Tag: Program

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April 21 Program: Tunnel Vision: Concentrate on Your Preferred Subject

This is a Members Only Scheduled Zoom Meeting

While having paid his dues over the years documenting the usual weddings and real estate, at the end of the day, our speaker, Ken Fitzgerald would rather be remembered for his railroad photography.  If there is one subject you are knowledgeable about, consider using your skills with a camera to be in the right place at the right time to record definitive images.  Ken will share his favorite train-related photos and how he applied this thought to capture and record moments in history.

Ken began his lifelong passion for railroads in 1960 at the age of five while spending his summers in Sweetwater, Texas riding Trains at the Santa Fe yard.  Taking a photography course at age 12 allowed him to start capturing the railroad’s people, operations, equipment and character for historical purposes.

Since that time his photography has appeared in many different railroad magazines, books and calendars.  He also authored the books “Dallas Then and Now” in 2014 and “Train Stations Then and Now” in 2017 along with doing the principal photography for the Houston, San Antonio, Austin and “Texas Then and Now” books.  He has also produced several other photo books of his work that were written as internal publications for different railroad companies.

Today Ken works as a full-time photographer in the railroad industry.  In 2019 alone he documented several major railroad engineering projects; the startup of the DFW TEXRail commuter service; the operation of Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” steam locomotive across south Texas; the CSX Santa Train as celebrity Marty Stuart’s personal photographer; and BNSF’s Holiday Express across the Pacific Northwest.  Ken is also a model railroader and locomotive horn collector.

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UPDATE: BOOK PRICES – Amazon Discount versus Retail at meeting

February 18 Program: Texas-Central and Way Out West

See the red highlighted area below on book prices. Amazon has discounted the books and the books that will be available at the meeting will be at retail price.

Landscape photography and how to keep it simple and still produce some super work.

Our speaker is Mike Marvins. The program will cover Mike’s approach to landscape photography in either exotic places or in your own backyard – the principles are all the same. It’s really about seeing and vision.

He will also touch on some easy post processing hints for the final touches.  Equipment? Yes, he will go over that too. But, it will not take long!

Mike has taught professional and amateur photographers for many years. After forty years of portrait photography at Kaye Marvins, Houston’s leading Studio started by his Dad over 70 years ago.  Mike started working with landscape photography–mostly on backpack trips in Big Bend. This evolved into the best-selling book, “Texas’ Big Bend, A Photographic Adventure”, some associated major exhibits and sales of large prints for commercial spaces all over Texas. The book is still selling well and all book profits benefit The Big Bend Conservancy.

After several more book projects for commercial companies, it was back to landscape work with “The Texas Hill Country, A Photographic Adventure” (Texas A&M University Press-2018 ). The introductory essay is by Native Texan and Houston Chronicle columnist, Joe Holley and the photography commentary is by Roy Flukinger, the longtime Photography Curator of the Harry Ransom Center-The University of Texas. This coffee table book benefits the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Mike will have a few of his books available for sale at the February meeting.  If you would like to purchase a copy before the meeting and bring with you, they are available at Amazon (click here). Amazon currently has both books discounted. You still have time to order on Amazon or Amazon Prime and receive in time for Tuesday nights meeting if you wish to have your book signed.

The books for sale at the meeting will be directly from the publishers at full retail price: “The Texas Hill Country, A Photographic Adventure” for $36 and “Texas’ Big Bend, A Photographic Adventure for $35. Mike will accept credit cards or personal checks.

Going to Fredericksburg with the Club, March 31 – April 2? Mike’s “The Texas Hill Country” book has a section “Schnitzel, Peaches, and One-Room Schools – Fredericksburg and Its Environs” that might be a great resource.

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February 18 Program: Texas-Central and Way Out West

Landscape photography and how to keep it simple and still produce some super work.

Our speaker is Mike Marvins. The program will cover Mike’s approach to landscape photography in either exotic places or in your own backyard – the principles are all the same. It’s really about seeing and vision.

He will also touch on some easy post processing hints for the final touches.  Equipment? Yes, he will go over that too. But, it will not take long!

