The gallery of images from April’s Spring assignment is now online here.
2018/2019 Monthly Photo Topics
During the May 4th meeting, Ron Pierce will be explaining the monthly photo topics for our 2018/2019 season. You can find them on our Gallery page here.
Choosing the Right Lens
Here are some videos I chose with tips on choosing the right lens:
- 10 Mistakes People Make When Buying a Camera by John Greengo from Creative Live
- All about Lenses for Beginners by Phillip McCordall
- How to Choose a Lens for a DSLR by Ultimate PhotoGuide
- Bird & Wildlife Photography Equipment: Lenses, cameras, teleconverters, tripods, monopods by Tony & Chelsea Northrup
- Focal Lengths and Compression. How to Choose the Right Lens! by Simeon Quarrie
- How to Choose the Right Lens by Andrew Boey from Beyond Photography Show
Phil Tughan
Photography Workshops and Tours
Frank Knor found this online directory of photography workshops and tours that he wanted to share with the club. It has also been added to our links page.
Portrait Session
Camera club members please note the Portrait workshop scheduled for 3 May is postponed and the session scheduled for June 5th is cancelled.
There will be a full day portrait session, Thursday, 31 May at the Kanata Senior’s Centre, 9 – 3:30
There will be an opportunity:
To Help
To photograph
and/or
To have your portrait taken.
There will be three lighting locations set up for you to experience. It will be a one-on-one opportunity for 15 – 30 minutes in each location. Each location is different. In two you will be able to use your own camera. The third is a demonstration of what can be done with a particular lighting set-up.
You may sign up for the morning, afternoon, or all day.
As well as taking portrait of each other, there will be Kanata Senior’s Centre members invited to have a free 5×7 portrait.
If you are a photographer you will be asked to email your model, print ready 1-4 of the portraits. Help will be provided.
Help is need with set-up, tear down, meeting and greeting people, organizing name tags and email addresses. There will be lots to do, learn, and time, to meet other camera club members in a fun and supportive environment.
In order to know how many people are interested there will be sign-up time sheets (or by emailing Sue Carey) to help, to photograph, and/or to have your portrait taken. You can sign all three sheets, and enjoy the day.
More information will be available at the May 4th camera club meeting or by contacting Sue Carey: careysj@hotmail.com.
Monthly Meeting May 4th
The next Camera Club meeting with be held on Friday, May 4th at 9:15 AM.
Our meeting will include:
- Slide show of Member Images from the Spring Assignment
- Phil’s Tip of the Day on Focal Length and Choosing the Right Lens
- Presentation on Nature Photography by Barbara Adams
- Monthly Assignment Topics for 2018/2019 season by Ron Pierce
- Review of Chosen Photos
- Announcements and Closing Remarks
Your images for the assignment must be emailed by noon on Friday, April 27th to be included in the slide show. For details on how to submit photos including formats and titles go to our Galleries page.
The next two Portrait Workshops are being held at the Kanata Seniors Centre on May 3rd and June 5th. Phil Tughan has also recommended a few videos on Portrait Photography Tips.
A photowalk to Monahan Pond is planned for May 18th. Details here.
For additional information on the Camera Club’s activities go to the News Section of our website (the front page).
The next assignment is The 3 A’s: Aged, Antiqued or Abandoned and pictures from this assignment will be shown at the June 1st meeting.
See you at the meeting.
Your Camera Club Executive
Photowalk at the Monahan Ponds in Bridlewood
As a follow up to the article I wrote for the club last September Anne Jones and I will be leading a photowalk there on May 18th starting at 9:00am. The article tells you about what you can expect to see there (subject to nature’s whims). It is a great area to learn about, right in our back yard. It is an easy 2k walk around the area on a paved path, with park benches along the way. Please dress in protective shoes and long clothing, if you plan to go down to the water’s edge, as there are wild parsnip plants and mosquitoes. Hopefully it will stop snowing by then, but we will be there, rain or shine. We can often get quite close to the birds, but best to bring your longest lens for great bird photos. We are always happy to help with camera settings and suggestions. We will meet on Emerald Meadows Drive, about 200 meters from Eagleson Road to start our walk. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Phil Tughan
Barbara Adams Presenting in May
The feature speaker at our meeting on May 4th is Barbara Adams, a long-time nature photographer who captures dynamic landscapes and intimate interactions with animals.
She is a Master Class Photographer in the Camera Club of Ottawa, an honour she received for her outstanding photography in both film and digital media. She was on the Executive for many years including serving as President. She also served as Chair of the Environment Committee for the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), the first organization ever established for nature photographers. Her photographs have been published in NANPA’s Expressions and Current magazines.
In addition to many local awards Barbara’s photographs have won awards in competitions in the New England Camera Club Council and the Niagara Frontier Regional Camera Club Council. She had participated in many group exhibits around the Ottawa area.
Courses at the School of Photographic Arts, Algonquin College, Rocky Mountain School of Photography and the Maine Media Workshop plus various photographer lead travel tours have helped round out her photography skills.
In addition to her photographic work and extensive travel Barbara is on the Board of Directors for the Ottawa Valley Bird Care Centre. She does must of their photography.
Barbara says that “Most of the presentation will be nature and I could talk a little bit about HDR and multiple exposures if we have time.”
You can see more of her work on her flickr page, and on her Facebook page.
Jim Leask on Slide Copying
At our March 6th meeting, Jim Leask demonstrated how to easily and quickly copy slides using a DSLR, an off camera flash and a slide adapter. You can review his notes here.
The adapter he used to hold the slide in front of his camera is a Nikon ES-1 and is available from Henry’s. Note that it is a 52mm thread so you may need an adapter for your lens. Note also that, if you don’t already own a suitable macro lens, you can use extension tubes to adapt whatever lens you have to close focus.
Make an Antique Image
Our recent monthly photo assignment was about making an image look like it was taken years ago.
During the review, Ron Pearce explained how he composited his original image:
with this texture:
and this photograph of an antique photo mat:
to come up with the image he submitted .
If you have Photoshop, an easy way to make an antique version of an image is described in this video by Gavin Hoey. He provides a Photoshop Action and a collection of brushes (which can also be used with Photoshop Elements) which I used to create my submission.
Carol Brown created her own texture by photographing a crumpled brown paper bag, and adding it as a transparent layer using Photoshop to create her submission.
Several members reported that they used the Time Machine effect in Corel’s Paint Shop Pro to make antique versions of their images. A 30 day free trial is available if you want to try it out.
Bill Robertson
