Another great month, with lots of activities - not all "official" events, but our members were out with their cameras enjoying the great summer weather and the many events that were happening in the region. Officially, we visited the classic car rally at the A&W in Hespeler, but we were also at the Paris Fall Fair, the airport for the Waterloo Aviation Expo and Airshow. Check out the Flickr group page for more images. (And those of you who took images and are part of the group - don't forget to share them on Flickr!)
This was our second month meeting in Tammy Burden's new studio space at the back of the Video 99 store in Hespeler, we enjoyed the hospitality and space provided. There's lots more room for us there, and we invite you to invite your friends to come and learn and share their images!
4 Week Challenge
Our four week challenge is about encouraging us to reach further and expand our skills and creativity. Each four weeks, we have a new challenge, and an opportunity to share our pictures with each other. The photos have to be new and shot within those four weeks. We encourage you to take as many as you like (it's a digital world) and pick a few of your best, then bring them to our group on a media stick. We will display them and give a quick review for the benefit of all.
The Last Challenge
Our last challenge was "Flowers" - taking advantage of the beautiful weather and blooms abounding. Those who went out early enough got some great shots, and those who left it to the last minute (myself included), found the flowers a little wilted from the cold nights and hot days. Still, it's all about the fun and learning, and we all enjoyed each others pictures of the flowers, and of the other events we attended.
Our four week challenge is about encouraging us to reach further and expand our skills and creativity. Each four weeks, we have a new challenge, and an opportunity to share our pictures with each other. The photos have to be new and shot within those four weeks. We encourage you to take as many as you like (it's a digital world) and pick a few of your best, then bring them to our group on a media stick. We will display them and give a quick review for the benefit of all.
The Last Challenge
Our last challenge was "Flowers" - taking advantage of the beautiful weather and blooms abounding. Those who went out early enough got some great shots, and those who left it to the last minute (myself included), found the flowers a little wilted from the cold nights and hot days. Still, it's all about the fun and learning, and we all enjoyed each others pictures of the flowers, and of the other events we attended.
Starting off, we were all very amazed with this stunning picture by Rachel. Great composition, good balance of focal length, creativity and the interesting setting using the lock with the small flowers made this a very interesting picture. There were also comments on the fact that the photographer was not in any of the reflections! Great job Rachel.
Tammy chose to over expose her image of a sunflower, giving it added interest. An otherwise relatively "normal" shot of a sunflower became ablaze with light and interest.
Brett demonstrated how changing your perspective on the flower can totally change the image, and make it more appealing. His original shot was flat on the flower. The orange middle parts of the flower became almost invisible, and the petals appeared flat and unattractive. By moving a little lower and looking at the flower side on, the perspective became quite different and the flower "popped".
Gary had some rather ordinary shots of flowers, but shared a tip regarding focus. The idea being to set your focal length, use automatic focus to get a focal point, then gently rocking forward or backwards towards or away from the flower to find the perfect focal point. Often parts of the flower deep down inside are hard to get a focus on, but using this technique allows you to find that focal point more easily.We were also joined by Chris this week, who brought her images as prints. Unfortunately, we don't have any of them to share on the blog, but we welcome Chris to the group, and look forward to some images in the future.
Our Next Challenge: Stopping the action
Inspired by an image taken by Tammy at the fall fair in Paris, we decided this month to challenge ourselves to take an image that freezes the action. The real challenge is that it must be obvious that there is action taking place, and be able to follow the action, anticipating what will happen, but the action must be frozen in place. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so it should be interesting to see what we all come up with.
Inspired by an image taken by Tammy at the fall fair in Paris, we decided this month to challenge ourselves to take an image that freezes the action. The real challenge is that it must be obvious that there is action taking place, and be able to follow the action, anticipating what will happen, but the action must be frozen in place. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so it should be interesting to see what we all come up with.Here are some other examples from a simple flickr search:
Mid-Way Shoot-Out
This month's (September/October) outing will again be very interesting - and newsworthy! Calvary Pentecostal Church is opening it's doors for a Grand Opening on September 26th from 12:30pm to 4:30pm at which time, the public will have a view of the newly constructed children's areas. Bruce Barry from Wacky World Studios is designing the kids' areas and if all goes well, we are working towards getting our photographers advance admittance to the area to be the first to see and take photos of his work, and the new construction. Stay tuned for more details, but right now, we are aiming at 10:00am at Calvary Pentecostal Church on September 26th.
This month's (September/October) outing will again be very interesting - and newsworthy! Calvary Pentecostal Church is opening it's doors for a Grand Opening on September 26th from 12:30pm to 4:30pm at which time, the public will have a view of the newly constructed children's areas. Bruce Barry from Wacky World Studios is designing the kids' areas and if all goes well, we are working towards getting our photographers advance admittance to the area to be the first to see and take photos of his work, and the new construction. Stay tuned for more details, but right now, we are aiming at 10:00am at Calvary Pentecostal Church on September 26th.
Freebie of the Month
We mentioned this freebie at the last meeting, but here's the link for all of you. Some of the best photo books for the advanced amature (that's you!) are Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Book series - the third one should be coming out soon. Scott is a photoshop pro, and a fantastic photographer who likes to share his knowledge in a very easy to understand way. There are some chapters of his second book on-line as videos, and you can find them here: http://www.kelbytraining.com/books/digphotogv2/.
We mentioned this freebie at the last meeting, but here's the link for all of you. Some of the best photo books for the advanced amature (that's you!) are Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Book series - the third one should be coming out soon. Scott is a photoshop pro, and a fantastic photographer who likes to share his knowledge in a very easy to understand way. There are some chapters of his second book on-line as videos, and you can find them here: http://www.kelbytraining.com/books/digphotogv2/.
Check the videos out if you want some quick tips on photography!
Next Regular Meeting: October 11th, 2009 - 6:30-8:30
Same time, same "Blog" Channel! We will meet as usual between 6:30-8:30pm at the Video 99 store in Hespeler - come in the front door and meet us out back in Tammy's Studio. See you there! Bring a friend and bring your photos on a memory stick or in print.
