World Photography Day 2009

Jerry Barkley Wins Again!

Yellow Legs Shorebird that won a Best-in Show this Dec. at the Core Sound Decoy Festival .

WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY MEMBER CONTEST

The winner of our World Photography Day contest was club President Ed Hall. He was presented a beautiful wood frame by Adrian Henson Photography at our September meeting. Many thanks to all who entered and Adrian says he looks forward to holding the contest again next year.



The winning shot by Ed Hall

Summer Activities by Member

My husband Alan and I visited family in Central Florida and visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Judy H

I have been shooting what I at first took for jellyfish, later learned from an expert that they are Atlantic seanettles. While they may vary in color and size, they are all the same species. I found their natural colors boring so I colored them with Photoshop.
Joel A

Summer Activities by Members

We stayed in Oriental and fished a LOT.
Adrian H
Adrian Henson Photography
















I attended a family reunion.

Nancy B














I've been taking photos of some very high end properties for our firm's "Luxury Portfolio" listings.

Bob Dumon
P.S. If you're in the market for a larger home, the one with the yacht in back is a mere $849,000! : )















I visited the NC Zoo

MKS
MoKa Photos

Photo Magic Tuesdays

Here's a look at the work club member Jim Giles has done this summer.

Photo Magic Tuesdays
The Photo Magic Tuesdays Class provided an opportunity for young people, 8-12, to learn how cameras work and how to take great pictures. The class ran four consecutive Tuesdays from July 3 to July 24, 2007 in the Library auditorium. Fran Benninger, the head of the Library Children’s Program sponsored the class as part of the Library’s Summer Reading Program.
About a dozen young people took advantage of the opportunity to learn from long-time photographer, Jim Giles. Jim showed the students how cameras work in much the same way as their eyes do. He also showed them the right camera techniques they should use to take good pictures. The high point of the class was a photo competition. Jim and the library provided each student a single-use 35mm camera. Each student then used his or her camera for their first photo assignment: pictures of people, places, or things. (Pets could count as “people” for this contest!) Jim had the film processed at the CVS in Grantsboro by Dave Brown another CPC member.

The student’s work was outstanding. The outside judges had a difficult job sorting through many excellent entries. It was inspiring to see that young people have such an intuitive eye for taking interesting, creative images with just a basic camera. Sorting through more than 150 images, Michaela King won first prize, John G. Hines III second and Mariah Meador third.
The Library may sponsor a similar program for the 2008 Summer Reading Program. The Library is also looking for available grants to assist with providing cameras and film processing so that more young people can get a start in photography.
Instructor Biography
Jim Giles has owned a home in the Sail Loft subdivision near Oriental since 1993 and has been a full-time County resident since 2000. Jim is an avid photographer and member of the Coastal Photo Club. Jim likes mentoring people of all ages to improve their photography skills. In addition to presentations to his club, Jim has taught young people photography in the HeartWorks After School Program at Fred Anderson Elementary School and in the Pamlico County Public Library Summer Reading Program.

Jon Derby & Friend's Summer's Work

There's Nothing Like a Carousel

Here's another digital image from the NC Zoo. This was produced from a photo of the lion on the Zoo's Carousel.

Before and After

The difference, imagination.

Depth of Field

First of all, please accept my apology for taking so long to start this BLOG. When we had the workshop in Oriental, one of the more confusing terms we used was Depth of Frield. I thought this would be an appropriate term with which to begin.
Simply defined, Depth of Field is the distance between the nearest object in sharp focus and the furthest object in sharp focus. The Depth of Field is controlled by the aperture size. The smaller the aperture, the greater the Depth of Field. With each change of the aperture by full f-stops, the Depth of Field will be halved or will double, depending on the direction of the change.
To clarify, a change from f 8 to f 11 will decrease the aperture size by half, allowing half the light to strike the film plane or the sensor, and will double the Depth of Field. Conversely, a chance in the opposite direction, from f 8 to f 5.6 will allow twice as much light to reach the film plane or sensor, but will reduce the Depth of Field by half.
Another factor in the Depth of Field is the focal length of the len. Depth of Field decreases as the focal length increases. Thus wide angle lenses exhibit a greater Depth of Field than telephoto lenses.
Most single lens reflex cameras, whether film or digital, allow several choices for exposure settings. The two that I use more than others are the Av (aperture variable) and the Tv (time or shutterspeed variable). When viewing a scene, you must make a determination of how much Depth of Field is important to the scene you wish to record. If a greater Depth of Field is important to the image, I recommend using the Av setting and stopping down (decreasing aperture size) as far as necessary to attain the Depth of Field you desire. Many cameras have a Depth of Field preview setting, allowing you to see the Depth of Field more clearly through the view finder. Choosing the Av setting allows you to control the Depth of field directly and lets the camera decide the shutter speed. This, of course, may require the use of a tripod if the shutter speed is reduced below the free hand comfort level for sharp images.
Portraits most often require a shallow Depth of field, as this prevents the background from becoming distracting and drawing attention away from the subject. You can blur the background this way, allowing the viewer to realize, perhaps by a landmark, where the image was taken without the landmark dominating the the scene and overwhelming the subject.
I recommend experimenting. Try different uses of the Depth of Field. You'll see what a useful tool it is for improving your images.

You Know You are a Photographer When

You keep moving the ornaments to get the lighting "just right."

Merry Christmas.

Scavenger Hunt

Our competition committee came up with some really interesting (and challenging) topics for this year's hunt. If you would like to give us some ideas for next year, please leave a comment to this post.

Also if you want to tell us about your winning photo from this year's hunt, please post it and tell us who, what, when, where, why, and web.

My photo above was taken as I was printing my other photos and found that I did not have a photo for the tool category. I was opening ink cartridges with my knife because my scissors were in another room on Christmas wrapping duty. The knife was a gift that I received because I really like knives and this one, although inexpensive, has beautiful wood in the handle. It was made in Pakistan. The scribbles on the pad of paper were left from a visit from my grandson. The glass is an insulated mug that I use occassionally. (I was being good and drinking water that evening.) The monitor with the photo I just printed is on the right and the stack on the left are my photos. The photo was hand held using a fisheye lens and lit by my desk light. I put the camera on my desk to steady it. The rest is in the photo.

The scavenger hunt is a lot of work but equally a lot of fun. I love to go back and look at my year's photos and find little treasures, thus the name scavenger hunt is so very fitting.

Places for Info

Here's some links that I think you will enjoy.
For camera reviews and breaking news go to www.dpreview.com
To identify zoo or exotic animals go to http://www.durrellwildlife.org/index.cfm?a=22
For info on Nature Photography go to http://www.naturephotographers.net/index.html
For used camera equipment and good photography articles visit http://charlottecamera.com/default.asp
For info on the NC Zoo go to http://www.nczoo.org/
To learn more about the Photographic Society of America go to http://www.psa-photo.org/
To see some really great photography (caution some are "R" rated) go to http://www.pbase.com/galleries?view=popular
For photo viewing and reviews visit Photosig. This site also has "R" rated photos but it has a blocking feature to hide these photos. http://www.photosig.com/go/main;jsessionid=MJIFJNEIJHHD
And lastly, for everything else go to www.photography.com

Another Step in Our Club

We have put together a new web site and now to carry things a step further we have added a blog for our members to post and respond. We hope this site becomes a tool to get information to help you improve your skills and communicate with other club members. If you want to join the site and email posts, please use the contact page on our website and we will set you up to post and notify you when it is ready. Enjoy and Learn!