The Antelope Valley Fair is only weeks away and the community is busy preparing their submissions for the many competitions. The LPA is no different and Tuesday night at the Senior Center, many members and community participants came to our free photo mounting workshop.  Approximately 35 people with multiple prints took advantage of an efficient workflow and the knowledge our members offered.

Participants brought their prints and foam core backing for mounting. The LPA supplied the spray glue, cutters and mounting skills to help everyone get their prints ready for the fair. There are specific rules for the fair photo submissions to maintain consistency and fairness to all. Go to the AV Fair website for the details.  August 7th is the turn in day at the fairgrounds for all mounted images.

Comments from those participating:

“This is really well organized. I thought there would be long lines.”

“This was awesome. I never could have figured this out on my own”

“This seems like a really happy group.”

Thank you to all the LPA members who volunteered their time, tools and skills. There are many proud photographers enjoying their beautifully mounted images today because of you.
 

The AV Fair Photography Exhibit Chairpersons, Douglas Wade & Sue Craft, hosted two “Free” workshops, one at the AV Fair, and the other on LPA Workshop night.  Over 20 people attended the workshop at AV Fair, and over 30 people attended the LPA Workshop. The photo presentation was intended to aid new participants to understand rules, learn how to choose classes, register their entries, and to prepare print and digital entries. Sample photos, provided by LPA Members, were shared, to represent each class. In case you missed it, or forgot to take notes, the presentation can be downloaded from the LPA website here.

Douglas provided a “hands on” demo, and walked participants through the process of getting your print onto the mount board, and ready for turn in.  Sue provided LPA Brochures and invites to upcoming LPA events to attendees.

An invitation was given to all, and will be published in the AV Press, inviting anyone in the community to attend our “Free” July 23rd Photo Mounting Workshop, at 6:00pm at the Senior Center.  Participants can bring their photo prints, and foam core. LPA Members will be on hand to assist entrants in mounting their photos. The LPA will provide spray adhesive, surfaces to spray on, straight edges, cutters and surfaces to cut on, and offer guidance and assistance as needed.
      

Who knew we had such talent? For me having been with the LPA for just a year, it was an impressive presentation of beautiful bird images and the skills needed to capture those images.

Sue Craft, Sue Liberto, Doug Jensen, Tina Crowe, Holly Peskin, Nan Carder and Don Bennett pulled the presentation together.
Christine Wilkens, , David Wilkens, Marv Brimer, Arliss Dawson, Bruce Cable, Dale Ware, Eugene Duley, Bill Liberto and Paul Craft also contributed photographs to the slide show.

 

Over 40 LPA members attended this dynamic workshop presented by Tom Gamache and Van Webster. Tom and Van took the attendees on a walk through history explaining how the artists of the past affected the evolution of photography. All the elements of composition, subject matter and lighting that we discuss in our photographs are what made the famous paintings of the past so great.

“Landscape art by choice…not by chance”

Tips from the workshop:

• No two days are alike… be willing to come back to the same location again and again if the potential is there
• Does your eye move through the image?
• Develop a “sky” library that you can substitute when the current one is flat
• Dark skies create drama
• Change your perspective or elevation to create interesting composition
• Look for framing elements in your landscapes
• Look for “S” , “W”, “V” lines in your composition
• Photograph with a purpose…What’s your plan? What’s the image you want? What are you selling?
• Look at famous photographs or art work from the past… Why are they great?
• Develop contrasting edges and shapes in your images…light and dark zones
• Give your landscape depth by using subjects in your foreground
• Develop composition subjects of 3 or 5 when possible.

Tom and Van will be conducting many workshops at some terrific locations. See their website… www.tomgamache.com for details. Tom and Van can be reached via email at wanderingaroundoutdoors@earthlink.net.

Tom Gamache

Van Webster

 

“Beyond the Average – Gaining Impact Through Composition”

Rob Sheppard returned to the LPA and presented “Beyond the Average – Gaining Impact Through Composition”. Rob is photographer, a naturalist, an author, a teacher and editor of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto magazines. He is an instructor at BetterPhoto.com, and Paul’s Photo in Torrance.

Spring was in full bloom at the Senior Center Tuesday night, for the Photographing Flowers workshop.  Everywhere, floral displays decorated the room.  There were several arrangements, floating flowers, and potted plants, with various display setups, light tents, and even mylar accompanying the flowers.  Tylene Trout and Sue Craft gave a quick, inspiring overview presentation on how to photograph flowers.  After which, the 39 attending members then flitted from display to display, composing and focusing.  Creativity was in the air; it was blossoming throughout the room.  Many thanks to Tylene and Sue for their presentation, to all who brought flowers, displays, lights and tents, and to the worker bees who came early to help set everything up.  It all came together for a successful workshop.

View member photos in the gallery.

We had 36 members sign in for our January workshop. Noella met with 12 hungry members for dinner at The Greenhouse Café before the meeting.  
Noella is a professional nature, travel and wildlife photographer. She celebrates 25 years teaching photography and writes for ApogeePhoto, an online magazine.
Her program was inspirational.  She shared many of her beautiful nature photographs and explained her technique.

She said to learn the rules of photography and then break them. Ask yourself “What if I try this?” Follow the light. Side lighting brings out details. Look for spot lighting and backlighting. Shoot through objects. Look for curves, patterns, shapes and colors.  Photograph an overview of the subject, and then photograph the pieces and parts. Take multiple shots. Zoom in and out. Slow the shutter. Combine teleconverters with extension tubes. Experiment!

Include critters in your photos, like bees.  She talks to the bees to calm them and her so she doesn’t give off an adrenalin scent. 

After the presentation, Noella took questions from members.  She said three photographers were her inspiration; Freeman Patterson, Art Wolfe and John Shaw.
Noella’s workbook “Nature by Design” is available for checkout in our club library.

Brent Paull returned to LPA with  an informative program on developing a Photoshop workflow. He showed us how he opens a Raw image in Camera Raw and does just a few adjustments before editing in Photoshop.  He creates his own actions and uses selections to adjust and sharpen the subject. Brent is a big believer in local corrections vs global corrections.
Brent calls himself a “Hardcore Wildlife Photographer”  He shoots 140,000 photos a year.He teaches 85 seminars and 25-30 Safaris a year.  He has 1000 publication credits including Audubon, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Field and Stream and Yosemite Visitor’s Guide to name a few.

Fourty two LPA members attended this seminar and I know we all learned something new.

Thank You , Brent!