HPC - September 2010

September 2010

HPC Monthly

Rick Decker Images of the Southwest

Dues!

Member’s Choice Christina Heliker

© Joe Ruesing

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/hobby 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, in-club 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.

© Jim Kelly

Hilo Photo Club Website Editor Bob Douglas 333-0402

©Mary Goodrich

Contents President’s Corner 4 The 1/250 Second Banana 5 Editor’s Page 7 Calendar 8 Meeting Minutes 10 Upcoming Meeting 12 More Member Pictures 16

President’s Corner

First off I wish to thank Doug Halstead for stepping up and serving as club president for the past 2 seasons. He has served long and well leading the club's expansion as well as hosting numerous activities. I sincerely hope Doug will continue to assist the board with his wisdom, experience, and historical recollections not to mention his friendship and love of wine. His next project is to coordinate the county fair so let's all lend some time. It's a wonderful venue to get to know other club members and to engage the public in showing member's images and selecting their 'favorite'. Mahalo, Doug!

We've some new people on the board as well as serving on subcommittees. Thanks to Eric Jeschke for filling in the VP spot, Tom Whitney for becoming refreshment chair, Christian James for competitions chair, and Linda Halsted and John Cooper for co-chairing the outings activities. We still seek a workshops chair so if you've interest in helping expand the club's activities, please see a board member (emails also accepted). Also, if you've ideas for workshops or outings, please send those in as well and we'll do our best to put something together. And lastly, I would be remiss if thanks did not also go to those who continue to serve as the club's board members. Thank you and let's have another banner year!

Congratulations to all HPC members (I counted 8) whose work is on display at the 'Abstract Only' exhibit. I visited the show this week and thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of art pieces shown. I wondered how several of them got there in one piece and I still do not understand what defines 'abstract'. Saw a few members shooting at the Haari boat races this past weekend. Hope you were successful in getting some interesting pics. The racing looks like fun, but I'm guessing it's plenty of hard work too.

Reminder: September begins another season so please pay your dues.

Aloha! Steve

The 1/250 Second Banana ON THEMES Hi Gang, This column is new to me, so I'll be finding my way a bit. There don't seem to be any clear guidelines, except that it ought to concern photography. In that case, I'll indulge a little and mull through some thoughts photographic that I've been ruminating on. I promise I'll try to keep it on topic! Suggestions and feedback most welcome.

The other day I was reading one of my favorite photography blogs, The Online Photographer, and the topic du jour was on the idea of themes in one's photography. Here's the URL for the article: http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/08/shooting-to-a-theme.html I encourage you to read it. The post resonated with me because shooting themes or projects, is something I've been thinking a lot about in recent months. I am also convinced that it is a great tool for raising one's photography to another level. Let me explain, by relating this to my own photographer's journey.

For many years I was content to carry a camera around and photograph whatever struck my fancy. There is no doubt that this is a very nice way to enjoy a hobby--nothing wrong with that. I went through different phases: first I was mostly a "landscape" photographer. Later my interests broadened and I began shooting more "travel", "portraits", then "street" photography, "still life" and so on. After some years I had a nice collection of photographs, and could organize my "portfolio" into these into broad categories. In recent years, however, I began to feel that I had sort of plateaued with this approach, and I began to search for ways that could help me get to another level, inspire me, and get me out of the general feeling that I was wandering without much direction. One answer to this, I felt sure, was to target tighter themes.

For "emerging photographers" (the current euphemism for up-and-coming, making-a-name-for-themselves-in-the-world photographers), you don't have to look at too many of their web sites to see that most of their work is organized into precise themes or projects, not just a collection of portfolios labeled "landscapes", "portraits", etc. as I have just described. What is it about themes or projects that is so important? A strong theme helps make your work more unique so that it stands out. It also shows planning, thought, intention. Perhaps the most valuable thing that it gives you though, is straightforward direction. If your project is "Ranches of the Big Island" then you do not need to wonder much about what to do--you might want to find out where all the ranches are and go visit them, perhaps multiple times. Interview the people that work there; tell the story of those places. As your themes become broader, it's more difficult to make the most productive use of your time. For example, "wildlife photography" doesn't suggest as straightforward of a plan. With that kind of "theme", what are you going to do? Take a hike and hope that you see some wildlife? Certainly a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But if your theme is "Nightingales of Kona" you can start doing some good research on locations and putting together some shoots that will almost certainly land you

some photographs for your project, and have a project that stands out from a generic mix of wildlife photos.

There are lots of ways to structure a project oriented around a theme. Here are a few ideas to help inspire you: 1) "Shoot what you love". A piece of sage advice that surfaces again and again throughout the years. Many excellent photographers didn't start out as such. They loved hawaiian birds, or volcanoes, or motorcycle life, or ... By shooting subjects they were knowledgeable and passionate about, bodies of quality work tightly oriented around a theme were the eventual result. Think about things that you are passionate about--are you photographing those things? Of course, if you love "wildlife", then maybe it's time to think about narrowing it down just a little bit!

