Author: fotohiker

webs are for spiders

From Polar Bears to Penguins

Chris Roebuck photographing a seal on an ice floe

The next meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday, September 11, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. Join us for socializing at 6 pm. The meeting and presentation will start at 6:30 pm. Please enter the Church through the side door next to the parking lot. This month’s presentation will feature Chris Roebuck, whose program will be From Polar Bears to Penguins.

Chris’s presentation chronicles four expeditions to photograph these creatures found near the poles. This included two trips to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada to photograph Polar Bears and other Arctic wildlife. Chris did one of these trips in the early winter season, and the second in sunny summer, to catch the wildflowers as well as wildlife. Chris will also show photos and experiences from two trips to Antarctica. The first of these was unsuccessful, ending in tragedy due to a boating accident, and an immediate return to port.  The second attempt was a successful Antarctic expedition to photograph landscapes, penguins, and wildlife while visiting the seventh continent.

Chris Roebuck is a student of the photographic arts. After retirement he returned to school to learn about digital imaging. He has dedicated his remaining years to photographing beauty and traveling the world to experience wilderness, wildlife, and the accompanying excitement this provides. Chris Roebuck resides in Pagosa Springs and has been a Photography Club member for several years. 

The presentation will be followed by our monthly image share, for which Photography Club members may bring up to five images each to share and discuss. This meeting will also be available remotely on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to Photography Club members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

Don’t forget about the photography excursion to northern New Mexico to see and photograph arches near Aztec. This will be on Friday, September 5. There are numerous photogenic arches in this part of New Mexico, and we will visit and photograph several of them on this trip. Club members interested in going on this outing should let Greg Heid know (goheid@yahoo.com). We will meet at his place at 8 am on the 5th.  

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes everyone who enjoys making and viewing great photography. The Club sponsors educational programs, image sharing and discussion, and outings to help our members improve their photography.  Membership is just $25/year. For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

7th Annual Digital Photography Contest

The 2024 Pagosa Springs Photography Club Digital Photography Contest is now open for entries. The Contest is open to all Photography Club members in good standing. New or renewing members may join the Club at the time they enter the contest. The submission deadline is October 9, 2024, and prizes will be presented at an Awards Celebration on November 13. As in previous years, members may submit up to 6 photos (2 per category) for a flat fee of $10.  You only need to submit your digital image files, not prints. The top three images in each category will receive ribbons and cash prizes at the Awards Celebration, and all entries will be displayed at that time. There will be “People’s Choice” voting on the images entered, as well.

This year there will be three categories: Nature (landscapes, wildlife, flowers, etc); Portraits (which may be of people, pets, or other domestic animals), and Manmade/Other, (architecture, trains and cars, street photography, abstract, etc.) See below to obtain the contest guidelines and entry form. 

If you haven’t entered the contest previously, this is a great opportunity to get feed back, both from the judge and from other Club members, about your images. Our goal with this contest is not only to recognize members for their talent, but also to encourage everyone to share their best work with the group. So select your best images and submit them!

For contest guidelines, and directions on entering your images, click here . The guidelines have instructions on how and where to submit your files. Then, download a contest entry form here: https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-pspc-contest-entry.pdf and fill it out with your entries. Note: you should be able to fill in the information on the entry form using the text tool of Adobe Acrobat Reader or Mac Preview. The best way to submit your images is to use the Dropbox link in the entry form, but you may also bring entries on a flash drive to the PSPC Sept 11 or Oct 9 meetings. 

AI in Photography, August 14

Night sky at Chimney Rock, de-noised using AI (© Dave Anderson)

The August  meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday, August 14, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. Join us for social time at 6 pm; the meeting will start at 6:30 pm. Please enter the Church through the side door next to the parking lot. This month’s presentation will feature Dave Anderson, speaking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Photography. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now in common use in digital photography. One example of AI use is adding functionality to digital cameras including face, eye, and other subject recognition and tracking, scene recognition, and intelligent automatic cameras. AI is also used for post-processing images, including reducing noise, sharpening, digital enlargement and removing minor imperfections. Generative AI is being combined with digital photographic images to add, delete, replace or modify objects, to expand overly-cropped images, turn single images into panoramas, change the image background, or to change the style of a photographer’s images, blurring the line between photography and digital art. Dave’s presentation will discuss the main AI approach to image analysis and classification, Convolutional Neural Networks. He will also cover use of two generative AI approaches to image modification, Generative Adversarial Networks and Diffusion models, as well as AI-based defensive measures to combat uninvited image web-scraping for training sets. A number of examples will be used to illustrate these approaches.

