fotohiker

Creative Use of Aperture and Depth of Field

Sunrise, North Window © Andy Butler. A small aperture of f/16 was used to render the spikes of the sun star.

The next meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held Sept 13 at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis Street. Come at 6 pm to socialize with your fellow shutterbugs. The presentation will start at 6:30. The topic this month is Aperture and Depth of Field. We will watch and discuss a video on this subject by National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore. The video will discuss how to use aperture to create visual effects and control depth of field. When, and why might you want to use a shallow depth of field? What’s the effect of lens focal length on depth of field? What creative optical effects can you produce with either a low aperture such as f/2.8 or a high aperture like f/22? What is your experience? As Andy will be out of town, Vice President Gregg Heid will be hosting this meeting.

This will be a hybrid meeting. Those who can’t attend in person may request the Zoom link by email to abutler@mac.com. After the presentation, we will have a member’s image share. Please bring your images to share (up to 5 per photographer, jpeg format please) on a flash drive.

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. Dues for 2023 are just $25 ($35 family). Those who join or renew prior to September 15 are eligible to take part in our 2023 Digital Photography Contest. For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

Sixth Pagosa Springs Photo Club Digital Photo Contest

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club is pleased to announce our Sixth Annual Digital Photo Contest.

There will be four Contest categories this year: Landscape, People, Creative, and Nature. The contest is open to all current members of the Club. New or renewing members may join at the time they enter the contest. Each member may submit two images per category (up to six total), for a flat entry fee of $10. Images should be submitted as digital files. Submissions are due by September 15, 2023. Awards will be presented at the PSPC October meeting and Awards Celebration, which will be held at the PLPOA Club House on Vista Dr., on October 11, 6:00 pm. The top 3 images in each category will receive cash prizes. All entries will be displayed at the Awards Celebration. We will again have “People’s Choice” voting on the images entered, as well.

If you haven’t taken part in the contest previously, this is a great opportunity to get feed back, both from our judges 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. So pick your images and submit them!

For contest guidelines, and instruction on entering your images, go to: https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023-contest-guidelines.pdf . 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/2023/08/2023-pspc-contest-entry-1.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 Beauty and Challenges of Underwater Photography

The August meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will feature a presentation by David Lenderman on The Beauty and Challenges of Underwater Photography. The meeting be held on Wednesday, August 9, 6:00 p.m., at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs.

David’s program for the Photography Club will start with a discussion of why he is drawn to underwater photography. He will then share some major challenges of underwater photography and how dealing with these challenges has made him a better topside photographer. Next, David will demonstrate the equipment needed to get started in underwater photography. Finally, he will share a 3-4 minute music synced slide show of some of his favorite underwater images created in Indonesia, Philippines and Socorro Islands, Mexico.

David Lenderman was SCUBA certified in 1989 and fell in love with being underwater. In an attempt to share the amazing underwater world with non-diving friends and family members he began making photos underwater in the early 90s. By 1998 he decided to really work on improving his underwater photography.

As part of his drive to improve, David joined the Houston Underwater Photographic Society (HUPS) and learned a tremendous amount from the more experienced members. David ended up becoming very active in HUPS, eventually serving as board member, VP, and President. During his time as a HUPS member David has been awarded Member of the Year, Advanced Photographer of the Year and HUPS Lifetime Achievement Awards. Underwater he has photographed everything from 1/2” long pygmy seahorses to forty foot long Humpback whales. In pursuit of underwater subjects David has traveled to many exotic locations around the world. His favorite destinations are the biodiversity hotspots of Indonesia and the Philippines. David can’t be underwater all the time so he also dabbles in nature, travel and even portrait photography.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. with social time, and the program will start at 6:30 p.m. After David’s presentation, Club members may share and discuss up to five of their images with the group. This will be a hybrid meeting, both in-person and 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. Photography Club meetings are open to the public.

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. Dues for 2023 are just $25 ($35 family). For more information about the Club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

Williams Creek Reservoir Outing

Five Photography Club members did a photo walk/drive in the Williams Creek Reservoir area on June 22. It was a gorgeous day, with a few fast moving clouds in an otherwise blue sky. Our goal was to photograph mountain scenery, reflections, wild flowers and whatever else we might see. There were still a few massive patches of iris, as well as other wildflowers in bloom. We managed to find two of the elusive forest gnomes; carvings of bearded gentlemen in stumps near the lake. Below are a few photos of the day, from Dave Anderson, Andy Butler, and Joe Sinclair. Click on the photos to see larger versions.

July Presentation: “Learning to See Creatively”

The July meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday, July 12, 6:00 p.m., at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs. Our speaker this month will be Greg Holden. Greg’s topic will be Learning to See Creatively.

Greg Holden is a photographer from Longmont, Co who uses his photography to share with others how he sees the world. He enjoys creative photos of little scenes often overlooked by others rather than postcard landscapes. He often explores abandoned places and captures the details of the layers of paint and rust on a discarded automobile. Greg enjoys teaching others and sharing his passion for photography and speaks around his home in the greater Denver area, but also continues to speak and judge virtually, at clubs throughout his former home in the MD and VA areas. You can see Greg’s work on his website imagesunderfoot.com .

In his presentation, Greg will discuss his approach for finding different viewpoints in common scenes and how he creates interesting abstract images by isolating a part of a scene. Whether it is iPhone photos taken in his kitchen or DSLR images from local parks, Greg’s photos will demonstrate that you do not have to travel to exotic locations or spend hours using software manipulation to make creative images.

Our meeting will begin at 6 p.m. with socializing, and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m. 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. Photography Club meetings are open to the public.

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. Dues for 2023 are just $25 ($35 family). For more information about the club, and to download a membership application, visit our website at https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/about/ .

Coyote Hill Wildflower Outing

Although we are used to plenty of bluebird days here in the shadow of the San Juan Mountains, that isn’t always what we get. And for our June 2 wildflower outing, we had clouds and cool weather. Luckily, cloudy skies can still be great for photographing wildflowers! Several members of the Club spent the morning wandering through meadows and forests near Pagosa Springs to enjoy and photograph spring wildflowers. Thanks to Gary Webb, Rob Hagberg, Mark Guenin, Kristine Rubish, Andy Butler, Chris Plemons, and Dave Anderson for participating. Below is a sampling of the images. Click on an image to view a larger version, and use the arrows to. move from one image to the next.