Nine Photography Club members traveled to Moab, UT, Feb 20-23, 2024 to photograph in the area. Most of our outings were to Arches NP for sunrise or sunset sessions, plus one to the Island in the Sky region of Canyonlands NP. The first evening’s weather wasn’t great, but otherwise we had lots of good options in a very photogenic area. It was a good opportunity to learn from one another, see some majestic landscapes, and get some good images.
Here are a few sample images from Club members Doug Coombs, Al and Jo Myatt, Andy Butler, Lisa Tedder, and Chris Plemons. Check back, this is a live document and more photos will likely be posted. Click on any image to view a larger version, navigate through using your arrow keys.
The February meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Feb 14 at the Community United Methodist Church. Come at 6 PM for socializing; the presentation will begin at 6:30 PM. This month, we will have a presentation by Doug Coombs on Masking in Lightroom.
Lightroom (LR) introduced very powerful new masking tools in October of 2022. Learning to use these new tools is a game changer for photographers who are serious about post processing. Before this, LR had masking but it was not nearly as powerful as tools in Photoshop (PS). When you shoot a photo with your phone, the manufacturer’s software is using sophisticated algorithms to post-process it. If you shoot .jpg in your camera, your camera is doing the same. Ansel Adams was a master at post-processing in the darkroom and altered his original image greatly to take it beyond journalism to fine art.
Today we can do much more, with more control and more options digitally, which has raised the bar considerably. People used to ask me if a photo was “photoshopped”, as if post-processing in Photoshop (PS) is somehow cheating. All fine art photos of all sorts have been post-processed from the beginning of photography, at least to adjust overall light balance, contrast and emphasis. LR and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) use the same photo processing engine. LR is separate from PS and includes many photography-specific tools. PS incorporates ACR with many additional tools in PS itself, often used after post-processing in ACR. In terms of processing a raw photo, ACR and LR are basically equivalent. Doug will discuss the masking tool in LR and ACR from the LR perspective and then demonstrate how he has processed some photos using LR masking. It is not uncommon for him to use multiple masks in a photo. Each mask is considered a local adjustment and emphasizes some particular aspect of the photo. It could be an animal’s eye, head or portion of its body. It could be the sky, foreground or band of vegetation in a landscape. It could be part of a person’s face including eyes, lips, teeth, cheeks and more. Doug will provide useful links from YouTube at his presentation.
Even if you don’t use LR or ACR, masking is a universal tool found in other post-processing software, so this presentation should be useful.
The photo of the eagle below, has four masks.
The naturescape below, has three masks.
This program will also be available via Zoom. Members will receive an email with the Zoom link, others may request it by email (abutler@mac.com).
The Pagosa Springs Photography Club welcomes all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. The Club sponsors educational programs and outings to help photographers hone their skills. For more information about the club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .
Several members of the Photography Club spent Dec 10-13, 2023 on a Club outing in Socorro, NM. We photographed at nearby Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and at Ladd S Gordon Waterfowl Complex, at Bernardo. These refuges are wintering areas for waterfowl, including Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. This year, there was a new pond at Bernardo, which succeeded in attracting large numbers of waterfowl.There were thousands of birds, good blast-offs at the “Flight Deck”, mammals, and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Overall, another fun and productive outing.
Here are a few sample images from Club members Adrienne Disbrow, Dave Anderson, Andy Butler, and Doug Coombs. Click on any image to view a larger version, navigate through using your arrow keys.
The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will meet on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 6:30 p.m., at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs. Feel free to arrive any time after 6 p.m. for socializing.
Our January program will be Top Ten: Show and Tell. This has been a popular program, where members may bring up to ten of their photographs taken in 2023 for brief discussion. These might be what you consider your best, your most interesting, or your most challenging photos of the year. This is a good exercise in selecting your best images of the year. The goal is to inspire Club members through a conversation about what makes great images, including aspects such as composition, impact, and technical quality. This will be a more extensive discussion than what we typically have during our image share sessions (which we won’t do this month). Please bring your images to the meeting on a flash drive, or (if attending by Zoom) email them by the evening of January 9 to abutler@mac.com.
