Friday, April 27, 2012


April 26, 2012 Meeting Notes

About 20 people attended the April 26th Landscape SIG.
We took a poll of those members who anticipate being available for the next regularly scheduled meeting on May 24. A meeting will be held at which another poll will be taken to decide on a June meeting. Larry will not be available in August and is not sure about the September and October dates, primarily due to commitments for the ACCC and Grand Photos competitions. If someone would like to host the August 23rd Landscape SIG meeting, please contact Larry. This year, the ACCC and the Grand Photos turn-in are scheduled for October 9 and November 13, respectively.
John Macy and Gene McDermott answered questions regarding how to set up our cameras to use "fill flash" techniques to reduce the contrast inherent to a wide range of light. Gary Jann, Sue Penny and Phil Santens provided examples of fill flash images they exposed for discussion at this meeting. Since the discussion went beyond 4:00 PM with no time left to "practice, review and discuss" what we learned; the group decided that the homework assignment for the May meeting is to bring a thumb drive with comparative images the same outdoor exposed "without fill-flash" and "with fill-flash." The intent is to practice with our fill-flash technique to improve our images. We learned at the discussion that, if we have only an on-camera flash, the fill aspect of the image should be within about 5 feet, whereas if we have a (TTL) flash unit we can attach to or use off-camera, the shadow we are attempting to lighten can be up to about 15 feet away.
Sue Penny suggested, and the group agreed, that we should identify a list of photography assignments each of us can complete on our own. We will use them as discussion topics at our fall meetings. To begin a discussion on suitable landscape topics, I suggest:
  • Fill-flash - make sets of two comparative images of the same outdoor view "without fill-flash" and "with fill-flash."
  • Moving water - use a range of shutter speeds and f-stops of the same view to create images with different emotional effects.
  • Depth of Field - select views in which you expose sets of two images of the same scene - both of which you like - one with a maximum and the other with a minimum depth of field.
  • Image elements - complete a collection of images - in which each image emphasizes a different aspect of: form, line, color, texture, axis and convergence.
  • Make a collection in which you use a specific aspect of light (directional, color, flat, etc) to accentuate selected landscape features.
  • Close-up / Macro exposures
  • HDR - Make a comparative set of at least two images using and not using HDR techniques (i.e., either/or in-camera or photoshop/photomatix, etc.)
  • At least two panoramas - one horizontal and one vertical.
We can discuss and refine this list at our May meeting, but feel free to work on any of these or other challenges that appeal to you and which you would like to share with the group in the fall.
Mel Whaley provided the following info and links to complete one of our SIG discussions:
Here are the links to two Adorama videos on using flash to create contrast when photographing outdoors, covers some of the same information we were discussing during the SIG.
There is also a helpful tip using flash when photographing wild flowers on page 168 – 169 in “Wild in Arizona” book by Paul Gill & Colleen Miniuk-Sperry.
Several people couldn't open the Outdoor Photography links I sent in emails on 4/24. I just checked all three this morning and they worked for me - BUT - there is a problem in that some of the strings "wrapped" - the one long string broke into two parts on two separate lines and lost the blue color and underline on the last part of the string. When this happens, "clicking" only activates the part of the hot link string with blue and underline - and without capturing the whole string with the click, it doesn't have all the data it needs to find the article. I tried to change the color and underline the link, but it defaulted to the same problem when I forwarded it to myself (note the black type and lack of underline in the last two links below).
Please highlight the entire string (i.e., the < http: ..... landscape.html), right click and copy the higlighted string and then paste it to the bar at the very top of your web page (see the blue bar on the top of the attachment). Then click on the refresh button. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, please let me know and I'll go over it at our next meeting.

No comments:

Post a Comment