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!

Douglas Wade set up a “Show & Tell” workshop for members.  It was an open forum where members could share up to ten of their favorite photos and tell stories about them if desired.  Eleven members shared their photos, and over twenty one people were in attendance.

David Wilkins shared photos and techniques used for photographing star trails, and light painting.  Creative effects were enhanced by things such as having lit up tents, people walking with flashlights, and using colored gels. 

Eugene Duley’s photos and stories were of Yellowstone wolves, sunsets and samples of using a tilt shift lens.

Matt Maholwald and his daughter Morgan took a road trip and decided to make it a photo road trip, part of which included Yosemite, and shared images.

Led by Suzanne Gonzalez

Suzanne Gonzalez has a degree in art but after being a working artist, switched into photography.  She has been in business for over 20 years.  She photographs cheer teams, dance studios, school dances, and some weddings.  She also loves doing character portraits.  She makes her own backdrops (up to 30’ across) to accommodate large teams.  She is print chairman for S4C and now president of the Glendora Camera Club.

After giving a presentation on how to pose models (using LPA members to demo), she shared some of her photos, and pointed out what made them work… S curves, graceful side of hand, tilt head inwards, etc.  She provided a handout Family Photo Tips – by Suzanne Gonzalez 2012.  Afterwards, members got to practice posing each other and taking photos under the strobe lights with the backdrop that Suzanne provided.

One handy tip she mentioned was to view other portrait/family photos on other website sites such as Flicker (Pinterest is a good one too) and copy/paste photos you find inspirational to a folder on your computer and review them before you go out to do a photo shoot.  Suzanne suggested studying the works of Norman Rockwell and Monte Zucker.  Another tip… rules are made to be broken.  Have fun with your photo creations!

Check out Suzanne’s website at www.photobysuzanne.com.
 

In preparation for our upcoming field trip to Mono Lake to photograph star trails, David & Chris Wilkins arranged for a practice session out at Saddleback Buttes State Park.  Saddleback Buttes was chosen because of its close proximity and distance from bright lights, and the date because the moon would rise after midnight, thereby allowing for star trail practice on a very dark night.

What wasn’t anticipated was the weather and thunderstorm in progress!  On the drive out, bolts of lightning were striking to the east, and travelers encountered rain and even hail!  After sitting in our cars waiting for the raindrops to stop falling, we all gathered for a group photo and then proceeded to the picnic area for instructions on “How to Paint with Light and Star Trail Photography”.

The group was walked through setting their cameras up (pre-focusing on a distant object and taping down the focus ring, settings for light painting, etc.) and then did practice shots painting with flashlights and colored gels before forming smaller groups and setting off into the dark desert in search of photogenic Joshua Trees.  Instruction was given on camera settings and techniques for doing star trails, hoping that the clouds would dissipate after dark.

Twenty two of us had a great time photographing, and enjoying the company of our fellow photographers.  Tips for making Start Trail Shots and Light Painting can be found on the LPA website under Articles/Members Tips.  Thank you David and Chris for arranging another great photo adventure for us!

Over 37 people, including 3 visitors, attended an Introduction to Photoshop CS5 presented by Douglas Wade.  Photoshop is a powerful tool for the photographer and is used to edit images by beginners as well as professionals.  A less expensive, but still great option for editing photos is Photoshop Elements.  GIMP is a   “free” Photoshop equivalent and available on the web.

Free trial versions of Photoshop software are available for downloading at Adobe.com.  Tutorial courses (for a fee) are available at Lynda.com and Kelby.com.  YouTube is a great source for free tutorials.

Over 35 members attended a presentation by Douglas Wade on the newly released Adobe Lightroom 4.  A general overview of Lightroom was presented as well as the upgraded features added in version 4.

Lightroom is organized into modules:

• Library – Organize your photos
• Develop – Tools for adjusting your photos
• Map – GPS info
• Book – Create your own photo book
• Print Module – Export images for printing
• Web – Publish photos to an html or flash site.  Export directly to Facebook, Flicker, and SmugMug