The Newsletter of the Park West Camera Club Photo Notes Our 75th Year Aprił/May 2012 Presidentʼs Letter Back to Basics A friend remarks how a course she’s taking has put her back in touch with basic photographic skills, such as shooting manually by changing ap- ertures and shutter speeds to suit the subject rather than letting the camera do everything ac- ceptably but not necessarily creatively. This is ad- vice I could adhere to as well and as long as we have a seemingly endless succession of boringly gorgeous spring days I’m going out to try some of them (as soon as I finish writing this article): In This Issue Depth of Field. Try shooting the same stationary subject at different apertures. See how the President’s Letter.................................1 background fuzziness or sharpness affects the Who’s Who & What’s What........2 & 3 results. What is bokeh: a kind of sushi? a Yid- Club Info..................................3, 5 & 10 dish term for ‘Uncle’? or out of focus areas in a Rules of Photography..........................4 picture? B&H Space............................................5 Competition...................................6 & 7 Shutter Speed. Change shutter speeds photo- The Photo as Kleenex..........................8 graphing similar subjects, such as bicycles Election Procedures.............................9 nearly hitting you or trucks or wisecracking Inquiries..............................................10 pedestrians. See the stop-motion effect of high Business Meeting Minutes................11 shutter speeds; this can be humorous, and un- Call for Entries...................................13 fair to the subject. A lot of fun! Expanding Visions 18........................14 Auction................................................15 Single Focal Length. Use a single focal-length Memorial Weekend Trip...................15 lens or set your zoom at a specific focal Gallery Watching...............................16 length and see what you discover by using Meet the Members.............................20 Schedule of Activities...................22-31 ! (continued on page 4) and so much more! Aprił/May 2012 www.parkwestcameraclub.org Page 1 Park West Camera Club Committee Chairs Archives!!Myrna Harrison-Changar The Park West Camera Club is an independent not- 212 663 1422 [email protected] for-profit corporation. Guests are always welcome at meetings and activities. Competition! George Hansen! 212 595 7869 [email protected] The Park West Camera Club newsletter , Photo Notes, Hedy Klein is published every month by and for the members of 718-793-0246vv [email protected] the Park West Camera Club. Subscriptions are in- Joan Slatkin cluded with Club membership. Yearly subscriptions 212 260 7091 [email protected] are available to non-members by e-mail (free) or Field Trip!! Susan Sigrist! postal service ($10 per year). Individual issues are 212 758 0036 [email protected] available at PWCC meetings. Joe Cruickshank 212-751-6077 [email protected] Submissions of full-length articles or smaller items of photographic or general interest are always ac- Gallery!! Christine Doyle cepted. The staff of Photo Notes reserves the right to 212 595 4920 [email protected] edit any submissions which are published. Maria Fernandez 908 447 8075 [email protected] Deadline for submissions is the first Monday of each month. House!! Seymour Perlowitz 718 338 6695 [email protected] Photo Notes is optimized for viewing on the inter- Chuck Elster net. 917 796 7847 [email protected] Contact Information Membership! Marlene Schonbrun 212 662 3107 [email protected] Website www.parkwestcameraclub.org Newsletter!! Chuck Pine! 212 932 7665 [email protected] E-Mail Address [email protected] Program!!Marilyn Fish-Glynn 212 685 8784 [email protected] Club Mailing Address 345 East 73rd Street, #8L, NY, NY 10021 Social!! ! Sid Georgiou! Photo Notes Mailing Address 212 777 3960 [email protected] 680 West End Avenue, #5D, NY, NY 10025 Telephone Tree ! Dottie Mills! 212 926 4375 [email protected] Club Officers Website!! Ruth Lowell President!!Paul Perkus! ! 212-362-4379 [email protected] 212 929 1687 [email protected] Bob Wine V. President!!Ed Lee! 212-758-5762 [email protected] 212 242 8714 [email protected] Workshop!! Jerry Harawitz Treasurer!!Myron Galef 212 673 2096 [email protected] 212 249 1270 [email protected] Corres. Sec.!!Helen Bohmart Pine! !! 