We are very excited to announce that the club will now be meeting at our new location – the Pomfret Audubon Society Center. The new space, (which resembles a giant red barn) is now complete and is just beautiful.
The street address is: 218 Day Road, Pomfret, CT
The Audubon has not updated their website for the new location, so directions, from the internet are:
Driving North on 395:
1. Take Exit 93 for CT-101 toward Dayville/East Killingly
2.Turn Left (if driving south on 395, turn Right) onto CT-101 W/Hartford Pike. Continue to follow CT-101 W for 3.1 miles.
3.Turn Right onto Wrights Crossing Road. Continue on Wrights Crossing Road for 1.9 miles.
4.Turn Left onto Day Road. Drive .2 miles. The Audubon Center will be on the left.
Driving South on 395:
1.Take Exit 97.
2.Take a right off the exit onto Route 44 West.
3.Follow Route 44 through Downtown Putnam, past Day Kimball Hospital and the John Dempsey Center, for 3.5 miles.
4.Take a left onto Wright’s Crossing Road (there is an Audubon Sign below the street sign). Drive 1.8 miles on Wright’s Crossing Road
5.Take a right onto Day Road. Drive .2 miles. The Audubon Center is on the left.
Thursday, September 15th will be our first print competition for
the new season. Categories for prints are*:
Open
Black & White
Novice
* Read more about our new categories in the New Categories for the 2011/2012 in the September Newsletter. For this competition, our judges will be Charlie Perry, Fran Baranski, and Ed Savoie. We will also ask the entire membership to participate in the critique process. It will allow us to get some good conversations going, and the makers will be able to hear different opinions instead of just listening to the opinion of one judge. This should make for a fun and interesting evening!
Refreshments will be provided by Lois Latraverse.
A reminder about print competition rules:
All print entries shall have a picture area that is a minimum of 5x 7 and no larger than 16 x 20. All entries must be matted and/or mounted. The maximum size of the presentation, including the matte or mount shall be no larger than 16×20.
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Mary Anthony, Executive Director of the 1772 Foundation has enlisted the help of QVPC photographers in decorating the walls of their new space in the Montgomery Ward building in downtown Putnam. We are embarking on a very fun project as we contact the historians in several nearby towns to locate interesting sites in their towns that may not be well known to the general population. Our mission is to photograph the sites, obtain information about the sites, present them to Mary for final printing, matting and framing.
At the conclusion of the project (June at the latest), the Foundation will host a reception for the photographers and guests to view the images as they are displayed in the beautiful, gallery like setting.
Town coordinators are:
Brooklyn and Woodstock – Lori Labrecque
Eastford and Union – Suzanne Buell
Killingly and Sterling – Jeff Graley
Putnam – Jim Cutler
Plainfield – Diane LeBlanc
Hampton – Marcia Kilpatrick
Pomfret – Leslie Atsales
Thompson – Charlie Perry
Any club member is invited and encouraged to contact any one or more of the coordinators to go out and photograph with them. Photography reflects our vision of a place, scene or object. Lend your vision to the project!!
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Understanding F-stops: Aperture Priority
By Rob Sheppard
I rarely shoot anything but aperture priority. Occasionally I shoot manual when I need a specific sort of control (such as controlling ambient light with flash). Many sports shooters use aperture priority, too. Here’s how I use it:
Depth of field — choose an aperture for appropriate depth of field. This doesn’t mean automatically choosing the smallest apertures, such as f/16. I will use f/16 when I really need deep depth of field, but I will shoot f/8-f/11 for distant scenes where depth of field is unaffected by f-stop; f/8-f/11 tend to be the sharpest parts of most lenses. I will choose wide apertures such as f/2.8-f/4 for selective focus effects to keep subject sharp and background soft. I will typically shoot close ups at f/5.6-f/8 to gain some depth of field, but not too much (since it is difficult to get close-up backgrounds sharp anyway, I would prefer them more out of focus).
Action - choose the wide f-stops. A pro technique is to set the lens at its widest or maximum aperture, such as f/2.8-f/4. You are looking for the smallest number you can set with your lens. Then with aperture priority, you guarantee that you always will shoot with the fastest shutter speed possible for the conditions. You cannot do that with shutter speed priority. The wild turkey seen here, for example, was shot with aperture priority, max aperture, so that as the bird moved through different levels of light, I was always getting the fastest shutter speed possible for the conditions. The only time I might consider shutter speed priority would be if I wanted to use a very specific shutter speed, such as a slow speed for a water blur.
Some photographers are very comfortable with manual exposure, which works fine, but some photographers use it because they think they “should” in order to be a “real” photographer. I used to feel that way many years ago. But honestly, modern auto exposure systems are so good that they are faster, more convenient, and can be just as accurate. They certainly require a lot less thought about technology! And with digital, you can quickly see if your exposure is right or not by using the LCD with highlight warnings and histogram.
More details: Become a master of exposure – and aperture – with Rob Sheppard’s outstanding online photography workshop: The Magic of F-stops: Choosing the Right Aperture. Also check out BetterPhoto.com‘s other digital photography online courses.
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Taken from www.betterphoto.com
January 05, 2010
Natural Light Photography: Where’s the Light?
By Douglas Steakley
All photographers know, or quickly learn, that subject matter is only one element of a photograph and it is arguably not the most important element. Interesting or dramatic light is often the key ingredient of a successful image. When composing a photograph, it is important to pay attention to the direction the light is coming from and how this impacts the subject that is being photographed.
Look around for the source of the light and then take another look at the subject to see how the light is falling on it and how it changes as you move. Often by stepping to one side or another the lighting can be made more dramatic and interesting.
There are basically four types of directional light that are important to an outdoor photographer: sidelight, backlight, frontlight, and soft or diffused light. Here’s a rundown on two types:
Soft light can be created by fog, overcast or shade and increases the color contrast in softer, subtler tonalities. Soft light enhances colors that would be lost or become to contrasty in direct sunlight. Soft light is best for subject matter that is colorful or has interesting detail such as flowers, plants or other types of close up images.
The two soft-light images below – the close-up of the lupine and the small waterfall near Yosemite were both taken in cloudy, overcast conditions. This type of light eliminates shadows, which reduces contrast and allows for more saturated, vivid colors. Neither of these images would have been successful if the sun had been shining on them.
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Whether you agreed with her or not, Drea Koval of Southeastern Camera Club, gave us in-depth critiques for each of the entries in last nights’ competition. Newer members, and our 3 visitors, as well as the camera club veterans picked up valuable information from Drea’s remarks on every image. It was a relaxed evening with time to spare before our 9:00 pm curfew!
Some housekeeping notes during the meeting portion of the evening:
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