February Share and Learn – Your Best Shots from 2023! The year ends and I think “What did we do last year”? Hello Lightroom for a review of all the photos that I took, it’s become a journal of our yearly adventures, from trips afar to special events to local highlights. As you might assume, I take my camera everywhere including my cell phone. Reviewing 2023 was an exciting year and my Lightroom catalog did not disappoint. Whatever system you have to download your photos – check them out if you haven’t. I bet you can find a few to share and if they have stories all the better.
I’ve had the privilege of photographing my grandchildren for many events but their graduation from UT is emotional on many levels. She was beaming, graduation was around the corner, and she was looking forward to moving on. Her life is now filled with teaching and making more plans for the future. But I have these photos of a special day with my granddaughter and my daughter. Amazing day and memories for a lifetime. I would love to see your photos too! Meeting Feb 20th, 6:30 pm. See you there!
For those who like to plan. Below are the Share and Learn Topics for 2024 🙂
For those of us who like to plan, I’m posting the Share and Learn Assignments for 2024. I’ve tried to make them fairly general so you have subject options. For example, May is “Looking Up”. That could be any subject that is above you, a building, birds, sky, sun, moon, stars, ceilings, etc.
As a camera club, we encourage our members to practice their photography. Our club activities are excellent group outings to bring that camera out and spend a day with fellow members doing something you love – photography. The first outing of the year is on January 19 to the Houston Zoo. Check out the Activities News Article on our Web Page.
We also have excellent speakers who share their tips and advice for taking photos. The subjects vary so check out the club calendar to see the topics and speakers that are upcoming for this year.
And for more advice and tips we have a great library of workshops and speaker videos along with the Library Series with topics that range from basics to post-processing. The next workshop is on Feb 24, Camera Basics by Chuck Dugand.
Exciting things for 2024 and if you haven’t renewed or would like to join us check out the Membership Page for instructions to join or renew.
And keep the 2024 assignments in mind when out and about with your camera!
The best camera is the one you have with you so never leave home without it as photos are priceless, a moment in time never to be repeated, savor those moments with your photos.
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!
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!
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 🙂
Summer is almost over and we are back home! Feels good to be home, even with the heat! Late but I’ve just uploaded the Share and Learn photos from June and the June Gallery. “Foods We Love” feature many of our favorite foods and some ethnic and unusual foods. Many of these photos will bring on your hunger pangs.
The photo to the right is an iced coffee in Germany. Not what I expected, more like a coffee float with ice cream, whipped cream, caramel, and a cookie! More an ice cream sundae than a drink! It was delicious and I ordered it several more times. In the background is our granddaughter Ariana who accompanied us to Europe. That was a fun trip with awesome sights and fantastic food.
Next month we’ll be picking up with the Share and Learn “Trips Here and There”. The meeting will be held at our usual location at the Church and via Zoom. Look for an e-mail from Chuck with a Zoom link if you cannot attend in person.
Thanks to everyone who sent in photos. I hope to be an armchair tourist at our next meeting with the trip photos you all send in. Keep cool in the heat and check out the latest e-mail from Chuch with some lunch ideas and a night of bowling for the club!
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!
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