Category: Assignment

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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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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Last month we had an excellent presenter Ron Niebrugge who talked about “Animalscapes”. If you missed the talk Chuck has uploaded the video to our website. Mike figured out how to play it on our TV which worked very well. One of his comments, adding the environment with your subject to create a story. Outstanding photographs for capturing ideas. A previous speaker, David Lenderman talked about having a conversation with your subject. He presented “The Beauty and Challenges of Underwater Photography” and shared examples of making eye contact with fish (very difficult to do) but it also applies to animals and people. Between the two last presentations, we have several examples of different ways to photograph wildlife. Do we add the environment with the subject or do we zoom in to get eye contact?

The May assignment is an opportunity to try both types of photographs with our abundant amount of wildlife. We are quite blessed in that regard, though the armadillo’s digging under foundations may not be welcomed. I’m also hopeful that we’ll see more than songbirds, maybe an armadillo, possum, or an alligator, and don’t forget the ever-present deer and fawns in spring 🙂

Meeting info: We are constantly learning with each hybrid meeting. At the last meeting, we realized that Share and Learn members at the church need to come to the front of the room so Zoom members can hear your comments and also see you. In-person at the church: Frist Baptist Church, 3500 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood, TX 77339. Chris Summers, our membership chair, will be at the door until 6:30 pm. After that, a sign on the door will give you a phone number to call to be let in. The church does not allow any door to be unlocked in the evening. We also have to be out by 9 pm. Zoom meeting links will be in an e-blast the day before the meeting.

Upload your share and learn to the club’s Dropbox folder by the afternoon of Tuesday, May 16. Look for the upload button on the weekly e-blast. Below is the schedule of topics to come giving you a heads-up when out and about with your camera or reviewing your photo catalog. Additionally, please resize your photos. There are instructions under Gallery> Assignment> How to Submit your photos. This would be a very big help for me.

Hope you have a walkabout with your camera and we’ll see you in May!

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Everything is bigger in Texas, or so the saying goes so this month’s assignment should be an overwhelming success. From our club’s activities through the years to the rich history of Texas there are so many photographic opportunities. We’d love to showcase your photos and hear the stories that define Texas to you. I’m thinking rodeo, bar-b-que, courthouses, unique places, state parks, cityscapes, lakes, wildlife and so much more. And what about all those KPTA activities over the years? We have had wonderful activity chairpersons who have worked to schedule local photographic events for us. And we have had excellent programs that talked about photographic subjects in Texas. Have I jogged your memory of the photos you’ve taken?

For all those who want to know what future assignments are I’ve put a schedule together for you. All photos are due by the afternoon of our meeting. Please resize your photos as explained on our website. To have your photos uploaded to the gallery they must be resized. Please submit only three photos, our hybred meetings (in person and virtual) must end by 9 PM due to the Church building restrictions.

Tim Sullivan our VP will be hosting the meeting on April 18th. I will be traveling that day and not be able to attend. Finally, Happy Easter everyone!

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Our November meeting is on the third Tuesday, right before the Thanksgiving holiday so mark your calendars!

This month’s assignment is “Celebrations”! What do you celebrate? From family events to national holidays to get-togethers. Whatever you define as a “Celebration” can be included.

Our grandson was married last weekend (already married a week, how fast time flies) with all the bells and whistles in the bride’s backyard. We enjoyed the beautiful weather for the day and night and I tried to get some photos of the dancing. I was wanting to get some motion into the photo and lowered the shutter speed to 1/80th of a second. That was probably too low as many are too blurry. I was using my nifty 50 lens so zoom was via my feet. An awesome night celebrating their new lives. Mike and I left around 9 PM, but the bride and groom left around 12 midnight! Way too late for a couple of grandparents! 🙂

Upload your photos via the “Share and Learn” button with the weekly club e-blast or from the member’s page on our website. Our meeting is Tuesday, November 15th so photos need to be uploaded prior to 5 PM that night. Send us your “Celebration” photos to share your special events.

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