HPC - April 2010 by Bob Douglas

April 2010

HPCMONTHLY

Critique Night Bring us your best images

Member's Choice Jim Kelly ÂŠ Jim Kelly

Table of Contents President’s Corner............................................................................................. 3 Notes from the Second Banana.........................................................................4 Editor’s Corner................................................................................................... 5 What's Coming Up............................................................................................. 6 April 21, 2010, HPC Membership Meeting ............................................................. 6 Our Member’s Choice will be Jim Kelly.................................................................. 6

Review of Membership Meeting March 17, 2010.............................................. 7 Other News........................................................................................................ 8 Next Outing .................................................................................................................. July Meeting.................................................................................................................. Photoshop classes....................................................................................................... News from Keaau Fine Arts Center......................................................................... Photoshop Classes...................................................................................................... On the Calendar........................................................................................................... Treasurer’s Report....................................................................................................... Newsletter Report........................................................................................................ Feisol 3441S Tripod Review ......................................................................................

8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9

Outing Pics....................................................................................................... 12

The Hilo Photography Club is a photography club based on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and has been meeting monthly since 1978. Our members all have a common interest in photography and in sharing their craft/profession/hob by with others. Skills range from novice to professional. We currently have around 50 members from all parts of the Big Island. The club holds a meeting every month in Hilo. In addition to a business meeting, we often have demonstrations, slide shows from members or invited photographers, invited lectures, inclub photo contests and exhibits, discussions about upcoming contests, photographic technique, technology, equipment, digital manipulation, darkroom, etc. This monthly meeting is usually the 3rd Wednesday of the month, at 7 p.m, at the Kamana Senior Center on Kamana St. in Hilo Google Map. Hilo Photo Club Website Editor Bob Douglas 333-0402

HPCMonthly

President’s Corner Doug Halsted 2010 is an exciting year of change and challenges for our club and its’ members. Our club is continually attracting talented new members; old timers please come to our meetings and meet our new members! We have worthwhile outings; I encourage Club members to come out and attend them! Our Club has undertaken a senior portraits project at Kamana Center to photograph seniors. Call or email the Chair, Kim Kelly, if you are interested in helping out. This project will help seniors, provide an opportunity to shoot portraits and help the image of HPC in the community. The Expo has ventured into digital entries this year and had a resounding response with about 260 entries this year. Thank you Expo Committee! The associated workshop still has openings but is filling rapidly. Check the Expo website out. The HPC Board is very active and all members are encouraged to attend Board meetings. Recently, the Board decided to end our formal relationship with the CCCH. We are looking for new ways to build ties with other clubs. The Board is reviewing many ideas and is open to your comments and suggestions. A digital contest is being considered. Give us your ideas. Finally, the newsletter is getting better and better. Members are encouraged to post their work. We hope you take advantage of the club activities and share your image making with everyone. See you at the next meeting! All content copyrighted by either HPC or the original photographer.

“Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” - Yousef Karsh

Notes from the Second Banana Steve Godszak So glad to see all you members at the seniors portrait pot luck - good conversation and wonderful food. This project is off to a great start. The initial "dry run" went very well even though a few of you got wet...gotta watch out for those awning spills!! But even with passing clouds, the lighting under the canopy was quite good both with and without any fill flash as demonstrated by a majority of the shots taken. Shadows were essentially removed with reflectors. Next step, schedule the sittings and hope for good weather. The Kapoho outing wasn't so well attended. Yeh, it was raining in Hilo and Kea'au that morning, but we decided to head out anyway and try our luck. And indeed the weather changed as we neared Kumukahi Lighthouse road. Visited the old cemetery where lava surrounds many of the grave stones and noted how much higher the ground is for the newer part of this cemetery. We wondered if this new area was burmed in the 60s to protect Kalapana. Anyone know? The final stop was Isaac Hale beach park area where the sun was shining brightly. Maybe George has finally wrung out those rain filled clouds which follow him on these outings.....Yeh! March's Photoshop class was filled with raw editing information and it was nice to see so many members present. Ken is doing a great job instructing, explaining, and demonstrating the numerous tools available in this program. Recognizing that there's a lot of material to digest in just 2 hours and not a lot of time to practice, we will attempt to put together some reference materials to help your learning. In April he will be discussing burning and dodging. If you've questions on anything covered, please bring them. Lastly, the board discussed polling the membership on its satisfaction regarding activities, interests, and wishes. So please respond to the online survey as we strive to improve your club experiences while keeping it fun. Mahalo! Steve

ÂŠ Rick Decker

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner Bob Douglas Aloha everyone, The 34th Annual Art Festival at EHCC opened and a number of HPC members have work in the show. There is some outstanding work represented so go check it out. The exhibit will be on until April 22, Monday through Saturday, 10am to 4 pm. The address is 141 Kalakaua Street, Hilo. Congratulations to all who made it in! Charlene Asato Chris Butcher Kathleen Carr Faith Cloud Ken Goodrich

