Tag: Monthly Meeting

Posted on

January Meeting Agenda

Front Row: Theresa Crutchfield, Margeret Molloy, Pam Walton, Anne Mullins, Ellen Taylor
Middle Row: Jim Evrard, Arlane Sponaugle, Angela Shepherd, Kathy Muhle
Back Row: Chuck Dugand, Don Rutledge, Mike Dunderdale, Jim Schepens
Missing: Maggie Halleck

Beginning a new year, a new decade and a warm welcome to our 2020 Team! The agenda has the 2020 list of board members and committee volunteers. And welcome to our two newest volunteers; Theresa Crutchfield and Mike Dunderdale.

Download the agenda to review all the club details. A short summary of some important information: We need a volunteer to take over the Club Store. Jim Schepens is taking on Programs and needs to pass this on to another club member. If you are interested please contact him at vp@kwphotoclub.com. He has it all set up with contacts and should not require a great deal of time or work for the new Club Store Coordinator. There is also a signup sheet for members to show an interest in areas that they would like to join our team and help. Please look for it at the next meeting or send me an e-mail at president@kwphotoclub.com to add your name to our list. We are small but mighty and appreciate all helpers.

Memberships are due for 2020, see details in the agenda or click down on the “Membership” tab on our Webpage. I want to thank Hospitality for working to have refreshments available at every meeting. They still have many months available so make sure to check the signup sheet at the next meeting.

Chuck talked about keeping us with our group via our website and our Facebook. Where any postings on our website have to be done via a board member. Any member can post to our Facebook with the exclusion of selling items or services and no politics. We are a social group that meets for photography only. Please respect our guidelines.

Workshops are coming, another topic that Chuck talked about. He will start the year with a workshop on Lightroom Classic and Mobile. He will go over basic information for new or old users. Lightroom is always adding new features. Additional workshops scheduled include: Know your Camera; iPhone Photography; Macro Photography and Children’s Portraiture. You’ll be notified via our Website and meeting when new workshops are scheduled. If you would like to be a workshop leader (always looking for new leaders and new topics) contact Chuck at admin@kwphotoclub.com.

Something new and exciting is coming and more details will be posted separately. Jim Evrard will be hosting a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Portraits. Jim has done several workshops on portraits with limited participation from attendees. With the SIG, you will be involved with setup, photography, posing. We are still working on the itinerary for these workshops. I have reserved the Kings Point Pool Room for the 4th Saturday of February, March, and April (Feb 22, Mar 28, Apr 25). Depending on the interest in this SIG we can add additional months as needed.

Activities are well underway for 2020. Anne Mullins has met with her team and they have many exciting outings planned. The first is actually happening today “It’s a Saints Day Outing” and what a beautiful day to have an outing. Houston weather at its best. Look at the agenda for a summary and our website for more details. An out-of-town trip that is coming up fast, Fredericksburg trip, March 31 to April 2. Each member must make their own lodging reservations and Fredericksburg is a popular destination so book soon to be included. The Eventbrite signup is on our website.

One last event that is coming up in February, a personal tour of the Baker Exhibit at Rice University with Darrell Hancock. Please watch for news posting regarding this event.

2019 Santa Photo Shoot

December was a really busy month and I want to thank Santa and all the elves that helped with our Santa Photoshoot: Santa, Mark Walton; Photographer, Emily Murphy; Photographer helper, Pam Walton; Outside shooter, Jack Shilt; Elves; Connie Emerson, Don Rutledge, John Gray, Margaret Molloy, Bill Beard, Bill Sim

Programs for 2020 are well underway. Though Connie Emerson has left the post she arranged for the first 4 programs. Jim is the new Program Coordinator and for the May program, he wanted to do something different. The May meeting will be the first-ever KWPC Sell, Sway or Giveaway for Photo Equipment! More information to come but start looking over all the equipment you have bought and decide if you can make a few dollars on it or just want to give it away to reduce your clutter.

