Bay Area Photo Club

Our next field trip will be to Brazos Bend State Park on Saturday May 19, 2012.  We will be photographing wildlife, birds and nature.  I have been to the park on numerous occasions and have an annual pass, which I will explain the benefits of that on the trip.  I will share my knowledge of the park with you so you can get the most out of your visit.  You can go here to see some of my photography from the park.  I need to know who will be coming so we can share more detailed information of the plans for that morning.

Water levels at the park have been great over the last several months, so the park is full of wildlife.  It's the first time I've seen water coming over the Spillway in the last few years.

Sunrise will be around 6:29am, so we will be meeting at 6:00am at the gate.  I will be there a little earlier for those of you who are serious about getting in ahead of sunrise and capturing that first light.  I will arrange entry with the park rangers ahead of time, but you will still be required to pay a $7 fee for entry.  I will see if we can get the envelopes before the trip so you only have to drop it in the box as you drive through.

We will assemble at 40 Acre Lake Trail parking lot and head out to shoot from there.  Our visit will also encompass Spillway Trail.  If you want to bring a bike, these trails are bike friendly.  You do need to practice good behaviour by not disturbing other photographers who might be shooting as you come crashing down the trail.

Yes, this is seriously very early for many people.  If you want to get the most out of the trip it is critical you be on time.  I cannot leave the gate open for you and will have to lock it back behind me, so l can head to the meeting location at 40 Acre parking lot.  I live in Deer Park and even at that time of morning on a weekend it takes me 55 minutes.  That's taking the Beltway to 288 South to FM1462 to FM 762 to the park entrance (P72).  You can go to the link on the website, plug the address into Google Maps or  a similar program and calculate from your location how long it will take you.

Bugs have never been a problem for me on this trail.  You may get the few loner mosquitos in the parking lot, but I've never sprayed down for 40 Acre Lake Trail.  There is one thing to keep in mind about this and your gear.  Some of the more potent sprays can do weird things to your rubber grips on your lenses.  We had a member several years ago who had to send his lens back to Nikon because he had bug spray on his hands that ate the rubber off his lens.

The temperature at this time is forecast for low 70's in the mornings.  We'll get into clothing as the shooting date approaches, but you will want to wear clothes that are non-binding, allowing plenty of free movement.  You will also want to be okay with getting them dirty or wet (more from dewy grass) if you intend to get the best photos you can get out of this trip.  Getting low is key to this type photography.

Depending on the type photos you want to get, lens selection is important.  If you intend to shoot birds the longer lenses are critical.  Macro or close focus lens will be important for flowers and bugs in the grasses.  Wildlife could walk within 5 feet of you or be as far as a several hundred feet.  Equally important is bringing a good tripod for your camera/lens setup.  Again, I'll get into that with you personally once you sign up to go, so you have a solid plan in place before the date.

Doug Haass

doug_h@sbcglobal.net

Nine members of BAPC have joined with our venue hosts, TAACCL, to photograph art, people and facilities for their website.  All of in the club are grateful to these volunteers since it is a valuable way to pull our weight with TAACCL since they allow us the use of their facility. 

Those volunteers got a big perk in the deal.  On Saturday April 15^th Dion McInnis took 2 hours of his morning to present a brief introduction to the techniques of photographing artwork. He covered areas from basic to complex and led a hands-on photo session of some of the challenges for photographing artwork at TAACCL.  What did I learn from this event?  A simple, succinct aphorism for using on camera flashes.

According to Dion, “A flash is like a gun – you should never point it at anyone”.   Although we have talked about this at the club, we still succumb to the seductive false promises of the flash manufacturers and try to use it as our main or only light in a photo.  Pointing the flash directly at a model immediately removes any depth or mood from the image and replaces whatever ambient color or mood that is apparent to you when you compose the shot with a mechanically calibrated 5500K light.  Just say no!

Here is a link, since you are obviously not going to take my word for it.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-flash.htm

Bob Dempsey

If you are one of the early adopters to Adobe Lightroom 4, you will find this You Tube video by Adobe's Julieanne Kost of interest. 

We held our annual Awards dinner on Tuesday, January 24th at the Webster Civic Center.  Bob Dempsey found the location for us this year.  It was a very nice building, quite new too.  We had plenty of room to spead out all the tables with food and desserts brought in by attending members.  We had 41 attendees; a nice showing for the club.

Bonnie Youngs had a cake made with a Canon 5D photo made into the top, which was a big hit with the Nikon club members.  I'm sorry to say I did not get a photo of it.  Bob Dempsey emceed his now annual crazy quiz, which stretched the members' powers of observation to the limit.  Several members and their spouses made off with some nice prizes provided by the club in the way of photography books, hand-picked by myself.

New officers and committee heads were announced for 2012.  Bob Dempsey will take over for me as President of the club.  Bill Baker has volunteered to fill the VP position.  Bonnie Youngs will continue as our Secretary and Fred Cerkan has agreed to take over the Treasurer position, previously filled by Kyle Rhorer.  The committee positions are: Bill Leverich...Honors Program Director (signing up for his 2nd term), Barry Armer...Assistant Honors Program Director, David LeMaster...Education Director, Judging Committee...Gerard Vacca, Outside Acceptances Coordinator...Pater Janecke, Web Master(s)...Kyle Rhorer & Doug Haass, Immediate Past President...Doug Haass and Member at Large 1...Cindi Barker. 

We have several positions that need to be filled: Field Trip Coordinator, GSCCC Rep, Hospitality Coordinator and two Member at Large positions.  Bob Dempsey will be covering the GSCCC position until we can find someone to take that spot.  The short term solution for Field Trip Coordinator is to get individual members to take turns leading trips.  I have agreed to take the club to Brazos Bend State Park this year on a learning, hands on outing.  Anyone who is interested in any of the open positions needs to contact Bob Dempsey.

Finally, we get to what the dinner is really all about...the Bay Area Photo Club Photographer of the Year Award.  This is awarded to the highest point total achieved for a minimum of 6 different assignment submissions over the course of the year.  We had a total of 16 members who submitted at least 6 different monthly assignments in search of the coveted award.  The top 4 submissions all had over 1,000 points for the year, but there can only be one winner.

Larry Patrick is our Bay Area Photo Club Photographer of the Year for 2011 with a total of 1,149 points for 6 submissions averaging 191.5 points per print.  Please take a minute to congratulate Larry on his hard won award the next time you see him.

Best regards,

Doug Haass

Immediate Past President