Hi, all members - We had a great opener Showcase last week, with two speakers as well on the subject "Is Film Dead?". The answer wasn't stated but pretty evident.

Our next meeting will be on Monday Oct 18, per our regular alternate-Monday schedule. The featured program will be a Showcase, where you may submit any photo taken at any time, on any subject. The deadline for submission is, as always, midnight on the previous Monday. That's tomorrow night, Oct 11, so don't miss it. You'll see our schedule for the rest of 2010 on the Club's website: www.digitalphotoclub.net under "Calendar."

If you haven't checked before, please read our standing rules for submission and sizing here:
http://dpcapresident.blogspot.com/2010/05/next-meeting-may-24-showcase.html to minimize the workload in assembling the show and to assure that your photos are shown. One more reminder: please put a subject in the subject line of your email - don't send a blank and expect us to guess what it's for. You might simply use "Showcase photos" or something relevant. Thanks in advance.

Looking forward to seeing you on Monday 18th, when we'll follow the Showcase with a talk about Adobe Lightroom, the organizer/editor that's all the rage for photographers. See you there.
DKD - Pres.

Our season starts Oct 4 !!

Hello all readers - We have had to delay our start because of a foulup at MD Hall that made our room unavailable on the long-announced Sept 20 date. Everyone's sorry we couldn't get started then, because we can't make up that date. But those of you that did come that evening had a nice talk outside in beautiful weather - so all was not lost.

Instead, we'll hold our Showcase of all the images you've sent in, and some more that may come in because of extending the deadline. The new deadline is tomorrow night Sept 27, as announced in our email broadcast this past week. So if you are still hoping to show, get up to three images sent to Showcase@digitalphotoclub.net before midnight.

Looking forward to another great set of events - Showcases, Challenges, Field Trips, and Exhibits. See you there and say hello.

DKD - Pres.

Welcome to DPCA's New Season: '10-11

Hi, all Members !! That's a capital M because you are what makes the Club run. On the Board, we're getting ready for our meetings, with our off-season spent in getting some business things done.

Thanks to our new Treasurer, Tom Boddorff, we now have our finances back from the Club's beginning operational on Quicken, and we're looking forward to Tom's designing an online membership application system to avoid pre-meeting signup work. Our corporate tax returns are filed and the annual insurance paid. Soon we'll have the room rental contract from MD Hall negotiated, signed, and delivered.

Thanks to Laurie Brice we're looking forward to using a new computer (the first one is aging at 5 years) to get us more Net-aware in meetings starting in October.

Thanks to our new VP Programs Dan Tasikas our season's meetings are beginning to take shape. The first one will be, as always, a Showcase. In these programs, members send up to three images to showcase@digitalphotoclub.net before midnight - this time Sept 13 (just a week away) and we present them to the club meeting the following week - this time at our first meeting, Sept 20. Please size your photos to about 1280 pixels wide, and files no more than 1 MB to keep our work and storage down. Thanks.

Our meetings will be held in the same place as last year - Room 308 at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, from 7-9 pm on alternate Mondays (in general). We always have to have some skips in schedule to avoid MD Hall holidays, but those don't start until next year.

Events that never are in the same place are VP Field Trips Matt Korbelak's excursions that happen now and then, and are announced on the Home Page and at meetings.

I encourage all to bookmark the DPCA Home Page: www.digitalphotoclub.net, and visit it regularly for news. We'd like to get out of the need for Yahoo email broadcasts that we have to make in addition to Blogs and the Home page. But we'll keep it going as a reminder for you. The Home Page has all the Blogs linked at the lower right. There's where the local detail can be found, including tech instructions.

That's all for now and I wish you a great weekend in this wonderful Labor Day weather.

DKD - Pres.

Come to our final meeting of the year !

Hi, all - Our meeting Monday night June 21 will include a great speaker, Stan Stearns, a long-experienced portrait - and other subjects - photographer from Annapolis. You won't want to miss this talk and show.

We'll start with the annual business meeting, which includes election of officers for next season. Jay Alden has headed up the Nominations Committee to get the slate ready to present to members at this meeting. That makes it quick and easy to proceed, and be ready to start the next year in an orderly way. I'll enjoy introducing the officers to you, in case that's not happened yet for you. The new Board will take office on July 1.

After Stan's talk, we'll have some more interesting things to do, including showing and commenting on the "Top Twenty" photos of the year as chosen by your humble president.

