Volume 60: Issue 3 March 2013

Transcription

1 THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS CAMERA CLUB MEMER OF GULF STATES CAMERA CLUB COUNCIL MEMBER OF PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA Volume 60: Issue 3 March 2013 March Field Trip French Quarter Patios 1200 Burgundy 800 Dauphine 700 Dauphine 700 Dauphine We had a total of 14 attendees on the March field trip to French Quarter Patios. We met at a house in the 1200 block of Bourbon, our host, Marylene, is a friend of Jackie Farrow and Jean Manale. Marylene graciously let us meet at her charming patio and house which dates back to After refreshments and some photos, Bob Dales lead us to his house and courtyard on Burgundy. Bob is a transplant from Washington State who started coming here occasionally to now living here full time in a 1722 historical home. The patio was beautifully landscaped with a nice porch that everyone hated to leave. Our next stop was on Dauphine. Our group of 14, carrying cameras and tripods caught the attention of several passersby. One of the residents invited us into her courtyard. It was a large courtyard with trees and seating areas surrounded by historical buildings. We then walked to Donald McGinnis rental property in the 800 block of Dauphine. This was another great courtyard with a historic home. After spending some time there, we headed down to Bourbon Street. Behind the gates of all of these French Quarter homes is a totally different atmosphere, it is quiet, relaxing and private. On our way to dine at the Napoleon House, we turned onto Bourbon Street, it was like entering into a noisy nightmare scene with a couple dancing in the street, girls in tu tu s and a group of men on a balcony with their blow up dolls. This is a crazy place, but New Orleans is unique, diversified and anyone who lives here for any length of time LOVES it, as I do. Attendees: Dov and Margie Glazer, Bill Bane, Barry Lamia,Louis Cazenavette, BobDales Marylene, Rose & Mike Parker,Jean Manale, Connie Allotto, Minetta Heidbrink, Tammy Devin & Nancy McGill 1 Thanks to all our hosts and to everyone who came out in spite of the threatening weather. Story and Photos by Jean Manale Photo by Connie Allotto

2 Minnetta Heidbrink GNOCC Member for 2 Years A new name has been turning up with increasing frequency among the monthly photography competition winners at the Greater New Orleans Camera Club - that name is Minnetta Heidbrink. Minetta has been a member of the club for only about two years but already is very active and involved. Besides entering many of her images in the competitions, and winning with some of them, she is also the volunteer co-chairperson (along with Barbara Gasdaglis) for the club for the month of April And she is a regular participant at the meetings and likes to join the field trips. Minnetta was born in Lincoln, Illinois where she went to St. Mary's Catholic School through sixth grade before her family moved to Jacksonville, Florida. After only a year in Jacksonville, the family moved to Louisiana where her roots have been permanently planted. She graduated from Riverdale High School and has lived in Metairie since Photography started for Minnetta in the form of an Instamatic camera which she loved using to photograph her daughters - and that is when "the bug bit me." She had grown up without pictures of herself and her sisters and she wanted her own children to have memories in the form of family photos. After acquiring a Canon T70 with lots of "extras" she took a class to learn how to use it in manual mode, but never got the hang of it so the camera stayed in Auto mode. Even without the manual control she desired, the camera produced lots of great and memorable images. With the advent of the digital age she used several point-and-shoot cameras. At some point she decided to get serious about her photographic hobby and insisted on learning the multiple features of modern cameras so that she could have more control of the final images. Her favorite subjects are flowers, night photography and Macro photography. She almost always uses a tripod and loves images with shallow depth of field and a great bokeh. Its the memories that attracts Minnetta to the hobby of photography; "I just love looking at a great capture even if no one else thinks its great, it makes a memory for me." Digital photography frees her to take unlimited number of "free" shots. She enjoys digitally enhancing her photos using a variety of software which she is trying to learn. She does not do her own printing, leaving that to the experts. What she dilikes most about photography is that she cannot do it full time and that the final image is not always what she expected, at which time she resorts to the delete button. Minnetta loves to travel having visited China extensively, Australia and New Zealand. She plans to visit Europe in the near future. Most of all she enjoys being with her friends, walking in the park, Yoga, going to movies, having lunch, and the knitting club. She used to do a lot of gardening but now likes to appreciate others' gardening work. Currently Minnetta works three days a week for two busy dermatologists where she is the one person who does everything including the front desk, administration and assisting with surgeries. Previously she worked for Gordon's home decor and frame shops for 20 years, retiring just before Katrina. She stayed retired for three years brfore going to work for the dermatologists. Minnetta joined the Camera Club 2 years ago in order to interact with other people with similar interests and to learn more about photography. She likes the field trips and attends whenever she can. She participates in the competition and has, of necessity, developed a "thick skin." She has won 1st place twice and several 2nd and 3rd places. She anticipates more education in the club with specific programs devoted to camera use, composition, lighting and more. She competes photographically on Facebook as well and has experienced some success there also. 2

