CPG Newsletter 12 - January 17th, 2010

THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
If you stopped by this blog by accident and live within driving distance of Cambridge in Southern Ontario, please consider joining us. We're a friendly little group of photographers at different levels. We're serious about having fun with our cameras and learning from each other.
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!)

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: Christmas Ornaments
All of us love to see the lights and the ornaments at Christmas time. And those of us with Cameras love to take pictures of them, right? Here are some of those shots taken by the group for this challenge:

Tammy had some awesome pictures this month, Including images of silver Christmas balls. Other people also tried taking images of reflective balls, and everyone discovered that it is not an easy task as the photographer usually ends up in the image – but that’s OK. It did spark some lively discussion and sharing of ideas how one could stay out of their own picture. Here, Tammy uses depth of field nicely to draw attention to her subject: the centre ball.

It’s a little difficult to see in a small image, but Shannon took advantage of a star filter to get a little magic in her Christmas postcard pictures, giving the Christmas lights that extra twinkle.

Gary took this shot of the West Montrose Covered Bridge adorned with it’s Christmas Wreath. Of course, such a unique old subject required an “old” treatment with the sepia tone.

Chris took her time to get the exposure just right on this image… she told us she spent the entire time the movie was playing to get it right. Personally I think she was waiting for that perfect moment on “White Christmas” to give the image that extra special quality.
Unfortunately, Rachel’s “ornament” did not survive long after taking her shot. Her cousin devoured it on her as she was busy shooting! Thank goodness he stopped at the shortbread!

Awesome job everyone!

Our Next Challenge: Lights in the Darkness
The challenge this month is to take a picture in the dark... well, sort of. There are different ways to look at this challenge. If you were not with us last February, then you can shoot light streaks with a long shutter speed (Blog: Feb 2009). If you want a greater challenge, then use one of the techniques to capture movement and stop action at the same time.

This can be done a number of ways: using rear curtain flash, but one way we can probably all capture a cool shot in the darkness is to use "slow shutter sync" or shoot with your camera set to "night mode" or "night scene" (have a look in your manual for a description of an icon like this: ) it will give you a long exposure with a quick flash to stop the action. Thanks to Shannon for the suggestion and this link of example images.

As always, be creative! We want to see what you come up with...

Mid-Way Shoot-Out: Chickopee Boarding Hills
Unconfirmed: Snapping the action in the ice and snow, we’re headed for the Chickopee Ski Hills to capture some of the boarders doing their tricks. Join us February 6th at 2:00pm - meet at teh Chalet main entrance. Don't forget to bring along your long lens or find the zoom on your camera, bring a tripod and warm clothes!

Freebie of the Month!
Trying to figure out why your colours come out different in print than your screen? Or when you use one program or another? Well, here's some help. http://www.digitalmastery.com/downloads/pdf/Color_Management.pdf. This 23 page book by Ben Willmore is free to download. Be sure to check out his website http://www.digitalmastery.com/ for lots more info and freebies.

Next Regular Meeting: February 21st, 2009 – 4:00-6:00
We will meet at our new time (4:00pm-6:00pm) 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 so we can all share.

CPG Newsletter 10 - November 8, 2009

THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
If you stopped by this blog by accident and live within driving distance of Cambridge in Southern Ontario, please consider joining us. We're a friendly little group of photographers at different levels of skills and interest. We all enjoy photography and the only thing we're serious about is having fun with our cameras and learning from each other. Check out the Flickr group page for some more of our images. (And those of you who took images and are part of the group - don't forget to share them on Flickr!)

My appologies to those in the group for the delay in posting the blog this month... it's been a busy month, what with the new house and all. But we're back - and there's still a little time before the next meeting!

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: Over Exposure
Our October challenge was to produce an image that was "over exposed". This gave a lot of space for interpretation and some of the images are quite nice.

Tammy created a wonderfully stricking image by exposing for the foreground rather than for the sky, making the sky nicely over exposed and silhouetting her subject very nicely. This was taken at the Elora Gorge.

Brett used over exposure to capture this landscape shooting into the sun, he got an ethereal effect by using over exposure.

Bob braved the early morning fog to capture this image. By using just the right amount of over exposure, he was able to correctly expose the foreground and leave the trees in gradations of silhouette.

Gary took a different path and used the bright light of a window to create a "high key" type effect and blow out his subject to a large extent producing this angelic image... although some might say it was a little more extra terrestreal than angelic - either way, it's out of this world...