It's one time where I get to express my opinions, after listening and learning from others all year and observing so many great photos. By my count, we showed 785 photos not counting the exhibitions, so winnowing them to twenty gets to be a real task. I'm down to 29 on this Sunday evening. It's disappointing to have so much to say about the best photos and yet have to cut further. Maybe it should be 30 next time?

There is still time to join for next year and save $5, at the meeting. When the meeting's over, regular $25 fee applies, and we stand down for the summer, starting up again on Sept 20.

Be sure to come and fill out our quorum needs to make it a valid vote. So we'll see you Monday night at 7. Thanks - you'll enjoy it.

DKD - Pres.

Meeting tomorrow June 7 is our Cemeteries Challenge

Hi, all - Three items here:

1 - Our meeting for the Cemetery Challenge review is up for tomorrow June 7. There were 90 entries (!), so we'll be cropping the list down to your first two priorities for our guest reviewer, Chip Bulgin, to take a moment for comments on the remaining 60. Hope you're happy about your prioritizing - that's what it's for. Thanks for your enthusiasm on this Challenge topic.

In addition, we'll have a couple of minutes of comments and photos by a local photographer/author, whose subject for three published books is - guess what - cemeteries ! John Hanou attended a photo course here several years ago, started traveling the US to record his impressions of cemeteries, and recently has retired. He'll show a few of his photos as well when the Challenge is finished and bring some books.

2 - This meeting is an opportunity to make your re-application for next year's membership easy and economical. As announced at the last meeting, we're continuing our tradition of former years in discounting dues for early payment. Our regular annual dues are $25, but if you sign up and pay prior to the end of our season's last meeting, June 21, you will save $5 by paying only $20 for the full year. This helps the Club with its cash flow because we have some bills to pay in September before we start the year (Sept 20 first meeting).

Please bring a completed membership application (download one from our site at digitalphotoclub.net, print and pre-fill it out). Everyone - new or re-apps, must fill out a form. Thanks. If you don't have a form ready, we'll have them at the front desk to fill out (bring a pen). Don't forget a check for $20, too.

3 - A three-person nominating committee is required during the next week to contact prospective new officers for next season, and for presenting a slate to members at the elections meeting June 21. A nominating committee member cannot be elected, of course, but that cuts both ways. If you're sure you don't want to be considered for the office of President, VP Programs, VP Field Trips, Treasurer, or Secretary, you're eligible to volunteer for this committee.

You need to know something about our members from being a pretty regular meeting attendee and observing those who are sincerely interested in our Club's goals and operations. Then you meet to decide on making some phone-call discussions and set up the slate. It could be very easy if you think about the prospects. Please let me know before the close of the meeting if you're volunteering - otherwise I'll make some directed appointments, and I'd rather not. Thanks for your attention to this.

Our last meeting of the season promises to be extraordinarily interesting. We need large attendance to be sure we have a quorum to vote for officers, so the speaker(s) have been chosen for your very high interest. No, I'm not giving away the secret - that's Mike Kellogg's job. But put this meeting at your highest priority and you won't regret it.

See you there tomorrow and June 21st.

DKD - Pres.

Next Meeting is a Challenge !!

Hi, all - Our next meeting is on June 7. It will be a Challenge review with the theme "Cemeteries". So why this subject? Mike wants to really challenge your creativity. Of course you can take photos of gravestones, but where else and what else can you shoot that still connects with the theme? There are different kinds of "cemeteries" in meaning but not with that actual name, for example. And what about the basic cemetery in moonlight with a few bats thrown in? Creativity.

Challenge submission rules can be found in this blog if you scroll down far enough in earlier dates for this season.

You have until Monday night May 31 at midnight to submit your shots. Many are already in. The Club's submission deadlines are always one week before the review meeting. The reviewer for this Challenge will be Skip Bulgin, a commercial photographer and current president of the Arundel Camera Club.

It should be fun. See you there on June 7.

Next meeting May 24 - Showcase

Hi, all - Our next meeting is May 24, when we have a Showcase planned. All the photos for the showcase are in now (deadline was last night) and we have some stunning and creative ones. Don't miss the meeting.

In case you haven't remembered about Showcase protocols, here they are (the long version).

For Showcases, members (only) can submit up to three photographic images taken in any way or medium at any time on any subject, including artistic changes to a photograph or scan (not pure graphics, and not anything remotely offensive). If you're not a member, submit but say so in the email; then if you sign up at the pre-meeting membership desk, or before, we'll show your images.