3 Photo by Bill Pinto RICHARD VALLON DISCUSSES HDR Chairperson Jean Manale Invited Richard Vallon to talk to the club about HDR on March Program Night. Richard, an old friend of the Greater New Orleans Camera Club gave an in depth discussion of the principles and methods of High Dynamic Range photography. He explained the need to display a wider range of luminosity than the digital camera can see - a range that the human eye can deal with more easily. The need for HDR arises when a scene to be photographed has a dynamic range in excess of the usual 6-7 stops of a digital camera. Some scenes may have a range in excess of 10 or 11 stops. Richard showed a slide presentation illustrating the types of images requiring HDR and showed the histograms associated with those images. He explained the process whereby 5 bracketed exposures of a scene are made, each varying by one full stop. Most newer digital cameras now can do this automatically under the "bracketed exposures" setting. It is best to take these exposures on a tripod to prevent ghosting from motion of the camera. Ghosting can also occur from motion in the subject, such as wind blowing leaves, etc. but some of the software available can eliminate these undesireable effects. HDR processing has received a lot of criticism from many photographers recently but it was Richard's opinion that this was because of the excessive or poor use of the technique. He mentioned several programs including Photoshop, Photomatix Pro, HDR Effects and others and suggested experimenting with them to decide which you like best. Some of these programs show a variety of presets to choose from when processing an image making it very user friendly. These presets can then be tweaked to the user's taste. Richard always gives an enthusiastic and entertaining lecture when he comes to the Camera Club. His presentation and slide show was enjoyed and appreciated by all in attendance. The club looks forward to his next presentation. New Marriott Courtyard Exhibit Connie Allotto ( seen adjusting photographs on the right ) announced the opening of the new exhibit at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Julia Street. The club has been exhibiting photographs at the dedicated wall in the hotel cafe for over 10 years. During a recent exhibit several photographs sold. This is an excellent opportunity for members of GNOCC to show their work and occasionally make a sale. The exhibit is changed about every three months. Members of the club interested in participating in future exhibits should contact Connie. March Competition Judged by Jennifer Shaw written by Jean Manale Photo by Bill Pinto Jennifer Shaw was the judge for the March print competition. Jennifer grew up in Milwaukee, studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, and then moved to New Orleans in pursuit of the artist s life. She teaches the disappearing art of darkroom photography at the Louise S. McGehee School and works as a fine art photographer. She was a founding officer and board member of the New Orleans Photo Alliance and directs their annual PhotoNola festival. Jennifer is an unconventional photographer in this digital world of photography because she still uses film and prints her work in a traditional darkroom. She only uses plastic or toy cameras (Holga). Jennifer had some helpful comments when judging the camera club member s photo in our monthly competition. She doesn t like highly saturated bright colors in photos. Her standard is black, white and 3 other colors in a color photo, and signs in a photo can be distracting. Our many thanks to Jennifer for judging our prints. Check out Jennifer s website at 3