2) Pick a subject you want to learn more about and start making photographs of that subject. This is sort of the opposite of "shoot what you love". You already know how to take nice photographs. So use that to document something you want to learn about. Travel photography fits nicely into this approach, even if it is a bit clichebest if you can focus it tightly on a small area like a city or village, rather than a state or country. Always wanted to restore a '69 Aston Martin?

Do it and document it!

3) Once you have a subject in mind--take photographs with the idea of making a book. The SoFoBoMo project (http:// sofobomo.org/) is a great way to kickstart an exploration of making a book by setting a tight timeframe (30 days) and some loose guidelines (minimum 35 photos). A good book is not just a collection of random photographs, but holds your interest with a thematic subject. Writing something for presentation clarifies and crystallizes your thoughts about the subject. Even editing and sequencing a mostly photos book can make you think carefully about the presentation and what it is you are trying to get across.

4) Make a folio. A folio is similar to a book, but consists of a stack of loose pages, held in an attractive case. It's a bit like a portfolio, but targeted toward a theme, and presented in an artful way.

5) Make a live presentation on the subject to an audience. Give a talk, using your photos to illustrate. Or combine photographs, video, music or narration using a multimedia editing program. Not only will you learn some technology that might be useful down the road, but it makes it very easy to give the talk: show the presentation and then answer questions about it from the audience.

6) Have a solo art show. This requires a little more patience and planning, to find an appropriate opportunity and venue, but if you are serious about the effort, and put in the time and leg work you can probably make it happen. You will find that having a tight theme makes it more straightforward to sell your idea to reserve the space, and to put together a unique, interesting and satisfying show, than to scrape through your archives to pull together a "best of" portfolio of prints.

If you, like me, are looking for something to go beyond simply having a collection of broad categories of photos; if you are looking for something to give you focus and help you articulate your photographic "voice" and vision, then spend some time thinking about themes for your work. By examining your existing collection, you may identify themes that are already running through the work that you can expand on.

Eric Jeschke

Editor’s Page Aloha, This club is awesome. We asked for some images for the newsletter and we were deluged. Thanks!

Yes you may have noticed a slight change in format again. It’s not as drastic as the last one we are still staying with the square, 10x10 format so it’s fair to all aspect ratios. This change has more to do with the editing software. I am trying out Adobe InDesign and so far it’s so much easier than Office or StarOffice at least for publishing. One huge advantage is what’s referred to as WYSIWYG or what you see is what you get. Meaning what you see on the screen is what you get in the print out or on the web. The other advantage is how it handles images.

When the image is placed it anchors itself without destroying any previous formatting.

Another change is that hyperlinks to the web are now active inside the document so just click on them if you wish to see the page.

We are always looking for content so send us your ideas or better yet write an article and submit it. It doesn’t have to be perfect it just needs to contain information that would be of interest to the club members.

If you are submitting images please send jpgs sized at least 800 pixels on the long side. Larger is better as they can be used as full page images. Full page requires a minimum of 1200 pixels. Save the image in sRGB at the highest quality setting.

Thanks again for all of the support.

Calendar September Sunday

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Keaau Fine Arts Center Lightroom 3 with Nat Coalson

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Club Meeting Micahel Poore Member Choice Open

Wailoa Center E Komo Mai Intake

Meeting Minutes August 18, 2010 The meeting opened with some business items addressed by President Doug Halsted. The annual website dues of $60 required membership approval and was passed. Volunteers are needed for the County Fair on September 18th and 19th and a sheet was passed around for sign-up. Also a refreshment log was circulated for voluntary sign-up, and those not participating will be assigned a date by Tom Whitney, Refreshment Chair. The suggested slate of officers was approved by the membership with no changes. Doug asked about member response to the monthly newsletter and the consensus was positive. A request was made for volunteer help for the newsletter project.

Tom Benedict, the guest speaker scheduled for the evening, had to cancel at the last minute due to illness and HPC member Christian James offered to fill in with a presentation of his photography. James showed his impressive portfolio of concert and architecture photos, but ran out of time for his nature portfolio.

Chris has worked for many years with concert promoters, magazines and bands and has mastered the art of finding the interesting angle and lighting to create dynamic portraits of bands, individual performers and the crowd. He shoots from the pit, side stage, back stage and occasionally uses a monopod on a pole to get an unusual overview. The night scenes are challenging and many are shot wide open. Sometimes Christian uses multiple images from burst exposures and uses interesting techniques in Photoshop like color isolation and fractals for varying effects. He discovered that shots of the promoter’s family, and the girl friends of the musicians were favorites, along with throngs of happy concert goers.

The architecture photography was specific to homes designed by Christian and his architect father, created for publishing in magazines. The estate properties were carefully researched to find the optimum lighting conditions and arrangements of furnishings. The results are very warm and inviting and bring you visually into the spaces.