Mary Goodrich Eric Jeschke Steve Pollard Joe Ruesing - Honorable Mention Tom Whitney

Also check out Antonio's exquisite Mana Road publication available on http://issuu.com/mirmilant/docs/from_the_mana_road Bob

What's Coming Up... April 21, 2010, HPC Membership Meeting The April 21st program will be Critique Night. To save time, please come a little early with 5 images on a flash drive and Ken will load them onto the club computer before we get started. We will have 2 member jurors for Critique Night. If you would like to be a juror, please contact Mary, mary@hawaiiphotoretreat.com. It doesn’t matter if you have never done this before or think you don’t know how. Everyone’s observations are valid and an untrained eye might see something that a seasoned juror could overlook. Critique Night is a peer review of member’s images and will be shown anonymously unless you wish to identify yourself. We will allow time for feedback from the group as a whole.

Our Member’s Choice will be Jim Kelly. Jim Kelly will be the Member’s Choice with his images of Japan during the second half of the April meeting.

To share 15 minutes of your work or to do a demo for Member’s Choice, contact Steve Godzsak, patnsteve@hawaiiantel.net.

Review of Membership Meeting March 17, 2010 Announcements A few announcements before we started the program: Friday is the deadline for turning in your disc to Photo Expo. Andrew is here to accept them. There is (has been, by the time you read this) a great show at the Keaau Fine Art Center through March 26, featuring many of our members. All the prints are the same 20X30 size and the same presentation making for a clean professional looking exhibition. Mahalo to Robbyn Peck for hosting the Digital Imaging Contest at Keaau Fine Art Center.

Program There was a nearly full house tonight for HPC member Faith Cloud’s beautiful slideshow of Barcelona. Faith took us on a colorful walking tour of this magnif icent city in Spain. The architecture, people, food and music really captured the flavor of Barcelona. The City is on the Mediterranean and there are mountains behind it. There are huge old castles in the countryside. Faith’s photographs are not only filled with color, but there is a feeling of joy and enthusiasm for life in each one. Faith is fortunate to spend several months a year in Barcelona working, and also has a home in Hilo. She was happy to answer our questions following her presentation. Mahalo, Faith!! Celebra la vida with aloha! Following the break, we were treated to Member’s Choice photographs by Molly Hart. Molly is a self-taught artist. She showed photographs taken over the last six years in various locations. She has done some traveling, and we saw a potpourri of images from the Southwest and other places, even Barcelona. Molly has a unique way of seeing things whether they are landscapes, nudes or abstractions. She says, “Everything is a subject to be photographed”.

Outing There will be an outing on March 20 along the coast from Kalapana back toward Isaac Hale. Meet at Keaau at 10 am at Hokulani’s Steakhouse. (How did it go? Rain – but 4 of us went anyway and it was sunny and warm on the coast. See our images elsewhere in this newsletter!)

Senior Portrait Project Jim Kelly gave us an update on the meeting held at Doug and Linda’s, March 13. He handed out notes that were taken at the meeting and if anyone wants a copy, email Mary mary@hawaiiphotoretreat.com. We will have a trial run on Saturday, March 27, rain or shine, at Kamana Center and take pictures of each other with existing light. Bring camera, tripod and reflector if you have one.

Other News Next Outing The next outing will be on Saturday May 8th. We have obtained permission to visit Green Lake in Kapoho. A series of strong explosions resulting from the interaction of ground water and magma formed this horseshoe-shaped cone about 400 years ago. Spring-fed Green Lake is surrounded by rainforest and is one of only two natural fresh water lakes on the Big Island. It's a short trek across private land and then a steep, somewhat rugged hike down to a beautiful, deep lake surrounded by lush jungle foliage. Wear hiking shoes, bring lunch and mosquito spray. We will meet at 10 am, rain or shine, at Hokulani's Steak House in Keaau and depart at 10:15 sharp. We would like to have a head count, so please RSVP to Ken, 985-7487 or (cell) 345-0073.

July Meeting by George Jensen For our July program at the club meeting, we are going to show the results of an in club photo competition. The comments made by the judges will be read and discussed. If everyone likes this type of format, we intend to do this on a quarterly basis so let the board know what you think. The rules for the competition are as follows. 1. Each member can enter up to two images. Bring your images on either a flash drive or a cd to the June meeting. 2. The category is Open meaning any subject is ok. The images don't have to be recently taken. Put in your best shots. Even scanned slides are ok. 3. June club meeting is the entry deadline. 4. Images must have been taken by the person entering. Pretty simple so let's have a good turnout and have some fun with this.

