Discusson Group Notes February 19, 2010
We had six fantastically well informed photographers this evening.
Lee had sent me an e-mail earlier asking me to bring in my "spinning thingy" which I took to mean my Arctic Butterfly. Using his camera I showed everyone what the sensor looked like (without the mirror in the way) with both room light and with my LED flashlight, which is more eye-catching. I then demonstrated how to clean dust and debris off a sensor. I was mostly successful but there was one speck that must have had something sticky on it. For this I suggested a q-tip and 99% alcohol, though there are other ways available. My Arctic Butterfly is a couple of years old and cost about $70 at the time. You can still buy that model at that price but the company has other models for more. It's expensive and I only use it 3-4 times a year but, with my older camera and frequent lens changes, I find it well worth it to get a good cleaning in a very short amount of time, even in the field.
http://www.visibledust.com/
I talked about my genealogy project where I took 2,500 photos of documents of various types including old photos, photos of photos, mimeographs, copies of copies, wedding announcements, and such. I'm now processing them to be smaller files while as readable as I can get them in a short amount of time. I've completed about 1,100 and have only 1,400 to go. It's a good learning experience for Photoshop because I have to use different processes for different types of documents. For example, some of the photos were taken through the car window, complete with reflections. Photoshop's "Exposure.." allows me to adjust Gamma and Offset which can make most of the reflections disappear leaving me with a better photo than the one I took the photo of.
Terri talked about "Fine Art America" which is one of the outfits that sells your photos for you. You sign up for $30, upload your photos, and they provide the advertisement, print, mount, and ship the photos, collect the money, and send you your cut of the profits. How easy is that?
http://www.fineartamerica.com/
Terri told us of the Red Bull photo contest which ends submission acceptance February 28 (this Sunday). The theme is sports and there are many different categories. I have a nice shot of a kite surfer but, at the time, didn't think to wade into the water to get a photo release.
http://www.redbullillume.com/
We talked about Photoshop Elements, the upcoming workshop, and some of the forums that are on the web.
http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements
We talked about panoramas, the earlier workshop, and the upcoming competition. Helen Henry has posted on the forum a link to a very good site on panoramas.
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2889
I mentioned that I had seen on the Ovation channel the first episode of the British photo reality TV competition, "Picture This," where six aspiring photographers are given assignments and the least qualified two are eliminated. The show goes into great detail on the efforts of the photographers, their setups, their thinking, and their results. It all looked stressful but very informative as to what a real assignment photographer must go through. Coming up on Ovation are "Picture This, Episode 2" on the 24th and 25th, more shows on photography, shows on artists like Toulouse Loutrec and Vermeer, and much more. Many of these can be viewed anytime at your computer. Bill mentioned that he saw a show on the Military channel about WWII photographers which he said was very interesting.
http://ovationtv.com/pages/12-photography
We spent a little bit of time talking computers, laptops, notebooks, car power inverters, and other odd topics then called it an evening.
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. You are welcome to visit the LPA forum and leave your comments......
Glenn Olson, Coordinator and Moderator
glenn@glenn-olson.com
816-8278
