Category: Assignment

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Your May Photo Share and Learn Assignment “Looking Up”

The picture at right was taken when the Blue Angels flew over Kingwood, on May 6, 2020.

Where were you when the Blue Angels flew over Kingwood? One of the pilots grew up in Kingwood. Read more from the Houston Chronicle article below.

All eyes were looking up to track the planes. My settings: 1/1250 sec, f/11, ISO 640, 80mm. I wanted the foreground (the flag) to add another element to the photo. The planes were so high I couldn’t get any more of the flag than I did. As fast as they move you have to be quick!

So “Looking Up” is a very general assignment. At some point maybe we should do “Looking Down”. The subject matter is up to you and I think everyone should have at least one photo that would work.

I plan to be in town so the Share and Learn photos will be added to the Agenda. The deadline for uploading to our Dropbox is 3 PM Tuesday, May 21st. Please resize them. Directions are on our web page. Each month I have to resize photos that are too large for WordPress as a favor to you before adding them to the Gallery. I appreciate your cooperation.

Interesting article below. I love photographing the Blue Angles and they are coming back this year! Maybe it’s time to revisit the CAF Wings over Houston!

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/kingwood/news/article/Kingwood-mom-relives-seeing-son-pilot-with-Blue-15283593.php

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April 16th “Share and Learn” Assignment “Street Art”

Street Art can take many forms. The attached photo from Ireland in 2013 is a sand sculpture that lasts one day. Many cities, including Houston, have transformed unattractive building walls into works of art. What is “Street Art”? It is art that is public and temporary in public spaces. How would you define Houston’s Art Car Parade on Saturday, April 13th? It is public and temporary so the art cars would be an excellent subject for this Share and Learn.

I will be in town for this meeting so the Share and Learn will be included in the Powerpoint agenda. Please use the upload button found on the Members page or the weekly e-mail blast. We are limiting the maximum number of photos to 3. Photos should be uploaded by 3 pm on the 16th. I appreciate everyone who resizes their photos, it helps with uploading the gallery.

The monthly meeting, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, will be in person at the First Baptist Church 3500 Woodland Hills Drive Kingwood, TX 77339, and via Zoom. Look for the Zoom meeting e-mail before the meeting.

This is great weather for admiring all the art in our area. Have fun!

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March 19th Share and Learn Assignment “Weathered Surfaces”

Photo: “The Beast” HC&S Pu’unene sugar mill last sugar cane mill on Maui closed in 2016 after 115 years.

This assignment might be a bit challenging. Looking for weathered surfaces can be fun as you spy out rusty tractors, weathered doors and windows, broken down houses, and in this case a shuttered sugar cane mill. This was a vibrant part of life on Maui and the factory stands as a testament to its heyday. My parents were in Hawaii in the 70’s and I received a gift of colored sugar from Hawaii. I still have one container left! Maybe the sugar originated from this factory!

The photos will be played from the Dropbox folder so they need to be uploaded by 4 pm, March 19th. The meeting will be held in the church and via Zoom. Both Tim and I will be out of Kingwood that night.

To upload your photos, Please use your first and last names when saving your photos. The weekly e-blast has the upload button for Share and Learn. Click it and follow the steps to upload your photos. Finally, resize your photos. I still end up resizing photos for our Web and for the header. Chuck has instructions for resizing with Lightroom and Photoshop.

How many photos can you upload? Due to time constraints, we are limiting the number of photos to 3. I would also ask members to keep their total comment time to a minute or less. We have a hard stop of 9 pm for the church and need to clean up before we go. Thank you for being understanding and considerate of the other members.

Looking forward to seeing your visions of “Weathered Surfaces”!

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February Assignment “Your Best Shots from 2023”

February Share and Learn – Your Best Shots from 2023! The year ends and I think “What did we do last year”? Hello Lightroom for a review of all the photos that I took, it’s become a journal of our yearly adventures, from trips afar to special events to local highlights. As you might assume, I take my camera everywhere including my cell phone. Reviewing 2023 was an exciting year and my Lightroom catalog did not disappoint. Whatever system you have to download your photos – check them out if you haven’t. I bet you can find a few to share and if they have stories all the better.

I’ve had the privilege of photographing my grandchildren for many events but their graduation from UT is emotional on many levels. She was beaming, graduation was around the corner, and she was looking forward to moving on. Her life is now filled with teaching and making more plans for the future. But I have these photos of a special day with my granddaughter and my daughter. Amazing day and memories for a lifetime. I would love to see your photos too! Meeting Feb 20th, 6:30 pm. See you there!

For those who like to plan. Below are the Share and Learn Topics for 2024 🙂

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2024 Share and Learn Assignments

For those of us who like to plan, I’m posting the Share and Learn Assignments for 2024. I’ve tried to make them fairly general so you have subject options. For example, May is “Looking Up”. That could be any subject that is above you, a building, birds, sky, sun, moon, stars, ceilings, etc.

As a camera club, we encourage our members to practice their photography. Our club activities are excellent group outings to bring that camera out and spend a day with fellow members doing something you love – photography. The first outing of the year is on January 19 to the Houston Zoo. Check out the Activities News Article on our Web Page.

We also have excellent speakers who share their tips and advice for taking photos. The subjects vary so check out the club calendar to see the topics and speakers that are upcoming for this year.

And for more advice and tips we have a great library of workshops and speaker videos along with the Library Series with topics that range from basics to post-processing. The next workshop is on Feb 24, Camera Basics by Chuck Dugand.

Exciting things for 2024 and if you haven’t renewed or would like to join us check out the Membership Page for instructions to join or renew.

And keep the 2024 assignments in mind when out and about with your camera!

