Category: Meeting Agendas

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May Meeting and Agenda

I was flying to NY on our meeting night so Jim Schepens, vice president conducted it. The attached agenda is a supplement to our web page giving you a summary of our events and workshops since the last meeting and those coming up. So use it as a review of the meeting and to find out what is going on if you could not be there

Some slides that might interest you:

Online payment of membership dues has been very well received. Jim Evrard will give a quarterly treasurers report next month so stats and figures will be discussed then.

A Directory of our members has been mentioned by several people. What do you think? I hope to put together a survey by our June meeting and to post it on the web site to facilitate your responses and questions.

Finally, as mentioned in a previous News post I am changing our Share and Learn to a Learn and Share. This will give you an opportunity to share your work with a “Behind the Lens” summary and more time on the floor of the meeting to talk about it and answer questions. This is strictly voluntary so no pressure but I have hopes that some of our more experienced members would participate at least once. Experience level is not a criteria so anyone can participate. Check out the “Learn” slide from Chuck Dugand.

Next months program by Paul Gregg, “Guadalupe Mountains National Park — A Visit and a Vision” and your Learn and Share for June 18 – “Sunset to Sunrise and Everything in Between”. Hope to see you in June and until then something to think on:

“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”
— Ralph Hattersley

Agenda-201905 WPDownload

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April Meeting Agenda – Drone Photography

For all our members that could not attend, I’ve attached the April agenda as a summary of our meeting. This is a resource for what we have done and what we are planning to do so use it as a reference.

This month I put out the sign-up sheets for Hospitality and Volunteers. We are a small club, currently 55 members and we need everyone to pitch in. Out of the 55 members, 14 have brought refreshments and some have brought more than once. That is not a very good percent. For 11 months of meetings, 3 members per meeting, that is 33 members. We have more than enough members for each to bring one item a year. Hospitality has openings for the remaining months except for May. If you did sign up please let Maggie know if you will be attending. This last meeting the member who signed up for drinks did not attend thus no drinks. Send me a note at (president@kwphotoclub.com) if you can help. We appreciate your generosity.

We also need door watchers. For years Darrell Hancock stayed by the door to let in our members. The church will not allow us to leave the door unlocked so someone must babysit it. We had one volunteer last night, Kelly Roxburg, but Chuck would like a few more. It is not a difficult job and it just means that you arrive early and come up 5 minutes after the meeting starts. It is also important for our members to come on time otherwise they may be locked out and miss the meeting entirely. Contact Chuck
(admin@kwphotoclub.com) if you’d like to help him out.

Our speaker, Mike Allison of Raptor Aerial Services LLC was resourceful and very knowledgeable regarding drone photography. He talked about some of his experiences with flying drones, like his first flights and how he got the buttons mixed up and flipped the drone. Also learning that a 40 mph wind can stop all forward motion from the drone.

Chuck Dugnad and Mike Allison with Mike’s drone display

I was surprised by how drones are being used today. Mike mentioned he has done mapping, also used by farmers, law enforcement, movies, real estate and I read today that drones were used to fight the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. The FAA has authority for commercial drone flying with knowledge and certification requirements. Mike had quite a range of drones on display, one question we all wanted to know, what was the price range for a drone and camera. His reply, from a small drone around $700 to several thousands of dollars. Not much different than a good camera and lens. Excellent participation from the audience and we might see a few more drone photos in the future!

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March Meeting Agenda – April Share and Learn

Jim Schepens, our Vice-President, conducted the March meeting as I was in Utah. He had so much to do that the t-shirts did not get distributed and he asked me to remind all our members that if you ordered a t-shirt please contact him to pick it up. You can reach him at: vp@kwphotoclub.com

The second thing he mentioned is we need more people to help. I like to take photos at the meeting and of the speakers. I’d like to know if several of our members would like to take that over. Please contact me at: president@kwphotoclub.com if you are interested so we can talk.

The attached agenda is a good month in review and is a good summary reference for what we have done and what we are planning to do. From club events and workshops to outings. Anne Mullins and Bill Beard created a video of the Houston Zoo outing that has been posted on our Web site. This is something I’d like to see continued. For April we have so much going on that it will be a challenge for Bill to fit everything in. I’m asking participants of these outings to send me 10 of their best photos for these videos. Send them just like you do for share and learn adding your name to the file and putting the field event on the subject line. I’d also like to create a gallery with these photos for all our members to enjoy.

Bee on a Bluebonnet; ISO 200; 100mm; f/4.0; 1/250 sec In 2014 Blackland Gully, in front of my house, was filled with bluebonnets. Sadly, that is not the case today. The Reserve at Kings Point reseeded and the amount of flowers is very thin. One can only hope that as these throw out seeds next year will be better.

April share and learn “One Leg, Two Legs, Four Legs or more”. Basically anything animate or inanimate with a leg or legs. Good subject for macro photographers. Everyone who went to High Island got plenty of shots of bird legs so they have plenty to chose from for the April 16th meeting. Deadline for sending in your photos, Monday April 15th, 5PM.

Wishing you a very happy spring with lots of photography clicking this month. See you in April.

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January’s Speaker, Jay Mangum “Blending Natural and Artificial Light in Night Images”

Jay Mangum, a club member, was our featured Program Speaker this last month. His talk was on one of my favorite subjects, night photography. However, he added artificial light to his portraits to bring a more dramatic scene to life.

With some great equipment tips, fantastic night photos and photo settings he prepared us for our next trek into the wilds with camera and tripod. Some of his safety tips included checking the weather before heading out for a long hike. Bad weather can be really bad when you are in an open field with no cover. Carry extra flash lights and triple the batteries and if planning a long hike, check it out during the day for potential problems. Walking at night is so different than walking during the day. Safety first as we all want to get home with these award winning photos.

Jay was kind enough to let me post his PowerPoint so you can take your time reviewing and learning from his experience. Excellent talk by one of our own!

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March Program – Father Joseph Barbieri and Astrophotography

Everyone who attended our March Program “Astrophotography – Photographing the Heavens” enjoyed this heavenly journey.  Father Joseph Barbieri was a fantastic speaker and engaged the audience with his banter and common sense approach to this topic.  He brought up the condition called “Photon Starved”.   In summary the condition occurs when clear night skies needed for photographing the stars is measured in hours – not nights.  Symptoms are many including frequent checking for weather conditions, grumpy from lack of SD or CF cards filled with photos waiting to be processed and general disappointment in everything weather related.  My husband liked his down-to-earth approach with a moderate budget (I already squashed the idea of the 12-inch telescope) and advise to contact a local astronomy club.  I found one for Kingwood – North Houston Astronomy Club.  Connie Emerson, our Program Chair,  stated it was a suggestion from a club member recommending we contact Fr. Joe for a talk.  It took almost a year but that suggestion started the ball rolling.  So, anyone that sees or hears of a potentially good speaker for our monthly programs – contact Connie with the contact information!   Many of the photos were taken at the Dark Site in west Houston that the Astronomy Clubs own so you don’t have to travel far just clear skies (winter months are best though cold).  Father kindly allowed us to post his Powerpoint, so enjoy the Heavenly show and be amazed!  Astrophoto presentation

Fr Joseph Barbieri Astrophotography-190522
Fr Joseph Barbieri Astrophotography-192202
Fr Joseph Barbieri Astrophotography-194919

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