The files must be in jpg format and must be named as yourname followed by a number from 1 to 3 to denote your priority in case we get too many to show and have to leave some off. Example: "dondement 1.jpg" is the top priority one. No underscores are needed.

Note: Some Don'ts here: Please don't leave the files named as the camera names them - because it takes detective work to figure out whose they are and then they have to be renamed here, which will not have your priority. Please don't describe the photo in the filename because again, we won't know who sent them. And if you do, since they'll be appearing alphabetically a subject name will separate your pictures out of sequence. If you're star-ranking or keywording them, those items go into our computer filing system where they're meaningless. They will not appear on the screen but your keywords will insert themselves on our list. So remove both, please. Be sure you put a subject in the email's subject line or we have to guess what the message is for or it may go into a spam file.

If you know you won't be at the meeting, write a few descriptive words in the email text for the presenter to say for you. Otherwise, you can speak briefly about your pictures during the show.

Remember, please: name these clean, properly-sized files with yourname followed by a single number. Now, to sizing.

The images should be at least 1000 pixels wide. All cameras today make images that are larger than this. If they are sent in larger, they won't be shown as larger - the computer will reduce them to fit the 1024-pixel screen - but the excess still stays uselessly on our computer and takes longer to send and retrieve. They also can't be seen easily on the screen here for checking - they have to be scrolled to see.

If they are smaller than 1000 pixels across, which may happen if you resize to an email format, they will be smaller on the screen and appear to be not as good as others who size correctly. We won't upsize small ones because of increasing pixellation - but we have to downsize larger ones. Sizing for email is not a good practice because the picture may be very small on the screen.

So we suggest that you, not the Club, do the resizing to around 1000 - 1200 pixels max width and view the result on your screen to see that you're satisfied. This also minimizes the homework here. Many programs, all free, will allow you to resize. Try Faststone or Picasa for simple starters. If you use Photoshop or Elements, don't use SaveForWeb because it strips off the EXIF data we like to see on the screen, that describes the camera and its settings. Use Image/Resize/Image Size and set width to 1000. JPG compression should be set to retain your quality - usually no less than 60, or in the Photoshop scale - around 9. Higher numbers just bloat the files.

The deadline for submittals is always one week before the presentation, at midnight that Monday. Name the files correctly then attach to an email and send to showcase@digitalphotoclub.net (not to President or VPPrograms or other - just Showcase). If you've properly resized then you should be able to send all three as attachments in a single email.

Note: We often will have a Showcase during a Challenge shooting period. Please be sure you didn't accidentally send a Showcase photo to the Challenge mailbox because that isn't checked if there isn't a Challenge deadline - and vice versa.

The automated responder should immediately reply with a standard message that your image file(s) were received. That may be also supported by a personal message saying it also looks OK, if there's time to do that. Be assured that every effort is made to get your files through the several transfers necessary to make up the show and to be fair to all participants.

We are just about kinda nearly maybe perfect - but perfection is elusive, which leaves room for mistakes here. Let me know at the presentation if your image didn't get on the program intended. I'll look for it and see that it appears at the next Showcase.

Showcases are your opportunity to exhibit your work regularly at no cost to other members who are avidly interested in photography and creativity. They are the mainstream of our member programs and have provided inspiration for many. We try to post them on our website as soon as the meeting is over so you can show your friends and see them again. (Tell us if you don't want them posted).

Make them the best you can. We'll all be watching every one with interest.

DKD - Pres.

No-Meeting Reminder

Hi, all DPCA members - just a reminder that we shift our season one week later this week to avoid MD Hall's closing for Easter break. So we meet next on Monday April 12 and continue to the end of June on alternate Mondays again.

Don't miss April 12 meeting. We'll have an interesting speaker - the first-prize winner in our ongoing MD Hall exhibit, Hunter Harris the aerial photographer. We'll have a dual-screen show of the old and the recent photos of the area.

Then we're going down one flight to the Chaney Gallery after his talk to review and get comments on the photos hung there, but best of all, to present the winner of the People's Award chosen from the voting at ArtFest a couple of weeks ago.

This combination should make a real winner of an evening. See you there April 12, and don't forget we have a Challenge brewing: "Transportation."

Have a pleasant Easter.

DKD - Pres.

