David Wilkins, our President, welcomed over 60 members and 5 guests to our February General Meeting.

The meeting started off with Douglas Wade introducing our guest speaker “Eric Curry” with his light painting project called “American Pride and Passion”.  Eric has been a photographer all his life.  He graduated from the Art Center College of Design.  He started the project “American Pride and Passion” after the passing of his father-in-law, who had a collection of old tractors and farm equipment on his property.   He would light paint the equipment with mag lights and floodlights while taking multiple long exposures and stacking them together in Photoshop.  From there, his photo subjects progressed to planes, trains, automobiles, and even a submarine.  Eric likes to create an “iconic image” and tell a story using vehicles, houses, people and dogs.  He likes to include an element of surprise or humor that is not obvious at first.  Most of his props are “borrowed”.  He said “If you don’t ask, the answer will be No”.   Eric’s book “Painting with Light: Lighting and Photoshop Techniques for Photographers“ includes many of the photos, stories, and techniques shared this evening and is available through Amazon and his website at www.ericcurry.com.  Check out his video tutorials too.  Eric was thanked for sharing his interesting and inspirational program and presented with a Certificate of Appreciation, and a check for travel expense.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed nearly 65 members to our January General Meeting this evening.

The meeting started off with David Wilkins introducing or judge, JoAnne Stolte, for this evenings “Pictorial” Competition. 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. She is also a member of the Pomona Valley Camera Club, and is General Chair of the S4C International Exhibition. JoAnne is very active in the Photographic Society of America (PSA).

David Wilkins opened the festivities and welcomed over 60 people to our annual holiday party. 

The room was transformed into a holiday dinner/party celebration with festive music filling the air, and volunteers scurrying around to transform the senior center into a party atmosphere, all in less than 45 minutes.  Gotta love our volunteers! 

The aroma of holiday food filled the air as volunteers brought in ham, party potatoes, and warm rolls, and the visual appeal kicked in with the sight of a green salad and a red jell salad.  The aroma of hot apple cider and fresh coffee topped it all off.  The desert table was filled with cakes, sweet/salty pretzel bits, and chocolate candy.  Oh yum!!!

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 36 members to our November General Meeting this evening.

The meeting started off with David Wilkins introducing our program speaker, and long time LPA member, Don Bennett. Don shared with us a slide show of his images of 5 different trips to Alaska, Africa, and the Sandhill Cranes of Nebraska. He explained how he “got around” by vehicle and tour guide in both Africa and Alaska, and was able to shoot many beautiful animals, some African tribal people, as well as gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. In order to shoot the Sandhill Cranes , of which there are many thousands, he had to rent a 4’x8’ wood shed for accommodations. He had to stay in for a set number of hours, and not leave, in order to comply with the restrictions of the area.  Several different camera bodies and lenses were brought  for these shoots.  He even had a 500mm lens in Africa to capture animals in the far distances since leaving the vehicle was not an option.

Don ended his presentation with answering questions, and giving a bit more detail on the logistics of his travel. Thank you Don!  We all enjoyed the show!

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 46 members to our October General meeting this evening.

The meeting started off with Wayne Staley introducing our judge, Ted Dayton,  for this evenings “Structures” competition. He is a professional photographer from Valencia, and is a member of the Santa Clarita Camera Club. He has previously judged for an LPA competition, and we were thankful to have him return. We had a total of 33 entrants, and 91 entries for this competition in all 9 categories . There were 3 Slides, 13 Novice Digital, 15 Amateur Digital, 18 Advanced Amateur Digital, 15 Master Digital, 5 Novice Prints , 6 Amateur Prints, 5 Advanced Amateur Prints, and 11 Master prints.

Many members valued his brief critique for each image, as he emphasized “Recording” vs. “Interpretation”.  Additionally, he emphasized heavy cropping, or less cropping in order to more accurately tell the  story of the image. There was a no host dinner prior to the competition. The judge was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation, an honorary membership, and $75 for travel expenses.

Many thanks to everyone for making it yet another great competition night !

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 43 members to our September General meeting this evening.

The meeting started off with Douglas Wade introducing our guest speaker Jodi Champagne, who was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and was a mother at the age of 15. Her creative ventures were put on hold while she raised her family and then devoted herself to the corporate world of engineering. After retiring from the business world, she became consumed in the passion of photography; "It didn’t take long to have the ability to create a vision through the lens". She took a beginning photography course at AV College, and soon after got her first DSLR.

Her work began as portrait, wedding, family and sports photography and moved to a more artistic vision of seeing the world with compassion and heart.

David Wilkins, our President, welcomed 52 members to our August General meeting this evening.

The meeting started off with Douglas Wade introducing our guest speaker Rick Edwards, who delivered to us a beautiful presentation featuring “The Beauty of African Wildlife” and shared his insights into wildlife photography.  He was assigned as the official photographer for Kenya Wildlife Service, and provides photos and stories to the BBC Wildlife Magazine and National Geographic. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, and perfected his photography while living in Nairobi watching wildlife in the many parks in Kenya and East Africa. He photographs from inside his vehicle with a 600mm f4.0 lens, which allows him to photograph outside the “ring of confidence” with the animals, and he tries to capture ‘action & reaction’. He answered many members questions regarding technique and such, and also touched on his post production procedures. He added that through the months and years of being around the some of the same animals, and as they became  more familiar with him and his vehicle, that he was able to start shooting some shots within that “ring of confidence”.
Like the cheetah  that literally came into his jeep and was sitting on his lap !  A Certificate of Appreciation and Honorary LPA Membership was presented to Rick, as well as dinner at Greenhouse Café before the meeting . Thank you for a great program with amazing photographs that inspired many of us to one day visit this magical continent, Africa !

Our newly elected President, David Wilkins, welcomed a full house to this July “Action” themed Competition and General meeting . There were 57 members and 5 guests.

The meeting started off with Christine Wilkins introducing our judge for the evening’s competition, Phillip Kocurek. He is a professional wedding photographer living locally here in the Antelope Valley. For the evening’s competition, we had a total of 94 entries : 11 Master Prints, 24 Master Digital, 4 Advanced Amateur Prints, 10 Advanced Amateur Digital, 6 Amateur Prints, 21 Amateur Digital, 13 Novice Digital, and 5 slides. Mr. Kocurek critiqued each image as presented this evening. All of the entries can be viewed on the results page.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to all who participated. A no host dinner with the judge was held at the Greenhouse Café before the meeting. A Certificate of Appreciation, and an honorary LPA membership was presented to the judge after the competition was finished. Many thanks to everyone who helped make it a great night!

View all the entries here.