developments November 2015

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1 developments November 2015 Volume 04 Issue 11 Upcoming Events: Tuesday, DAPC 1st Tuesday Meeting - Mexican Gold Poppies and Macro Photography - 7:00pm, Southwest Environmental Center. See page 1. Tuesday, DAPC November Meeting - Photo of the Year and Election of Officers - 7:00pm Southwest Environmental Center. See page 2. Tuesday, DAPC 1st Tuesday Meeting - To Be Determined to Bosque Del Apache Photo Trip, Bosque Del Apache, New Mexioc. See page 3. In This Issue Poppies... 1 Macro Photography... 2 Photo of the Year and Elections Meeting Planning... 3 Bosque Trip... 3 Facebook Featured Photo... 3 State Fair Photo Contest... 4 DAPC on Facebook... 4 DAPC Contacts... 4 Outstanding Cloud Photos... 6 Holiday Dinner... 6 All DAPC meetings take place at the Southwest Environmental Center, 275 N. Downtown Mall, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Located on the southwest corner of Main and Las Cruces. For more information about the Soutwest Environmental Center visit and consider becoming a member. MEXICAN GOLD POPPIES Poppies are attractive to photograph! On November 3rd Lisa Mandelkern will present a talk features some 50 photographs of Mexican Gold Poppies in various contexts. We will take a closer look at one of Southern New Mexico s most spectacular wildflowers. Poppies do not appear every year, they either carpet the ground in abundance or are hard to find. Lisa will explain when and where to look for Poppies and we will also get a glimpse of the physiology, distribution and ecology of these cherished desert plants. About the Photographer: Lisa Mandelkern has been a member of the Doña Ana Photography Club since 2011 and serves as the Club s Program Chair. Her background in art and art history serves her well as a naturalist and Chihuahuan Desert enthusiast; many of her photos illustrate and document wild places, plants and animals in Southern New Mexico. She also likes to explore specific digital photographic topics such as night photography, black and white photography, or HDR photography. Lisa credits her multifaceted interest in digital photography to DAPC s inspiring activities. By Lisa Mandelkern Daughters of the Sun Photographer Lisa Mandelkern MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY WITH FOCUS STACKING By Paul Bosselait When photographing small objects or three-dimensional objects, it is difficult to have the object in focus throughout the entire object. That is where focus stacking may be used. At the November 3rd meeting Paul will

2 show you the setups he uses for each of the different items he photographed. He will then show the steps to take to get the focus stacking. Finally, he will compare several items taken with and without focus stacking. Paul was born and raised in Massachusetts, and relocated to Las Cruces in 1992 and has been involved in photography since the 1960 s. After joining the photography club two years ago, he helped out with the symposium and training sessions for DAPC. He enjoys traveling to new locations and trying out new photography skills and has won several ribbons in various club contests. Dragon s Claw: A comparison of a focus stacked image with a one shot image of a dragon s claw holding a crystal ball. Photographer Paul Bosselait Guatemala Textile Cocoon: Showing the size of a cocoon (5/8 long) that was found attached to a textile bag from Guatemala, Photographer Paul Bosselait PHOTO OF THE YEAR AND DAPC ELECTIONS By Eileen Vanwie DAPC Photo and Photographer of the Year Members in good standing in the Doña Ana Photography Club submitted up to three of their best digital images for Photo of the Year and Photographer of the Year. There are two categories in this year s competition Monochrome and Color. Judges will give feedback about the photographs that are submitted, while also picking their three favorite photos. Club members will 2 Star Trek Deep Space 9 Ships: A focusstacked image compared with a non-focus stacked image. Photographer Paul Bosselait enjoy this activity and get some ideas for personal growth, whether or not they have entered the competition, it is always Golden - Photographer Lisa Mandelkern a good time and you have a unique opportunity to learn some new techniques to use in your own work. Participants at the meeting will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite photo for the People s Choice Award. So join us at the November 17th meeting to see if you or your friends have won a ribbon and enjoy some wonderful photographs. Election of Officers - DAPC Bylaws state: The Officers of the club shall be elected annually and shall consist of the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. An annual meeting shall be held during the month of November, at which time Officers for the next calendar year shall be elected. The following officers are willing to serve another year and are up for election at the November 17th Meeting: President Erik Winter Vice-President Rob Peinert Secretary Open/Needed Treasurer Debbie Hands Profile - Photographer Lisa Mandelkern Additional nominations may be made and voted on at the meeting. Head of a Screw: This compares a small three-dimensional object that has been focus stacked with one that is just a single shot. Photographer Paul Bosselait