After the break HPC member Tom Whitney gave a presentation of his innovative framing system, with all the tools and samples at hand to show the various stages of progress. His early pieces were printed on glossy paper and mounted on 1-2” foam core with right angle edges. His refined pieces utilized matte paper and rounded edges. This technique Tom has perfected by using mitered dowels fastened with grabber screws to create a sturdy frame. The photograph is printed 3” larger than finish size and the excess is wrapped around and closely stapled to create a uniform stretch. The result is a unique and dimensional frame that is lightweight. The photographic paper is sprayed with a water deterrent protective spray and the finished piece has no glare from conventional framing with glass. This sharing of this imaginative technique was appreciated by guests and members.

October 20: Michael Poore presentation on his Monet workshop with DeWitt Jones in Giverny, France. MC – Open.

Receive entries for November competition.

November 17: Competition Night. Member’s Choice: Visiting photographer Russell Atkinson with Burning Man slide-

show.

December 15th: HPC Banquet and Swap here at Kamana Coming Events in the Community Keaau Fine Arts Center workshop on Lightroom 3 with Nat Coalson, October 9 & 10th, $150. Contact KFAC for more information.

Wailoa Center Shows E KOMO MAI “Welcome to everyone” Intake 10/30/2010 10:00 am-3:00 pm.

Show schedule: NOVEMBER 5-24. $10 fee per entry, limit of 5 entries per artist- guaranteed to have at least 1 entry accepted and potluck contribution for reception.

FRIENDS-Animal Portraits Art Intake during office hours 11/22, 23, 24/2010, before Thanksgiving weekend.

Show schedule: DECEMBER 3-30. $10/Adult $5/Child fee per entry , limit of 3 entries per artist and potluck contribution for reception.

General rules for entries at Wailoa: No nudity or subjects deemed inappropriate for public viewing in a state facility Show dates/opening reception dates are subject to change due to Furlough Friday scheduling.

Wailoa Center Director and/or guest jurors reserve the right to reject submissions for content, size, cohesiveness, etc…

Artwork must be framed and ready to hang or easily installed. Gallery wrapped canvases (no exposed staples) will be accepted. No GICLEE/ reproduction prints.

Artwork must be submitted on-time and picked up at the designated time at the end of the show (NO LATE ENTRIES OR LATE PICK-UPS) Entries must have been completed in the past two years and not have been shown in any other Wailoa exhibit Honolulu Academy of Arts Artists of Hawaii 2011 Fee: $25.00 (Artists of Hawai’i 2011) Entry Deadline: 4/1/11 The Honolulu Academy of Arts annual juried exhibition is one of the longest running juried exhibitions in the country, showcasing the quality and diversity of Hawaii’s artists. All artists residing in the state of Hawaii are eligible. Artists may submit up to 3 artworks. There is a $25 Jury Fee which includes one digital image submission. Each additional digital image submitted is $5 (1 entry=$25; 2 entries=$30; 3 entries=$35; 1 entry+1 detail=$30; 2 entries+1 detail=$35, etc). For more information on the Honolulu Academy of Arts please visit www.honoluluacademy.org.

Upcoming Meeting Rick Decker Photos of the southwest and Hawaii. “The American West is photographically one of the greatest places in the world. It is large, diverse, and complex geologically. It can also be very confusing as different areas are know by different names. My presentation will begin with a short discussion of the area using maps.

It will be followed by 3 multi-media presentations about 6 minutes each of Moab area (Arches, Canyonlands and surroundings), The Wave, and Death Valley.”

Rick Decker took up photography as a serious hobby thirty years ago. Initially he photographed primarily underwater until he was introduced to the desert by a friend and began to shoot landscapes.

His images have appeared in Scuba Diving, Scuba Times, Tropical Collector, American Landscapes and several online publications.

A permanent resident of Hawaii since 1997, Rick is the founder and current president of the Kona Camera Club and past president of the Kona Underwater Photographic Society.

Contests he has participated in and won include the Kona Classic (Underwater); Inter-island Camera Club Council of Hawaii B&W and color; Clark Realty Inter-island; and Kahilu Theatre B&W. He was the first underwater photographer in the Sausalito Art Festival. He currently photographs with Sigma DSLR’s, Sigma digital compacts, and a

Nikon D300. His images are used

by Sigma for their online galleries and their marketing literature.

He has been displayed locally in the Kahilu Theatre Gallery and the Hilo Wailoa Art Center. He currently manages and judges the Kahilu Theatre yearly B&W competition.

In a recent interview, Rick commented, “My preference is to record the earth without people and without any man-made objects. I have taken thousands of pictures in the last 20 years. And yet I have vivid recollections of the process of creating my favorites - racing across the sand dunes to beat the sun; timing a wave; waiting for the best moment in a sunrise; or trying to get into the right position to shoot an underwater scene. I am able to relive these moments each time I see the image.�

Many of his images may be seen at http://www.pbase.com/rickdecker and at http://www.lightreflection.com. Rick may be contacted via email at rickdecker@hawaii.rr.com.

Member’s Choice: Christina Heliker Christina will show a selection of her photographs from Hawai`i and beyond.

More Member Pictures

ŠAntonio Chrysostomou

©Robbyn Peck

©Lanaya Deily

©Lanaya Deily

Š Doug Halsted

©Antonio Chrysostomou

©Charlene Asato