October 18th, 2016 will be our Human Interest Competition. Please upload your entries by 10/11/16 11:59 P.M. Our competition will be judged by Diane Racey. 

HUMAN INTEREST – Human Interest is defined as an image depicting a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation, excluding recreational or organized sports action. Guidelines for Human Interest Images.

As with all reality-based divisions techniques that add, relocate, replace or remove any element of the original image, except by cropping, are not permitted. The only allowable modifications are removal of dust, scratches or digital noise, restoration of the existing appearance of the original scene, sharpening that is not obvious, and complete conversion to grayscale monochrome. Other derivations, including infrared, are not eligible. All allowed adjustments must appear natural.

“Restoration of the appearance of the original scene” may include techniques such as HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning provided they do not alter the contents of the original scene and the result looks natural. Borders are optional, but must be 3 or 4 pixels in width and must be white or a shade of grey.

By Shane Walter

This month is on beginning Photoshop on September 20th, with Kathy Newman at 6:00P.M. at the AVSC.

Kathy Newman is an award-winning digital photographer. Finding on-line programs lacking, she jumped into the Adobe world of Lightroom and Photoshop four years ago and has not looked back. She has always loved to share her knowledge, whether through teaching, tutoring or helping those in the Facebook groups of which she is an administrator of the Photoshop and Lightroom group, which has about 130,000 members, and she recently became Secretary of LPA.

Her presentation will include bringing your image into Photoshop either from Lightroom or from a folder. She’ll also give a quick overview of ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), as well as the most common tools used, plus an overview of how layers work and how to use layer masks for nondestructive editing, plus blending modes, followed by a quick run through of adjustment layers.

[image1_left]We are lucky to have George “Hutch” Hutchison, who has been called, “One of the Top Judges” by his peers, talk to us about the why’s to compete as well as the ins-and-outs of judging on August 23rd at 6:00 P.M. We will be having a no-host dinner with Hutch at 4:30 P.M. at the Greenhouse Cafe. 

Hutch has been, and is, an award-winning photographer for many years. He has also been a judge for quite a few years and is currently an active judge. He is active in local photography organizations and a frequent judge of various venues for many different competitions, from various Fairs including the Antelope Valley Fair to PSA and other national and international competitions. 

Here are some of his topics he will be covering: Why compete? What do judges look for; What qualifies one to be a judge? Different ways photography competitions are judged in various contexts.

Please submit three of your pictures using the website up to August 21st or bring in the three images on August 23rd on a thumb-drive. The audience will be the judge of them.

Presenter is Darren Cole

[image1_left]Ever wondered what makes a good Human Interest picture?  How does it differ from a portrait?  Or Photojournalism?

Our very own Darren Cole is conducting a workshop on Human Interest; how it differs from the other categories; and what makes a good Human Interest picture.

Darren started his journey into photography less than 3 years ago, but quickly fell in love with it. Darren has received numerous acknowledgements for his Human Interest pictures in S4C and PSA Competitions.

This workshop will give you ideas, tips, and tricks on how to improve your Human Interest photos.  The rules of Human Interest will be explained and examples provided to test your new knowledge. We will be expecting audience participation! Please join Darren on a journey as we explore the possibilities of Human Interest photography! 

Please email Darren 2-3 Human interest pictures to share during the workshop and get feedback on. Send them to cronusds@gmail.com

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Miscellaneous Ramblings around Bharat (a.k.a. India), August 16^th, 2016
 

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LPA Member Richard Wood will be presenting a whirlwind discussion of the history, culture, religion, and philosophy of India with some documentary photos from 2007 and 2016 and answering the perplexing questions of the number-one-monk-in-training (pictured below) and the LPA:  Why travel?  Why India? Why travel by train?  Why Sikkim?

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India is a country and culture that was 5 millennium in the making, living in four centuries, with two dozen languages, and one dozen religions.

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Tibetan refugee wool yarn makers, Darjeeling

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Camel trains in the 21st century, somewhere north of Delhi

Richard Wood started his photography “career” in 1960 at the 50th Anniversary Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs using the old stand-by Kodak Brownie camera. On returning from the trip he gave a slide show after which his father took him to New York City to buy an Exakta SLR; probably as an excuse for his father to buy a new camera also.   The rest, as they say, is history.

After seeing America first, Richard began his international travels in 1978.  He has since visited 35 countries, some numerous times, been in every time zone at least twice, and visited six of the seven continents (Australia is still missing). 

Arriving in 1969 at Edwards Air Force Base, to begin his real day job as a test engineer for the Air Force, he quickly learned about the LPA and the annual Antelope Valley Fair photo exhibit and contest.  His first entry in the Fair was in the early 1970’s but did not become active in the LPA until he retired in 2002.

In the mid-1990’s, he was a credentialed journalist photographer for the America’s Cup yacht races in San Diego.  Several of his photos hung in the America’s Cup Museum.  He also published an 85-page paperback booklet on “A Concise History of the America’s Cup”; which he marketed in San Diego during the races.

Richard has given numerous slide shows of his travels at Edwards AFB, the local Sierra Club and Audubon Society, and for private dinner parties.  He is also active with the Sports Car Club of America, go kart racing, the Antelope Valley Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and volunteers at Piute Ponds with the Edwards AFB Environmental Management Branch.

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[image1_left] Saturday, June 25th LPA will be visiting the Pirated Invasion of Belmont Shores. 100’s of costumed Pirates and three Pirate ships will descend on the Belmont Pier for all things Pirate. Sword fights, cannon and musket battles, a treasure hunt, adult and children’s costume contest, an interactive kid’s zone, arts and craft vendors, live and DJ entertainment on our stages, food and grog, a living history encampment, a live production of “Treasure Island”.

This year they added Metropolis an area where 50 mermaids. A Mermaid themed village and taking advantage of Long Beach’s new Olympic pools we will have the first Mermaid Olympics. www.alfredosbeachclub.com/seafest-pierdaze.html

The parking lot between the pier and the Belmont Plaza Pool and the parking lot east of the pool.
Admission is FREE – Food, Beverage, and Merchandise for sale. 

We will be meeting at 7:30 A.M. for breakfast at Denny’s off the 14 Fwy at Sand Canyon in Santa Clarita (address 16401 Delone St, Santa Clarita, 91387). We will carpool from there starting at 9:00 A.M.

If you arrive on your own, call Douglas at 661 412-3684 to connect with the group once you arrive. 

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Presented by the Lancaster Photography Association

Message from this year's A.V. Fair Photography Exhibit Chairperson: Kurtiss Humphrey

Fair Volunteers Needed for Photography Exhibit! [LPA Members Sign up here], if not an LPA member, please review the schedule and email avfair@lpaphotography.org with your desired dates and times.