Our Next Challenge: A Shot in the Dark
Now that we've mastered over exposure, what do you do when there is little to no light?

Under exposure is probably not a good idea in general. Blacks in a digital image tend to bring out the noise, and trying to manipulate them bring the noise out even more (yes, Bob, shooting in RAW does help a bit ;). But darkness can create a mood that is very ominous and foreboding and can enhance an image and help the viewer to focus on the subject of the image.

This month, we are challenged to create an image using large amounts of darkness. Use the darkness to create a mood. Look at some of the posters of vampires, or study how darkness is used in the Batman series of movies (the "Dark" knight) to see what I mean. The darkness might be used as a background with a lighter subject, or it may be used with a bright light behind a silhouette.

As always, be creative!

Mid-Way Shoot-Out:
Bring your lighting kit to Tammy's Video 99 store in Hespeler on November 29th at 2:00pm, and if you don't have one, don't worry, we'll share. We're going to take some time to shoot each other (with our cameras of course) in studio setups.

Next Regular Meeting: December 6th, 2009 - 6:30-8:30
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 so we can all share.

CPG Newsletter 9 - October 18, 2009

THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
This month, we welcomed Bob to our group. The discussion was lively as usual, and we all enjoyed the tips that were shared amongst ourselves as we reviewed the images from the previous month. Even as things get much busier in the fall months, we all still find opportunities to pull out our cameras and we love to share the images with each other.

If you stopped by this blog by accident and live within driving distance of Cambridge in Southern Ontario, please consider joining us. 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!)

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: Stop Action
Inspired by one of Tammy's pictures (See the September Blog), we were challenged to freeze the action. The challenge was to freeze the action so that you could see what was about to happen and anticipate it.

Brett has been hanging out at Calvary Pentecostal Church a lot lately and snapped this shot of one of the kids jumping off the climbing wall. A great example of the "Stop action" shot, it's a little hard to tell if she is suspended there, falling down or going up... but that's the fun of the image. Brett used flash to freeze this action as the exposure was a full 1/60 of a second.

Brett also showed us some images from the grand opening of the church and some shots he had from a model shoot. It was great to hear him share the challenges and highlights of his experience.

Rachel took some time to think about her shot and staged it (honest). This resulting shot is a nightmare for any photographer - that's me tripping on a curb about to smash my 50D on the concrete because I didn't put the strap around my neck! Actually, if I had really fallen, the strap probably wouldn't have saved the camera. On a nice sunny day, Rachel was able to shoot at 1/400th of a second at F/10 using ISO 400. You'll all be happy to know that no cameras were harmed in the making of this image.

Gary took a different tactic and probably strayed from the original challenge a little but had fun exploring a different setup. Using a fishbowl, black cardboard background, good sunlight and a reflector, he was able to take several good images of water splashes and bubbles, freezing the pouring water. This one had a sort of other worldly look to it. Bob made some interesting suggestions about using flash in a studio to accomplish this and I can't wait to give that a try... once I have some space to do it in. (1/512s, F/16, ISO 2500, photoshop enhanced).

Unfortunately Tammy had some technical difficulties with her images and we were unable to view them, but perhaps we will see some of them next month. If you are by the store near Hallowe'en, be sure to ask her about her hallowe'en costume pics. She'll be taking pictures of the kids in costume.

And if you are by Calvary Pentecostal Church for the Harvest Party on October 31st, Gary will be there taking pictures of the kids in costumes as well.

Our Next Challenge: Over Exposure
Also inspired by an image taken by Tammy and shown in the September blog, this month's challenge is to over expose an image. That doesn't sound hard, considering there have been millions of over exposed images over the years, but these days cameras are so smart, to over expose an image, you're going to have to go at least semi-manual and maybe even full manual. So turn off the auto and let's see what you can create.

Now that you're manual, it's relatively easy to over expose an image, but not so easy to make that over exposed image actually work - so challenge yourself to use overexposure to enhance the subject of your image, not just blow it out.

There are many ways to do this. You can explore Solarisation (Sabattier effect), or utilize clipping.

Here is an example of a portrait using overexposure, and here is another of more of a landscape style. Both demonstrate how overexposure can be used to enhance and highlight the subject while washing out detail in the background.

One final note - be careful when you google overexposure - there are some non-family friendly images that may pop up.

