Discusson Group Notes April 3, 2009

Seven of us incorrigible photographers gathered for an enjoyable evening of talk and food.

I started off by showing prints of some of my wildflower shots. Bonnie showed us some digital photos of her trip to Zion, Kolab, and other Utah locations, including some self-portraits. Her trip was extended two days because they got snowed in.

Bonnie then told us of the Michael Fatali Gallery http://www.fatali.com/ in Springdale, Utah. She says that he doesn't use digital, filters, and etc. yet comes out with some really beautiful photos. She said that some of his photos have 8-hour exposures. I speculated that those might have been done with a pinhole camera http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera but she didn't know.

Terri talked about her upcoming fall trip to New England and Lyle told us about the time he flew around the area enjoying the fall colors and stopping in different places. Lee and Terri described their Costa Rica trip and adventures with bridges.

Lyle told us about his efforts to buy a removable hard drive for his HP computer and how he finally settled on ordering a 750 GB media drive.

Lee showed us some of his Willow Springs photos on Terri's laptop. Bonnie twisted my arm and wouldn't let go until I volunteered to set up a full-fledged LPA Field Trip to Willow-Springs. Actual dates and times are TBD (To Be Determined) but it will likely be a Saturday in late May or Early June. We talked about starting it off with a workshop on how to photograph speeding objects, probably led by Lyle (he "volunteered" too). Hopefully everyone, by now, has caught on to my sense of humor in these notes.

Terri talked about her plans for a club BBQ, which prompted us to order dinner.

Don talked about his progress on LPA T-shirts with considerable discussion, including the lack of great response on the forum. I reminded everyone of the limited readership of the forum and even smaller number (about a dozen or two) who actually post on the forum.

About this point I put on my "Discussion Group Moderator" hat and reminded everyone that we were getting into LPA Club planning, which is not the purpose of the group. It had already been mentioned (or at least intimated) that we represented only ourselves and did not represent the entire club so we needed to keep that in mind in our discussions.

Bonnie told us about a walkaround lens (18-200) http://www.all-things-photography.com/walk-around-camera-lenses.html that she bought but which didn't work for both her 5D and 50D (full and small frame sensor) cameras, so she took it back. She discussed the matter at length with Lyle and, in the end, decided that she had more research to do.

Then we sort-of went around the table on preferences for photography subjects. Don likes old stuff and wildlife, Art likes to do indoor photography. I didn't speak up because I haven't really come up with a preference, other than to try new stuff.

Somebody mentioned Bodie so we moved on to that subject. Lyle told us that one time the club (10 members) went to Bodie and paid $600 to get in outside of regular hours for two sunrises, a sunset, and access to the inside of some of the buildings. He said the $600 was for group insurance only. This brought on a short discussion of the club liability and insurance, the details of which need to come from the board to the entire club membership.

Lyle talked about competitions and how he, and a few others, are trying to nudge S4C away from giving so many awards to the same old "kittens-in-a-basket" themes. He also described some of his creative efforts which sounded interesting.

Don said that he wanted to take a group out near the Poppy Reserve to photograph Mojave Green snakes. Lee and I were all for it but I think that we were a minority. This led to a series of snake stories (some tall, some true), and whether the club could stand the liability if anyone got bit. Myself, I've spent many hundreds of hours in this desert and know how to stay safe so I know that it can be done, but we may have to go out as a small group separate of the club.

Before I forget again, a couple weeks back John told us of a neat trick for setting the diopter adjustment on cameras without having to focus the camera first. If you leave the lens cap on and press the release halfway you'll be able to see just the shooting information through the viewfinder. Then just adjust the diopter until the shooting information is clear and sharp and you're done.

I would again like to extend a special invitation to both new members and the more expert members who would like to participate in these informal discussions.

If you can, please join us each Friday evening at Denny's at the corner of Ave K and 20th West. We begin at 6:30 PM and usually go to at least 8:30 PM. You can drop by at anytime and stay for as long as you like (you don't even have to buy anything).

Glenn Olson
Coordinator and Moderator
glenn@glenn-olson.com
816-8278

P.S. I plan to be back for this next Friday but if not then I volunteer Bonnie to take notes for me.