[image1_left]On January 21, 2020, LPA will be having a nature photography competition. All members are eligible to enter. You may enter up to 3 images for the $5.00 entry fee. The deadline for entering is January 14, 2020.

Our judge for this Nature Competition will be Sandy Zelasko. She is an amazing nature photographer who does workshops and is based out of San Diego. You can check out her work at https://www.investinnature.org/

Below you will find the NATURE definition. Please make sure your images comply with the definition. This is a reality-based competition, so no composites or creative editing is allowed.

Enter your submissions here.

DEFINITION:

[image2_right]The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements are integral parts of the nature story such as nature subjects, like barn owls or storks, adapted to an environment modified by humans, or where those human elements are in situations depicting natural forces, like hurricanes or tidal waves. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. Something that exists in nature: insects, butterflies, spiders, trees & leaves, etc., Nature can have landscapes, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with the subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food. See additional notes below.

On December 17, 2019, we will be having our annual Holiday Party, complete with food and fun! We do need volunteers to bring the food items, so check out the sign-up sheet below and sign-up beside what you can bring. Turkey and ham will be provided, and we need to fill in with all the appropriate side dishes and desserts. Thank you to all who donated to the turkey, ham and decorations fund!

We also will be having a White Elephant Gift Exchange, so every person who attends should bring a wrapped gift worth no more than $10.00. It should be a lot of fun!

We look forward to seeing you all there! It should be a great time of getting to know each other a little better.

Please log in and sign up below to let us know what you will be bringing from the list. Thanks everyone!!

On November 19, 2019, LPA is privileged to have Staff Sgt. Chris Dyer speak to us. He is part of the Public Affairs team at Edwards Air Force Base, and is a photographer for the 4th Combat Camera Squadron in the Air Force Reserves, where he has served for six years. He will speak about combat photography, Public Affairs and telling the Air Force story. He has many exciting images to share with us!

Join us at the Antelope Valley Senior Center at 6:00PM.

LPA’s October competition class is Portrait. It will take place on October 15 th at 6:00 p.m. It should be an exciting competition with a lot of fun images! We are extending the Deadline to October 10 th because we are opening entries so late. We apologize for that!

We are excited to have Hutch Hutchison come and be our judge. He will do a wonderful job of critiquing the images. We encourage all our members to enter. The cost is 5.00 for up to 3 entries. You may access the entry portal HERE.

The definition of Portrait is:

Portrayal of a person or persons (or pet) either posing or candid. An image is eligible for the Portrait class whether or not the image is acquired indoors – such as in a formal studio setting – or outdoors in a natural or artificial environment. Such elements include but are not limited to: the lighting, including the use of reflectors and diffusers; the arrangement of people, props; backgrounds; makeup; or apparel.

On September 17, 2019, Suzanne Gonzalez will be speaking at our General Meeting about Character Portraiture. The meeting begins at 6:00 at the Antelope Valley Senior Center. Suzanne has a wonderful body of work and will be sharing with us her lighting
and posing tips, using a live character model from our midst, Don Sullivan!

She attended Pasadena City College & Long Beach State University and graduated as an art major in 1972. She took photo classes in college, but in those days men were the majority of the photographers, compared to women. Her first love was art. She was lucky to make a living with her art, designing menus, T-shirts, silk screen art, then pub art on glass mirrors. She also shot film the 31 ft. long copy camera and did hand cut color separations of her art. She was always taking photos of the art work she did, but people photos were always her thing.

On August 20, 2019, the Lancaster Photography Association has the pleasure of having professional photographic artist Michael E. Gordon come and give a presentation that will feature images and stories from Death Valley National Park. The meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. at Antelope Valley Senior Center, 777 W. Jackman Street, Lancaster, CA 93534.

Michael E. Gordon is an award-winning photographic artist best known for his black and white images from California’s deserts which, said Broughton Quarterly, portray “stunning ethereal beauty from terrain where others see only a bleak landscape.” A lifelong student of nature and wilderness, Michael’s intimate relationship with the natural world results in quiet images of depth and discovery.

Michael's work is held internationally in the private collections of the United States Embassy, Kaiser Permanente, Milken Family Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and many others. His photographs have been published in and on the covers of magazines, calendars, brochures, annual reports, textbooks, music CD’s, and newspapers, including B+W Photography (UK), SHOTS, Arte Fotográfico, Backpacker, View Camera, Rangefinder, Broughton Quarterly, USDA Forest Service, Brooks/Cole, and more. Michael’s work has been awarded by the International Photography Awards, Prix de la Photographie Paris, and Black & White Spider Awards.

Michael owns and operates Death Valley Photo Tours, is co-founder of Visionary Photography Workshops, and leads workshops for The Los Angeles Center of Photography. He lives in Southern California with his wife Shauna.

More about Michael's photography: https://www.michael-gordon.com/

Michael's Death Valley Tours: https://www.deathvalleyphototours.com/

By Nan Carder, APSA, MPSA2, AFIAP

[image1_left]Entries due by: July 9th at 11:59 p.m. Enter here

The July 16, 2019 LPA competition is Photojournalism General. Our judge is going to be Nancy Lehrer, a wonderful photojournalist who specializes in street photography, which is a subset of Photojournalism. Some links to her work are:   http://www.inancyimages.com/  and https://www.flickr.com/photos/rovernl/

The Lancaster Photography Association (LPA), the Southern California Council of Camera Clubs (S4C), and the Photographic Society of America (PSA), all provide competitions for its members that are reality-based. Reality-based competitions are different from pictorial competitions because reality-based competitions allow few modifications that do not alter an image. Pictorial competitions allow all post processing modifications that may or may not alter an image.

Actually, competing in the reality-based classes is easier, since the exhibitor should not be manipulating the image other than cropping, straightening, dodging (lightening),and burning (darkening). Exhibitors can do basic adjustments to the image (like straighten the horizon) so it looks like the image the photographer saw when they took the picture.

[image2_right]The most important thing that an exhibitor can do with any competition, is to read the definitions and requirements. If the exhibitor understands the concepts of what a competition is asking for, there is no reason why the exhibitor cannot do well. There is less subjectivity by judges in the reality-based competitions than the pictorial competitions.

Below is the Photojournalism definition for the Lancaster Photography Association taken from the LPA webpages. Entries are due July 9, 2019.

CHANGE - No models are available for this evening.

On June 25th , 2019, our Vice-President, Sharna Lee, will be giving a presentation on Pin-Up Photography. The meeting will be at the Antelope Valley Senior Center at 6:00p.m.

Sharna is a successful, and often-published pin-up photographer in the Antelope Valley and beyond, and she has a lot of experience that she will be sharing with us. She has invited a model to come and demonstrate some of the posing and lighting techniques that she uses.

As you can see from the article she wrote in this issue of the newsletter, there is a lot of history related to pin-up photography and doing it justice is not an easy task. She has mastered it and is going to be sharing some of her insights with us.

Come and enjoy learning about a new genre of portrait photography!