Again we had 7, counting Julia who helped describe her "Street Photography."

Jim told us of Mojave Airport.s new monthly event "Plane Crazy" which is supposed to be every 3rd  Saturday from 10 to 2 where they show off vintage aircraft and cars.

The lucky number 7 participants participated this past Friday. However, since Julia is now taking photos I may have to start counting her.

The holidays are over and the attendance went back up to nine. It was great to see Bonnie back up and moving about, albeit a little slow yet.

Mike and I showed up first and we talked about macro lenses. Mike recommended the Sygma 105 and showed me some sharp closeups of insects and other small things using that lens plus extensions. Mike later showed us his Sygma 10-20 wide angle lens which he says forces you to be creative.

We had a nice little gang-of-five for some pre-holiday discussions.

Terri showed us her snow pictures, one of which (I believe) ended up in the LPA newsletter. Art showed us some of his backlit flowers and bottles with ribbons flowing out. Art has an artistic eye for shapes and colors that I'm envious of.

Lots of people coming and going, it seems. John is back from his trip to Thailand, Lee and Terri were off hobnobbing with the city bigwigs, and Don made a cameo appearance then went off in search of food. I found out the other day that Eric, the tall, skinny guy at King Photo, moved to Portland a few months ago. I guess that shows how long it's been since I had money to spend.

We had five intrepid photographers with a lot to speak of this time.

First we went through Lee's and my photos. We talked about the parades and the tree lightings. We talked about lenses and old cameras: Brownies, Instamatics, and such. Terri talked about the pet photography workshop. Ansel Adams is a recurring subject, this time being the points laid out by Sharon in the LPA General Forum, "For all the Novice's Out There.." It makes a good read.

Correction: My last posting should have said November 21, not November 28. Give me enough time and I'll come up with a plausible excuse for why I can't read a calendar.

The holidays are taking their toll. There were only three of us, we started early and ended early, but it was still informative.

Jim and Cheryl told me about the workshop on photographing dogs. I thought the idea of a slide show with pointers at the beginning of the workshop sounded great. I would have liked to attend but at that time I was getting sprinkled on in Death Valley.

Most of the regulars were out but we still had a magnificient group of seven. Some were there from 6 PM to almost 9 PM.

We talked of cameras as Ed and Pat were packing 40Ds with appropriately intimidating lenses. They had crossed the country shooting birds and everything else they found interesting. They had a few questions about settings and features and we did our best to answer those. They told us of missed shots, like the day in Wyoming where a herd of wild horses went through their camp. We talked of flowers and flower gardens and field trips. Pat passed around her photo album with lots of interesting birds. Ed asked if I'd heard more on the definition of "Closeup" and I told him no, but I would define it as "It's a closeup if, when printed, it's larger than life." I hope that's close enough.