212 932 7665 [email protected] Cover Photo Rec. Sec.!!Lee Backer! ! Bleeding Sun 212-662-6740 [email protected] by Chuck Pine ©2011 Pres. Emeritus!Chuck Pine!!!! 212 932 7665 [email protected] Aprił/May 2012 www.parkwestcameraclub.org Page 2 Competition Info Did You Know? Here’s some information for our members regar- Did you know that the on-line PDF version of ding our Club competitions. All the details may Park West Camera Club’s Photo Notes offers you be found in the PWCC By-Laws (Article III) and/ advantages? or in the illustrated PWCC Competition Manual. Did you know that all of the website and e-mail There will be one slide, one print, and one pro- addresses are hyperlinks? That means if you jected digital image (PDI) competition each click on them, you will be taken to that website month. (if you are connected to the internet) or to your e-mail program to send an e-mail. Each member may submit up to two images each month. Did you know that the images are in color and of higher quality than when printed out? And, you Print and slide entries must be submitted to the can enlarge them a bit, too, for detail. Competition Committee by 6:45 p.m. on the eve- ning of the competition. PDIs must be via e-mail Did you know that reading Photo Notes on-line to <[email protected]> at least one saves trees, landfills, inks, toners, water, and week prior to the scheduled competition. other natural resources? All entries must be sized, labeled, formatted, etc. Did you know that reading Photo Notes on-line as described in the Competition Manual. saves the Club over $100 each and every month? Here’s a hint for the Year-End Competition held in June. Each member may submit up to four Photo Notes Staff prints, four slides, and/or four PDIs. Only im- Publisher:!Paul Perkus ages which competed in this year’s (October Editor:!Chuck Pine through May) monthly competitions are eligible. These entries must be unaltered from their origi- Committee:!Bill Apple, Elsa Blum, nal entry. The Club does not keep records of !Madeleine Barbara, Ruth Formanek, Sid ! which slides or PDIs you entered. You should Georgiou, Gladys Hopkowitz, Hedy ! ! make a list of all your entries (and their scores) Klein, Helen Pine, and Judy Rosenblatt for your own benefit when you are ready to Contributors:!Bill Apple, Lee Backer, submit to the Year-End Competition. Christine Doyle, Marie Fernandez, Ruth Formanek, George Hansen, Paul Perkus, Elena Pierpont, Chuck Pine, Judy Rosen- blatt, Sonya Smith Photo Notes is produced on a MacBookPro using iWork Pages and Adobe Photoshop. All uncredited images are royalty-free clip art or oth- erwise believed to be in the public domain. Credited images remain the sole property of their copyright holders—all rights reserved. Aprił/May 2012 www.parkwestcameraclub.org Page 3 Presidentʼs Letter Rules of Photography (continued from page 1) Go to Flickr.com and wander through the picture galleries. Go to a photo presentation at any just your feet as the zoom, moving yourself closer about any venue. What do you notice as you or further from your subject. How does this meander through the photographs? On average, affect the relative size of objects and their re- I’d say, well over three fourths of them (and lation to each other? What happens to depth many times, 90% of the images) are presented in of field as you get closer or further away? a horizontal perspective—landscape mode, if What happens when you back into a foun- you will. tain? How do you adjust your composition to accommodate the changes seen in your view- Why is this? Just think finder? about it… Give up? Our eyes are laid out on our faces in a horizontal orien- tation. Cameras (at least most of them) are made to be held horizontally, as well. It’s only natural to hold your camera this way. Unfortunately, not all scenes and subjects are best displayed as hori- zontal images. Many images would look better if shot and/or displayed as a vertical—in the por- trait mode. Close-up. Set your lens to its closest setting, be it 1 foot, 18 inches, 3 feet or 1 inch, and spend Go through a bunch of your images. How many a couple of hours prowling your favorite of them are vertical? How many are horizontal? photographic haunts to find new, if small, Could any of the horizontals be improved by subjects, like a four-leafed clover you had cropping them (or having shot them) vertically? overlooked before. Or vice versa? These are just a few ideas for motivation. There By the way, after going through several months are many more. For more inspiration consider of PWCC competition shows (thank you, Helen), taking Chuck’s class: ‘Expanding Visions’ de- I’ve noticed that our Club’s ratio is about two tailed elsewhere in this issue of Photo Notes. thirds horizontal to one third vertical—a much better-than-average percentage than other photo Spring is a time for new growth. Happy adven- venues. Way to go Park West members! turing! [Could this be the influence of the Expanding All the best, Visions class?] Paul Aprił/May 2012 www.parkwestcameraclub.org Page 4 PWCCʼs Yahoo Group B & H Event Space Have an idea to go shooting but don’t want to go B & H Photo is offering free workshops in their alone? Have a question about Photoshop™, or newly redesigned presentation space.