Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival

On May 27th, the Kanata Seniors Camera Club had a photo exhibition at the Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival.  Over 55 member photos were displayed and the public had many positive comments on the quality of the photos.  The exhibition also generated quite a bit of interest in our camera club.

 

The following won best pictures voted on by the public.

Winner

Winner - The Last View by Anne Jones (window)
The Last View by Anne Jones

Honourable Mention

Honourable Mention - Happiness by Pamela Byrtus (snowy owl)
Happiness by Pamela Byrtus
Honourable Mention - Contemplative Moment by Lorraine Winterton (dog)
Contemplative Moment by Lorraine Winterton
Honourable Mention - Stand Firm by Ron Pierce (tree)
Stand Firm by Ron Pierce
Honourable Mention - Mischiefwith wiggily lines - because its art! by Val Collins (cat and fish)
Mischief with Wiggly Lines – because its art! by Val Collins

Thank you to the many volunteers who brought pictures and helped at the photo exhibition. Without you it would not have been such a successful event!!

Val Collins and Marilyn Martin

June 2nd Meeting

The next Camera Club meeting with be held on Friday, June 2nd, at 9:15 AM.

Our meeting will include:

  • Slide show of member images from the Nature Assignment and the Mud Lake Shootout
  • Phil’s Tip of the Day, ISO and Noise Reduction
  • Marg’s Joke and Hints
  • Review of Assignment Topics for next year
  • Printing Media presented by Costco
  • Feedback from the Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival
  • Review of Chosen Photos
  • Announcements and Concluding Remarks

The Mentors will be available before the meeting to help you with any technical or creative questions you have about photography.

Images from the Mud lake Photoshoot and the monthly Nature assignment must be emailed by noon on Friday, May 26th to be included in the slide show at the meeting.  For details on how to submit photos including formats and titles go to our Galleries page.

The assignment for the summer is Canada 150.  Pictures from this assignment will be shown on Friday, September  1st at 9:00 a.m.  (note change of time).

Don’t forget our Camera Club will have a booth at the  Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival on Saturday, May 27th at the Earl of March High School.  Pictures are to be dropped of between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.  on the day of the event.  If you volunteered for the event please arrive at your scheduled time.  For additional information contact Val Collins at 613-406-9145 or click on the following link for the Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival.

See you at the meeting on June 2nd.

Henry’s Macro Workshop

The general consensus was that the workshop was very worthwhile. It was well organized and informative. It really did open up a whole new aspect of photography .

The five workshop stations were well run. The presenters were knowledgeable and rehearsed.

The turnout was very good with about 40 people in attendance. .

It was nice that store was closed to regular customers  during that time .

Free high quality prints were a  nice bonus (apparently much better than Costco).

For those without much background in macro, several workstations explained true macro vs just doing close up photography with actual workstation macro set ups . Also there was a super macro lens demonstrated  using a high end Canon lens capable of  microscopic level resolution.

Capturing old  slides with a camera slide extension tube and tethering directly to a laptop and Lightroom was very clever.  It was shown that you could do a direct transfer to laptop of 4 slides per minute.

Henry’s (Jim) offered  to produce a blog for our web site explaining the set up.

Also the digitizing of  negatives was demonstrated using a smart phone for backlighting.

A large variety of cameras, lenses, tripods, lighting systems, subject mounting sliders were demonstrated and made available for us to try out. Much of it was very reasonably priced.

Some felt a bit more technical stuff would have been useful; perhaps  how to reverse our lens and use it as a macro lens, or even focus stacking etc.

Attendees did pick up quite a few tips. This event certainly provided  motivation to learn more about macro photography in the near future.

Henry’s advised they wont be repeating this workshop but will hold one on another subject in mid August (perhaps shoot out)  .

Many thanks to Alex and the Henry’s team for offering this workshop. It was a big undertaking and the Kanata Seniors Centre Camera Club wish to express our thanks . We really appreciated all your efforts. Well Done.

Text: Ed Lascelle, Photos: Anne Jones

Mud lake Photoshoot IS ON :-)

On Wednesday afternoon, Phil Tughan reported that:

I just returned from Mud Lake and am happy to say that the paths are now high and dry, round as far as the bridge. I’m sure the path north of the road will be fine too. It was hot there this afternoon, but I didn’t see and mosquitoes or black flies yet. So we are looking good for this Friday at 8:30 am. It is a great sanctuary to get familiar with.

so the photoshoot is back on for Friday the 19th at 08:30. For further details, see our original post.

 

Focus on the Most Important Part of the Subject

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Lovingly Handing Over the Courting Stick by Marg jackman

Autofocus, often called AF, is a great feature on all digital cameras.AF really does help to ensure that your photo is properly focused most of the time.  This can be a challenge, however, when you are photographing up close.  Then the camera’s AF system may focus on the wrong part of the subject because there are so many places to focus on, all at slightly different distances. Whenever you have objects at varied distances within your photograph, you have the possibility of the camera focusing on the wrong object.

Focus is Narrow when you are Close:
When you get close – and this is not just for close-ups – the area of sharp focus gets narrower. The actual point of focus becomes more obvious.  This means you must become more aware of where the camera is focusing and be sure that the important part of your subject is in focus.
The Camera does not know what is Important:
The camera and its Autofocus have no idea what is or is not important in a photo.  Both simply find something they “know” can be sharp.  You have to tell the camera what is supposed to be sharp, and so you need to watch the focus points and notice which ones light up to tell you what is sharp.
The Eyes of a Person are Critical for Sharpness:
In any portrait, formal or informal, the eyes of the person are the key part of that image.  They tell a lot about the subject, which is why they must be sharp.  If the camera focuses anywhere else, then your photo will be less effective than it could be.
Check where the Camera Focused for Close-ups:
With close-ups, there are many spots a camera can focus on, and they are all very close together in distance.  However, what can be sharp is limited because of the distance.  You may have to press the shutter to lock focus, in order to keep focus on the important parts of the photo.
Marg Jackman

Mud Lake Photoshoot Postponed

We had proposed a photoshoot at Mud Lake to be held May 12th at 08:30.

Here’s the latest from Phil Tughan:

I visited the Mud Lake area this afternoon and although the roadway is perfectly fine, the level of the water in the lake is very high making the pathway muddy and impassable in places. So, unfortunately I think we must call our photo walk off for this week. I will check again next week and see if we can do the walk on Friday, May 19th instead.

Stay tuned for further updates.