February full of Peace and Love

Our next meeting will be on February, 19th at 7:00 PM in the meeting room. Tom Smith will give a presentation on Wildlife photography and Tim O'Shaunacy (spelled wrong) will share some tips on photo editing. Bring some paper and a pen so you can take notes.

The assignment for the month is Peace and Love. You can look at this from several perspectives;  search for physical examples of peace and love like hearts and peace signs, show examples of peace and love in action such as people hugging, smiling, doing for others, and then there is the more esoteric like how you feel when you see something such as a beautiful sunset, a crocus coming up through the snow, or your pet sleeping in the sunlight.

In March, we will have our show-and-tell at the first meeting and then John Dickinson will give a presentation on how to photograph water drops on the cheap at the second meeting.

Water, Water, What did you see? Fibonacci Looking at Me

Last night was great fun. Colorful water, laughter, learning, and practicing. We added a new member. Welcome Megan.

Colored Water photo by Tracy Coyle

I hope everyone was able to capture something fun to share at our next meeting. We will meet on February 5th for a show-and-tell. Our meeting coordinators for February are Tom Smith and Tim O'Shaugnessy. I wonder what they have planned for our meeting?

Our December photo assignment was Bokeh. The new assignment/challenge for January is Fibonacci and shapes. (See previous posts for details.)

Fibonacci in Nature photo by Tracy Coyle

Hello 2014 and our Three Year Anniversary

Sycamore Photo Club celebrates it's 3 year anniversary at our next meeting. I guess that means that many of the group will also celebrate three years of photo club, learning, and making  new friends. I wonder if we will gain some new friends/members again this year?

It should be a fun evening, Candi and I will be hosting the meeting with a short presentation on photographing colored water and then we will all practice the techniques. Be sure to bring your camera; a macro lens and tripod if you have them. If you don't have the macro lens or tripod, bring your camera so you can play and figure out ways to make close up photography work for you.

In addition to our 3 year anniversary, we will be saying farewell, to one of our members as she takes off for a warmer climate. Cathi Ruen will be leaving us for Arizona. I know that she will still be a member in spirit and may even start up a group with Scott Erwin who also moved out there a couple years ago.

I have set a 2014 photography challenge for myself. Here is a link to my personal blog post about the monthly challenge. If you read the post when I first put it up, please note that I have filled it out a bit more providing more detail about my plans for each month.

If you want to become a better photographer, the Number 1 thing that you can do, is do more photography. Number 2 is try new thing, Number 3 is to read about photography, Number 4 is to go back to number 1. I encourage everyone to find a challenge that is just right for them. If you like mine, I am happy to share and would love to see what and how you are doing.

Happy Photographing!

Happy December

We will not be meeting for Photo Club again until January 15th. I hope your holidays are filled with wonderful photo opportunities.

The assignment for December/January is Bokeh.

Dinosaurs like Bokeh too.

Our photo exhibit theme for our next exhibit also happens to be Bokeh. We would love to hang your work in the exhibit. I will hang the new exhibit on December 18th around 4:00 pm. Please stop by with your ready to hang image by that time. If you are available and want to help me hang the new exhibit, that would be great too.

At our January 15th meeting, we will be playing with photographing colored water. so bring your camera and tripod for some hands-on learning fun.

This is one way to photograph colored water.

What Happened and What's Happening: Meetings, Exhibits, and Schedules

Last night was fun. We had a small group, but some great learning and conversation about HDR, photo editing software, and workflow with editing. We also talked a bit about backing up our photos and how we do it.

Thank you to Terry and Lucio for putting together a presentation on HDR. I am hoping to get a copy of that presentation to post here on the blog for people who what to refer back to the meeting and for those who were not able to attend.

We will be hanging a new exhibit in the middle of December. The theme is Bokeh. If you want to show your work, please bring a framed print (suggested 11x14) or larger to add to the exhibit. Also, bring or even better, email a little bio of you and description of your work. Submit work for inclusion in the exhibit by Dec. 18th to Sarah at the library. I could use a couple of helpers to hand the exhibit on the 18th.

A little example of Bokeh

We will be meeting on December 4th for our Show-and-Tell.  At this time, there is not a plan to meet on the 18th. We will keep you posted if that changes. The assignment this month is Huskies. We also learned about HDR. Are you trying it? What have you learned, what do you want to know? Need help? At the library, we have the book Practical HDR: A complete guide to creating High Dynamic Range images with your digital SLR by David Nightingale. Call number: 775 NIG. Stop by and check it out.

Another book you may find of interest is Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques by Harold Davis. Call #: 778.324 DAV.  This book will give you ideas for using the Bokeh effect and for photographing colorful water drops.

In January, we will not be meeting on January 1st. At our January 15th meeting, we will be taking colorful water drops photos. A fun hands-on learning night so be sure to bring your camera and tripod.

November Assignment and . . .

This month's assignment: Huskies. Take that anyway you want to. There's a cool Huskie Rescue place in the area, The NIU Huskies are 9 and 0 this season, and don't forget about all those Huskie statues.

Next meeting Terry and Lucio will give a presentation on HDR photography. (November 20 at 7:00 pm in the Meeting Room)

Thanks to everyone who shared their images last night. We also have 6 photographs on display in our Autumn exhibit. There's room for more. Feel free to bring one in for us to add to the exhibit.

30 Day Photography Challenge

At Photo Club, we pick an assignment each month so that we have something to keep us focused in this busy world. As much as we all love photography, sometimes the world gets in the way and our cameras sits unused. So, with a monthly assignment, we have one small thing to strive for beyond the daily grind.

There are many 30 day photo challenges available to keep us occupied as well. On occasion, several of my photography friends and I have taken a list to jump start our motivation and keep our mind focused on photography. Five days ago, several members of the group embarked on a new 30 day challenge.

Photo Challenge List from Pinterest

I invite you to join the challenge. You can start with day one or start today with Day 5 and work your way back around. I put my photos up on my Facebook page where I have created a photo album for the challenge so that all the images will be in one place. You can create a set on Flickr, Facebook, or Pinterest. You can do it from home and share a few next month at our meeting. It's up to you.

If you are not into photo challenges, that is OK too. No requirements here. Just an invitation.

This is my Rule of Thirds image for Day 2. For me, I am not sure that I would have made it out to get the shot, if I had not been doing this challenge.

Side Note: I am only sharing my images at this time because I need permission from you to share your images. I would love to show off photo club members work on this blog. Please email me with images if you would like to share them.