News

Current NCCC News

Ray sent me the following for the newsletter.

“I found a pretty good web based photo editing web site. http://pixlr.com/editor/

Take a look. For those in the club that have a computer, but don’t have photo editing software this is pretty darn good and free. They can resize, use layers, etc.”

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Photography Contest

Flickr Photo Sharing Website NCCC page

PSA Rules:

No time limit on prints

Color, Monochrome and Created Adjusted Reality prints are acceptable

Prints are not matted or framed

Prints must be titled

Size Divisions - May enter four prints in each division but a one entry per person in each division.

Color: 2 divisions

Small Color - print no larger than 8 1/2 by 11

Large Color - print no larger than 16 x 20

Monochrome: 2 divisions

Small Monochrome - print no larger than 8 1/2 by 11

Large Monochrome - print no larger than 16 x 20

Created Altered Reality

(CAR) can be a mix as long as the 4 prints are made by 4 different makers: Large and Small Monochrome, Large Color and Small Color will be judged together. An entry is not limited to images created and or not modified digitally.

(Traditionally NCCC has been entering only digital images as it was noted when we judged this category they were all CAR

A disc containing the title, division and maker's name with digital image. The image size should be 1200 px 1200px (4x6) at 300 dpi. Your entry cannot be sent without this digital file.

The club will not be returned unless the maker request a pays the cost of mailing. Prints will be mailed: Due date February 10, 2015

Host Club: Boise [BCC

Neale Jenks

4630 N. Patton Place

Boise, ID 83704 USA

Nature Photography Definition from PSA

http://www.psa-photo.org/index.php?nature-nature-definition

December News

December's meeting competition will be Carnivals. The club will provide the Pizza while Bill Conkle provides the drinks etc. If you wish to participate in the gift exchange bring a $10.00 unisex gift.

Larry Manski presented the opportunity to display our prints in the Lawrence County Public Library (New Castle Library): 207 E North St, New Castle, PA. The club with a raise their hand voted to support the club by submitting a print for the exhibition. The print must be matted in a 11x14 mat and not framed. These prints must be brought to this meeting. Mats 11x14 with a 8x10 windows will be available to purchase ($3.00) at this meeting along with tape and/or corners to support the print.

We need programs and refreshments for the 2015 meetings. A schedule will be passed around at this meeting.

Glennie dates are Entries Open - December 15, 2014, Entries Close - February 4, 2015 Competition - February 21, 2015. Note the dates for this competition have changed. Projected Images will be due for selection at the January meeting. The club many enter 10 projected images, only two from any individual. Rules and Guide lines have been mailed out and if needed I will mail them out again. I will have a few copies at this meeting for those who do not have a computer.

Remember the New Castle Hoyt Exhibition.. The dates for this \have not been announced .As soon as I receive the them they will be mailed by email and snail mail to the members.

November's Winners (Dames at Sea):

October's Winners

November's competition is "Dames at Sea." The program is our annual auction. We will need donated items, either of a photography item, or an item having nothing to do with photography. Proceeds of the auction will pay for December's Christmas party. Any monies not used will be placed in the club's general fund. Arlene Peters volunteered to provide the refreshments.

At the October's meeting Larry Manski introduced the opportunity for the club to display images at the New Castle Library (NCL). It was suggested January would be a good month to display our images. Larry checked with the NCL and January is available. We will be taking a hand vote at this meeting of those who will support and participate in this exhibition.

PSA is due at this meeting. Prints are being shipped to the Merrimac Valley Camera Club, Middletown, Maine. Prints are due on November 26th. This is earlier than usual but it gives the club a little more time to prepare and judge the competition.

If you examine the schedule you will note the theme descriptions have been removed. Last meeting the description caused confusion even though the theme of the competition was "1" as it was under the description should clarify that the number one or any singular object would qualify the image for the competition. This description has been posted in the schedule all year, if confused a request for clarification should have been made.

October's competition is Secret Gardens. The program will be presented by Joyce Houk on a trip taken to Europe.

Guidelines for club competitions: Unless otherwise stated all prints must be shot within a year. Competitions are Color, Monochrome (black and white), Created Altered Reality (CAR) and Projected Images. Projected images as well as custom prints may have color, black and white or CAR images entered into the same competition. All prints must be matted with a white or black 11x14 inch mat; the print size of 8x10 inches is suggested, however 8x12 inch prints will be accepted as long as the mat does not exceed 11x14 inches. There is still confusion regarding CAR prints. "PSA defines Altered reality, which indicates something that is not depicted as it really was." Adding filters or adding sepia, or making it black and white does not qualify the images as CAR. CAR must also be entirely the work of the photographer - any image added to the CAR image has to be the work of the photographer. Prints that do not meet these standards should not be voted upon.

Mail your projected images to Ray Braun on the club email site - nccc40@gmail.com

I have both black and white mats. Please let me know by email if you want me to bring mats. They are three dollars each. My email: billdee1013@comcast,net.

I have received the following notice from the North America Nature Photographers . The following is part of that communication:

"On September 25, 2014, the U.S. Forest Service issued Proposed Regulation FSH 2709.11, Chapter 40, which would impose the requirement of permits and fees in circumstances that could substantially limit photographers' access to Federal lands under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. Since so many NANPA members photograph on Federal lands, this was particularly troublesome to us."

