Sue Craft, our President, welcomed 53 members and 7 guests to our September General meeting this evening.We started our evening off with David Wilkins, our Vice President, introducing our guest speaker tonight, Michael Gordon.  Michael is an award-winning fine art landscape photographer of unusual and overlooked natural landscapes of California and beyond.

A lifelong student of nature and wilderness, Michael photographs with a 4”x5” view camera and film. Michael’s intimate relationship with the landscape yields photographs of great depth and clarity. He is best known for his black and white ‘Desert’ series which, says Broughton Quarterly, portrays “stunning ethereal beauty from terrain where others see only a bleak landscape.”  Michael showed us a large selection of his  black and white work from the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of California; Yosemite Valley; Death Valley; Bishop area; Utah; to name a few. He shared his philosophies on nature and landscape photography ie “Photographing things for what else they are.”

Michael's photographs have been published in and on the covers of magazines, calendars, textbooks and music CD’s. He is represented by art galleries in the U.S. and Europe, and his fine art prints are held internationally in private collections. Publications and clients include Backpacker magazine, View Camera magazine, T-Mobile, Broughton Quarterly, The Wilderness Society, Campaign for America's Wilderness, USDA Forest Service, Brooks/Cole, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Body-Mind Music, and more. Awards and recognition include International Photography Awards, Prix de la Photographie, Paris, and Black & White Spider Awards. 

Sue Craft our President welcomed 53 members and 7 guest to our August General meeting this evening.

We started our evening off with David Wilkins our Vice President introducing our guest speaker tonight, Greg Russell. Mr. Russell’s presentation “The American West” is a wonderful presentation. He shares many of his beautiful pictures, explaining how and where the pictures were taken. He went over his philosophy on processing an image, some of the digital darkroom tools we should be taking advantage of, the difference between HDR and luminosity masking (look up Tony Kuyper for tutorials) and image blending using Photomatix Exposure Fusion.  If you are confused, don’t be and he stressed DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE CREATIVE! Visit Mr. Russell’s website Alpenglow Images at http://www.alpenglowimagesphotography.com/index.html. His blog is at http://www.alpenglowimagesphotography.com/blog/  We gave him a Honorary Membership and a Certificate of Appreciation for the excellent program this evening.

Sue Craft our President welcomed 62 members and guest to our July Pictorial Competition and General meeting this evening.

We started our evening off with Helen Henry introducing our judge for the evening, Mel Carll, from the Santa Clarita Camera Club. Since our theme was "Pictorial" this month our members entered a variety of different pictures for our viewing. Mr. Carll critiqued each and every picture entered in the competition. We had a total of 30 prints, 56 digitals, and 14 slides for the competition and thank Mr. Carll, and all the volunteers who assisted, and made the evening happen.  Great participation and wonderful pictures entered by all!

We had 48 members and 3 visitors attending our Photo of Year /Installation of Officers General Meeting this evening. Dave Anderson welcomed everyone and announced tonight was our Photo of the Year Competition and Installation of Officers meeting.

We had 47 members and visitors attend our “Nature” Competition and General meeting.

Dave Anderson announced tonight is Election Night.  We will announce the results towards the end of the meeting so the ballots can be counted.

Seasons of Beauty and Bounty

by Graham Owen

We had 61 members and visitors attending our Nature program this evening. In which our guest speaker, Graham Owen gave a wonderful program titled “Seasons of Beauty & Bounty.” 

Graham has established himself as a natural photographer and artistic fly tyer. The detail of Graham’s “realistic insects” has won him International acclaim and award. Graham’s photographs reflect his eye on the natural world, demonstrating a unique style and melding of Realism and Artistic Impression. “Seasons of Beauty & Bounty” is a visual presentation displaying the natural delights of Southern California, from wide landscapes to individual flowers, leaves, and birds…all captured with an artistic flair.

We had 57 members and visitors attend our Panorama ‘Open” Competition and General meeting.

We started our evening off with Helen Henry introducing our judge for the evening, Stuart Lynn, the presiding President from Coachella Valley Desert Camera Club. Since our theme was "Open" this month our members entered a variety of different pictures for our viewing. Mr. Lynn critiqued each and every picture entered in the competition. Even if you didn’t enter this evening, you still learned from the critiques. We had a total of 24 prints, 27 digitals, and 12 slides for the competition and thank Mr. Lynn and all the volunteers who assisted, and made the evening happen.

Panoramic Photography by Rene and Patty Caro

Our guest speakers this evening were Rene & Patty Caro, former LPA members.  After being in Durango Colorado for the past few years, they have returned with many wonderful panoramic photos, greenhouses and all of their cacti.

Rene and Patty shared tips and tricks on panoramic photography, both in the field and processing. They participated in many art shows in the area, and shared numerous tips on printing, mounting, hanging, and marketing your photos.