3 HELP PLAN DAPC S 2016 PROGRAM! By Lisa Mandelkern, Dapc Program Chair It is time to start thinking about Dona Ana Photography Club s program for The yearly club program comes together as a group effort of photography club members. If you have a program suggestion, please talk to me at club meetings (Look for my name tag that says: Programs ), or send me an at programs@daphotoclub.org. We are looking for: 1. Speakers from the community, such as artists, professionals, educators and students. Who do you know, or have heard about? 2. Talks by photo club members. Are you an expert in a photographic technique, such as (just to name a few), shooting portraits, photographing landscapes? Have you worked with advanced photographic techniques, such as flash photography, HDR or focus stacking? Are you an expert in any of the popular photo-editing programs, such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, LR, Picasa or others? Would you like to prepare an in-depth talk (as short as 10 minutes!) on any feature in these programs? Could you give a travelogue? Do you have a body of photographic work that would fit the format of a talk? Would you like to talk about a historic or contemporary photographer, who has inspired you? Our well-received series of 10-minutes with -talks by club members have featured Tim O Sullivan, Andre Kertesz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Carol M. Highsmith, Robert Doisneau, Wynn Bullock, Aaron Siskind and Annie Leibowitz, to name a few. Many club members have exhibited their photos. What are their experiences? Many members share their photos online. How do you exhibit, organize, send and save your photos using the web? We welcome your program suggestions, even if you do not want to prepare the topic. We like to have a variety of photographic topics, and the length of a talk can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 50 minutes. We look forward to hearing from you! BOSQUE DEL APACHE PHOTO TRIP By Eileen Vanwie Anne Chase is leading a group of DAPC photographers on a trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge located along the Rio Grande near San Antonio, New Mexico the first weekend in December (December 4-6, 2015). This is a perfect time to view a large number of migrating birds with fewer visiting photographers after the Festival of the Cranes in November. Participating DAPC photographers will meet at the Bosque Visitor s Center at 4:00 pm on Friday, December 4th and return to Las Cruces on Sunday, December 6th. Individuals may come and go on their own schedules as well. Anne has rooms reserved at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Socorro, if you plan to make reservations there, mention her name for the $89/night rate. The trip is a wonderful opportunity to see a variety of birds and other wildlife, including Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Cooper s Hawks, Coyote, and Mule Deer. If you wish to take advantage of this opportunity and have not already signed up, contact Anne Chase at achase202@gmail.com or cell phone She will provide additional information for interested individuals. Crane Reflections - Bosque del Apache, December 2014, Photographer Anne Chase Super Blood Moon Photographer Debbie Hands FACEBOOK FEATURED PHOTO By Julie Schmitt Many beautiful photocompositions were posted to the DAPC Facebook page after the September 27th Super Moon Eclipse; each one unique, each taken from different locations and by many people. This unique opportunity and challenge excited many photographer to take out their cameras and attempt to photograph this rare event! Debbie Hands was one of those 3

