Discusson Group Notes January 22, 2010
This night we again had 8 fearless photographers. There were no notes posted for January 15 because it was a small group and I didn't take many notes.
Someone mentioned flowers and I commented that, because of the rain, the grasses are growing and the wild flowers won't be far behind.
We had a round table discusson on upcoming competitions then moved into portraits. There were some comments that many of the studios produce cookie-cutter portraits. I've seen very few sites on the internet that try to do unique portraits.
Terri described her assignment for the PSA class which was to take fast and slow shutter speed shots. Her instructor, having seen them, said that they were good and that he expected her to maintain that high quality. ("No good deed goes unpunished."
Jim got in some panoramas with snow which he stitched together with Photoshop.
Cheryl told us of an English photo competition that was shown on TV. There were thousands of entries and the winning photo was of a block wall with stick gates and a wolf. Unfortunately for the winner there were plenty of people willing to search the internet to disqualify the photo. Sure enough, it turned out that the wolf was photoshopped in and was not even indiginous to the area where the photo was taken.
Cheryl brought us up to speed on the LPA library.
Jim passed around a printout from a Photoshop Elements Users site.
Cheryl told us of a friend who has an interesting way to move her luggage when she travels. Apparently, the day before she flies out, she takes her luggage to UPS and ships it from there. She says that it's cheaper than paying the airlines, doesn't have as many restrictions, and safer.
I mentioned that I had recently purchased the final cut of Blade Runner (circa 1985) and had watched it. Now that I'm into photography I'm always looking at the lighting in movies and stills. The cinematographer for Blade Runner did some extraordinary things with lighting, especially for faces. They were often made more dramatic by lighting up the face while darkening the background. If you have a copy of any version of Blade Runner it might be well worth going through the movie just to see the portrait shots and lighting effects.
Terri brought us up to speed on Bob Lyon's attempt to have Photoshop taught at the AV College. This got us to discussing Photoshop Elements and what it can do. In the end we agreed to come to the next meeting an hour early (5:30-6:30) with our laptops and help each other out with what we know of Elements. We also agreed to invite everyone else to join us so I posted a notice on the LPA Forum. Like the Discussion Group itself, this session is for everyone.
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