Emily did an excellent job with her program “Life Cycles of a Butterfly and Macro Photography”. She has agreed to allow the Powerpoint to be posted on our Members Only Resource section. More on her talk with a separate posting.

Finally, a note about a long-time member Leon Guinn. He has had significant health issues in the last few years and is undergoing additional treatments. If you wish to have his address for a private note or would like to be included in any future visits please send an e-mail to admin@kwphotoclub.com.

Welcome, everyone to a new year with lots going on and excellent opportunities to get out with a group to polish up those photography skills or attend a workshop to learn something new. I hope to see you all this year at our monthly meetings. Keep your eye on the viewfinder and have fun.

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
― Marc Riboud

Related Images:

Posted on

January 21 Program: Life Cycles of a Butterfly and Macro Photography

Our speaker, Emily Murphy, has discovered that her backyard is a wonderful place to photograph, with many amazing miracles occurring right there! She has found two types of butterflies that lay eggs in her yard and has had a lot of fun following their growth.  She recently documented, through photography and video, the life cycle of a butterfly in her backyard.  She will discuss using some of the tools for macro photography and encouraging people to look in their own backyard to find amazing things. She will also share the container she uses to safely raise caterpillars away from predators.

Emily Murphy is a self-taught photographer and her photographic abilities have been greatly enhanced by her membership in the Kingwood Photo Club!  Early on, she caught the photo bug, and while living in Switzerland, used an Argus Cintar that her dad had used in the 1930’s and 1940’s while he was a missionary in Barrow, Alaska. When she married her husband Rob, she upgraded to his Pentax and now uses a Sony mirrorless.  She worked 45 years for Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine as a registered EEG technologist and ENG (inner ear) tech.  During her career, she modified an infra-red camera used for ENG testing for use in intra-operative facial nerve monitoring, placing the camera underneath the surgical drapes and enhancing the outcome of the monitoring.  (Standard monitoring doesn’t work during electrocautery). She loves kayaking and wildlife photography and frequently takes her camera(s) with her in a waterproof bag so she can get closer to her subjects.

Related Images:

Posted on

November’s Meeting Agenda

We had a full meeting this month including our annual board of directors election. Congratulations to Anne Mullins and Pam Walton who were unanimously elected last night. Leaving the board in January is Connie Emerson who has been active for many years and will be sorely missed. The agenda had many items to review in addition to a mouth-watering talk by Chris Summers on Food Photography. I know I talked very fast but the attached agenda can be used as a reference for everything that I went over. It even has some updates from the meeting so let me know if you can catch the updated items.

Some highlights you will find in the agenda include: Membership fee reminder (January begins a new fiscal year for the club), Lake Houston Area Chamber featured photos from several members in their Community Guide and Directory, 2020 news about our library workshops and club activities, Santa Shoot Dec 14th and the Christmas Social on Dec 17th.

The agendas are a resource for you, a quick overview of club events, past, and future, to keep you informed and help plan your calendars so you can attend more events with the club. The events section of our website is where you will RSVP for a workshop. The Members Only section will have RSVP links for our day trips and out-of-town trips. One of the many perks of joining our social club.

We would love to hear from you about our speakers, assignments, activities or any other topic related to the club. Please send those to me at: president@kwphotoclub.com

I would also like to say it was nice to see Leon Guinn attend last night. Many of you know the last year has been very hard physically for him and I must say he looked really good. Welcome Back, Leon! We do miss our members and just because you can’t be at the meeting does not mean you cannot contribute to the Share and Learn. This lets us know that you are still with us in spirit. Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!

“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score and the print the performance.”
– Ansel Adams

Related Images:

Posted on

OCTOBER 15 PROGRAM: ACTION SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Dendy will provide a technical overview of shooting action sports, using examples from his 30+ years’ experience in photo journalism. Topics covered will include: equipment selection, basic camera settings, focus and exposure control, composition and shooting styles. We will also discuss strategies for marketing and selling your images.

