Author: fotohiker

webs are for spiders

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/ .

April Photo Club Meeting

Example of a photography portfolio web site

The next meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on April 10, at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis St. We will have social hour at 6 pm, and the program will begin at 6:30 pm. This month’s program will be a discussion of Building your Photographic Website, presented by Andy Butler and Doug Coombs.

If you are a photographer, the chances are you like to share your images with others. Whether you just want to show off your photos to family and friends, want to reach a wider audience, or perhaps sell your work, there are numerous on-line tools available to help. The choice of which of these tools you might use will vary, depending on your goals. For some, social media may be enough. But if part of your audience doesn’t partake in social media, or you want a platform where you have more control over your images and their presentation, building your own website to share your photos may be the best choice. Andy will briefly discuss a variety of different platforms available for photographers to show their images, and considerations for choosing between them. Doug will then demonstrate the basics of creating a site using one popular photo hosting service, Smugmug. Doug has built a preliminary version of a Smugmug site which is available to members of the Photo Club to highlight some of your own images, which he will also discuss. 

Following the presentation, we’ll have our usual image share. Members may bring up to 5 images on a flash drive to share with the group. If attending by Zoom, please email your photos to abutler@mac.com by April 9. Please save your images as JPEG files, at a size of around 2400 pixels on the long dimension. 

Geology of Colorado

Chimney Rock, near Pagosa Springs, is an excellent example of how the geologic history of Colorado has shaped the landscape that photographers love to record. Photo © Andy Butler.

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will next meet on March 13, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. Come at 6 PM for socializing. The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM. Our featured topic this month will be the Geologic History of Colorado, presented by Jeb Baxter. The meeting is open to the public.

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

If you are a landscape photographer, then you well know how important geology is to finding photographic opportunities. Just look at the San Juan Mountains near Pagosa Springs, Chimney Rock, or the red rock canyons and arches of Utah.

Baxter’s presentation will provide an overview of the geologic history of Colorado and localities where the evidence of this history is visible in the rocks.  The talk will begin with the screening of a 25 minute video by the Interactive Geology Project.  The video will then be followed by an explanation of key geologic processes and additional evidence of geologic history in the Four Corners region.  The talk is designed to provoke discussion with the audience and questions are welcomed throughout.

James Baxter is a retired professional geologist and professor of geology, who now lives in Pagosa Springs.  He earned a BS in Geological Sciences at Lehigh University and MS in Geology at The Pennsylvania State University.  His professional career included 16 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry followed by 20 years on the faculty of Harrisburg Area Community College.

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