(not) Professional Photo Tips

Contrary to the name, Joshua Cripps‘ Professional Photo Tips channel on YouTube is a great collection of short instructional videos that all of us can watch and learn from. Some of the topics he covers are basic for example his recent video: “What is a Stop?” and some are more advanced like: “How to Use a 10 Stop Neutral Density Filter for Long Exposure Photography“.

Take a look. If you find any other sites you’d like to share with the rest of the club, please let us know at cameraclub@kanataseniors.ca.

Catherine Easton Slideshows

At the February 5th meeting, Catherine Easton showed 2 slideshows she had made. The first was done using the PicturesToExe program (Essentials: $69, Deluxe: $129) and the second using Microsoft’s free program Windows Movie Maker. Note that this was the first slideshow Catherine created with Movie Maker.

Well done Catherine and thank you for sharing.

If you have a short (3 minute or less) slideshow you’d like to share at a future meeting, please let us know by emailing us here.

 

 

Photo Walk Postponed

From Ken Wilson:

Regret due to heavy snowfall we will have to postpone the photowalk planned for the Old Quarry Trail on Fri, 19 Feb.
OQT
We will discuss in committee and select a new date based on available weather forecast information. Regret postponement. 
Stay tuned here for a new date and time.

New Photofocus Podcasts

The Photofocus Podcast “network” has changed their monthly schedule to the following:

  • Questions and Answers with Rich Harrington & Scott Bourne to air on the 7th
  • Inspiration with Scott Bourne and Marco Larousse to air on the 14th
  • Photographer Interviews with Ann Barry to air on the 21st
  • Photography gear with Scott Bourne and Marco Larousse to air on the 28th

Download them and listen while you’re doing housework, stuck in traffic, at the gym …

Between the podcasts listed above they also have frequent blog postings.

Google Kills Picasa

Google announced today that effective May 1 they will no longer develop the desktop version of Picasa, their photo editor and cataloguer. Pictures stored in Picasa albums will be moved to Google Photos. More details in this TechCrunch article.

Get Photography Help

If you missed our recent “Learn your camera” workshop, don’t despair. Before every monthly meeting the Mentors are available to help you with issues you have with your camera. They are also there to help you improve your photography with ideas on composition and post processing. Between meetings they can be reached by phone and email.

One-on-one help is also available from the Seniors Council Computer Tutors on topics such as:

  • transferring your images from your camera to your computer
  • organizing your images
  • backing up your images
  • processing your images using Photoshop Elements or Picasa,
  • sharing your images using web sites like Flickr (used for the club galleries)
  • making slide shows

One hour sessions can be booked at the front desk for $8. Three one hour sessions can be booked for $20.

Old Quarry Trail Photo Walk

Were you inspired by Phil Tughan and Ian Buchanan’s wildlife pictures from the Old Quarry Trail? Want to try your hand at taking some of your own? Want to do it in the company of folks who know where to find the local wildlife?

The Camera Club is holding a photo walk on Friday February 19th at 08:00 AM.

Meet at The Old Quarry Trail parking lot (NCC Parking Lot P5) on Eagleson just south of the intersection with Hazeldean.

OQTs

At the last meeting, Phil Suggested you bring carrots to hand feed to the deer and seeds to feed the birds. Phil says “It is also a good idea to bring some bird seed as the small birds will eat out of your hand and provide some good photo opportunities. The birds seem to like sunflower seeds the best, but you can get general wild bird seed at Bulk Barn.”.

If we have to reschedule due to issues with the weather, come to the blog for updates.

Lynda.com

At today’s steering committee meeting Sue Carey reminded us that, if you have a library card from the Ottawa Public Library, you have free access to all 4300 professionally created courses for creatives at Lynda.com. Some of that photography topics include:

  • Cameras + Gear (106)
  • Raw Processing (77)
  • Masking + Compositing (67)
  • Portraits (61)
  • Photo Management (53)
  • Lighting (52)
  • Sharing Photos (43)
  • Retouching (40)
  • Printing Photos (24)
  • Color Correction (23)
  • Photography Foundations(22)
  • iPhone, iPod, iPad (17)
  • HDR (16)
  • Night + Low Light (16)

(numbers indicate how many courses are available under each topic)

Normally this access would cost $30 per month.

Just go here to begin.

Old Quarry Trail by Ian Buchanan

If you enjoyed the beautiful images in the album Ian Buchanan showed off at the February 5th Camera Club meeting, you can see more by going to his web site. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to come out to the Old Quarry Trail club “shoot out” later in February. Stay tuned here for the date and time (and a map).