Douglas Wade our President, welcomed 52 people to our General Meeting and Competition Night featuring “Scapes” as the theme, and Noella Ballenger as a returning judge.

As professional nature and wildlife photographer and writer, Noella Ballenger's experience has included photographing some of the world's most pristine and spectacular locations. Traveling extensively, she has searched for pockets of beauty throughout the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Africa, Europe and the South Pacific.  Noella has lectured throughout the United States and New Zealand. She celebrates her 24th year of teaching photography and her 27th year as a member of the American Society of Media Photographers.

Noella has always been very impressed with the quality of photographs she judges at the LPA and wants you to start sharing them.  She is looking for outstanding examples of your work to be submitted for consideration in being published and critiqued in her monthly “Image Talk” on Apogee Photo.   Noella was offered an Honorary Membership to LPA.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed nearly 40 members to our General Meeting night and very special “End of Year” Competition. Also included in the evening’s agenda were the PSA & S4C AwardsPresentation, and the Installation of Officers.

The 1st  place winners for the 2013-2014 competed for the Year End - Members Choice Awards. All results for the competition can be seen on the LPA website. Congratulations to ALL the Winners! Each will receive a certificate and a ribbon, and will be awarded an acrylic plaque with their name, and the title of winning photo.

Thank you to Tina Crowe and Bill Sutton, Competition Chairs for the past year. They will be notifying those of you who won your second LPA blue ribbon this year, in your level, as you will get to move up July 1, 2014.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 47 people to our General Meeting and Competition night featuring “Night Photography” as the theme, and Dan Holmes as our returning guest and judge.

Dan is past President of the Channel Islands Professional Photographers Association, a member of Professional Photographers of California, and the Professional Photographers of America. He specializes in Fine Art Nature, Events, Commercial, and Workshops.  He has traveled extensively: climbing, trekking, and photographing in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and the USA. He has a unique ability to capture light, color, emotion, and tension in his images.  “Whether it is a landscape, a wedding, or a farm worker, it is all about light, emotion and impact”. His photographic workshops cover: creating powerful photographs, digital workflow, field workshops & photo adventure tours. He will be leading photo workshops in Alaska, Nepal, Namibia, and the western US. Dan’s work has been widely recognized with regional, national and international awards, including: California Nature & Landscape Photographer of the Year; Kodak Gallery Award; Black and White Spider International, Creative Asia, and others. He has had multiple local and regional showings, with his images displayed in public and private collections in the USA, Mexico, Holland, Chile, Brazil, and South Africa. His commercial work includes projects in agriculture, retail, music, and events. Dan’s presentation will entertain, educate, and inspire us in this journey we call life and photography.  He will take us on a humorous journey through our evolution as photographers, lead us on a visual journey through some of our most amazing places, and discuss how to create powerful imagery.

Douglas Wade, our Vice President, welcomed 50 members to our General Meeting night.

Douglas Wade then introduced our speaker for the evening Rob Sheppard, who did his presentation on “Down and Dirty Close-Ups and Macro Photography”. Rob has written 40 photography related books.

Close-up and macro photography will take you into a whole new world of imagery that will surprise and delight you and viewers of your photos. For this presentation, Rob Sheppard shared the following techniques needed to get the most from your close-up and macro work, and can be done without ever owning a macro lens!

Douglas Wade, our Vice President, welcomed 54 members to our “Open Prints” competition night.

Tina Crowe introduced our returning  judge George “Hutch” Hutchison.

Hutch has had a lifelong passion for photography, growing up with a father and grandfather who were both avid photographers. The advent of digital photography in the 1990's further stimulated and broadened his interest. He is an award winning photographer active in many local photography organizations, and a frequent judge and/or presenter at clubs and competitions in Southern California. Hutch is available for portrait, architectural, product and event photography, as well as private photography workshops, tours or coaching. Hutch says “Photography is an art, and any form of art is subjective to the viewer. Some may call an image excellent while others see it as ordinary. However, both experts and people with utterly no knowledge of photography usually agree when they lay their eyes on a good image”.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 45 members to our General Meeting night.

Douglas Wade, our Vice President and Program Chairman, introduced our speaker for the evening Curt Gideon, who did his presentation on “Wedding Photography”.

Curt Gideon is an AV and destination wedding photographer that is a master of wedding photography. He does additional work for the City of Lancaster (often you will see his work on the cover of the OUTLOOK), and his wedding photographs are featured in the main window display in the store, The Forge on the BLVD. He is a multiple competition winner for his photography and is one of the busiest photographers in the area and abroad.

Working with wedding parties is unique for the photography business. People are excited about this time in their life and want the best, but most couples have not done this before. He will pose them for the best images. They will need the trust of someone that will deliver their special memories. He covered the communication required between what the couple wants (and other family members), the locations desire, the budget, the shot list. Even items like the venue, caterers, and working with videographers. Dealing with things that can go wrong, on that special day. The limo is late, the flower girl lost her right shoe, the flowers are the wrong color, etc... Making sure to get the images and not hold up the wedding party, so they are free to enjoy the day.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 45 members to our “Nature” competition night.

Tina Crowe introduced our well liked, returning  judge Joanne Stolte. Since 1998, Joanne has been deeply involved in regional photo clubs, currently serving as president of S4C, the coalition of southern California camera clubs. She lives in Glendora, where she formerly served as Vice President of the Glendora Color Slide Group; and is a member of the Pomona Valley Camera Club. She is General Chair of the S4C International Exhibition. Joanne is very active in the Photographic Society of America (PSA).

We had a total of 68 digital entries and 12 prints.  Congratulations to all the winners!

For print entry participants, we had 0 novices, 0 amateurs, 0 advanced amateurs and 12 masters.

For digital entries, we had 15 Novice, 3 Amateur, 22 Advanced, and 28 Master.

Douglas Wade opened the evening’s annual Holiday Dinner gathering with nearly 45 people in attendance.

Once again, with the volunteer help and organization of many who arrived early, the Senior Center room came alive with tables lined in candy cane colored red & white covers, topped with lovely winter pine greenery and pine cones.

Dinner this year was Mexican food catered by Green Burrito which included the likes of all the fixings for tacos with corn chips too. The dessert table this year was potluck, and filled with all sorts of homemade and store bought goodies. All of the cakes, bars, cookies, fudge, etc were attracting people like bees to honey! Coffee, tea, and bottled waters were also available. Everything was super delicious, and we were all happy to sit and enjoy our meals with our fellow LPA members.