Discusson Group Notes December 18, 2009
This night we had six photographers.
Bonnie handed me a copy of the summary of the survey she had conducted and I'm very interested in reading through it.
Cheryl thanked me for the write up on the Ovation channel. She says that they have a web site that does streaming so you can see past programs. One of the shows she's watched is a British reality show where photographers are given assignments which are critiqued and some photographers removed from the competition.
Cheryl said that she had taken the first three classes from PSA but that it's on hold for the holidays. It seems that the instructors are taking a break. Bonnie told us of the problems she's had with the book that's required for the classes is out of print and hard to find at a reasonable price.
Vivian told us that the Southern California Council of Camera Clubs (S4C) has a handbook on competitions. It's 14 pages of PDF with links to additional information.
http://www.pcms-photo.org/s4c_competitions/s4c_handbook.pdf
Cheryl asked about the need for a model release to which Bonnie and I told her what we know (and believe). This is recurring question and, from what I've read on the internet, there is not solid answer, just many opinions. Anyone considering using photos of people for other than their own viewing pleasure should do quite a bit of reading on the subject and form their own conclusions.
Cheryl told us a story of a woman who was videotaping her kid's birthday. The adults took the kids to a theatre and the woman continued to take footage of the kids. The theatre management interpreted this as someone pirating the movie and the woman spent a couple days in jail (over a weekend) before getting released. I guess the lesson is that cameras are not appreciated everywhere.
Bonnie showed us some of the photos on her web site then did a show-and-tell on her Honl photo pro travel lighting kit. It came with a soft, adjustable snoot, reflector panels, honeycomb hoods for your flash, and filters. She said that it's great for traveling, though the cost was about $300.
http://www.honlphoto.com/servlet/the-All-Lighting-Products/Categories
Dwight described the flash capabilities of his Nikon camera. He also said that Polaroid is going back into the film business. I didn't find anything on Polaroid's home or products page but they do print books and other stuff. Dwight said that Sam's club is going to stop carrying film soon.
I asked Bonnie more about the problem she had with color temperature on one of her portrait shoots. I've read that, no matter what your camera white balance settings are, the RAW files should not be affected, though the JPG files will be. If so, then I can't see how her RAW files gave her the problem that she saw. I've also heard that white balance settings affect only the color temperature but I've found one web site that says in Fluorescent and similar WB modes there's also a correction for green-magenta balance. Since I haven't been able to confirm any of this there's still some mystery here.
Bonnie told us of her deleted file recovery using SanDisk RescuePro. She said that there are many such programs available on the internet, often for free.
http://www.lc-tech.com/software/rprodetail.html
We won't be meeting the next two Fridays because they fall on Christmas and New Year's Day. But we'll be back together on Friday, January 8th.
If you can, please join us each Friday evening at Denny's at the corner of Ave K and 20th West. We begin about 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). Denny's has graciously provided us a section to ourselves and the service is great.
All photography related subjects are fair game and there's never a planned agenda. You can bring in your questions, your stories, your equipment, your photos (paper or digital), or even just yourself to sit, listen, and/or talk.
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.
Glenn Olson
Coordinator and Moderator
glenn@glenn-olson.com
816-8278