Dave Anderson has a wide range of experience in photography, from film to digital imaging and uses both medium format and standard dSLRs. He has been a member of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club for several years.

The presentation will be followed by our monthly image share, for which Photography Club members may bring up to five images each to share and discuss. This meeting will also be available on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes everyone who enjoys making and viewing great photography to join us. The Club sponsors educational programs, image sharing and discussion, and outings to help our members improve their photography.  For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

July Meeting, All About Weather

Dramatic clouds near Pagosa Springs, by Shawn Prochazka

The July  meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday, July 10, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. We will begin with social time at 6 pm, and the meeting will start at 6:30 pm. Please enter the Church through the side door next to the parking lot. This month’s presentation will feature Arleen and Shawn Prochazka , of the Pagosa Weather team, discussing weather topics of interest to photographers . 

When it comes to landscape photography, weather and light can make or break an image. Some of our most dramatic lighting in the Four Corners can come during or after summer monsoon storms. Arleen and Shawn from Pagosa Weather will give a weather presentation focused on clouds, determining the ideal photographer’s light, and a peak at the summer monsoon forecast. Pagosa Weather is a nonprofit weather forecasting and community outreach program, and is your local source for weather. Arleen and Shawn love to share their years of military weather forecasting experience. They are the National Weather Service (NWS) Archuleta County Weather Ready Nation (WRN) ambassadors, and also the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network coordinators for Archuleta County. Both Shawn and Arleen members of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and members of the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce.

The presentation will be followed by our monthly image share, for which Photography Club members may bring up to five images each to share and discuss. This meeting will also be available on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes everyone who enjoys making and viewing great photography. The Club sponsors educational programs, image sharing and discussion, and outings to help our members improve their photography.  For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

2D Photography-June Meeting

The June meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday June 12, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. We will begin with social time at 6 pm, and the meeting will start at 6:30 pm. This month’s presentation will be by Joe Sinclair.  Joe will discuss techniques and tips for photographing flat subjects, or 2D Photography, such as documents or paintings. 

Joe Sinclair has been a member of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club for several years. In addition, he is a member of the Napa Valley Photographic Society in California. He has been photographing for 60 years with both film and digital cameras, and has received numerous awards for his photos. As photographers, it is often a challenge to represent our three dimensional world in a two dimensional photograph. However, in this presentation, Joe will discuss the challenge of accurately photographing two dimensional subjects. He will explore techniques and considerations for two-dimensional photography (photography of flat objects) that while simple to do are important to understand. The talk will then relate two-dimensional photography to normal photography, an understanding that is very useful for improving one’s skills as a photographer.

The presentation will be followed by our member’s image share. Photo Club members may bring up to five images to show and discuss with the group. Please bring these on a thumb drive. They should be saved as jpeg files of at least 2000 pixels on the long edge. 

This meeting will also be available on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes everyone who enjoys making and viewing great photography. The Club sponsors educational programs, images sharing and discussion, and outings to help our members improve their photography.  For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

May Photography Club Meeting

Western Bluebird on a Perch near Pagosa Springs

The next meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday May 8, at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis St. We will begin with social time at 6 pm, and the program will begin at 6:30 pm. This month’s program will be presented by Keith Bruno, who will discuss Birds, Birding and Conservation Photography. 

Keith Bruno is the Southwest Colorado Community Naturalist for Audubon Rockies, and is based in Pagosa Springs. Keith works also closely with the Weminuche Audubon Society here in Pagosa Springs. He develops and runs a variety of education programs in the region. Keith enjoys teaching about birds, native plants, pollinators, food security, snow science, and generally anything that gets him outdoors. He has a Master’s Degree in natural resources from the University of Idaho and has worked throughout the west.

This meeting will also be available on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

As usual, the presentation will be followed by our member’s image share. Photo Club members may bring up to five images to show and discuss with the group. Please bring these on a thumb drive. They should be saved as jpeg files of at least 2000 pixels on the long edge. 

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. The club sponsors educational programs and outings to help our members improve their photography.  For more information about the club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .