Please join us for our monthly General Meeting on May 17, 6:00pm, at the AV Senior Center.  The theme for this month's photo competiton  is "Step Into the Past" - Historic sites, buildings, antiques and relics of the past. This can includes images of people in period costume.  Our judge this month is Hank Morris of Hank Morris Photography (http://www.hankmorrisphoto.com).

Remember that all entries must be registered online by midnight on May 10.  NEW THIS MONTH: You can now pay your entry fee online using your PayPal account or a credit card.  More details are available here. Online payment is optional, though we recommend it as a way to speed up the busy time at the start of the meeting.

Also this month the general membership will be voting on the new By-Laws.  This is an important step to enable our club to attain non-profit status, and the By-Laws Committee has put a lot of discussion and work into the revisions.  The Board approved tye By-Laws (6Y, 1 Absent). Please download and review the revised by-laws before the meeting.  You can also download the current by-laws to compare.  As the by-laws have been discussed and revised, and have been open to member suggestions and questions, the discussion time at the meeting will be limited and the vote will be a simple Yes or No.  Membership will also be voting on your 2011-2012 Officers and Board Members.

Sue Craft our President welcomed 61members and guest to our April General meeting this evening.

David Wilkins introduced our speaker, Brent Russell Paull, Key Tactics in Wildlife & Landscape Photography. Mr. Paull is a successful wildlife and nature photographer based in Tulare, California. He has 11 magazine covers to his credit and over 1000 publication credits. He has 28 published articles on photography and travel. His favorite spots are in the American West and include places such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and the California coast.  Mr. Paull teaches seminars and leads photo safaris every month. Mr. Paull presented an excellent program this evening which included him illustrating his concepts with his beautiful pictures. He spoke about exposure, image sharpness, composition, exposure compensation, hyperfocal distance and much more. As he states in his website and demonstrate strongly in his presentation “Once your skills as a photographer are solid then you will have a creative medium at your fingertips for the rest of your life.”  See more of Mr. Paull’s work at his website http://www.amwestphoto.com.  Mr. Paull’s website offers tips on Photoshop, photography and more. His blog is at http://amwestphoto.wordpress.com where you can read about and see pictures from his photo safaris. A Certificate of Appreciation and Honorary Membership were presented to Mr Paull. Thank you for a very educational program, everyone walked away learning something new tonight!

Sue Craft our President welcomed 53 members and guest to our March “Portraits” Competition and General meeting this evening.

We started our evening off with Helen Henry introducing our judge, Ms. Julie Sutton, for this evenings Portrait competition. We had 65 digitals including 10 novices, 19 amateur, 16 advance amateur and 20 masters. We also had 13 prints with 3 amateur, 6 advance amateur and 4 masters and closed the competition with 6 slides. Congratulations to all who won and thank you to all who participated. A Certificate of appreciation, and honorary membership were presented to Ms. Sutton. Thank you to everyone who helped make tonight a success.

View the entries and winners here

Sue Craft our President welcomed 51 members and guest to our February General meeting this evening.

We started our evening off with Douglas Wade, introducing our guest speaker tonight, Aviation Photographer, Kevin Robertson.  Kevin Robertson's photos have appeared in various aviation magazines, books and company marketing materials.  He currently heads the Promotional Photography and Multimedia for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Palmdale.  Previously, he was the Lockheed Martin Senior Flight Test Photographer at Edwards AFB supporting the F-22 and F-35 Flight Test programs.  Kevin has logged more than 800 flying hours for air-to-air photography in various military aircraft.  Prior to Lockheed Martin, Kevin worked for Northrop Grumman Corporation as a photographer on the B-2 Bomber program. Kevin spoke about the challenges of aviation photography and then shared some of his photographs.  He spoke about his experiences in taking photographs from the back seat of high performance aircraft.  He answered our member’s questions about aviation photography. Kevin uses Canon equipment, zoom lens and UV filters. We gave him a honorary membership and certificate of appreciation.

Sue Craft our President welcomed 62 members and guest to our January "Open" Competition and General meeting this evening.
We started our evening off with Helen Henry introducing our judge for this evenings Open competition, Liz & Rich Breault. We had 6 slides, 9 prints and 84 digitals for a total of 99 participate in tonight’s competition. Congratulations to all who won and thank you to all who participated. Certificate of appreciation, and honorary memberships were presented to our judges. Thank you to everyone who helped make tonight a success.

Sue Craft opened our December meeting at 6 p.m.

We offered 5 tickets to everyone, as they arrived, for the Opportunity Drawing for items donated by LPA members. Donations of $5 were accepted. All funds donated will be given to  the Friends of the Senior Center. These proceeds can help them with anything from an ice cream social to replacement of tables and chairs. LPA also had copies of the CD and handout from our recent workshop on Creative Photography. These are offered for $5.00.

Sue Craft our President welcomed 31 members and guest to our November general meeting this evening.

Tonight David Wilkins introduced our guest Floris Van Breugel,  Nature Photographer. “Encounters with Ents” Floris will take us through a series of his images that go beyond simple documentation, focusing on the anthropomorphic qualities of nature including studies of sensual sand dunes and rugged tree 'people'.  He gave us a glimpse into his thought process, and shared some of his stories from the field. Through his photography, he shared his creative interpretation of the natural landscape around him, with a passion, elegance, and beautiful compositions.  Floris' images have been featured in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, Geo International Magazine, NaturFoto, Digital Photo UK, and Living Bird.  He is also one of the moderators for the popular online nature photography forum www.naturephotographers.net. You can find more info on his website here: http://www.artinnaturephotography.com/content.php?page=bio. He stayed and answered our questions which was greatly appreciated. We gave him a Certificate of appreciation, Honorary Membership for one year, and a $75 mileage check.

October 19, 2010

Sue Craft our President welcomed 41 members and guest to our October "Prime Desert Woodland Preserve" Competition and General meeting this evening.

We started our evening off with Cheryl Ross introducing our judge for the evening, Winn Krafton. This month is our "Prime Desert Woodland Preserve" competition that you've been reading about.  We could enter up to 3 images (digital, slide, prints, or any combination) that were taken at the Preserve between April 1 and October 12, 2010.  Images from the competition will be put on a DVD and given to the Preserve for use in their facility and literature, and will include the photographer's name. This was the first of two phase Community Service project for club, the second phase is in the spring. We had wonderful membership participation, 3 slides, 9 prints and 60 digitals in tonight’s competition. Congratulations to all who won and thank you to all who participated in this project. The club presented Ms. Krafton with a Certificate of appreciation, $75.00 check, honorary membership and a warm thank you for spending the evening with us.  Thank you to everyone who helped tonight in making it a success.