bester – Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way: Gold and Best of Category; Birdie: Best of Grade 3
- Anita Bester – Power vs Nature: Best of Grade 2 and Best Junior
- Marthinus Odendaal – Gisell: Best Senior and Best of Grade
- Sarina Odendaal – Playing on the Ground: Best of Theme
One more black-and-white stage photograph survives in the club’s Facebook archive without a title, photographer or award.
Source: FrameShift Rewind, FrameShift magazine September 2026, pages 39–40.
My Oom se Motor by Heinrich Kirstein 
A Looong Story by Monique van der Merwe 
Grens Toe by Dawid Hollenbach 
Nesting Dikkop by Prim van Zyl 
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way by Arnold Bester 
Birdie by Arnold Bester 
Power vs Nature by Anita Bester 
Gisell by Marthinus Odendaal 
Playing on the Ground by Sarina Odendaal Told by Deidre Schnetler (FrameShift Rewind)
The October 2016 club competition, as revisited in Deidre Schnetler’s “FrameShift Rewind” series (FrameShift, October 2026). The surviving records show the winning images and awards but do not always say which were digital images and which were prints, so they are listed together here.
- Dawid Hollenbach – Nog ’n Vier: Certificate of Merit, Best of Grade 3, Best Junior and Best of the Evening
- Heinrich Kirstein – Cold Hard Steel: Gold and Best of Grade 1
- Maryna Vermeulen – Sunset: Gold and Best of Grade 2
- Carole Spinks – Lilac Breasted Roller: Certificate of Merit and Best of Grade 4
- Rickus Barnard – Sunset at Sunnyside: Certificate of Merit, Best of Grade 5 and Best Senior
- Mike Spinks – Sharing: Best of Theme and Certificate of Merit
Source: FrameShift Rewind, FrameShift magazine October 2026, page 48.
Sunset at Sunnyside by Rickus Barnard 
Cold Hard Steel by Heinrich Kirstein Told by Deidre Schnetler (FrameShift Rewind)
The first AGM at the NG Kerk hall in Highveld Road. Marthinus Odendaal stepped down after three years in the chair.
The weekend included the club's first mini photo rally.
Chairman Rickus Barnard welcomed the clubs and PSSA National Director Anne d'Oliviera opened the congress.
Introduced at the weekend away at Tussen 'n Bome. The club had twenty-four paid-up members that year.
Open: F-Stop Magazine January 2020 (PDF)
Told by Annaline Werth
Rickus Barnard moved to vice chairman and meeting host.
Meetings moved online and judges joined from all over South Africa. There was no CERPS that year, and the weekend away went ahead at Weaver's Roost in September.
Weekend away Weavers Roost 24-27 September 2020, straight after covid lock down, we had an Amazing Race, model shoot and even a Rally with Rally results around campsite fires.
Told by Anita Bester
The new owners let the club carry on meeting there while it looked for a new home.
The club moved to the NG Kerk at 32 Malpensa Avenue, meeting on the second Wednesday of the month, where it still meets today.
Accepted at an AGM at the Bonaero Park church.
Deidre Schnetler started the club's online meetings in August 2023, so that members who could not get to the hall could still take part in a club evening.
Told by Deidre Schnetler
The weekend away was at Rebellie farm, with astrophotography led by Ivan Sonnekus. F-Stop came second at CERPS, behind Edenvale.
Thirty-three paid-up members that year, with an average attendance of twenty in the hall and two online.
The 1st F-Stop Fotografiese Vereniging National Digital Salon, on Human Portraits, with Arnold Bester as salon director.
A hundred and twenty people from eighteen clubs came to Shed and Silo in Benoni, organised by a team led by Maureen Fourie.
A new name for the club's monthly magazine.
Every issue from 2025 is on the site: https://fstopphoto.co.za/2025-newsletters/
The club took the CERPS trophy at the congress hosted by Boksburg Camera Club. A new logo, a new website and member-hosted Zoom workshops followed the same year.
Pictures and the story of the day: https://fstopphoto.co.za/2025-cerps/
After six years in the chair and many more on the committee, Arnold Bester and Rickus Barnard announced their retirement from those posts.
Belinda Ueckermann stepped in as chair and Fraser Bryce as vice chair, and they were confirmed at the AGM in February 2026.
Arnold Bester and Rickus Barnard received PSSA Meritorious Awards for long service to the club.
Fraser Bryce took Best Image of the Year.The full year-end results: https://fstopphoto.co.za/2025-year-end-results/
Agreed at the AGM, due to church regulations for 10pm closure.
