A Notch Above Photography Club
Minutes
May 11, 2019
Organizer Tim W called the meeting to order at 1:10 PM.
Present: Bill H, Mike S, Bob T, Tim and Mary W, Scott M. We also welcomed guest Jody C. Tim
mentioned that three other people have recently expressed an interest in the club and may
attend in the next month or so.
Bob reminded members that the annual $35 dues are now payable.
Co-organizer Scott began the meeting by presenting 5 photos and asking members to suggest
edits, then sharing some professional critiques of each photo. Scott also showed us the website
and sample images taken by Chris Whiton, a local Bethlehem professional photographer who
specializes in “off the beaten path” landscapes. Members asked Scott to inquire whether Chris
is willing to be a guest speaker at our next meeting in June. We might also ask him to lead a
field trip in the future. Scott also introduced members to our new presence on FaceBook which is intended to publicize our club and attract new members.
Co-organizer Bob then gave a live demonstration in ON1 about removing distracting elements
in a photograph using the Perfect Eraser and Clone Stamp Tool.
Following these two informative presentations, Bill showed us the photo contest entries for
April – May. The subject was pre- and post-edits. There were three ties for winners: Bill’s
“Sunset with Ducks” and “Worm Moon March 2019”, as well as Tim’s “Cartagena, Colombia”.
The contest entrants explained the processing steps they used, and members were impressed
with the effectiveness and quality of everyone’s editing.
Tim then displayed a video by Blake Rudis about how to avoid over-editing, entitled “The Art of the Subtle Hand”.
We discussed a subject for the coming month’s contest and decided on “Best photos straight
out of the camera” (i.e. no post-processing). Entrants should take raw photos to avoid the in-
camera processing of jpegs, then convert them to jpeg (without further processing) for
uploading. It was suggested we contact the Courier about doing an article on our club. Tim will do this
after we know more about the possibility of a guest speaker in June. This publicity would be
helpful for our club, the guest speaker, and the newspaper.
Bob suggested a field trip to St. Gaudens National Park this spring. He will gather more details for us. https://www.nps.gov/saga/index.htm
For next month’s meeting tentative topics include a presentation by guest speaker Chris Whiton
and another on best practice in-camera settings to reduce post-processing. This will
complement our photo contest subject.
The meeting adjourned at 3:20 PM.