4 President's Message Editor's Message The 2013 Gulf States Camera Club Council convention is coming up soon. Fortunately it is only a three hour drive for many of us. It will take place in Jackson, Ms. on April th. Information for registration is found on their website gsconvention2013.org. Each month GNOCC participates in the Gulf States competition. The categories alternate with pictorial, nature and photojournalism. You can view which categories are each month by going to their website gulfstatesccc.org and clicking onto competition schedule. Ozzie Hansen and I select from our monthly competitions, present and past for entries. Any images which won 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd, 1 st HM or 2 nd HM place in the GSCCCC monthly competitions are automatically in the year-end competition at the convention. This year we have four B&W pictorial prints, two color pictorial prints, three pictorial projected, three PJ prints, two PJ projected, and three nature prints. These plus the winners from the other clubs will be judged on Thursday for the honor of the year-end winners. This competition is open to everyone. It s always exciting to attend this competition and see all the other beautiful images which our club images competed against. The programs offered on Friday and Saturday will certainly please your palate and energize your desire for photography. I hope to see many of you there. Happy Shooting, Rose Parker GNOCC President We all take a huge number of photographs particularly with the advent of digital photography where the only real limit is the available storage space on the computer. We are only using electrons, not expensive film requiring more expensive processing. But what are we doing with all of these images? Once downloaded off the card in the camera, into the computer via an assortment of software applications, what happens to all those images? Do they get "processed" and if so, are they ever looked at again? All too often the answer to the last question is "NO". But there are lots of options and I would encourage all club members to pursue at least some. The first obvious option for your favorite photograph is to print it, mat it and frame it to hang on your wall. It has often been said that the criteria for deciding whether an image is good is whether you would hang it on your walls. Enjoy your hard work by exhibiting at home. I have dozens of my images dating back as far as 20 years hanging all over my home, particularly in my study where I can enjoy them every day. Entering photographs in competition is what a number of GNOCC members do. The easiest is to enter in the Camera Club monthly competition, but there are lots of other competitions locally, nationally and on the web. It takes a little work but its an exciting experience whether you win or not. And the "work" is part of why we are engaged in the hobby of photography. There are opportunities to exhibit your photographs for public viewing. For club members there is the Marriott Courtyard exhibit and soon to be the Poydras Cafe. More ambitious members can arrange their own shows such as in a coffee shop, restaurant or art gallery. And there are the possibilities of selling your work. Several of the GNOCC members participate in some of the local arts and crafts shows on weekends in various venues about town and are able to sell a reasonable amount of images. And there is the Web. It has become a lot easier in recent years to make your own web page and to show your photographs there. Although there is a small expense involved and some time required it is well worth the effort when you see the end result. Most web pages make it easy to provide a slide show. With a web page you can easily update or add to your images to instantaneously show your work to friends locally and around the world. There is also the opportunity to sell your work. The one thing you don't want to do is to leave all your best images unseen, hidden in your computer, just waiting to be exposed to the world. Tom Oelsner Editor, The Shutterbug 4

5 GSCCC Results for March The Shutterbug is published monthly by Greater New Orleans Photographic Society which serves photographic enthusiasts in the New Orleans area. Regular meetings of the society are held on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7:00 PM at Munholland United Methodist Church, 1201 Metairie Road, Metairie, LA. Visitors and guests are always welcome. Club Officers President Rose Parker Congratulations to Eric France for winning 1st place and to Alfred Holy for winning honorable mention in the March GSCCC projected photojournalism competition. Although GNOCC had no winners in the pictorial projected competition, a large number of points were awarded. Vice President Mike Parker mike@cox.net Treasurer Jean Manale jmanalephoto@hotmail.com Secretary Colleen Schneider gumbocolleen@gmail.com Webmaster Mike Parker 11mike@cox.net Members-at-large Bill Pinto otnip451@yahoo.com Mike Brouphy mbrouphy@aol.com Chairperson April Minetta Heidbrink Barbara Gasdaglis Homeless by Eric France GSCCC Representatives Rose Parker - Pictorial Color Prints, Pictorial B&W Prints, PJ Prints, PJ Digital Projected Ozzie Hansen - Pictorial Digital Projected, Nature Prints, Nature Digital Projected Shutterbug Newsletter Staff Editor Tom Oelsner drtomo@bellsouth.net Photographers Bill Pinto otnip451@yahoo.com Contributing photographer Ricky Gilmore Superbowl XLVII by Alfred Holy 5

6 Assigned - Daisy Minnetta Heidbrink Assigned - And They All Lived Happily Ever After Eric France Assigned - Three Swans Tom Zaccaria 6 Assigned - Waiting for Sunset Alfred Holy

7 More March Winners Photojournalism - Parade Girl James Conrad Creative - Baby Doll Jena Manale Open - Lightning Storm Gerard Plauche' Photojournalism - Adjusting the Mask Tom Oelsner Open - Solitude Alfred Holy 7 Creative - Look for the Bright Spot Laurie Thompson

8 Creative - Rising from the Darkside Tom Zaccaria Open - Yellowstone Waterfall Rose Parker Photojournalism - Children Play Paraolympic Basketball with Heart Paul Muehlmann Photojournalism - Homeless Eric France Creative - Banana Alfred Holy 8 Open - Spanish Bike Scene Jean Manale

9 WYES ART AUCTION DONATE ONE OR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS GOOD WAY TO GET EXPOSURE DEADLINE FOR GETTING INTO THE CATALOG IS APRIL 19 WYES ART PREVIEW PARTY MAY WYES ART AUCTION JUNE 6-19 AND JUNE Calendar of Events April 4 - Competition night. Assigned "Flowers", Open Color, Open B&W, Nature April 18 - Program Night - To be announced. April 20 - Field Trip - Butterfly and Flower Farm in Luling. 8:30AM April is also the month of the French Qaurter Festival 11-14, and the beginning of the Jazz Fest starting on the 25th May Competition - Digital Projected. Assigned topic is "In Your Own Back Yard" You may also submit entries in Open, Nature and Creative categories for a maximum of four entries. 9