Our Maryland Hall Exhibit Really Is Special

Hi, Members - We had a great reception on Friday night for our first Open Juried Exhibit at MD Hall for the Creative Arts. I saw many of you there as well as members of the Annapolis art community. There are 43 photographs shown in the Chaney Gallery and in the adjacent hallway.

Robbie and the Exhibits Committee's efforts really showed well, and the MD Hall Exec Director, Linnell Bowen, spoke to the group of over 100 attendees. She noted our progress over the last five years and said how glad she was that we were involved there in MD Hall.

Linnell also noted that Gary Jameson, resident artist, was showing his art across the hall, and urged all to see that and then return for our presentations.

The juror, Susana Raab, came and gave a slide show of her work and commented on the prize winners. About two-thirds of the photos she accepted were from Club members. Robbie asked her to present the various awards, which she did.

There were cash awards given: First Prize went to Hunter Harris, a non-member aerial photographer; and Second and Third Prizes both went to Jay Alden, our first president and co-founder. The honorable mention awards included Joan Machinchick, Katherine Meadows, Annette Uroskie, and Laurie Brice. Several significant prizes were donated by local firms. Robbie received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the Club in gratitude for her talented work.

The reception preceded the Annapolis Opera performance of Tosca at 8 pm, so those attendees wandered through the Gallery as well. All photos are for sale, and we're hopeful that sharing with MD Hall will be mutually beneficial. The art season continues with Symphony, Chorale, and Ballet performances, and the many weekday classes bring students and parents in to see the galleries.

Our exhibit will be open until April 22, but there are other Club involvements coming up. Next Sunday March 21 MD Hall will be presenting "ArtFest" to showcase the various performing organizations in Annapolis during the day from 1-4 pm. Our Chris Edwards will be giving a talk there at 3 pm "Making Great Pictures - Tips on Composition" in the Chaney Gallery. The attending public will be coming to see our photos through the promotions of ArtFest by MD Hall.

Also, DPCA members will be taking votes from the public during this time to select from the photos "The People's Choice Award" - with a prize donated by Bella Photo Art and Framing Gallery.

I've already received comments from people in the arts community, all of whom expressed real satisfaction with the reception and the presented art, saying it really was special. And it's not over - we've got another month to show! This was a gala affair - many thanks to everyone who is participating!

DKD - Pres.

Submission Rules for Challenges

Here at the halfway point in our season and in case you've forgotten or can't find the Challenge rules, here they are again.

The subject in your photo should clearly indicate the theme of the Challenge - for example, in the Action Challenge there should clearly be some action. Without that, the reviewer may comment that this image wasn't made for this show.

This is not a Showcase, where you can submit anything you want us to see. There are rules to follow for a Challenge and the reviewer is likely to follow those rules - you should, too.

You can submit 1 to 3 JPEG images taken by you between the announcement date of the Challenge (usually done at the previous Challenge) and the Monday at midnight one week prior to the date of the current Challenge. So you generally have five weeks to shoot. For the March 8 "Odd Angles" Challenge, we've extended the shooting time by two weeks, generally because of the snow outs and the deadline will be March 1.

If you don't make the midnight deadline, your photo won't be shown - that's only fair to those who watched the schedule. Maybe it would go in a Showcase later.

Any image size in pixels is acceptable; best ~1200 px on the long side, because it will fill our presentation screen. Larger images will be downsized by the presentation computer to fit the screen, and smaller ones may be upsized but may show small on the screen or pixellated and possibly blurry. If you crop your original down, take a look at the image size that remains. You may want to upsize it yourself, in say, Photoshop Elements.

The file size is best to be under 1 MB. They will transfer and show faster, and will take less storage space on our computer and the website. The file size is adjustable by the size of the image, the resolution you choose, and how much JPG compression is used. Images straight from your camera may have files up to 5 MB, but all that data can't be used on our screen and a 1MB JPG will show fine.

You can downsize your images and their file size with several free programs, including Irfanview, Picasa, Faststone and Lightroom. I find Faststone (Windows only) easiest to use. If you use "Save for Web" in Adobe products it will strip off the EXIF date and we won't be able to see your camera's settings. Not a disaster, but we'll miss that info so don't use Save For Web.

Rename the files with your name and your priority numbers (e.g., john smith 1, john smith 2, john smith 3). Please don't put a caption or description in the filename - it just has to be renamed without it. On Windows, select the filename and press the key "F2" to highlight the filename. This generally will make the name accessible in text mode (typing) for your change, then press Enter.

