Category: Club Meetings

Geyser & Hot Spring Photography, May 8

GiantGeyser-sm
Giant Geyser, Yellowstone NP, © Bill Johnson

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will hold Its next meeting on Wednesday May 8, at The Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street.

Join us for socializing at 6 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting and our presentation at 6:30 p.m. The Photography Club welcomes all who have an interest in photography, whether beginner or expert. 

The presentation at the May Club meeting will be by Bill Johnson, on Geyser and Hot Spring Photography. Bill will cover various topics, emphasizing the geysers of Yellowstone and how best to go about photographing them, but extending to geyser fields world-wide.  

Bill Johnson is a retired nuclear scientist who lives part-time in Pagosa Springs and part-time in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and spent most of his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory in arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, and counterterrorism.  His fundamental research interests were diverse and ranged from cosmic-ray physics to the geosciences to computer chess. Since his retirement, his volunteer activities include serving as “shopkeeper” for the Geyser Observation and Study Association (www.geyserstudy.org), an organization, “devoted to the collection and dissemination of information about geysers and other geothermal phenomena in Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere.”

Geyser photography at Yellowstone is a timely topic, not just because the national park is opening for the year, but also because several rarely seen but spectacular geysers are in an active state at this time. Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest, which after decades of near-dormancy, has been exceptionally active for the last year. Bill will be giving some tips on how best to position oneself for a chance to photograph Steamboat, other Yellowstone thermal features, and some of the world’s most famous geysers.

Club members may bring up to 10 photos on a thumb drive to share with the group after the presentation.

Processing Milky Way Images in Lightroom, April 10

Milky Way over Dunes
Milky Way over Great Sand Dunes National Park © Doug Coombs

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will hold Its April meeting on Wednesday the 10th, at The Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street.

Join us for socializing at 6 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting and presentation at 6:30 p.m.. Anyone interested in improving their photography is invited to attend, whether a novice or experienced photographer. 

The April 10 presentation will be given by Doug Coombs, on Processing Milky Way Images in Lightroom.

Doug is the chair and co-founder of the Los Alamos Adobe Users Group in New Mexico and also former chair of the Los Alamos Photography Club for nearly a decade. He has been doing photography since high school, worked as a photographer and dark room tech in college, and fell in love with digital photography in 2003. As a software engineer/developer for Los Alamos National Laboratory, post processing on a computer instead of in a darkroom came naturally. He finds the depth of digital photography and what can be done with post processing fascinating and enjoys learning about it and sharing his knowledge with others.

In his presentation, Doug will use a raw file from a Milky Way photo shoot taken in October 2018 at Great Sand Dunes National Park to go through a number of post processing steps in Adobe Lightroom. Time permitting he will show the same photo developed using Photoshop as the main tool and explain why at this point in his learning Milky Way post processing, he prefers to start in Lightroom but add Photoshop into the workflow for certain tasks.

Club members may bring up to 10 photos on a thumb drive to share with the group after the presentation, if time permits. 

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club promotes educational, social and fun interactions between all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. The Photography Club meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Community United Methodist Church at 434 Lewis Street in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Come at 6 p.m. for socializing; presentations begin at 6:30 p/m.. Members may share digital or print images following our guest speakers. Membership is just $25/calendar year for individuals and $35 for families. To join or renew, fill in the application form and mail it with a check for your dues to the address shown on the form, or bring it to one of our meetings.

Wildflowers of the San Juans, March 13

Wildflowers in Ice Lake Basin, © Susan & Dean Dussell

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will hold its next meeting on Wednesday March 13th, at The Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street.

Join us for socializing at 6 pm, followed by a brief business meeting and presentation at 6:30 pm. Both experienced and novice photographers are encouraged to attend.

The March presentation will be given by Susan Dussell. Her topic will be Wildflowers of the San Juans:  Wildflower Identification and where to find and photograph them.

Dean and Susan Dussell retired early 20 years ago and moved to Pagosa Springs.  Their interests are hiking, biking, skiing, and world travel.  Photography is a major part of those adventures.  After making it a hobby to learn all the mountain wildflowers, they lead wildflower identification walks and hikes for the Forest Service and San Juan Outdoor Club.

Take a break from shoveling and snow sports to think about the colorful wildflowers growing under all that snow.  The wildflower season should be spectacular this summer.  Learn about Susan and Dean’s  favorite wildflower destinations and hikes.

We are all very lucky to live in the San Juan Mountains where wildflowers are a photographer’s dream.

