HPC - October 2010 by Bob Douglas

October 2010

HPC Monthly Michael Poore Images of France Memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice Lanaya Deily

Dues are due!

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.

Dues are due!

The annual dues are $15. Please mail your check to: George Jensen POB 100 Kurtistown, HI 96760

Hilo Photo Club Website Editor Bob Douglas 333-0402

©Mary Goodrich

Contents Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner 4 The 1/250 Second Banana 5 Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Page 8 Calendar 9 Meeting Minutes 11 Upcoming Meeting 14 More Member Pictures 18

President’s Corner

The primaries are over and so is the County fair weekend. What a great place to meet people and talk story. Hope everyone had time to get to the fair and look at the HPC booth. There was a wide diversity of images covering landscape, people, places, and things. This is a great way to display the membership’s talents and skill level. I cannot say how many walked by the booth, but we had 900+ ballots submitted for “favorite photo” which was won by Ruben Castile. Congradulations Ruben! He got more votes than several political candidates! Thanks to everyone who contributed their time and energy to cleaning, creating, and staffing the booth and - most improtantly - for their images. Special mahalo to Bill Irwin for designing and building the light fixtures and to the Castiles for painting and supplying the wallpaper, table, and chairs. Great job! I know Jim made some notes for next year’s event...and I’m sure one item is to begin preparing earlier. I was delighted to get email from Elena telling us that the frames have been ordered - but surprised at the request to have images hung by October 15th. So you’ll be getting an announcement for the event, photo details, and the “tight” schedule. I feel confident we can meet the need and successfully put a gallery in the newly carpeted front lobby. What a great opportunity for the club. However, success is dependent on your participation so bring out those images for all to see. Be sure to read the details in the announcement. Now that we’re dealing with larger prints it’d be good to have someone provide a synopsis of printers, their costs, quality, etc. Anyone game? Be a good member’s choice topic. The Southwest slide shows reminded me so much of the Arizona Highways Magazine I grew up admiring...or perhaps drooling over those beautiful shots. What was once done with 8x10 large format cameras weighing 10s of pounds is now possible with a relatively light DSLR. Technology marches on... I looked at my fair pictures and nothing worth showing so I hope others had better luck and will submit a few to the newsletter. A hui hou! Steve

The 1/250 Second Banana Dear Readers, Oh my, has another month passed already? Time for my monthly ball and chain, er...column. As usual, I’m going to ramble a bit this month. Hope you don’t mind. Again, it’s what I’ve been musing on recently. I hope you had some chances to get out and enjoy some photography this last month, either making or viewing photographs. Although we are the “Hilo Photography Club”, our name is probably at odds with what many similar clubs call themselves all across the U.S. Most of them are “XYZ Camera Club” (where XYZ is the city, region or what have you). You can say “what’s in a name?”, but to me it speaks a bit about where our priorities are on the scale between camera enthusiasts and photography enthusiasts. If you don’t know the difference, my guess is that you are one of former rather than the latter. There is nothing wrong with loving cameras, computers, etc. Some people like that part so much they spend more time thinking about the gear than photography. Since we are a photography club, I like to think that most of us appreciate photography more than gear, and that’s the sense I get in our meetings these days. On the other hand, equipment does matter, despite what some might say. All artists and craftsmen appreciate good tools. We appreciate a camera that doesn’t get in the way between us our photography, but rather facilitates it and helps us achieve our vision. And there was a time when cameras were things of beauty. But I speak of a time long ago... Technology has always played a huge role in photography, as the basis of the cameras and imaging. From daguerreotypes to glass plates, to film holders (but still in view cameras), to roll film, to the 35mm mechanical SLRs of the 50s, 60s and 70s, to the microprocessor-based autofocus/autoexposure wonder SLRs of the 80s and 90s to the myriad of digital cameras of the last 10 years. The tech gets increasingly sophisticated. And that is a doubled-edged sword. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders. It’s up to you to decide where the sweet spot is. If you are a large format film-loving view camera photographer you’re probably happy with the camera tech of the 1940s. Some think photography was never better than with a 60s era mechanical Leica 35mm SLR. Maybe you love running a few rolls of film through a 80’s era Nikon F4. Maybe you like digital and are excited about the latest cameras. Me? I like digital photography a lot. But I hate the cameras. If you follow any photography news on the internet or world at large you are probably aware that the giant photography trade show Photokina has just wrapped up in Cologne, Germany. This huge event, which happens every two years at the same location, is where a lot of new camera industry products are announced and previewed. Most of the buzz is around the latest digital cameras, whether the format is large, medium or small, as you might expect. What’s interesting to me is that despite the advanced tech, there is a noticeably increasing trend toward old school when it comes to form factor. The large wunderplastik SLR form factor of the 80s and 90s that morphed into the digital cameras of the first decade of 2000 is still around, but there is an increasing emphasis on returning to the smaller cameras and even high quality mechanical feel of the 70s era cameras. And people are snapping them up.

