Forty-two members signed in for a slide show of PSA’s Best of the Best images from the Color Projected Image Division’s interclub competition from last year.  Selected images were critiqued by LPA members Arliss Dawson, David Wilkins, Lyle Trusty, Pat Ware, Dale Ware and Tylene Trout.  Many of these images were truly stunning and showed what really works in an image. There were leading lines, symmetry and strong use of color in some images; landscapes exhibited the use of foreground, middle ground and background objects.  Other pictures showed the peak action attainable with burst mode photography.  There were many images that broke the so-called rules of photography and yet delivered a stunning image.

Many thanks to all the LPA members who gave critiques!

For those interested in what PSA has to offer photographers, contact Nan Carder, our PSA representative, email her at nancarder310@msn.com.  The LPA competes in PSA interclub competitions and all members are encouraged to submit images.  Nan has all the details and will help you submit images.

Nov 22, 2011

LPA Member Lee Garner took us on tour of the LPA website, beginning with the basics, including how to log in, how to reset your password if you forgot your login, how to edit your profile, and how to upload photos for competitions and for your own personal galleries.  We had a demo on how to use/post on the forum, and about RSS feeds with Firefox.

Your personal photo is needed on the LPA website, and is displayed under “Our Members” and when you post on the forum.  Optimal size is 64x99 pixels.  Personal storage space for photos on the website is 75M.  Any large photos you upload are automatically resized to less than 600x800 megapixels and display well on the web, but are not of a high enough quality for someone to copy and print.

Tylene Trout presented on October 25th the workshop “Basic Photography and How to Use Your Camera”. There were forty-five in attendance, and Brian Hudson introduced our guests. She started the presentation with a slide show contrasting photographs, first one not so exciting, then a second representing a better example. She showed us contrasting two images to subjects such as composition, depth-of-field, crooked horizons, bulls-eyes images, shooting at the wrong time of day, and not getting close enough to your subject. She went over common mistakes such as red-eye (and how to correct it), and hardness of bare flash and explained how to inexpensively correct it using a diffuser. She explained how to use a DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras. She showed her equipment; bag, tripod, monopod, flash, and remote shutter release cord and most importantly, the manuals. Being a master photographer, she explained that she still refers to the manuals often.

Workshop Expert Series, Knowing Your Camera

September 9/27/2011

The workshop “Knowing your Camera” was a great workshop for beginners, on up.  It relied upon on using some of the most knowledgeable members, like Dave Anderson (Nikon), David Wilkins (Nikon), Nan Carter (Canon), Sue Craft  (Canon), and Glenn Olson (all others brands) who all volunteered to explain what all the buttons and screens are for on the  cameras. The members were reminded to bring their cameras and manuals. They were encouraged to ask any question and the teaching members answered all questions with great patience. Questions ranged all over from focusing issues, to bracketing. Below, is a short list of items that were discussed.

This month's workshop was presented by Oak Color, a local business and professional digital lab that specializes in printing and mounting. They are located at 42207 6th St W, #104, Lancaster. There phone number is (661) 949-3347 or online at www.oakcolor.com. Their pricing on the web site is very out of date, but they did bring a printed version to hand out to everyone. Phil and Charlie came to talk about their processes and front end software. They calibrate their printers each day, which most other companies may do weekly. They allow you to download Express Digital the Photographer and Studio, a front end to set up your printing needs. The software gives you complete control over all aspects of the print, like cropping, color changes, and effects like vignetting and allows it to be submitted to the lab.

Both Phil and Charlie answered lots of questions, on subjects of paper textures, gammas and color ranges, to pricing. They are aware of the printing needs for submission of prints to the AV Fair, and can assist in getting great looking prints.

Presented by Andre Costantini

Tamron is one of the largest lens manufacturers.  They brand their own lenses as well as many other companies. We were blessed to have Andre Costantini, a professional photographer who works with Tamron. He travelled to from New York to visit the LPA, along with Greg Becker (gbecker@aol.com), who is the Tamron sales representative for the Southern California and Las Vegas area.

The workshop presented on May 25 at 6:00 pm was before 35-40 LPA folks and ran about 1-1/2 hours long.  Andre demonstrated both the technical and artistic uses of lenses and other photography principles.  A demo table was set up, with lenses available to try out and ask questions. 

Presented by Douglas Wade

The workshop conducted on Tuesday, April 26, was three mini workshops in one and attended by 25 LPA Members.  It started with a demo of camera and apps for the iPhone and Droid phones. Then the last third was on calibration of your monitor, and use of profiles when printing to Costco’s digital printers. The goal was to make better prints.

LPA Workshop - Image Processing Software - March 22, 2011

Douglas Wade, our Workshop Chairman had a great idea!  He set up a Q&A session with a leader/instructor in each corner, covering Lightroom, Photoshop, Elements, GIMP, and and even a S4C/PSA station set up to help members register for UEN’s to participate in S4C and information on the benefits of joining PSA.

Before starting the workshop, Douglas talked about the most popular image processing software packages available, ranging from GIMP (free), to Adobe Elements (less than $100), to Adobe Lightroom ($299) to Adobe Photoshop ($700).