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!
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!
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!
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.
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 🙂
Do we live to eat or eat to live? Food is pivotal in our celebrations, visits with friends and family, and exotic menus while traveling. Are liquid refreshments food? I vote yes but I leave that question up to you.
In 2013 Mike and I were on a river cruise and one of the stops was a winery with an orchard nearby. Mike loves cherries and looks for them each year. He recently came home with the 1st bag of the season! The grandfather of the winery gifted me with a hat full of cherries as Mike was so excited to see cherries on this trip. He scored big on that one.
What photos of foods that will have us wishing for a taste do you have in your files? From baked goods to main dishes to savory items to whatever, upload your favorites to our Dropbox (links in every Monday e-blast) before the meeting on Tuesday, June 20th. Our hybrid meetings are going very well. Chris just ordered an external speaker/microphone that added audio at the last meeting. In-person members could be heard and the speaker came over very well. A great addition to make our meetings better.
Mark your calendars: Tuesday, June 20th, 6:30 pm – in-person at the Kingwood First Baptist Church, 3500 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood, TX, or via Zoom (look for the link prior to the meeting). Share and Learn should be uploaded by 4 pm latest and please resize the photos.
Have a great Memorial Day and don’t forget your camera’s!
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!
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?
2023 Share and Learn Assignments
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!
For all our members I’ve attached February’s agenda for your review. If you could not attend this will be a good overview of the topics discussed. Included are current schedules for this year’s monthly programs, activities, and Share and Learn assignments.
Speaking of the March meeting we are doing something a bit different. First, the March meeting will be our first hybrid meeting. We will meet in person at the Frist Baptist Church, 3500 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood, TX 77339 and we will continue to offer a zoom virtual option. Chuck has changed a few things to make this hybrid meeting a success.
Second, for our Share and Learn we give you the option of bringing in printed photos (do upload that photo to our Dropbox for our virtual members) or you and our members on zoom can upload photos that you have printed or would like to print. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to share your prized photos with the club. I try to make the topics broad enough that the photographer can be challenged no matter their skill level. We all started at the same place and as our February speaker Hector D. Astorga said, practice, practice, practice, and check out the video of our last meeting and Hector’s talk that Chuck uploaded. His photography alone is worth watching.
Additionally, there may be a local establishment that will give club members wall space to display their photos. This is very exciting and additional details will be coming soon. You could just display the photo or possibly post it for sale.
Additional agenda slides to look at is a new Resource website tab: “Favorite Photographers and Photo Tour Groups”. Pam Walton suggested this to assist our members in planning photography trips. We have many members who have utilized experienced photographers or tours and we are asking them to fill out a trip form with specific information that can be put into a spreadsheet for others to query. Look for the News Post “Our Favorite Tour Guides and Photo Trips” with a link to the form.
Our Activities Calendar has possible activities for each month. Next month a trip to the Houston Zoo is being planned and April has several activities that look like fun. Just having driven back from Austin we saw many patches of bluebonnets already starting to bloom! Last year was a very sad year for bluebonnets so this looks promising though we may need to plan for late March or early April. All announcements for activities will be posted on our website and on our Facebook page.
Lastly, Texas will have two solar events coming up. An annular Solar Eclipse on Saturday, Oct 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. If you are interested in photographing either of these events send an e-mail to me at president@kwphotoclub.com. I would be very happy to talk about photographing these events. You can also check out this educational site with lots of specific information and links for lens filters and glasses that you will need:
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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