I put forth for your consideration: The Olympus EP-1 (June 2009):

The Leica X-1 (Sept 2009):

and just last month, announced at Photokina...The Fujifilm X-100:

For I (and many others it seems) this is an extremely welcome trend. Even though I shoot exclusively digital these days, I still hang on to one of my first beloved cameras, a 70s era Pentax MX. Small, discrete, metal, and tough as nails, it was (and still is) a thing of beauty. The direct control of important camera functions via sturdy dedicated metal knobs meant no fumbling through complex software menus via flimsy plastic buttons. It’s diminutive size and weight meant I could carry it almost anywhere, and I did. It tough metal construction meant that it could take a knock or two (and it did). Yes, I loved the 70’s era small 35mm SLRs. Those were the days: Nikon FM, Canon AE-1, Olympus OM-2... This new breed of cameras manages to combine a level of amazing digital photography quality in a package that is decidedly more ergonomically friendly and beautiful to behold as an object in itself. I’ve always loved photography, and the advancement of digital technology into cameras was one that I appreciated and embraced. But the trend toward huge plastic camera bodies was the end of my love affair with cameras themselves. I started disliking cameras in the 80s, moving on to disgust through the 90s, and finally resignation in the 2000s. Now my hopes are stirred like someone raking a stick through the cold ashes of a near dead fire. Maybe, just maybe, I can have a love affair with a camera again too. Till next time, Eric Jeschke

Editor’s Page Aloha, This month has been a bit of a struggle getting the newsletter out so I am going to be rather brief. As Eric so eloquently stated it seems as if most members in this club are interested in the photography and less so in the gear. With this in mind I would like to share two of my favorite books. They have been an inspiration to me as well as to several of my good friends. FYI you won’t find them in most book stores so you may have to go online to order one. The first one is “Tao of Photography” and the second “Photography and the Art of Seeing.

Calendar October Sunday

Monday

September 2010 S

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

6 13

3 10

Keaau Fine Arts Center Lightroom 3 with Nat Coalson

Friday

November 2010

Saturday

Keaau Fine Arts Center Lightroom 3 with Nat Coalson

Columbus Day

31 Halloween

Club Meeting Micahel Poore Member Choice Lanaya Deily

Wailoa Center E Komo Mai Intake

November Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

1 All Saints Day

7 Daylight Savings Time Ends

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Election Day

Club Meeting Russell Atkinson Photo Competition Viewing

Veteranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day

Thanksgiving Day

October 2010 S

First Sunday of Advent

December 2010 F

S 4

Meeting Minutes September 15, 2010 Just a slight deviation from our usual format – due to technical considerations our Member’s Choice guest, Christina Heliker, showed her work first. If you checked out last month’s newsletter you saw a preview of Christina’s excellent photography and tonight she did not disappoint us! Christina is a former Geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. In the course of her work as a Geologist, she was able to get some exciting and unusual close shots of Pele in action. She also showed photos of native birds and images from her travels to Iceland and the Southwest. Since her retirement, she has been exploring her creative work further. She has participated in Photo Expo and the Expo Portfolio review. Thank you, Christina. We hope you will come back again with more of your wonderful work! Rick Decker was up next. Rick is President of the Kona Camera Club and says there are about a dozen dedicated members who form the core of the organization. Rick’s work has been published and received awards and recognition throughout the State. Although he is well known for his underwater photography, tonight he chose to show photos of the American West and the deserts. He presented three 6-minute slideshows along with a talk about his technical processes and creative observations. Rick retired from his job in California about 13 years ago and moved to Hawaii. He formerly used 6X7 format, but is now shooting mainly with digital cameras. He likes to travel to the desert a couple of times a year and enjoys hiking into rugged areas that many others might choose to pass up. His photos of Death Valley, Antelope Valley, the Moab area and “The Wave” were expertly rendered with a practiced sense of composition and technical accuracy. An unusual place called “The Wave” is a unique and beautiful area of wind-sculpted sandstone. Only 20 people each day are allowed in to see it and they are selected by a lottery through the Bureau of Land Management in Salt Lake City. Rick says it is not easy to be the one selected. All of us in the HPC are grateful to Rick for coming to Hilo to share his work with us. His beautiful photographs will linger in our minds for quite some time. Rick reminded us of the Black and White Photography exhibit held each year at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea. For information and to enter the competition, go to their website at www.kahilutheatre.org and click on “Gallery” to download a Prospectus and Entry Forms. Business Meeting: The membership voted to raise the amount of money that can be spent without a formal vote to $150. The bylaws will be amended to reflect this change.

