New Header

The wonderful image in the new header was taken by my friend Melissa Anderson, a really talented photographer. Melissa belongs to an interesting website The Digital Image Cafe. Members submit photos which compete for Image of the Day, Image of the Month and Image of the Year in various categories. I receive an email and link when one of her photos has been selected as an Image of the Day. I was so impressed with this one, I called and asked Melissa if we could use it on our blog. She mentioned that this was a panorama taken during a recent visit to Banff and I believe that HDR was used as well.

Take a look at the Digital Image Cafe website. You might be interested in joining, and, if not, you will get to see loads for great photos.
Byron

Topic of the Month

I happen to have been sitting at my computer this morning which is by an east facing window and I noticed that it is, right now, a stunning fall day. The late morning light is still good, dew is sparking on the grass, and, because the angle of the sun is decreasing, shadows are longer and more interesting. This bucolic scene reminded me that in my prior post I didn't mention the Topic of the Day which for November is Fall. There should be some terrific photo-ops.
Byron

WWIG Meeting November 2, 2011

There will be a meeting of the Western Wisconsin Imaging Group on Wednesday  November 2, 2011 at our home (N2207 Pammel Pass W. in Bridal Coulee/ 788-1812) at  6:30pm. The good news is that Susann Annis is back and will be providing refreshments for the Social Hour, and this time there is no bad news (at least none that I can think of at the moment). Since this is going to be our last meeting for a while-- remember that we don't meet in December and January-- I have been doing my utmost to make it the best one ever.

Please submit images by e-mail or bring prints to share with the group.  Questions for the Ask the Experts segment will be appreciated-- if you can, please submit your questions by email prior to the meeting.  The success of these meetings really depends on active member participation.

Finally, it has occurred to me that some of you may only take photos or do post-processing sporadically-- which is my pattern-- and not have anything you care to share at every meeting. But I suspect that all of you do look at images in a serious and critical way all of the time. Please consider saving any images that you find exemplary or, for some other reason, worthy of discussion and share them with the group-- again, please submit by email in advance.

Susann and I are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday November 2nd.
Byron

No Digital Challenge for November 2nd

Because he has been busy preparing for his gallery showing, Roger Grant asked me to select an image for the November meeting. "No problema" I responded. At this time I am sorry to have to admit that it has been "big problema". I initially planned to go through the picture files on my hard drive (685 gigabytes and still growing) to find a boring image-- and I have lots of them-- that can be made into something interesting by digital manipulation. To my surprise I found the cupboard to be bare! Sure, there were some that could be improved, lots in fact; but not any that could be made interesting or that would be fun to work on-- and that is the real point of the exercise. So, it was decided that it would be best to just give it a rest this month.

Anyone eager to display their digital skills is cordially invited to bring images that he or she has worked on to the meeting to show to the group and, even better, describe the techniques used.
Byron

WWIG November 2nd Meeting: Special Guest

I am very pleased to be able to announce that we will have a very special guest speaker at our upcoming meeting on Wednesday November 2nd. Julio Bird who, as you probably know, has made the ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, will give a presentation about his mountaineering experiences and discuss the photographic challenges he has encountered. Julio is interested in astrophotography as well and will also describe technical issues, gear, and difficulties encountered.

My impressions about astrophotography is that you can get spectacular images if you have a Hubble telescope, but for the rest of us, it is exceedingly problematic-- which, of course, is what makes it such a compelling challenge.

If you would like to see more of the astounding images from Hubble on the Internet click here: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/top100/

Byron

A Glimps Into The Photography Future?

Ponder this video. I hope to encourage a group discussion about this very interesting camera and its implications at our November 2nd meeting.

Byron

Back to Blogging

I've been otherwise occupied and have been intermittently disconnected from the Internet because of a malfunctioning router-- it is a weird and, frankly, uncomfortable feeling when one can't get or send e-mail and unable to access the Internet.

My top priority for today is to get a new router and to make some blog entries today, especially about our next meeting which will be in 1 week-- on November 2nd.

To start I will post a video which made my blood boil. You may remember that I have been concerned (actually semi-obsessed) about issues of freedom to photograph, or what others call The War on Photographers. Take a look at this video which has been posted on YouTube. Meanwhile I'll go pour water on my head to deal with my hair being on fire.

More later.

Rick Sammon Workshop

After my whirlwind travels in Tel Aviv, Paris and Madrid I returned to La Crosse but stayed for only 3days before driving to Croton On Hudson, New York (about 40 miles north of the city of NY) to attend a Rick Sammon Workshop. The drive there was arduous. I had only 2 and a half days to get to my destination and it rained for almost the duration. It was my intention to make the return leg a leisurely jaunt on the back roads. However, because it once again was cold and raining and I was somewhat homesick, I stuck with the Interstates and only stopped for the night once. Next time I'll fly!

The workshop was terrific. Rick Sammon has an incredible energy level and seems to be in high output mode pretty much continuously. During the workshop, if he is talking he is almost certainly teaching. Our on site exercises covered areas that I really need help with-- use of the flash out of doors, portrait photography, and a terrific session introducing studio photography using off camera flash (a first time experience for me).
Rick offers lots of workshops and if you are looking for excellent opportunities to learn at some very attractive locations, give him consideration. This is an informative website: http://www.ricksammon.info/p/croton-workshops.html. If you scroll down you will see an image of mine that Rick selected. It wasn't my favorite but, as you may know, my now defunct blog was called But, Then Again, What Do I Know.

For your interest this is our group photo and some shots from a studio session similar to the one in which I took part.

Rick Sammon explaining the technique and setting up the shot.

Everyone gets an opportunity to shoot.

I'll post some of my images from the workshop here or on my personal blog and you may see some prints at our next meeting.

Byron