MAPS meetings are held on the second Monday of each month from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. You can attend in-person or by using Zoom.
All MAPS members are invited to attend the monthly meetings and will receive a Zoom invite. Check out our Zoom web page to prepare for the monthly program meetings and for tips & tricks we might have. Non-members are welcome to attend in person or view the recording of the monthly program once it is posted.
The highlight of each monthly meeting is a presentation about a photography topic. Presentations are typically oriented toward nature photography (animals, birds, insects) or landscape photography. Our program committee carefully selects the speakers. All presenters are accomplished photographers, and many are involved in photography professionally and/or as teachers. At one or two meetings a year, instead of a presentation, we offer non-competitive evaluation and critique of member-submitted images by a professional photographer.
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Birds: Why am I always looking up?
Mon, Feb 09, 2026, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm - Morton Arboretum Thornhill Center and ZoomThis month’s program will focus one photographer’s journey to taking better pictures. Arnold Koenig has been photographing everything from weddings to nature for fifty years. Arnold will share the images he’s taken and the lessons he’s learned as cameras and technology have become more advanced. He will talk about how and where to find birds, how to photograph the birds, and how and when to use available technologies. About our speaker Arnold J. Koenig is a retired electronics technician; he worked in the retail petroleum industry, which helped to support his photography habit. The camera he uses most often is the Canon R5 Mark II digital camera. Arnold’s passion is…
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The Power of Photography Projects
Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm - Morton Arboretum Thornhill Center and ZoomYou don’t have to travel to far-off destinations to create compelling work. The inspiration for your next project might be in your backyard, along your favorite hiking trail, or hiding in a forgotten folder on your hard drive.
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This program will offer an immersive and informative look into a once-in-a-lifetime luxury African adventure taken by MAPS member Lou Gusmano, his wife, son, and five other couples in 2025.
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Explore the magic of light, the beauty of space, and the essence of time with David duChemin through his captivating photography and storytelling. Join us for this live, virtual session, which promises to inspire and ignite your passion for photography.
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Speaker Dan Pollack will help you see the photographic possibilities with seasonal lighting and other aspects of winter such as snow, ice, frozen lakes, long shadows, and low light; seemingly mundane scenes can become your artistic triumphs.
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MAPS is pleased to announce Anne Belmont, the Queen of flower photography, will be a visiting artist. Presentation will be free to MAPS members. Space is limited so sign up ASAP. Anne will also critque a limited number of images, one per person, for those who pre-register.
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Learn how to capture landscape and deep-sky astrophotography images of the Milky Way, the Aurora Borealis, star trails, the moon, distant galaxies, comets, and more.
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This month’s program will focus on the principles and practices photojournalists use to persuade a target audience to act.
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Landscape Processing Made Easy
Aug 2025DUE TO AC OUTAGE AT THORNHILL, THIS MONTH'S PROGRAM WILL BE ON ZOOM ONLY. Click Here to Join Meeting. The program, curated and taught by Don Smith, will demystify the often-intimidating facets of image processing.
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Nature: Captured and Presented
Jul 2025Presenter, John Mariana, will demonstrate the fine art techniques he uses in Photoshop (PS) and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to create expressive color and black and white images.