The best camera is the one you have with you so never leave home without it as photos are priceless, a moment in time never to be repeated, savor those moments with your photos.

2024 Club Activities

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January 16th Monthly Meeting Assignment “Smart Phone Captures”

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I admit that I’m still behind in taking down the outside lights and inside decorations. With the cold spell coming I’m putting extra effort on the outside lights.

So now for the business at hand, our January meeting. Tuesday’s meeting is quickly approaching and we need your Share and Learn photos. January’s assignment “Smart Phone Captures” can be any subject, your choice. The photo of St Martha’s was taken on the Feast of the Epiphany as Mike and I left church.

What photos on your smartphones would you like to share? Currently, there are no January Share and Learn in our Dropbox, so please don’t wait, upload today. I’ll add the photos to the agenda so you have until 3 PM Tuesday.

Tuesday’s meeting will be both an in-person meeting at the church: First Baptist Church 3500 Woodland Hills Drive, and via Zoom (look for the link sent from Chuck). So check out the photos on your smartphone and upload them to our Dropbox today!

Happy New Year!

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November Assignment – Before and After Photos

I have often heard that our Share and Learn could be more educational if we explained what processes we used to achieve the final photo. So this month will be a challenge, we want to see the “Before” photo and the “After” photo.

I was inspired by Chris Summers’s posts from France and his picture of the Senanque Abbey, which Mike and I visited in 2015, to relook at those photos. As you can see from the thumbnails, I took 7 photos in portrait, 1/180 sec; f/13; ISO 100 on a tripod. I photo merged them in Lightroom, then cropped the panorama, applied an HDR preset, sharpened in Topaz and this year took the photo to Luminar Neo to replace the sky (which I could not do in 2015).

I arranged these in PowerPoint and then copied them here so I could show you the progression. Your after photo could be as simple as a preset you like, using an app like Topaz or Lumniar Neo or any of your favorite post-processing techniques that you’d like to share. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Limit your photos to two sets of Before and After. Not certain if this will be a total bust, but I’m hoping some of you will share your experiences with enhancing photos.

I will not be at the next meeting, I’m double booked that night with the KPTA annual meeting so Tim Sullivan will be the meeting host. He will probably run the Share and Learn from Dropbox so you’ll have a couple of extra hours to get them uploaded.

The meeting is on Tuesday, November 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Kingwood First Baptist Church and via Zoom. Mark your calendars and let’s see your “Before and After” photos!

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October 17th Share and Learn “Members Choice”

Kathy Muhle – Lunar Eclipse – ISO 6400 600mm, f/6.3, 0.3 sec 202211

I’m giving everyone the opportunity to share their favorite photos for next month. If you share a photo from a club activity that would be even better.

This sounds like an easy assignment but picking just 3 photos that are your favorite can be difficult. Spoken from personal experience. Take your time, review your catalogs, and tell a story with your submissions.

The meeting will be on October 17, 6:30 PM at the First Baptist Church in Kingwood, 3500 Woodlands Hill Drive, and via Zoom. Your old Zoom links should work. Chuck ended up getting several requests just prior to the meeting for the Zoom link so please check your links when you get them in e-mail.

Have fun reviewing your photos for our next meeting. See you there!

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September 19th Share and Learn “Shutter Speed Priority – Blur or Freeze

Back to basics for this assignment, what is shutter speed and why is it an important tool for us? I’ve attached an article that gives you all the essentials regarding this camera function. The attached photo was a 15.0s exposure to capture the lightning over the Gulf of Mexico at daybreak. Lucky for me the beach house had an upstairs porch that overlooked the ocean.

For some of us, this article is a review but it may still be helpful for any issues you have with your photographs. Check it out for some excellent advice and photo examples. Let us know next month if you found this article helpful.

September 19th in-person meeting at the Kingwood First Baptist Church 3500 Woodland Hills Drive and on Zoom. Use the upload button that you can find on the weekly e-mail blast. We are all learning and hope you’ll share any tips with your photos. Upload them by 2 PM for inclusion in the monthly agenda. Looking forward to seeing your shutter priority photos.

Shutter Speed in Photography: The Essential Guide (+ Cheat Sheet)

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August 15th Share and Learn “Trips – Here and There”

Two weeks to go before our next meeting and while chilling in your homes why not review your catalogs for your favorite travel photos? With heat advisories, this would be a win-win for you and the club.

The photo insert is from our 2019 trip to Russia. This is the famous Church of the Transfiguration which dates back to 1764. There is a legend that the church was built by Master Nestor using only his ax and wood. The 22 wooden cupolas that adorn this multi-story church, were all constructed by hand. And, the entire church was built using only wooden pegs to hold it together. It was a wonder to see. Weather events on our trip caused a delay in our arrival to late afternoon which gave us the best light to photograph this architectural gem. A bonus for me :). A travel photo with a story what stories do your photos tell?

Photos need to be uploaded by 2 pm on August 15th. I will be adding the photos to the Powerpoint agenda. Upload to our Dropbox using the Share and Learn button found to the right on our club e-mails.

Please resize your photos for uploading to our Gallery and header. As the number of Share and Learns has decreased I’ve decided to upload a photo from each member to the website header. I hope you have enjoyed seeing your photos there.

The in-person meeting is at our normal location, the Kingwood First Baptist Church; 3500 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood. Zoom links will be sent via e-mail before the meeting.

The meeting will start at 6:30 pm with the speaker’s presentation at the beginning. Connie Emerson has arranged another great speaker and topic.

August 15th, 6:30 pm, in-person or via Zoom, hope to see you there and come join us at an after-the-meeting social gathering at Big City Wings! Cheers 🙂

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