July 2010
HPCMONTHLY
NextMeeting Club Contest Results!
SteveGaron's WinningEXPO Entry
Me mber's Choice: Wendy Acker
Table of Contents President’s Corner.............................................................................................................................................................................4
Notes from the Second Banana........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Editor’s Page..................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
What's Coming Up............................................................................................................................................................................ 7 July 21th Club Meeting......................................................................................................................................................................7 Review of the June 16th Club meeting............................................................................................................................................. 9 Announcements........................................................................................................................................................................9 Other News......................................................................................................................................................................................11 Faces of Hawaii .................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Abstract Only Contest .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Sampling of Club Contest Entries................................................................................................................................................... 12 Club Outing Pictures....................................................................................................................................................................... 16
The Hilo Photography Club is a photography club based on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and has been meeting monthly since 1978. Our me m b ers all have a com mon interest in photography and in sharing their craft/profession/hobby with others. Skillsrange from novice to professional. We currently have around 50 me m b ers from allparts 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 me m bers 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 . Hilo Photo Club Website Editor Bob Douglas 333-0402xx
HPC Monthly
President’s Corner Doug Halsted Many thanks to all members who attended the last outing. The ranch is a very special place. Great photo opportunities and fellowship! Dave DeLuz Jr. graciously spent his day guiding members through this incredible landscape. Please forward outing pictures to myself or Bob Douglas so we can organize them for the DeLuz family. Congratulations to the many club members who participated in the 11th Annual Hawaii Photo Expo held during June 2010. As usual, the Expo committee did a great job. The County Fair will soon be here so get you images ready to hang in our booth. We will need volunteers to man the Fair for three days and a planning meeting will be held in early August. Hope you can help. The Board has interesting meetings and speakers lined up for the remainder of the year. Take advantage of your membership and attend Club meetings. Please consider becoming officer or joining the Board. Contact any officer or Board member for details. This is your club and your participation is key to its success. Take Care! Doug Halsted President
All content copyrighted by either HPC or the original photographer.
Š Steve Godszak
Notes from the Second Banana Steve Godszak May you all have a safe, fun, and festive Fourth. Celebrate day's end with fireworks (if that's your thing) and take some photos of the glittering incendiaries falling from the sky. It's not difficult to take a pretty good photo using a slow shutter and a reasonable fstop. The fun is experimenting with different combinations. The trip to Kukaiau Ranch was well attended and our host, David DeLuz, was wonderful. He spent much of his Saturday talking story, answering questions, and guiding us around the ranch over dry, dusty (talcum powder consistency), rocky tracks taking us to grasslands and ohia forests with blossoms of red, yellow, red-yellow, and orange hues. And the weather was superb. Our caravan of eight vehicles traversed brown and yellow grass pastures where ancient koa once grew. A few elderly trees still linger on. We eventually ended several thousand feet above Mana Road where, alas, the grade became too steep (even walking was difficult if you're not 4 legged) and we headed back makai. For a short time we stood on rock strewn earth where sparse patches of brittle dried out scrub brush are easily avoided while silently watching and feeling the cool moist clouds. I sat on a rock outcropping and photographed the scene when interrupted by "Let's go!" A wonderful experience!. A very BIG and most appreciative Mahalo to David for allowing our club to visit this very special place and to Linda Halstead for making the arrangements. Also - thanks to those that drove and may your chariot's true color (not brown) once again be shown... Rubio's wedding photography techniques were both interesting and informative. The glow from the setting sun and the use of flash creates their unique style and though I have zero experience as a wedding photographer, I cannot believe it is so easy to do (still have trouble even after reading instructions). The intimacy they are able to achieve with their clients is reflected in their images. No doubt the short lens plays a role but the ability to relate with the clients to create such a relaxed and natural response must be just as important. I will say this: wedding photography has changed immensely since the Mrs. and I were married. Thanks to the Rubios for sharing. This month is the first quarterly competition so I hope everyone has submitted images for the contest. And of course: best of luck! Mahalo! Steve