News from Keaau Fine Arts Center Joe Ruesing, Best of Show for "Deception-3". He'll receive a box of Hahnemuhle's 13x19 Fine Art Bamboo Paper, courtesy Hahnemuhle Paper Co. Christina Heliker, People's Choice for "Evening Reeds". She'll receive a $50 certif icate toward any scan, print or media purchase at Keaau Fine Art Center. Additional award winners: Renata Walczuk for "Say Nothing", 1 box of Hahnemuhle's 13x19 Fine Art Bamboo Paper, courtesy Hahnemuhle Paper Co. Yuko Ishikawa for "Taillight, Moonlight", $50 certif icate toward any scan, print or media purchase. Kayo Asaoka for "How to Climb", $50 certif icate toward any scan, print or media purchase. Leigh Hilbert for "Anole Licks", set of Nik Filters.

Congratulations to our award winners, to everyone who had a piece in the show and mahalo nui to all you who entered and helped make this an excellent exhibit. We plan to do this again next year! The show will be up for one more week (last day is Saturday, April 10). Hours: 10am-5:30pm Tuesday thru Friday, 9am to noon Saturday (closed Sat., April 3)

Photoshop Classes April 20, 6-8PM Ken Goodrich and Steve Godzak will be presenting “Burning and Dodging” at the Kamana Center.

On the Calendar May 1, 9AM-3PM Senior Portraits details to come. If interested please contact Jim Kelly.

Treasurer’s Report George Jensen reports all is hunky dorry at the bank. Actually I have run off with the funds and bought a new Nikon D3x ;-). Just checking to see if you are reading the newsletter.

Newsletter Report Bob Douglas welcomes submissions from the membership of photos and articles. If you would like to research and write about a photographic topic of interest please do so and send it to Bob at b.douglas@sun.com . You will learn a lot by doing so and all of us will beneft!

Feisol 3441S Tripod Review Contributed by Rick Decker I had been looking for a traveling tripod for my trips to the mainland. After doing a lot of research, I decided upon Feisol. Their specs looked the best and their reviews, although very limited, are excellent. I went with the 3441S - the predecessor of the 3442. Of the ones I looked at, it is a little taller and folds shorter (16.93 with center column out) and weighs 2.5 with center column and 2.2 without. I am using a cheap and very light-weight Chinese ArcaSwiss type mount and also a Bogen 488 with a RRS mounting platform replacing the Bogen hex platform. My other tripod is a Induro C313 with a heavy RRS Pro head. I have also owned Gitzo and Bogen heavy aluminum tripods and have a Wimberley on another set of legs. Initially I emailed Feisol and got no response. They do not list a phone number. After some soul searching and looking at a few reviews, I decided to go ahead and purchase from them. I felt they came closest to what I wanted. Given I live in Hawaii and travel to the mainland 2 - 4 times a year, I wanted something that would fit easily in a medium-size suitcase and not add

much weight. Stability was important and height was an issue. So I bought it despite not getting an email back.

The good news is that it feels very stable - by that I mean when you push down on the tripod, it has very minimal flex - a lot less than I expected. The double action center column is a twist lock and you can really tighten it down (making for good stability). The legs have three click stops. If you flip them up and reverse the center column, they move out seamlessly. The tension adjustment on the leg spreaders works well. Everything just feels good. You can raise the column up by loosening one twist and raising the bottom up. You can also loosen a second twist and a column slides out of the larger one and slides up from the top. The tripod sets 50 inches vertically from ground to base plate of tripod. The doubleaction column gives you up to two feet of additional extension. On the down side, my rubber-tip legs fell off on my first trip to the mainland. I emailed them and didn't get a response, emailed them again and they got back to me right away saying they didn't get the first email and had new tips sent immediately. I know they are going to fall off again but I can buy replacement ones in a hardware store. (They are still on at this point after much use and abuse). The collars on the double action center column can be hard to get to as the legs get in the way on the bottom part and you often need to raise the column to be able to grip the collar on the top part (reverse thread). In addition, when closing the 4-section legs, at times if you close the top section but not tightly enough, it turns when you close the next section and you need to start over. I generally start from the bottom up. Lastly, I had my tripod lying in the dirt several times at Zion (along the Virgin River) and the tripod got grit between the channels and the legs. I am pretty hard on my tripods and learned a lesson as I had to take them apart and clean them ("voiding the warranty") but now all is well. Still I am a little surprised at how easily they got grit in them.

Overall I am very pleased and would buy it again. I use a cable release at times for ensured stability with longer focal lengths. I have shot my very heavy 120-35 f2.8 Sigma on it. I have read some complaints about the tripod bag but find it to be fine. A couple of other observations. If you are going to do macro, get the short center-column also ($25). Carbon fiber tripods are not the most resilient. I dropped my Induro (a well-made and really stable for longer and heavier lenses) from about 2 1/2 feet (my arm was hanging down as I was walking) onto lava and the point were it hit it cracked. It doesn't seem to affect the stability/operation at all so I have just left it. I talked with one landscape photographer who went back to aluminum because of the number of times he broke carbon fiber ones.

Outing Pics Thanks to Mary Goodrich and George Jensen for sharing these beautiful pictures.

ÂŠ George Jensen