This will be a hybrid meeting, also 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 .
Did you get a new camera or lens for Christmas? What better way to learn more about photography and get tips on your gear than by joining the Photography Club! The Pagosa Springs Photography Club promotes educational, social and fun interactions between all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. The club sponsors educational programs and outings to help photographers hone their skills and learn from each other. The Club’s membership year begins in January. Dues remain at $25 per year ($35 family). The membership form may be downloaded and mailed in with your payment (instructions are on the form) or brought to a Club meeting.
On October 11, the Pagosa Springs Photography Club held an Awards Celebration in conjunction with its Sixth Annual Digital Photography Contest. The Celebration was held at the PLPOA Clubhouse. The contest included four categories: Creative, Landscape, Nature, and People. Images in each category were evaluated by impartial judges on the basis of composition, impact, and technical quality. In addition, Club members voted to determine “People’s Choice” winners for each of the four categories. During the evening, we enjoyed a pizza dinner, socializing and viewing all of the entries in this year’s competition.
In the Creative category, winners were:
1st Place: Gregg Heid, Drafty Wall
2nd Place: Dave Anderson, Aster Zoom
3rd Place: Adrienne Disbrow, Flower
Honorable Mention, Andy Butler, Aspen Glow
In the People’s choice voting for creative images, 1st place went to Anderson’s Aster Zoom, 2nd to Scott Galabota for Fleur de Matisse, and 3rd to Heid’s Drafty Wall.
People’s Choice favorites in the Landscape group were Coombs’ Bosque sunrise (1st) and his Monument Valley (2nd). Anderson’s Williams Creek Reservoir was 3rd in People’s Choice voting.
In the People genre, the top photos were:
1st Place: Andy Butler, Dune Runner
2nd Place: Chris Roebuck, The Portrait
3rd Place: Barbara Jetley, Yobusame Girl
Honorable Mention: Dave Duquemin, Baby Jackie
Honorable Mention: Scott Galabota, Clean
Results of the People’s Choice voting for this group were: 1st Place, Doug Coombs, Brazil Indigenous; 2nd Place, Roebuck’s The Portrait; and 3rd place for Jetley’s Yobusame Girl.
The November 8 meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will feature Laura Brooks, who will present and discuss her documentary Bat City USA, a video about how a Texas city overcame its fear of one of the world’s most misunderstood creatures, largely thanks to the efforts of one man. The Club’s meeting will be held at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St in Pagosa Springs. Come at 6 PM for socializing; the presentation will begin at 6:30 PM.
A giant colony of Mexican Free-tailed bats moved into an Austin, Texas bridge in the 1980’s, after a bridge reconstruction project created an ideal roosting habitat. The “bat invasion” created a media hoopla and alarm among residents worried about rabies. When the city threatened to exterminate the bats, conservationist and bat researcher Merlin Tuttle stepped in and fought to save them. Tuttle moved to Austin, then the epicenter of “worldwide bad bat publicity,” and founded Bat Conservation International to promote a positive image of bats.
Tuttle worked tirelessly to overcome opposition and change the public’s perception of bats from disease carriers to desirable creatures who help keep bugs in check. Tuttle became a pioneering bat photographer for National Geographic, developing special techniques that showed bats not as snarling beasts, but as creatures engaged in their natural ways of feeding, flying, and other behaviors. Tuttle used his striking photos as an important weapon in his battle to gain acceptance for the bats and their environmental benefits.
Thanks to Tuttle’s efforts, Austin now loves its bats. Each year, thousands of tourists are drawn to the downtown bridge for a close-up glimpse of one of the world’s largest urban bat colonies – at least one million bats.
The 54-minute documentary was directed by Laura Brooks, a Pagosa Springs resident and member of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club. Brooks has worked for years as a journalist in Central and South America and along the US-Mexico border.
Following the presentation, Club members may share and discuss up to five of their images per person with the group.
The Pagosa Springs Photography Club promotes educational, social and fun interactions between all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. The club sponsors educational programs and outings to help photographers hone their skills. We welcome photographers of all skill levels. For more information about the club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .
Pagosa Springs Photography Club 