Be an “Arm Chair” tourist with our photos from Texas. I’ve uploaded the Share and Learn Gallery for your enjoyment. Thanks to the nine members uploading some of their favorite Texas photos. The header has also been updated with a photo from each member. Zoom participants can also upload photos as Bill Beard did. I was surprised that we did not have more photos from some of our “Texas” activities. Maybe we’ll see more next month as the Share and Learn is “Members Choice”.
If you want current information on the club please review the attached agenda. We are coming to the end of the year but we are not slowing down with our activities. The cooler weather is an opportunity to get out with your cameras and join a group of like-minded members for a fun day together. Check out the agenda for all the particulars for away trips and more local outings. Thanks for supporting your club as you are the club! Have a great month 🙂
The agenda is a great resource for what the club has done and plans for future activities and workshops. Three new members have joined so the club continues to grow. This month two activities were featured on the Facebook page. We are coming into the hot months of summer so planned outdoor activities are limited. I have an activity in August to photograph the full moon over the City of Houston on August 19th if the weather cooperates! If you are interested in the June 21st Ship Channel Cruise, there are only 10 tickets available online. For questions please contact Jim Schepens at jlskep@aol.com.
The Cove Craft Beer and Wine was flooded but they saved our photos from the flood. We’ll have an in-person speaker next month, David Valdez. His program will recount his years as The President’s Photographer! Should be interesting. The next meeting will be June 18th, the assignment is “Landscapes with People” and a thank you to the members who shared photos in May.
The May meeting included a fantastic program by our speaker Bryan Hansel. Zooming in from northern Minnesota his presentation included examples of Composition, Additive, and Subtractive. Starting with the simplest scene at your location add one or more compositional elements to bring more interest to the scene. His photos show the process that he follows by walking around and finding additional elements to enhance the photo. Subtractive is just the opposite. You photograph the entire scene then you begin to subtract elements until the composition is the strongest.
Simplicity – Flow – Relationships, how do these all relate in a photo? The first rule of composition: There are no rules, dito for the second rule and the third rule is refer back to rules #1 and #2. He read a quote from Edward Weston “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” Three things are needed for a good photo: Simplicity of subject matter; Visual Flow and balance to create direction for your viewer and Relationships between all elements.
Simplicity incorporates shapes, forms, lines, patterns, textures, and colors. Straight lines add energy compared to curved lines that slow the viewer’s eyes and are more calming. Looking for repeating patterns and textures can be regarded as very strong compositional elements. Color can be very impactful. Whether it is a bold single color or a combination of colors. The color wheel can be of great help when dealing with colors
These are some of the color combinations that he talked about with examples of his photography to add emphasis to the subject matter.
Flow is another element to consider. How do you balance a photo, is the visual weight balanced on the left and right sides of the photo? Visual weight will draw your eye like a bright area, a contrasty area, people are weighty and motion. Dark areas hold little weight. As an exercise, take a photo and draw an imaginary line down the middle. Does it feel balanced? A well-balanced photo will help move the eyes of the viewer around the photo.
Relationships include three points in a landscape – foreground, middle, and background. Foreground, what is in front of you, is the introduction to your photograph and the first item that grabs your viewer’s interest. It can help direct the eye to the subject of the photo, the middle, or the background. The height of your tripod can modify the relationship between the foreground and the background. If the background is uninteresting moving closer to the foreground can be more impactful. Focal length can also modify the relationship between foreground and background. Take photos at different focal lengths by zooming in but keeping your foreground in focus to see the effect.
Finally, he talked about Style. Style includes photographing subjects that we like and how we visualize them. As we develop our skills we’ll see repeating patterns in our images and realize that is part of our style. He mentioned that he likes photographing in natural areas and he likes putting a canoe as a foreground element in them. He showed a very early photo that was totally unlike any of his current photos but was a good example of how he has developed his style.
Mike and I attended a Milky Way photo tour with Bryan and he was an excellent teacher, he has lived in MN for decades and knows all the best spots. We were very lucky that the skies cleared so we had beautiful night skies on the shores of Lake Michigan. Below is his information for anyone interested in one of his workshops or signing up for his blog that he e-mails out. He said teaching is a way to give back to his teachers and it motivates him as a photographer. A very nice person and an excellent teacher in a workshop.
Hope to see you all next month! Stay safe and hopefully, we’ll dry out in a few days.
We are now upstairs with plenty of room for members!