Editor’s Page Bob Douglas Aloha All, This month as you have noticed brings a new format. We are trying a square format mainly to allow equal cover time for both landscape and portrait aspect ratio images. The board would like to encourage everyone to take part in a presentation or Member's Choice. With that in mind here are some good tips on public speaking. These are mostly copied from the Toastmasters website but have been updated for the photoclub. 1. Know your material. If this is your first presentation work with the pictures or the subject that you are very familiar with. Know more about your subject than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language that way you won’t easily forget what to say. 2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words. Know the time limit, practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected. Practice in front of family or a friend, leverage the feedback. If you need further mentoring ask a board member for help. 3. Know the audience. This is somewhat a given being we are a photo club. That being said understand what interests the other members. One point to ponder is quality versus quantity, sometimes less is more when it comes to the number of pictures to share. Think back on other presentations. What did you enjoy the most, what bugged you, what put you to sleep. 4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids. We start setting up at 6:30, if you need more time ask a board member for assistance. 5. Relax. Begin by addressing the audience, use eye contact. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm. 6. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping, it will boost your confidence. 7. Realize that everyone want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you. 8. Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem, the audience probably never noticed it. 9. Concentrate on the message not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience. 10. Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you as an authority on your work and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. Finally have a great 4th of July and stay safe out there, Aloha - Bob
What's Coming Up 07/15/10 07/21/10 07/24/10 07/31/10 08/18/10 09/15/10
Deadline, Faces of Hawai'i July Meeting - Results and Judges Comments of the Open Category Competition Scott Kelby Photowalk Sign up http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/hilo-hi-united-states/ Intake Wailoa Center, Abstract Only Photography by Christian James Photography by Rick Decker
July 21th Club Meeting Wendy Acker will be our Member's Choice for the July 21 HPC meeting. She is originally from Florida, spent some time in Arizona, and has been living in Hawaii for the last 3 years. She describes herself as an amateur photographer and says she loves to photograph many different things. She likes abstractions (such as frog eggs in a martini glass), and nature photography, but her favorite thing is to photograph her friends wearing outlandish makeup and clothes. Wendy has had her work accepted into EHCC's Spring Arts Festival, Hawaii Photo Expo and Faces of Hawaii.
Any subject is okay, any time, as long as you took the picture. Bring 2 images to the June 16 meeting on a disc or flash drive. No entry fees. At the July meeting, the images will be viewed and the judges will make their comments. Bragging rights and ribbons will be awarded to the lucky winners. To share 15 minutes of your work or to do a demo for Member’s Choice, contact Steve Godzsak, patnsteve@hawaiiantel.net.
Review of the June 16th Club meeting Announcements New HPC Officers President Doug announced that we could be calling on some members to join the Board. We hope you will be open to this opportunity to serve HPC and help to design the program and activities formats and offer your ideas to the club. Those of us now on the Board are in our second year. We have all come to know each other as good friends and truly enjoy our once a month potluck meetings. The meetings are casual, no Robert’s Rules; we might even have a glass of wine while we talk. If you are asked to become a Board member we hope you’ll say yes! Open Category Competition George Jensen has selected Dennis Hoyne of the North Metro Photography Club in Minnesota to judge the competition. We will send a disc of our images to him for judging and he will send back his comments. In July, we will show the images and hear what Mr. Hoyne had to say about them. There will be ribbons awarded to the winners. County Fair Booth This is just a heads up, but it is time to think about the County Fair again which will be held in mid-September. There is no cost to members, but there is a commitment of time and energy. Last year we had a big booth for photos to be displayed and many people stopped to admire the photographs. There were a couple of sales. Ruben Casile has spearheaded this event in the past, and has done a great job. Now, he would like some help with the planning and member volunteers to sit the booth. No date has been set for a planning meeting yet, but we will get the word out soon. Newsletter We need contributions of photos, write-ups from outings, and articles on photography. A show of hands indicated that almost everyone present reads the newsletter. If you have something photographic to sell this is a good way to advertise it. Why not write about your thoughts on photography and send it in? What challenges you? What influences the choices you make about image making? Who is your favorite historical photographer? This kind of thinking and writing will expand your visual horizons and enhance relationships with other photographers in the group. Break Thanks to John Cooper, Bill Irwin and Tom Whitney for the delicious pupus! Program James and Beverly Rubio and their wedding photography were in the spotlight tonight. The signature of their work is the and the way they work the light to illuminate their subjects – who are already radiating light and love. James and Beverly use light of all
