December 2020
Angie McMonigal – Creativity in Composition
Creativity in Composition Slides (6 MB)
Creativity in Composition Recording (300 MB)
November 2020
Anne Belmont – Flower Power!
For November 9th we were fortunate to have Anne Belmont returning. If you were as inspired by her last presentation as we were you won’t want to miss her. She is an artist with a camera. To see her work is to be inspired. Simply the best flower photography we have ever seen. Maybe if we ask nicely she would tell us her thinking about switching to mirrorless and how that has worked out for her. See Anne’s work on her website: https://www.annebelmontphotography.com/ .
Her presentation was beautiful, even through virtual ZOOM, and she shared her techniques as well as an emphasis on the use of Lensbaby lenses which provide a soft, ethereal look to flowers and other close up photography. Below is a sampling of her slides including her ideas, in no particular order. Click on an image to enlarge the group and enjoy. Thanks Anne!
Flower Power Recording (470 MB).
October 2020
Ken Thompson – Making the Most of Your Workshop Experience
Ken Thompson specializes in close-up and macro photography, concentrating on water drops, flowers, and plants, as well as abstracts of these subjects. He has taught several subjects in the Morton Arboretum’s Photography Program and at the Fall Photography Workshop at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, TN.
During the 10-plus years of workshops in the Smokies, Ken has developed a plan to look for and find images that show the beauty of the area, using many different subjects. That plan includes locations, subjects and places “not to go”.
Ken presented a clear and common sense guide on the best ways to get the most from a photo outing to the Smokies accompanied by stunning photos and examples, some posted below. Click on any one to enlarge. Thanks Ken! Excellent as usual.
Making the Most of Your Workshop Experience Recording (225 MB)
September 2020
Mike Baker – The Case for Black and White Landscape Photography
Mike Baker shared his techniques around creating B&W landscape images with the intent to entice photographers to produce landscape imagery in B&W for themselves.
Mike is an award-winning and published fine art photographer based in the Chicagoland area. Over the course of his photographic journey, Mike has developed that inner eye, that “3rd Eye” that provides perception beyond ordinary sight. Mike believes photography is an art of observation. It offers a creative outlet that allows us to capture interesting subjects in an ordinary place, transforming it into something extraordinary. View his work on his website.
Mike showed us that color is only one of six characteristics of images but without it, we can become more acutely aware of the other five. Color can obscure and distract from texture, for example. This is shown in a comparison of two of Mike’s images below. Thanks Mike for an enjoyable and enlightening presentation! Click to enlarge:
The Case for Black and White Landscape Photography Slides (7 MB)
The Case for Black and White Landscape Photography Recording (350 MB)
August 2020
Diane & Jim Bodkin – Polar Bears of Churchill
Jim and Diane escorted us through an exciting photo presentation to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada to photograph Polar Bears and the Northern Lights, in one of the few North American locations available. They traveled by Tundra Buggy venturing into the hostile domain of the polar bear, almost void of all other animal life, visiting them up close and personal.
Their program not only illustrated these enchanting arctic creatures, their activities/interactions and their environment, but also contain information for planning a trip and introducing the town of Churchill and the human activities surrounding it.
Even with power failures throughout the area, 75 members (probably more if couples viewed from one computer) signed into ZOOM for this excellent program. That’s more than many previous live meetings! Diane and Jim have previously participated in Programs and Show & Tell, bringing their wide travels and expert photography once again to our MAPS members. Thanks D & J, your images and lessons were much enjoyed! Below are just a sample of their presentation.
Click on images below to enlarge:
The Polar Bears of Churchill Handout (130 MB)
July 2020
Robert E. Potter III presents Panoramic Images of Nature
We viewed an awe inspiring collection of panoramic photographs of nature created by some of the worlds greatest photographers, and a few made by MAPS member R. E. Potter III. We learned about Aspect Ratio as well as what makes an amazing panoramic image of nature, and insight into how you too can make excellent images (rules of composition and creativity). We saw what kind of specialty cameras have traditionally been used to make panoramic images, and Bob introduced to how we can make these awesome panos using our own DSLR and Adobe Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, or even just an iPhone! (Editor note: Android phones do it too!)
Click on images below to enlarge:
June 2020
Roger Mattingly presents: Flashy Flowers (Shooting flowers with off camera flash)
We are pleased to have Roger Mattingly (digitalroger@sbcglobal.net) demonstrate off-flash techniques to enhance and beautify images of flowers. Because of the pandemic, his was the first to be presented over the Internet using ZOOM. Please see photos below and click on them to zoom in. These are some of Roger’s examples taken by him but photographed from a computer screen. Thanks Roger— you are our first ZOOM pioneer!
March 2020
Presentation by Nina Koziol “Birds, Butterflies, and Bees in the Home Garden”
Many common garden flowers provide nectar and pollen for an assortment of winged wonders. Nina showed examples of how to create a welcoming space in your garden for an assortment of butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and seed-eating birds.
Thanks Nina for a great presentation. Beautiful garden! Photos below courtesy Tim Rex:
February 2020
Presentation by Jerry Hug “Phone-ography – Getting the most out of your Mobile Photography”
Jerry demonstrated the surprisingly great images that can be captured by a modern smartphone. His presentation was both informative and interactive and most of all, enjoyable.
Photos below:
January 2020
We were especially pleased to have our former president Chuck Hunnicutt give a presentation on IR (infrared) photography. Startling and surreal photos can be taken using this format. Cameras can be “converted” by having a professional install an IR filter in the camera or by removing the “hot mirror” filter in the camera (this filter limits the camera sensor to visible light only) making the camera wide spectrum and subsequently adding screw-on filters on the lens. This includes adding the hot mirror back on to the camera lens making the camera perform as it has always done in the past. Great presentation Chuck!