Want to know what is going on in our club? Did you attend the meeting but want to review what we talked about? Good news, you can click on the April Agenda and review all the updates for all committees, special activities, and future dates to keep you informed.
Chris said membership is doing great, we are on track to equal last year but he’d like to encourage everyone to help sell our club. Talk to people with cameras about our club, neighbors, and online friends. Doing Zoom meetings adds additional costs that we want to continue to provide. And we can, as long as we keep adding new members. We have a great resource page and they get so much for the minimal fee of $20. Help sell the club, as every member is a plus for us.
Activities calendar is a work in progress and there have been some changes so check it out. For a 5 day out-of-town activity Chris Summers is leading a group to Bosque del Apache, NM the first week in Dec to photograph the Sand Hill Cranes. Contact Chris at Membership@kwphotoclub.com
Jim Schepens will reserve a day in October for a 10 am boat embark for Caddo Lake. Friday is the only day available. More TBD.
The Great American Eclipse has ended and so ends the last of the three eclipses that traversed America since 2017. It is hard to believe that they are completed. I’ve included a few photos from our April Eclipse setup in Johnson City TX. Not total cooperation with the clouds but not a total washout either plus we had wine (Sidoney Cellers), food, and a great location. There are no future solar eclipses for Texas! However, there is a Lunar Eclipse on March 3, 2026, that can be viewed from Houston, and don’t forget the Perseids meteor shower, peaking on August 13th.
Review the agenda and mark your calendars for future events. We’ll see you in May.
The holidays are done now I need to box everything up for next year and get busy with my normal routine. I do love seeing all the bright lights and this year there seemed to be more lights than in recent years. I apologize for being so late with the November Assignment. I was not at the meeting so I’m unsure what steps were taken from the original photo to the finished post-processed photo. We have some very talented photographers in our club and even beginners can look at the before and after and get inspiration from them. They say never through away your photos you never know what new processes can help save that photo.
I’m attaching a modified agenda from November with all the before and after shots for you to check out.
I’ve also included the modified agenda with the slides for Activities, Solar Eclipse, and the January program.
January assignment “Smart Phone Capture”. This was the most popular assignment last year so I’m hoping to see many of you participate this year.
The next meeting is on January 16th, 6:30 pm in person at the Kingwood 1st Baptist Church and via Zoom. Look for the Zoom link from Chuck several days before the meetings.
Also, a reminder for you to renew your dues. Chris Summers has sent out several reminders on our Facebook. Also, check our Website under Membership>Online Membership for payment options. Stay safe and warm, winter is here!
Photo by Kathy Doyle, Oct 14, 2023, Annular Solar Eclipse
I’m getting caught up with all my club postings for October before I’m sidetracked by anything else.
This month’s “Members Choice” assignment saw many of our favorite photos. Bringing back some oldies and some new. It is a very eclectic collection and I was surprised that many of the photos included people and pet photos. Landscapes and travel photos from all over the world, some sky photos including the recent Annular Solar Eclipse, and Bonnie McKenna included underwater photos and the picture of her sting ray that won a contest! Congratulations to Bonnie!
Two members posted for the very first time: Kathy Doyle and William Brant. Kathy was with Mike and me in Hondo, TX for the Annular Solar Eclipse! A fantastic event and one more event to come next year. On April 8th a Total Eclipse with the path of totality through the heart of Texas!
Our speaker, Kevin Loughlin, treated us to some of his beautiful photos of the Galapagos Islands and included interesting information about the islands themselves. Chuck has uploaded the video of his talk so you can hear all the facts and enjoy his photos. An excellent talk.
I want to thank John Gray for managing our Club Store. He sold the last hat at the meeting so the store is now closed. Thanks, John for all your help!
We had another good turnout, it’s always good to see familiar faces in person and via Zoom.
Check out the agenda for future events that are coming up including:
The Christmas Social in December
Election of directors in November
Contact information for joining our team
New functions for our Website
Proposed 2024 Activities and Trips
Finally, it’s time to renew your membership. The board voted to increase the membership fees due to increased costs for our Website and Zoom meetings. We felt the value to the club for Zoom meetings outweighed the cost. 2024 membership fees: Individual is $20 and Family is $25. Chris Summers, Membership Chair, will be putting out more information shortly.
The next meeting is Tuesday, Nov 14th. It is a week early due to Thanksgiving. The Share and Learn is going to be informative as we’ll discuss “Before and After” photos. I’ve posted an assignment that goes into what that means. I will not be at the meeting as I have the KPTA Annual Meeting on the same night but Tim will be the host for the meeting.