Then email them to: challenge@digitalphotoclub.net

Sometimes you want to avoid any possibility that they would be shown or used somewhere without your knowledge. If you don’t want them posted, say so in the email: "Please don't post these on the Club's website" and we'll show them but not post them.

The presentation will be reviewed at the meeting by a non-member expert in art or photography with some experience in shooting that kind of photograph. It's always interesting to hear what others think of what you've tried to express with your camera.

Thanks for following the rules - it makes less work here in preparing the show, and the images will look their best.

DKD - Pres.

Annapolis Arts and Crafts Festival notice

Hi, members - The Club has received information about the Annapolis Arts and Crafts Festival to be held at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on the weekend of June 12-13, 2010.

If you would like to join the ranks of those that sell their photos in booths at shows, this is likely a very good opportunity. DPCA won't be participating as an organization, but you can give it your personal best. The organizer of the event said that up to two people may join forces to share a booth. You can of course present yourselves as a member of DPCA, and we can give you cards to hand out that identify our Club URL. But participation is entirely on your own.

Before you jump in, read the rules in the brochure carefully: http://www.annapolisartsandcraftsfestival.com. Take notice that the submission date for your booth application is coming soon - March 1.

Please keep Robbie and me informed if you decide to present your wares. I'm sure many of us will attend - see you there.

DKD - Pres.

The coming MFA National Photo Show

Hi, Members - As another venue to show your artistic photo wares, the Maryland Federation of Art (MFA) here in Annapolis is sponsoring a photo show, called the "Maryland Federation of Art's Juried National Artful Photography Show." Their brochure is here: http://www.mdfedart.org/pdf/Prospectus_ArtfulPhotoShow2010.pdf

They say:

"The Maryland Federation of Art (MFA) invites all artists residing in the United States to enter its first annual Artful Photography exhibition, an open-juried competition of images created in any form of photography. Our objectives are to assemble an extraordinary selection of photographic art and to add another element to the cultural forum already offered by our organization. In addition, we hope to encourage excellence among photographic artists and to provide a rich new forum for the exhibition and sale their work. The works
selected will be on exhibit in the MFA’s Circle Gallery, 18 State Circle, Annapolis, Maryland from May 19 through June 13, 2010.

Images created via any form of photography will be accepted for consideration (i.e. shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, photograms, etc.), so long as part of the image is photographically based."

You can offer up to six JPGs for the selection process. Note that their submission deadline for these is March 12.

This is a fine gallery. Several of our members belong, have shown and lectured there, and have won several cash prizes as well as selling their works. We're all pleased that they have turned greater attention to photography as a fine-art medium.

Hope you'll participate !!

DKD - Pres.

DPCA Challenge delayed

Hi, members - With the various delays in everything we're up to, it looks like we should delay the current "Odd Angles" Challenge as well. We'll review it on March 8th instead of next Monday evening.

So that means that you have another two weeks to get your images in to challenge@digitalphotoclub.net. The deadline for submissions will be midnight March 1, 2010.

Still looking forward to seeing what your angles are. Please participate - we'd love to see what you think an odd angle is. Thanks in advance, as they say.

DKD Pres.

Feb 8th meeting canceled

Hi, all - as expected, MD Hall is closed today, Feb 8th, so we will not hold our scheduled meeting. See you next time on the 22d. In the meantime, check out Mike Kellogg's blog when we get our schedule reprogrammed. Thanks and keep warm, while thinking about what to show in the Odd Angles Challenge coming up.

DKD - Pres.

Feb 8th meeting

Here on Friday afternoon watching the weather and hearing the predictions for a lot of snow, it doesn't look good for our meeting as scheduled for Monday Feb 8th.

We'll be looking at the MD Hall open/close declaration for Monday and at least go by that. But if it looks like streets are not cleared for people to move around, we'll cancel the meeting and postpone the meeting's program to the next time, Feb 22.

There will be an email about it from me on Sunday afternoon. Happy shoveling -

DKD - Pres.

The Challenge deadline is here !!

Hi, Challengers -- or challenged?

Not many members have submitted their Holiday Events photos to the challenge@digitalphotoclub.net address yet. We've got until tomorrow night at midnight.

Hope to see you with your photos soon and get to see them on Jan 11 meeting night. Give it a try, whatever you have that meets this theme. Thanks for participating - I'm hopeful.

DKD