Club members may bring up to 10 photos on a thumb drive to share with the group after the presentation. 

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club promotes educational, social and fun interactions between all who enjoy making and viewing great photography. We invite photographers of all experience levels, from beginners to enthusiasts, to take part in our activities, no matter what type of camera you use. Membership is just $25/calendar year for individuals and $35 for families. The Photography Club meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Community United Methodist Church at 434 Lewis Street in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Come at 6 pm for socializing; presentations begin at 6:30 pm. Members may share digital or print images following our guest speakers. To join or renew, fill in the application form and mail it with a check for your dues to the address shown on the form, or bring it to one of our meetings. For more information about the club, see our website at pagosaspringsphotoclub.org

Using Selections, Layers, and Masks in Photoshop, Feb 13

The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will hold Its February meeting on Wednesday the 13th, at The Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis Street.

Join us for socializing at 6 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Long time photographers and those just starting out are welcome.

The February Photography Club Meeting will feature Bill Milner. His presentation is entitled, Photoshop Selections, Layers and Layer Masks for Image Enhancements.

Bill is a former commercial photographer, and will give a presentation on using selections, layers and layer masks as techniques for enhancing digital image files. Bill operated a commercial photography studio in Salt Lake City, UT for 35 years doing product, architecture and industrial photography for advertising. An early adopter of digital imaging, he has years of experience using and teaching Photoshop. He and his wife Jacquie have owned a home in Pagosa for nearly 5 years and now spend about half their time here and and half in Salt Lake. They hope to make a permanent move here by the end of this year.

All members may bring up to 10 photos on a thumb drive to share with the group after the presentation. For February, members are encouraged to bring photos on the theme of Winter.

A reminder, it’s time to pay your Club dues for 2019. Dues are $25 for an individual, or $35 for a family. You may bring your dues to one of the Club meetings, or take to Susanne Russell at the Art & Framing Center of Pagosa Springs, 235 Country Center Drive, Suite E

January 9: Photographing the Weather

The first meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club for 2019 will be held on January 9, at the Community United Methodist Church fellowship hall, 434 Lewis St. Join us for socializing at 6 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Experienced photographers and those just starting out are welcome.

Our presentation this month will be given by John Farley. He will speak about Photographing the Weather.  In his talk, John will discuss some things he has learned during more than twenty years in the field photographing interesting and unusual weather phenomena, and will share some of his favorite weather photographs.  He will cover such topics as learning about the weather, how to photograph potentially dangerous weather safely, and good Internet sources for weather information and for weather photography techniques.  He will also share some of his techniques for getting good weather photos, and will specifically discuss several different techniques for lightning photography.

John Farley is a digital photographer residing in Pagosa Springs.  Since John’s retirement in 2006 after 30 years as a sociology professor, he has turned to photography as his primary activity.  He considers the sky to be among the most interesting subjects for photography, because even in the same location, it is never the same twice.  Although John likes to shoot weather, landscape, and wildlife/animal photos, his favorite images are ones that combine two or all three of these elements in interesting ways.  John’s photography has appeared in Weatherwise and Colorado Country Life magazines, in the photo book A Year or So in the Life of New Mexico, in several of John’s sociology books, and at art galleries and exhibits in Madrid and Farmington, NM, Alton and Edwardsville, IL, and in Pagosa Springs.  His work has also been shown in the Annual New Mexico Photographic Arts Show (on six occasions), and at the Photo Arts Santa Fe Photographers Market.  John’s weather videos have appeared on the National Geographic Channel and on The Weather Channel.

For our image share this month, Club members are encouraged to bring their 10 best (or favorite) images from 2018 (OR 10 images illustrating lessons learned in photography).

November 14 Meeting, “Four Kinds of Light”

The November meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on November 14, 6 PM, at the Community United Methodist Church fellowship hall. We will view and discuss a video lesson by National Geographic photographer Michael Melford, “Four Kinds of Light in Landscapes”. Melford will touch on a few concepts of composition in addition to discussing the effects of various kinds of light on landscape photos. What are your favorite types of light?

This will be our last regular meeting of the calendar year, so there will be some Club business to attend to as well.

Each member may bring up to 10 images on a flash drive to share. This month, consider bringing at least some photos that are “all about light”, in which the lighting (natural or artificial) is a major player in the image.

The gallery of photos from the Oct 1 Chama train chase has been updated with photos from more of the participants. So even if you already looked at it, check it out again. The gallery is on our Club web site: https://pagosaspringsphotoclub.org/2018/10/20/chama-train-chase/.