Mid-Way Shoot-Out
It was very difficult to come up with a good date this month - things are getting very busy - so the Mid-Way Shoot-Out this month will be done individually. The weather has been very good for shocking the trees this year and making them blush. The colours have come out brilliantly in Southern Ontario. There are plenty of opportunities to take everything from landsacpes full of amber trees, to individual leaves in all kinds of circumstances from floating on water to simply lying in the grass.

Be sure to bring your images with you to the group so that we can all enjoy your exploration of the fall colours.

Freebie of the Month!
Ever want to take your pictures and put them on DVD? Or maybe just a video that you can show on your computer, or in a powerpoint presentation? This month's freebie is a Microsoft tool to help you do just that, quickly and easily. Of course it's still flexible enough for you to express your own creativity.

The tool is Microsoft's PhotoStory (Click the link for the XP version). Just load your images into the tool. You can change the order, change the transitions, add your own music or auto generate music, change the play time for each slide, add text, and even do some basic fixing of the images.

Next Regular Meeting: November 8th, 2009 - 6:30-8:30
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 so we can all share.

CPG Newsletter 8 - September 13, 2009

THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
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.

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.

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.

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/.

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.

CPG Newsletter 7 - August 9, 2009

THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP
This month saw us out on a treck with the world's largest social photographic event in history. Over 900 cities and 32,000 people participated in Scott Kelby's World Wide Photo Walk. Our photo group organized and attended the Cambridge Ontario walk. This awesome event brought out about 15 people to our event, allowed us to meet with some great amature photographers, have a fun and interesting walk around a beautiful part of Cambridge, and take some great pictures. You can see these pictures posted on the World Wide Photo walk site for Cambridge.

This week, we moved out of Gary's basement and into a real "Studio", joining with the CLICK (Camera Lovers in Cambridge and Kitchener) group led by Tammy Burden. We met at her Video 99 store in Hespeler. Future meetings will be held there, and members should note the change in location and dates going forward.

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 otehr. 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 "Signs" - funny, creative, and interesting signs. It seems there were not too many people that got photos of signs to show this month.

There was a lot of discussion, surrounding Brett's long exposure shot demonstrating speed as the cars flew by the 80km/hr sign on this road. Some thought the car looked a lot like a bullet train! It was very impressive that he was able to get such a long exposure in such bright daylight.

Gary also seemed to follow an unimplied transportation theme with this image. It would also seem that if you are a bicycle, you are authorized to park where cars are not permitted. This shot was taken in the Marineland parking lot in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Unfortunately, Rachel did not get a sign picture, but she did, coincidentally, continue the transportation theme. She showed us several wonderful sunset photos she took at Sauble Beach, including this one of a bicycle silouhette. Great composition!

Tammy got a head start on next month's challenge (though she didn't know she was doing so) as she shared some interesting shots of flowers. She shared how difficult it can be to do this really effectively, as depth of field can be a challenge. Sunlight and lighting in general can also present their own challenges as you try to minimize shadows and highlight detail.

Our Next Challenge: Flowers
This one makes Rachel very happy - her favorite subject! (and Tammy, no cheating now - it has to be taken this month). Not as easy a challenge as you might think either: This month's challenge is to take a great picture of a flower, or flowers. Little ones, big ones, in between ones. Colourful ones, dull ones. Ones from your back yard, or ones from the professional horticulturists. There are so many choices, and now that Summer has finally reached Southern Ontario, we should finally see some blossoms.

Mid-Way Shoot-Out
Our outing for August will be the A&W classic car rally on Thursday night. There will be some gleaming chrome and very proud owners to shoot. We will meet together at the A&W on Hespeler Road to talk with the organizers before moving out to shoot the cars. Be prepared to get some info and make some prints for the drivers of the cars. (Date and Time to be added soon).

Freebie of the Month
Well, perhaps everyone knows about it already, but a Flickr account is a great way to share your images on line, and the basic account is free! So why not sign up for an account and start showing the world your photography? If you're part of the Cambridge Photo Group (or CLICK), you can join the Flickr group and post your images to the group pool - these images are then, in turn, displayed on this blog!

Next Regular Meeting: September 13th, 2009
We will meet as usual between 6:30-8:30pm at the Video 99 store in Hespeler - meet us down back. See you there! Bring a friend and bring your photos on a memory stick, or in print.