Category: Club Meetings

Seventh Annual Digital Photography Contest Results

On November 13, the Pagosa Springs Photography Club held an Awards Celebration in conjunction with its Seventh Annual Digital Photography Contest. Members attending the Celebration viewed the 101 images entered in the contest by 20 photographers. During the evening, Club members and spouses also enjoyed a pizza dinner, socializing, and discussing the photos entered and photography in general. This year the  contest included three categories: Nature, Portraits, and Manmade/other. Images in each category were judged on the basis of composition, impact, and technical quality. Our judge this year was Shanda Akin, from Durango. Akin selected the top 3 images in each category; Honorable Mention (HM) was awarded to those images within a half point (out of ten possible) of the top 3. In addition, Club members voted to determine “People’s Choice” winners for each of the categories. 

In the Portraits category, the top images were:

1st Place: Doug Coombs, Maasai Warriors

2nd Place: Kathie Disner, On the Outside

3rd Place: Scott Galabota, Playing in the Mud

HM: Herb Grover, Cattail Family

HM:  David Lenderman, Llama Kiss

HM: Andy Butler, Maasai

HM: Dave Anderson, News of Ukraine

HM: Doug Coombs, Maasai Midwife

In the People’s Choice voting for this category, 1st Place was awarded to Galabota for Playing in the Mud, 2nd Place to Coombs for Maasai Warriors, and 3rd Place to Chris Roebuck for Higher Grounds

(Click on a group of images to view them larger)

This year’s winners in the Nature category were:

1st Place: Chris Roebuck, Grizzly

2nd Place: Adrienne Disbrow, Dragonfly

3rd Place: Dave Minkel, Valles Caldera

HM: Doug Coombs, Cranes Crossing the Moon

HM: Doug Coombs, Sunrise Bear

HM: Rondi Ballard, Milky Hoodoos

HM: Rondi Ballard, Texas Totality with Clouds

HM: David Lenderman, Foxy Portrait

HM: David Lenderman, You’re Next

People’s Choice results for this category were: 1st Place, Coombs for Cranes Crossing the Moon, 2nd Place, Disbrow, Dragonfly, and 3rd place to Lenderman, Foxy Portrait.

The best images in the Manmade/Other genre were as follows:

1st Place: John Farley, Alton Bridge at Sunset

2nd Place: Doug Coombs, Kodiak Harbor

3rd Place: Chris Roebuck, My Ride

HM: Dave Duquemin, 4 July

HM: Herb Grover, July 4th Flyover

HM: David Lenderman, Night on the River

HM: Chris Plemons, Steaming in the Storm

HM: Scott Galabota, Snow Swings

The top photos in this category, based on the People’s Choice voting, were: 1st Place, Plemons for Steaming in the Snow, 2nd Place, Andy Butler for Canal Reflections, and 3rd Place went to David Lenderman’s Yokohama Street Scene.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Photography Club contest this year, and all those who helped make it a success. 

PSPC Oct 9 Meeting-Astrophotography

M-31 (Andromeda) © David Duquemin

The October meeting of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club will be held on Wednesday, October 9, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St. While the meeting will start at 6:30 pm, feel free to join us for socializing at 6 pm. Photography Club meetings are open to the public. Please enter the Church through the side door next to the parking lot. This month’s presentation will feature Dave Duquemin, speaking on Astrophotography. 

In his presentation, Dave will explain how he photographs deep space objects including distant galaxies like M-31 (Andromeda). Dave is a retired commercial airline pilot. He is a member of the Pagosa Springs Photography Club, and also enjoys building and flying airplanes. 

The presentation will be followed by our monthly image share. Photography Club members may bring up to five images each to share and discuss. This meeting will also be available on Zoom for those who can’t attend in person. The Zoom link will be emailed to members; others who wish to attend may request the link by email to abutler@mac.com .

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/ .

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/ .