4 who decided to go out and photograph the eclipse and here is just one of her photos and how she did it: It s a composite of several photos I took that night. I chose photos that were at more or less even intervals to get the progression on the moon. When I was putting them together I did a separate file that had all the moon shots superimposed (like star trails) so I could get the arc right, and then chose the ones that best represented the different stages of the eclipse and placed them along the arc. ~ Debbie Hands STATE FAIR PHOTO CONTEST By Will Keener Members of the Dona Ana Photography Club placed well in the 2015 Southern New Mexico State Fair, held at the fairgrounds west of Las Cruces Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. At least six club members earned ribbons in the annual competition and member Jim Rodgers took honors for both the best of show and second best of show, both earning cash prizes. Gary Spencer noticed the riot of colors reflected in the Wenatchee River during a visit to Washington State and made this image, which earned an award of merit in the best of show competition. Jim scored a ribbon on all three of his entries. Dave Niver, a frequent winner in the club s quarterly competitions, entered 18 photos and brought home ribbons on 14. Among his winners were three blue ribbons, one red (second place), and one white (third place.) Gary Spencer earned an award of merit for best of show and a blue ribbon for his single entry, an abstract shot of reflections in the Wenatchee River. Other winners included Will Keener, with two blue and three red ribbons, Paul Bosselait, and Steve Eberlein, who both earned honorable mention ribbons. Jim Rodgers winning entry The Wave, won best of show. It is an abstract made from a sunrise photo of the Organ Mountains. Jim modified a Photoshop technique called the swirl to create the winner. DAPC Contacts President, Erik Winter president@daphotoclub.org Vice-President, Rob Peinert vicepresident@daphotoclub.org Secretary, Kristi Dixon secretary@daphotoclub.org Treasurer, Debbie Hands treasurer@daphotoclub.org PR, Julie Schmitt publicrelations@daphotoclub.org Programs Chair, Lisa Mandelkern programs@ aphotoclub.org Member Services, Fred Moore membership@daphotoclub.org Photo Theme, Kristi Dixon themes@daphotoclub.org Newsletter, Eileen K. VanWie - newsletter@daphotoclub.org Newsletter, Robert Williams - newsletter@daphotoclub.org Exhibits, Open- exhibits@daphotoclub.org Website, Arlee Green - webmaster@daphotoclub.org Winning photographers will display some of their work during the Nov. 2 club meeting. Because the contest -- which attracted 155 entries this year -- emphasizes the photos, rather than the photographers, the winning entries are displayed at the fair without the names. So it is possible other club members also participated, but are unknown to the author at the time this article was written. DAPC is on Facebook DACC has also set up a Facebook page and we are encouraging everyone to like the page and to submit your photos for quick review and comments from other members. Go to com/groups/ / to sign up or visit our website (daphotoclub.org) and connect from there. DAPC is a proud member of the PSA and we encourage you to consider becoming an individual member of PSA for more information please visit their website at and see what they have to offer. 4

5 for photos taken with cell phones for next year s competition. Once judges have worked their way through the categories, they consider all the winners for the best of show honors. Several of these honors include cash premiums for the winners. Among the tips for photographers, Greg mentioned making sure your photo is sharp and free of date and time stamps that some cameras put on photos. He also said that larger prints are favored by the judges because they better show off pertinent details in the photos. Rules for submissions are spelled out on the fair s website each year. Another blue-ribbon winner from David Niver was this shot of seagulls made along the coast near Baltimore, Maryland. Judges this year included local photographer Mike Groves, El Paso photographer Richard Ondrovic, and Las Cruces Sun- News photographer Jett Loe. Greg Groves, of Picture Frame Factory Outlet, is the superintendent for the photo contest. He said participation was down slightly this year, with about 180 photos submitted in Judges look at all the entries in a given category and identify their top choices before going on to another category, Greg explained. In all there are seven categories in the contest, doubled to 14 categories, since there is a color and black and white group for each category. Categories include: Nature, Animals, Landscape-Scenic, People, Special Effects, Still Life, and Miscellaneous. Greg is also considering a category I hope that this can be a fun contest for years to come, says Greg. He is planning a new tag system next year that will hide the photographers names until the judging is complete and then will reveal the names once the judging is finished. It will also include a claim tag to be presented when entrants pick up their photos. This will solve a few issues for us and for those who wish to see the names, he says. We try to conceal the photographers identities while the judging takes place so that there is no concern of showing favoritism. David Niver said entering the contest and attending the fair to study the winners provides a good opportunity to learn more about his craft. While the judges and their choices can vary widely, the process of picking out entries and tracking their success is worthwhile, Dave believes. It is hard to know what the judges will select when entering, agrees Jim Rodgers. I was quite surprised that my abstract was chosen for best of show. But it is good to participate and get some recognition for your work. Jim Rodgers second Best of Show photo, is a reflection shot made shortly after sunrise at Bosque Del Apache on a club trip last December. David Niver s blue ribbon winner was taken on a photo recon outing, when he noticed winds were lifting the ears of his dog, Snickers. 5

6 OUTSTANDING CLOUD PHOTOS By Julie Schmitt Clouds were the theme for October and they played a dramatic roll in many of the 56 photos submitted by DAPC members at the October 20th meeting. Here are some highlights from the presentation. Dave Brown adds a sense of calm with Gulf Sunset. Will Keener s Clouds1 looks like a tsunami wave pouring over the mountains. Michael Walsh sent in Sometimes Even Mountains Aren t as Big as I Thought They Were, where clouds dwarf the Organs. Debbie Hands created a comical image with Clouds & Pink Elephants - do you see the 4th elephant? DAPC ANNUAL HOLIDAY DINNER Coming in Early December Plans are being made for the annual DAPC Holiday Dinner on December 1st. It s always an enjoyable time and with some good friends. You ll want to try to be there, so keep an eye out for more details as things are arranged. Robert Peinert s entry Storms Coming covers a wide expanse. 6