Mike has taught professional and amateur photographers for many years. After forty years of portrait photography at Kaye Marvins, Houston’s leading Studio started by his Dad over 70 years ago.  Mike started working with landscape photography–mostly on backpack trips in Big Bend. This evolved into the best-selling book, “Texas’ Big Bend, A Photographic Adventure”, some associated major exhibits and sales of large prints for commercial spaces all over Texas. The book is still selling well and all book profits benefit The Big Bend Conservancy. After several more book projects for commercial companies, it was back to landscape work with “The Texas Hill Country, A Photographic Adventure” (Texas A&M University Press-2018 ). The introductory essay is by Native Texan and Houston Chronicle columnist, Joe Holley and the photography commentary is by Roy Flukinger, the longtime Photography Curator of the Harry Ransom Center-The University of Texas. This coffee table book benefits the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Mike will have a few of his books available for sale at the February meeting.  If you would like to purchase a copy before the meeting and bring with you, they are available at Amazon (click here). The books for sale at the meeting will be for the same price as on Amazon.  Mike will accept credit cards or personal checks.

This will be a fun evening!

@ Mike Marvins: Kerr-Ingram, Texas

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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.

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See you tomorrow night!

November 19 Program: Food Photography In The Age Of Social Media

Capturing food in an artistic way has been around for centuries. Many a great master painter made studies of food as still life artistic renderings. But now anyone can pick up their phone or camera and capture an image. The goal of this presentation is to inspire the audience to make art out of their food photography, take images that could easily appear in a cook book or food magazine or even hang as a print on wall in your home.

Chris Summers, a member of our club, will be our speaker. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree in Commercial Photography. He began his career here in Houston, relocating from California, to work with a major commercial photo studio. In 1984 he opened his open studio, Chris Summers Photography, in the Rice Village area producing a broad variety of commercial work from retail and catalogs to oil and gas, industry, banking, real estate and the newly developed computer field. Clients included Foley’s, Sakowitz, Joske’s, Norton Ditto, Shell, Texaco, Exxon, and even Enron.

Chris retired in 2008 and now enjoys projects that interest him & travelling with his wife on her work projects. When not taking pictures or editing them, Chris enjoys doing remodeling on their home, gardening or working in the wood shop in his converted garage.

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November 19 Program: Food Photography In The Age Of Social Media

We live in a time where cameras are with us just about every minute in every day and because of the ease and convenience of digital cameras and the rise of Social Media we capture everyday events like never before and share them. Ask a group of people if they have ever taken a picture of a meal they were served in a restaurant and most hands will go up! Ask the same group if they have posted pictures of this type on Social Media or just shared with friends or family and the hands will go back up, perhaps a few less but still a majority will say yes. Yet most pictures of this type are static and often rather boring, the entree is served and the cameras goes up above the plate and does a documentary style picture with little feeling, often a poor exposure or using the dreaded on camera flash. The image captured might document what was on the plate but does not draw the viewer in to get a feel for the ambiance and setting or even the artful presentation that the kitchen staff put into how the food was served.

Capturing food in an artistic way has been around for centuries. Many a great master painter made studies of food as still life artistic renderings. But now anyone can pick up their phone or camera and capture an image. The goal of this presentation is to inspire the audience to make art out of their food photography, take images that could easily appear in a cook book or food magazine or even hang as a print on wall in your home.

Our speaker, Chris Summers, a member of Kingwood Photo Club, became interested in photography as a teenager in the early 1970’s and began using his dad’s old Argus 35mm camera and soon started a photography club at his high school. After graduation Chris attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and received a Bachelor of Arts in Commercial Photography. At that time Brooks was the leading private college specializing in the educational field of photography.

After getting married in Santa Barbara in 1979, he & his new bride moved to Houston for his first job working in a large studio and lab and within a few years left to open Chris Summers Photography. The studio was a one man shop and over a 30 year period produced a variety of work for many local and national clients including, fashion, real estate, corporate advertising, catalogs, brochures and food photography.

Chris retired in 2010, putting his time and attention on caring for his aging parents. After they were gone, he decided to just focus on what he wanted to take pictures of and do photography of an artistic nature instead of a commercial one. Since then he has been able to travel extensively with his wife, Sarah, who’s job includes working with clients in many different parts of the world.

Sarah and Chris have been married since 1998, have 8 children, 20 grandchildren and have lived in Kingwood for 22 years.



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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.


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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. 

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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.

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