Tom first started shooting action sports as a 7th grade journalist in 1978. He later received formal specialized surveillance photography and darkroom training as a submarine photography officer in the early 90s. Tom has been shooting strictly digital since 2004 and currently has two freelance photography companies; Wrestling Texas, LLC and Phlox Photography LLC. Tom is also a member of the MaxPreps professional photographers’ network and has done freelance sport journalism work for a number of media outlets nationwide. Tom shoots a variety of sports including football, basketball, volleyball, swimming and wrestling.

Tom works out of his home studio, where he also dabbles in portrait and artistic work. He has trained and mentored a number of photographers over the last decade, and currently has over a dozen freelance photographers publishing work under one of his brands.


Related Images:

Posted on

SEPTEMBER 17 PROGRAM: THE WONDERS OF COSTA RICA

Join Joe Smith as he shares photos of his recent trip to Costa Rica.   He traveled to three different eco-systems – Sarapiqui on the lower Caribbean, Turrialba which is higher and cooler, and the high mountain country of Savegre Valley at 7,000 feet.  Each area, located about two hours from San Jose, features its own unique species and habitat.

Images will include various flowers and a wonderful variety of birds, poison frogs,  mammals and butterflies! Tips on photo equipment will be included, but emphasis will be on the beauty of what the camera captured.

Joe Smith; Green-and-black Poison Dart Frog; Dendrobates auratus; Costa Rica; Sarapiqui

Joe Smith began his photography career when he was 13 with 35mm and twin lens reflex cameras and a photo class at Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. He is self-taught in nature photography primarily by participatingin wildlife photo contests in Texas. He has been a winning photographer in the2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contests. In 2002, he finished in the top 25% of all photographers in the 2002 Valley Land Fund Photo Contest with three prize winning class pictures.

Joe is a member of the Houston Photochrome Club, the Houston Center for Photography and the Photographic Society of America. He was President of the Houston Photochrome Club in 2004-2005 and 2009-2010. He judged the annual competition of the Chinese Photographic Society in 2004. Joe has taught introductory photography seminars and classes for seventh and eighth graders at various schools in Houston, TX. He organized photographers to contribute images for Houston Wilderness’ Atlas of Biodiversity. He has had his images published in Houston Wilderness’ Atlas of Biodiversity, Progressive Farmer and Thomson Safari Catalogue, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Houston Audubon Society where he served as a director at large from 2012-2018. 

Related Images:

Posted on

August 20 Program: Photo Tips for the Nature Photography Enthusiast

Professional photographer, instructor, guide and consultant Ruth Hoyt presents her original program, “Photo Tips for the Nature Photography Enthusiast,” for the Kingwood Photo Club on Tuesday, August 20, 2019.

Ruth believes that part of what helps her students improve quickly is taking the time up-front to perfect their shots before releasing the shutter. This program reveals her favorite four basic aspects of a photograph, plus a bonus fifth, to achieve this. She also plans to share tips for the physical act of making a photograph.

According to Ruth, a person cannot analyze too many photographs or spend too much time in the field practicing the craft of photography. She thinks both rank higher than reading books, watching videos and “fixing photos in Photoshop.” Over-processing photographs is one of the biggest downfalls of aspiring photographers so she teaches people how to make their photos stand out with minimal processing.

Ruth Hoyt is not only a professional photographer and guide, but a photography teacher (nearly 30 years), Texas Master Naturalist (10+ years) and Certified Interpretive Guide (10 years). She writes for publication and serves on the board for the Outdoors Writers’ Association of America. 

Her work appears in books, magazines, calendars, catalogs and numerous other publications.  Ruth’s passion is sharing her love of nature and photography with everyone she meets, especially youth.

She has many years of experience as a professional photo contest director, youth photo workshop leader, professional coach for contest photographers and consultant for farm and ranch owners.

Related Images: