In Focus: December 13 - January 2
Hummingbird Breakfast - Lori Moilanen
FIRST PLACE 2021 First Annual OPCC WOW!!! Competition
This twice monthly list of OPCC events, reminders, and news is compiled by Lori Moilanen. Please send information on upcoming events, news items, and corrections to opcc4mail@gmail.com. This newsletter is currently published twice monthly on Sunday evenings in advance of our first and third Thursday meetings. The deadline for new submissions for the next newsletter is Friday December 31.
MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER
For this edition of the newsletter, we’re taking a different approach to showcasing the work and interests of our members: four behind-the-shot stories about the winning photographs in our first annual WOW!!! competition. The winning photographs were determined by a vote of the membership. Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all members who voted. To view all of the photographs submitted for the competition visit the WOW!!! Competition Gallery by clicking HERE.
Member profiles return in 2022, starting with a feature on OPCC member Allan Byrd.
The Stories Behind the Winning WOW!!! Photos
First Place - Hummingbird Breakfast by Lori Moilanen
This photo was taken while walking my dog along the edge of the forest at Jamestown Beach. The morning was so gloomy and damp that I almost left my camera behind.
While many of us think of hummingbirds mainly as nectar feeders, they actually consume a lot of insects. This male Anna’s hummingbird was “hawking” a cloud of gnats just like a flycatcher - leaping off the end of a branch to snatch bugs in midair. The flight shots I hoped for didn’t work out for reasons of wrong light direction, butt shots, and shots where the bug either wasn’t visible or at a bad angle - common frustrations for bird photographers! But I like the story that this perched shot foretells…a second or two after this shot was taken the gnat was ”toast”.
This photo was taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark lll with the Olympus M.Zuiko 150-400 lens, handheld at 400mm (800mm full-frame equivalent), ISO 3200, f5.6, 1/1000 sec. Post-processing consisted of noise reduction using Topaz DeNoise AI and some basic adjustments in Lightroom Classic.
Second Place (Tie) - Smoke Out by Sherrie Cerutti
I first tried photographing with smoke bombs on the beach with my family. I was a fun effect, with so much potential once you learn about how the direction of the smoke blew, shutter speed and placement of the bomb. The “Smoke Out” pumpkin was photographed in my front yard. I first set off a black smoke bomb inside the pumpkin, which blacken the whole inside of the pumpkin. Then I put a yellow one inside and photographed at a wide angle, 27mm, 1/500 shutter speed, handheld for the fun angle. ISO was 160 and f/4.0
The hardest part is once you pull the ring on the smoke bomb you have about 90 seconds of smoke time. The wind/breeze is the tough part because you need to see how your subject and the smoke work together.
I edited in Lightroom, nothing fancy except that I maybe crushed the blacks a little. By the way each smoke bomb cost $10, so you really need to plan your shot.
Second Place (Tie) - Blowing Bubbles by Peg Hanson
While in Port Townsend for a dental appointment Jim and I decided to walk through town, do some people watching and photograph reflections at the marina. As it happened, there were two street performers in town that day. An unidentified woman on the beach used a large loop and a 5 gallon bucket of solution to fan out enormous bubbles that drifted from the beach and into street, and the man in the photo was a street musician (also unidentified) who stood near her blowing a trumpet - seemingly in sync with the bubbles. I was excited by the challenge to capture them and to use the bubbles as my background. They both nodded their approval as I sat and even laid on the beach, ran in front and behind them, and tried to avoid upsetting the bucket. I shot over 100 images and it was one of my most exciting and enjoyable unplanned shoots. I’m so glad I had camera in hand still set for fast action bird shots that suited the movement of the performers perfectly. And to me, the best part of this image is the large bubble on the top right which resembles and echoes the opening of the trumpet. I hear the music every time I see this shot. My only regret is that I didn’t get their names because I didn’t want to stop their performance. I used my Olympus OMD E-M1X, 12-100mm M.Zuiko lens at f/5.6, 1/3200 sec, ISO 1000, 35mm focal distance.
Third Place - Salmon Cascade by Bruce Fryxell
I took this photo at the Salmon Cascade overlook on the Sol Duc River along the road leading to Sol Duc Falls. A short walk from the overlook leads down to the level of the river downstream from the cascade where the picture was taken. A first visit to the
cascade was relatively unproductive. There were plenty of salmon in the river, but the water level was too low for them to make their way upstream. The following week, after a couple of rains, the water level had risen sufficiently and there were plenty of salmon trying to jump up the cascade. I probablysaw more than 100 per hour.
This image was taken with a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and a Canon 100-400mm lens. The light was fairly low, so I used an ISO of 800 to get a sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze the action. My settings I were 200 mm, f/6.3, and 1/640 sec. Since the action was so fast and unpredictable, I set the camera on burst mode. It still took a very large number of exposures to get the fish in just the right position. Most of the images contained no fish.
Little post processing was necessary beyond the normal tone adjustments, noise reduction, and sharpening. The only other modification I made was to the color balance. Since the river was in the shadow, it was unnaturally blue in color. I used the eyedropper white balance tool in Lightroom on the water to make it white. This also brought out some of the red color in the fish and gave the entire picture a warmer tone.
WEBSITE QUICK LINKS
Looking For A Frequently-Used Location On The OPCC Website? Click on the Quick Links Below!
PUBLIC
MEMBERS ONLY
Share Night Image Submission Instructions
Education Night Videos and Handouts
NEWS
Quote of the Week
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” ― frequently attributed to Theodore Roosevelt (shared by Ellen Bogenschutz)
President’s Message from Bruce Fryxell
I hope that all of our members have a happy holiday season. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped OPCC get through a very difficult year and come out of it even stronger. Our Executive Committee has truly done an amazing job.
Our coming year looks very exciting, with an impressive array of educational speakers and field trips, along with our member share nights and a return to internal competitions. Our partnership with the Olympia Camera Club also promises to offer many new opportunities. Thanks again to our Executive Committee for making all of this happen.
I hope to see you at the upcoming holiday lights field trip and at the first 2022 OPCC Member Share Night on January 6. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any comments, suggestions, or questions (opccpres@gmail.com).
Jonas Benjamins Service Award
A new award was created in 2021 to honor the memory and volunteer commitment of Jonas Benjamins who passed away earlier this year while serving as OPCC President. The intention of the Jonas Benjamins Service Award is to honor OPCC members, who like Jonas, have volunteered many hours to ensure the success and sustainability of OPCC. The inaugural 2021 recipient of the award is Lori Moilanen, for her efforts to improve club communication, contributions to OPCC website development and maintenance, speaker recruitment and monetary support, facilitating NWCCC Traveling Digital salon voting and publicity for NWCCC events, and field trip hosting.
Important Reminder - New OPCC Photo Submission Process for 2022 Share Nights and Competitions
OPCC Competition Chair Peggy McClure has streamlined and automated the file handling process for submitting and organizing photos for OPCC Member Share Nights and Competitions. The new process will make life much simpler, both for club members who submit photos and the Member Share Night and Competition Chairs who organize and present them. One important thing to know: you MUST submit your photos in the correct format. The automated system will not accept files that are named incorrectly, meaning that your photos may not be included in the Member Share Night or Competition event. Your first opportunity to use the new system is for submitting photos for our January 6 Member Share Night. The deadline for submitting photos for the January meeting is Thursday December 30.
Peggy has organized a special OPCC Education Night Meeting on December 16 at 6:00 PM via Zoom to help members understand and use the new system. Peggy will review the new file naming and formatting rules for photos submitted for OPCC Member Share Night, OPCC Competitions, and Field Trip Galleries. In addition, she’ll demonstrate the new simple and streamlined method for uploading/submitting photos from the OPCC website and answer any questions. Please plan to attend this important meeting if you will be submitting pities for club events in 2022.
The Zoom code for meeting access is available on the OPCC Zoom Codes webpage.
Membership Renewal Update
OPCC Membership dues for 2022 were discussed and approved at the December 6 Year-End meeting. The membership-approved dues for 2022 are $50 for an individual membership and $75 for a same-household family membership. These are the same dues levels previously approved for 2020, prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic.
We are currently experimenting with a new interface for the Members-Only Section of the OPCC website. When this feature is complete and tested, we’ll enable website membership sign-up and membership renewal. Current members will be notified by email when online membership renewal is available.
For a preview of 2022 activities, visit the OPCC website homepage and scroll down to the “Coming in 2022” section. For questions or comments on 2022 dues, contact OPCC President Bruce Fryxell (opccpres@gmail.com).
PSA Washington State Membership Newsletter - December Edition
The December edition of the Photographic Society of America (PSA) Washington State membership Newsletter is now available. This newsletter includes class and workshop announcements, contest results, camera council news, and gear announcements and reviews. Click HERE to view the newsletter.
COMING UP THIS WEEK AND NEXT
Special OPCC Education Night Meeting on Thursday December 16 at 6:00 PM via Zoom.
Join OPCC Competition Chair Peggy McClure for an overview of the new OPCC file formatting requirements and photo submission requirements. This is need-to-know information for submitting Member share Night photos for the January 6 meeting (photo submission deadline Thursday December 30). The Zoom code for meeting access is available on the OPCC Zoom Codes webpage.
Holiday Lights Field Trip - December 18 at 4:00 PM
Come join field trip host Bruce Fryxell for a night shoot to photograph holiday lights on Saturday, December 18. We’ll be shooting at two locations. Participants are free to join us at either or both. There will also be opportunities to shoot at additional locations on your own. This is a great opportunity to experiment with creative techniques and accessories. For details, visit the event page on the OPCC website by clicking HERE.
Photo Submission Deadline for OPCC January 6 Member Share Night - Thursday December 30 at 11:00 PM
Important Reminder - all photos must be formatted using the ***new*** format for 2022 and submitted using the Member Share Night Dropbox upload link on the OPCC website. For an overview of the new process, attend the December 16 Education Night meeting, or visit the OPCC Member Share Night webpage by clicking HERE. For questions contact OPCC Competition Chair Peggy McClure (opcc.competition@gmail.com).
New Print Exhibit by OPCC Members Coming in January
The OPCC presence at the Blackbird Coffeehouse in Port Angeles continues in the month of January. Our new Field Trip Chair Ellen Bogenschutz and OPCC Print Chair Dan McKenna will be sharing the space and showing their unique works with a variety of themes. Installation day will be January 2, 2022 and they would love a visit to share their images over coffee with you. The show will run the whole month of January and all images will be for sale. Blackbird Coffeehouse address: 336 East 8th Street, Port Angeles.
THE BASICS - Tips for Learning New Photography Skills
Helpful Links for Understanding Aperture and Focal Length
OPCC member Peggy McClure is currently taking an online digital photography course through the Photographic Society of America (PSA) that’s available free to PSA individual members. Here are a couple of links provided in the class that she recommends for learning or reviewing the roles of aperture (f-stop) and focal length in photography. Click HERE to view the information on aperture and HERE to view the information on focal length.
For more information on educational programs available to PSA individual members, visit the PSA Education webpage by clicking HERE.
LOOK AND LISTEN
Here are some indoor and/or armchair photography-related activities for those short and damp PNW winter days when you just don’t feel like putting on the rain gear.
Click HERE for an article about the 10 best photography books of 2021, as chosen by the photo team of Smithsonian magazine. From birds to Los Angeles lowrider culture to women street photographers, there’s something for everyone.
From: Smithsonian Magazine - The 10 Best Photography Books of 2021
ONGOING ACTIVITIES
Visit the OPCC Website for more information on these events.
Member Share Night
For more information visit the Member Share Night webpage on the OPCC Website. For questions contact OPCC Member Share Night Chair Susan White (opccphotos@gmail.com).
Education Events
For more information visit the Education Events webpage on the OPCC Website. For questions or to suggest a speaker, contact OPCC President Bruce Fryxell at opccpres@gmail.com.
Competitions
For more information visit the Competitions webpage on the OPCC website. For questions contact OPCC Competition Chair Peggy McClure (opcc.competition@gmail.com).
Field Trips
For more information visit the Field Trips page on the OPCC website. For general questions contact Field Trips Chair Sandy Woods at fieldtrips4opcc@gmail.com.