County Fair: Fourteen photographers agreed to show work and sit the booth at the County Fair. The results of the People’s Choice vote and overview of the Fair will be covered in another part of this newsletter. October 20 Meeting: Images by HPC Member Michael Poore taken at a workshop in Giverny, France, with Dewitt Jones, writer for Outdoor Photographer. Member’s Choice: Lanaya Dailey. Bring in your images for submission in the November HPC Competition! Our Competition Coordinator is Chris James . Chris will send out a yahoo email with all the details on how to enter. Outings: Outing 23rd of October. Kahuku portion of Volcano National Park. George Jensen has volunteered to be our leader as he knows the area very well. Another idea is for a future trip would be to rent cabins on Mauna Kea. Linda suggested that when we carpool somewhere, we should all contribute to the driver’s gasoline expense. Linda welcomes your suggestions for outings locations. email her at <douglashalsted@hawaiiantel.net> November 17: Competition Night. We will view the competition images, hear comments from the juror and our members. Ribbons will awarded to the winners. Member’s Choice: Russell Atkinson has a home in Volcano, is moving here from CA permanently next year, and will soon join HPC. Russell will share his photographs from the Annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada. December 15 Holiday Potluck and Swap Bring a dish to share and wrap up something unisexual, weird or wonderful, that someone else might get some enjoyment from. Such items may have come from last year’s swap, the back of your closet or under a rock. Let’s have some fun with this! 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. This does not apply to photography. 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 Michael Poore On Wednesday, October 20, retired engineer and part time UH professor Michael Poore will present his images from a recent photography workshop held in Monet’s garden in Giverny, France. The workshop was offered by Mark Lissick, Wildlight Nature Photography, with guest lecturer Dewitt Jones, former photographer for National Geographic Magazine and current photo-columnist for Outdoor Photography Magazine. The goal for the workshop participants was to learn to take garden and flower photographs emulating the style of the Impressionist painter, Claude Monet. Michael will begin the presentation with photo© Michael Poore

graphs taken during his first week in Paris, followed by the images he created for workshop assignments. He will also talk about the methods he used for the assignment photographs. HPC member Michael Poore moved to Hilo eight years ago from the San Francisco Bay Area and has been taking photographs for forty years. He switched from film to a digital camera in 2000 and now uses a Canon 5D Mark II. His portfolio includes work from the Mainland, Europe, China, South America and Hawaii. © Michael Poore

He became a member of HPC last January. Michael says, “As a new member I am impressed with how active the club is, how much it is doing. I am also very impressed with the quality of the photography displayed by other club members”.

Member’s Choice Lanaya Deily Lanaya was the official seminar photographer for Friends of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and was able to go on a number of expeditions to different parts of Kahuku where she documented the outings and posted them on the Friends website. She was also the official photographer for the Friends of the Pana`ewa Zoo, and have done their graphic designs and website.

Fall Photo Critique Due: October 20, 2010 Requirements: 2 digital jpg files only - no prints - with the longest side being 2000 pixels How to Submit: email photos to ChristianJamesPhoto@gmail.com or bring images on a CD or flash drive to the October Photo Club Meeting Category: Open No winners will be selected, this will solely be a critique on all aspects of the photograph: Composition, Lighting, Scale, Mood, Exposure, Focus, Timing, Proportion, Rhythm, Cropping, White Balance, Color, etc!!! Honorable mentions will be featured in the monthly newsletter.

OUTINGS NEWS OCTOBER OUTING: Our October outing will be to the Kahuku section of the Havaii Volcanos National Park (HVNP) on October 23rd We are lucky that fellow HPC member, George Jensen will be our guide. Please meet at the parking lot of the visitor center in HVNP at 8 a.m. As you drive into the parking lot, make an immediate right and park in that section of the parking lot. From this point we will caravan down to Kaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;u to the entrance to the Kahuku section of the park. This is right after the 70 mile marker. What to bring: sun screen, water, lunch, snacks, a hat, and anything else that will make you comfortable. Please car pool if possible. You can car pool from Hilo or jump in someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car when you reach Volcano. If you do car pool, then please offer the driver some gas money. OTHER OUTINGS IN THE WORKS: MUSHROOM EXPLORATION: This will be an excursion to MacKenzie Park. Dr. Don Hemmes, retired biology professor from UHH, has agreed to be our guide. He is a nationally recognized expert on mushrooms. He has suggested that we go on this outing in November. BLACK AND WHITE NIGHT: This is held on November 5th this year. It is fun to see the shops all decorated for the holidays, and we can do our night photography when we attend this. We can also go out to dinner if we decide to do this. GEMNI TOUR: I will arrange a tour of the GEMNI facility on Mauna Kea. I have as yet to contact the person in charge. If the cabins at the Mauna Kea Park can be rented, then Doug and I will attempt to rent one, and then we can stay there for a potluck dinner and perhaps some sunset photography. ID SPACE: This is a wonderful garden setting in Hawaiian Acres, Puna. Although we had wanted to do this in November, I have learned that Mary and Ken will be having an opening art exhibit in June, so most likely we will do this in June. Id-Space is owned and operated by Steve Friedman who is a nationally recognized potter. SHIPMAN BEACH OUTING: This is a very nice outing in Keaau. I will be contacting the individual in charge, and possibly after the first of the year, we can plan on seeing this beach. Although the beach is small, Roy Blackshear, who lives in the beach house, has kept Nene on his property, and they are fun to photograph. OTHER IDEAS FOR OUTINGS: - An overnight stay at Kalopa Cabins - An overnight at Keanakolu, on Mana Road - Daytime tour of Downtown Hilo with Steamy Chow. He is a recognized historian of Downtown Hilo, and this ought to be fun. - Trip to a day lily farm in Hamakua and this could be followed by a BBQ at Laupahoehoe Point. The day lilies are usually in full bloom in March or April.

More Member Pictures