Be safe everyone, and enjoy the cooler weather, fall is finally here – at least for a day or two.
The Annular Solar Eclipse is looking good for both Hondo Tx to view the Ring of Fire and from Kingwood where you will see a partial eclipse. Check out the Chapter 2 download to get additional specifics. If you want to join me send an email to president@kwphotoclub.com.
I’ll be sending out updates on Friday and also Saturday. The sunny forecasts have not changed for several days. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will hold!
Finished Chapter 2 of my Annular Solar Eclipse PowerPoint!
This chapter talks about what you need to do and think about prior to and day of the event. I’m not certain if Hondo TX is going to be clear enough for the eclipse and will start posting updated weather alerts 10 days prior to Oct 14th.
I did go out with Kathy Doyle to help her with the mechanics of shooting the sun. It was good as I’ve added a few extra slides talking about how to find the sun. The filters turn the LCD completely black and only show the sun when you can find it in your viewfinder or Live view. It can be a challenge and you will appreciate having equipment that is up to the task.
There are several links to references, including several videos. I’ve also included the reference from Chapter 1. I would encourage you to look at the references as they go into more detail than I had room for. There will be one more chapter on Post Processing. We’ll see if I have any photos to post process :).
Hope the information is helpful. E-mail me if you have any questions, I’ve included my contact info in the Powerpoint.
Jim Evrard Share and Learn – Christmas photo from The Woodlands
Shutter speed priority photos gave us lots of water photos mixed with birds, planes, sports, landscapes, and the sky. Nora Konieczny uploaded her first share and learn and did a fantastic job with recording her sprinkler for “rain” in front of roses.
Above are all those who contributed in September. I’ve also posted a graph with the number of Share and Learn Photos for each month back to Jan 2022. The one month that peaks above all is Jan 2023 the topic was “Phone Captures”. Next month would be an opportunity to send in your phone captures – the October assignment is “Members Choice”.
no images were found
I’ve also refreshed the header with September’s Share and Learn. All members who participated have a photo in the header.
Finally, I have added the September Agenda for your review. This is a summary of activities of our club, a review of where you can get information between meetings, and a heads up for future meetings with speakers and the Share and Learn assignments. Good information for all our members but also watch for our weekly e-blast on Mondays. As things evolve this is where you will see additional activities posted and articles for the upcoming speakers. The web is always the best place to go for current information.
December 12th is our Christmas Social – mark your calendars now. More information coming out in the next month
Slide 18 in the agenda is titled “Change of Batter”. We currently have an excellent team of members and we would like to know from our members those who are willing to help in small or large ways. Please review this slide and slide 19 and consider your skill sets that can help the club in the future.
Enjoy the gallery and download the agenda for all the information that we reviewed on Tuesday. Be safe everyone, enjoy the cooler weather, and bring your camera along for fun. See you at the next meeting on October 17th!
I am getting ready for the Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14th. I could not do the Library Series so I’m sending out Chapters on how to photograph the coming eclipse. You probably think you’ve seen more of the sun than you’d like the 100+ days are not for the faint at heart but I’d like one more on October 14th!
The attached PDF has the first chapter that discusses filters and locations that you need to consider now. The filters still seem to be in good supply and San Antonio should have enough hotel choices for you. I’ve also included resource links for more in-depth information. I’ve found that YouTube has increased the number of videos on photographing this eclipse. A month ago there were very few. Any of them should help you with planning and photographing. The next chapter will come out next week and will discuss setting up, camera settings, using a star tracker to track the sun, and anything else that I think will help. The star tracker is a new piece of equipment for me so I’m still in a learning stage. Mike is the expert. I’ll also discuss our experience with the total eclipse in 2017.
As I said, I have been getting out to practice – thus the photo of the sun from my driveway taken yesterday between clouds. After the second chapter is published I’ll set a time and date for checking my equipment at Lake Houston along Scenic Shores and let it be open for any who wish to watch and if you bring your equipment we can check it out.
Another current astral event – an astroid is visible now during the early AM. I’ll look for an article with more specifics and see if it is visible in Kingwood.
Chuck has set up a new sub-category on our website. When you click Resources you will see the new category >Astrophotograpy where I’ll be putting these and other articles on astrophotograpy. Thanks, Chuck for making this available to the club. If anyone has an article they would like posted, let me know and we’ll post it. Till next week.
Keep an eye on this space for coming articles on astrophotography. Articles will be published frequently on topics ranging from location planning to technical shooting tips and post processing.
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