Last Saturday Julia and I joined with the China Lake photo club at the Trona Pinnacles. There was one other LPA couple there but I can't remember their names (a common problem of aging, I hear).
We met their caravan at the turnoff at 7 PM, though the sun was almost below the hills by that time, and we raced across a rocky, but otherwise good, road to get in a few shots before we lost the sun. I was told that next time they would start out earlier. After a few minutes of shooting from the stage (a raised area just above the pinnacles) we dropped down to the pinnacles themselves (a journey of about 2 minutes. There we talked and took photos and wandered around shooting pinnacles that looked like people and other stuff. When it got dark a few people took out flashlights (some were very bright) and shined them on the pinnacles and we played with our cameras taking paint-with-light photos. Here is my favorite, first, as-shot , and second, photoshopped . Julia "painted" this rock with a small LED flashlight I had in my glove box. I used my EOS kit lens and Manual mode. My ISO was 1600 and time was 30 seconds. Aperture was 5.6.
I talked to their president, Denise and field trip leader, Don. As I recall (I didn't have my signature notebook with me) their club has been around for about 20 years, though not nearly as active as the LPA. Denise has been president for 2-3 years now and is getting the members to be more active. This was their second field trip and, as such, I thought it went very well. They hope to have more.
Denise has introduced a monthly "assignment," which correlates to what we would call a "challenge," where she gives the members a single word and three weeks later they turn in their photos. A week later, at the monthly meeting, they review the results. These are not competitions, just reviews. This last time she received 84 submissions.
They have dues of about $17/year but no one remembers when they're due and no one reminds the members to pay up. That said, they have about 40 dues-paying members and a mailing list of about 140. I spoke with one relatively new joiner (not yet a member) and he said that he just wanted to learn how to take better photos. I think I said that when I joined LPA, and still feel that way.
Anyway, this would be longer but my spare time has dwindled to almost nothing these days.
We met their caravan at the turnoff at 7 PM, though the sun was almost below the hills by that time, and we raced across a rocky, but otherwise good, road to get in a few shots before we lost the sun. I was told that next time they would start out earlier. After a few minutes of shooting from the stage (a raised area just above the pinnacles) we dropped down to the pinnacles themselves (a journey of about 2 minutes. There we talked and took photos and wandered around shooting pinnacles that looked like people and other stuff. When it got dark a few people took out flashlights (some were very bright) and shined them on the pinnacles and we played with our cameras taking paint-with-light photos. Here is my favorite, first, as-shot
and second, photoshopped
I talked to their president, Denise and field trip leader, Don. As I recall (I didn't have my signature notebook with me) their club has been around for about 20 years, though not nearly as active as the LPA. Denise has been president for 2-3 years now and is getting the members to be more active. This was their second field trip and, as such, I thought it went very well. They hope to have more.
Denise has introduced a monthly "assignment," which correlates to what we would call a "challenge," where she gives the members a single word and three weeks later they turn in their photos. A week later, at the monthly meeting, they review the results. These are not competitions, just reviews. This last time she received 84 submissions.
They have dues of about $17/year but no one remembers when they're due and no one reminds the members to pay up. That said, they have about 40 dues-paying members and a mailing list of about 140. I spoke with one relatively new joiner (not yet a member) and he said that he just wanted to learn how to take better photos. I think I said that when I joined LPA, and still feel that way.
Anyway, this would be longer but my spare time has dwindled to almost nothing these days.