kinds – lens flare, back light, rim lighting with strobes and they also use the sun to advantage; often shooting right into it. Their slideshow was set to music with the images smoothly dissolving together. Most shots were of the wedding couple together before or after the ceremony. The “formal” shots were informal and natural looking. James and Beverly like people to just be who they are in their photographs, without pretense. If they need smiles during the family shots, they use laughs to get laughs. “Find the troublemaker in the group and use him to your advantage” says James. Inspiration for this work came from Strobist websites – check it out online, there are many sites. James says that now is a great time to be in to photography – knowledge is everywhere. Some of the Rubio’s photos are very romantic and you might think that closeness of the photographer would interfere with the couple’s intimacy. But James somehow manages to be invisible with his 24mm 1.4 lens and gets the shots. Other favorite lenses include 50mm 1.4 and 1.2, 16-35mm, and a 24-135mm. He uses a Canon 5D Mark II camera and most of the time he uses natural light and shoots wide open. Beverly does a great job of managing the lighting and is a fine photographer in her own right, specializing in shots of children. Often, James and Beverly have to work quickly since their time shooting the wedding couple alone is limited. One strobe makes for a fast set up. Sometimes, an umbrella is used. Shooting at dusk is a specialty for the Rubio’s. They demonstrated how they position a light directly behind the couple to rim light them and then drag the shutter for ½ second to bring in the sky. The camera is set on a high ISO, 1600. They use wireless remote control to set off the strobe. This technique creates a very dramatic image. The Rubio’s often photograph their clients at the beach. Sand makes a great reflector and helps to extend the golden moment at sunset time. When faced with difficult lighting situations such as harsh sunlight, the Rubio’s try to find a shaded area to shoot their subjects or “pockets of light”. They use shadows and sometimes shoot through foliage for a soft look. Another difficult situation is background clutter. Sometimes over exposure will take care of this or the couple can be positioned to block the background elements. HPC thanks the Rubio’s for sharing their exciting and very creative wedding work with us. Member’s Choice After the break, we had a look at the prints of Jayne Pinc. Much of Jayne’s work has a warm sepia tone to it and she often will employ methods to simulate antique photographs or old newspaper photos. Her eye is trained to find the interesting and unusual shots that are close by but often missed. Her subjects were the buildings at Pu’uhonua O Honaunau, a series of tree photos she calls “Looking Up” and other natural forms. These are things we have all seen, but Jayne’s interpretation makes them completely her own. Members showed a positive response to Jayne’s work and we hope to see more of it. Hospital Offer Steve Godzsak announced that the Hilo Hospital has been very happy to show our work and they have a proposition for us. They want to have large prints by our members printed and framed at their own expense, to show on their walls. Prints will belong to the photographers and be rotated out every 6 months or so. The frames will remain hospital property and be used to reframe new prints. Sounds like a win–win situation for everyone! Steve will be meeting with Elena at the hospital to work out the details and then he will let us know how and when to proceed. In the meantime, members who are interested in participating can be thinking about which of their images might be suitable to hang in a hospital environment. Outing, June 26 Our next outing will be a visit to Kukaio Ranch, organized by Linda Halsted. Information about this will be forthcoming on Yahoo emails. If you get some good shots on this outing, please send a couple to Bob at bob.douglas@oracle.com for our newsletter. You might
also include some information about why or how you took the photographs. Photoshop Class The next Photoshop class is on June 29 with Steve Godzsak and Ken Goodrich. The topics will be review of dodging and burning techniques and how to sharpen images. Bring your laptop and a few of your own photos to work on. This is a free class for members only. It will be held at Kamana Center in our usual meeting room at 6 pm.
Other News Faces of Hawaii Hi Art Magazine and ID Space announced the 3rd annual Faces of Hawaii Portrait Competition that will have an exhibition and also a book of selected entries. Juror for this competition is Kapulani Landgraf, Instructor of Photography and Hawaiian Visual Art at Kapiolani Community College. The deadline is July 15. For more details and a prospectus, go online to www.hiartmagazine.com Abstract Only Contest Wailoa Center announced the “Abstract Only” show which takes place every other year. Intake of work is 7/31 from 10am to 3 pm. Entry fee is $15 per photo, 3 maximum. The show will be up from August 7 – 26. Scott Kelby Photowalk This year the walk coordinators are Ken and Mary Goodrich of Volcano, founders of Hawaii Photo Retreat. We will gather at 8:45am at the parking lot of Coconut Island Park in Hilo. From there, photographers can explore Banyan Drive, Reeds Bay, Liliuokalani Park, Bayfront and harbor areas. There is an abundance of natural and manmade beauty as well as some industrial grunge to keep things interesting. If you want to capture the early light, join the hard-core group at 6am at Coconut Island. We will return to Coconut Island at 11am and get together for lunch at a restaurant. Remember to bring rain gear for yourself and your equipment (those who were there last year can testify). Bring water and keep hydrated. Sunscreen! Lastly as in prior years Scott Kelby is giving away an awesome prize package. One Hilo participant will win Scott's latest Lightroom 3 book and two random walkers will be selected to receive a free print from the fine folks at the Keaau Fine Art Center! Sign up at http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/hilo-hi-united-states/ Click on the green Join this Walk button and have fun!
Sampling of Club Contest Entries
Club Outing Pictures The Photo Club went on an all day excursion Saturday, June 26, to Kukaiau Ranch, 10,000 acres on the Hamakua Coast, founded in 1885. We went from 2,000 ft. elevation to 8,000. The day was glorious and the views splendorous! Here's a taste. Our host Dave is second from the left.
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