Although political information should not be included in club news if this becomes law it will affect our members who enjoy visiting and photographing in National Parks. Let me know if you wish addition information and I will email you the whole notice

For our September meeting there will be a new projector and laptop to help us with scoring and projecting images. Just a reminder that we should be e-mail projected images to the address nccc40@gmail.com. They should be resized to no wider than 1024 pixels or higher than 768 pixels. This re-sizing then matches the projectors native resolution so the images should be the sharpest when projected.

Welcome back from the summer break. We might ask where did the summer go. At the writing of this letter we have had no 90° days; a lot of people complain of being too hot when the temp hits 90. We had a lot of rain, this brought a lot of complaints, however we did not have a drought, the grass remained green, flowers did not die from lack of water and the earth was cleaned by the rain. Perhaps it was a blessing. Especially since the October competition is "Secret Gardens"

Last meetings program Angelo Perrotta talked to the club about our local television station NC 45 The Train, http://www.nctv45.com/. He believes this station may be able to assist our club by showing prints etc.

June's Winners, "People at Work"

The club has a new projector and a new computer so send your projected images for "Secret Gardens" to Ray by the club email address: nccc40@gmail.com.

PSA prints are due this meeting. The club hosting the competition - Image Makers CC, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Deadline for Image Makers CC to receive the prints is October 10th so the prints must be brought to this meeting. This is the first of the 2014-2015 so get your prints in to raise our standings. There is not a time limit on when the image was taken.

PSA changes starting in September:

From PSA: " Our current method of acquiring digital files of the winning prints is marginal at best. A digital photo of your print is not very high quality compared with your original file. Including a CD with digital files has always been requested but optional with pretty low success rate. Starting with ICPC 2014-15 Round 1, digital files of all print submissions to the host club are required. Files must be jpeg files, approx 4x6, (1200 x 1800 px)., at 300 dpi. This is much better in three ways. 1) The digital file of your beautiful print is high quality. 2) It reduces the work load of the host club, which includes every club about every 3 years. 3) The ICPC director will compile all the digital images into a slide show that will be shown at conference with the winners from all rounds noted." (If I do not receive a digital copy I will not submit the print.)

PSA prints will only be sent and not returned. If you wish to have a print from your submitted entry then print two when you make the first one. If you want a label with your score and if you rank I can make you the label. I make the original and can easily add scores to the copy.

I have requested the scores of the last competition, but have not received them. Usually I receive a a report listing the scores of all prints entered into the competition. A copy of this report will be given to all who enter but choose the option of not having prints returned.

Those receiving awards at the Lawrence County Fair are Harriet Grossman, Shirley Seymour and Lillie Dregseth. It was difficult to note how many awards were received. Because the wind blowing into the exhibit blew a lot of the prints onto the floor making it impossible to tell how many awards were received and if anyone else had received award.

Also David Diffenderfer's photograph, "Night Fire, Grove City Civil War Reenactment 8/2014" printed on the front page of the Sharon Herald.

Audrey has talked to the owners of the Bottlebush Gallery in Harmony, Pennsylvania about exhibiting our prints. Our club has been invited to display our Hoyt Photo display at this Gallery immediately following the Hoyt Exhibition. Audrey will keep us informed.

Audrey reported the outing to the Harmony inn was well attended and enjoyed by all. She also suggested looking into supporting them with either our Christmas Party or Awards Banquet. This will be looked into and presented later.

September's competition is "1". Use your imagination on how you want to define this number in the visual media. A program on matting had been planned, however because of the projected image competitions will be held in 2015

This came from Dave Diffenderfer

We have an opportunity but we must move like the wind to do it. The historic Harmony Inn in Harmony Pennsylvania is about to open. The New Castle Camera Club has been invited to do a camera tour before the opening which will be the end of the month. Lets see how many are interested and I will arrange a date. I will not have a great deal of control over that date. It will likely be on a week day.

If you are interested please e-mail Dave dwdiffenderfer@gmail.com

Summer Photographic Exhibits/Contests

Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation: The parks and forests foundation has a photo contest that has a deadline of September 3, 2014 at noon. The link for the website is http://www.paparksandforests.org/photo_contests.html.

The link for the rules is http://www.paparksandforests.org/downloads/pf_through_the_seasons_photo_rules_2014%20final.pdf.

The Great Stoneboro Fair Photographic Entries: The entry deadline is Wednesday August 13th and space is limited so enter early. Follow the link for the fair book and the rules are on page 18 and the exhibit information is on page 95 - 97 department 19 (those who also do other artistic works this is also the same section). The entry form is on page 205. Fair website is http://www.stoneborofair.info/. Fair book that has all of the information for registration is http://stoneborofair.info/2014%20fair%20book.pdf and this is in PDF format.

Buhl Day 2014 Art and Photography Exhibit: Anyone interested in entering this exhibit should follow the link http://www.buhlfarmpark.com/bfp/art-photo-exhibit/ and download the entry form and information. This information came from the Globe Leader in the July 24th edition on page 14.

The 2015 Shooting Schedule is now Posted

PSA Nature Photography Guide Lines (Glennie):

All images must meet the PSA Nature Definition of Nature Photography below: "Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archeology, in such a fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify as to its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining a high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements enhance the nature story. The presence of scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals is permissible. Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add to, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content are permitted. All adjustments must appear natural.” A photographer may perform any enhancements and modifications that improve the presentation of the image to make it more closely represent the original scene photographed but that does not change the truth of the original nature story. Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide) are acceptable modifications. Flipping well know scenics can be risky. Removing spots due to dust on your sensors is allowed. Removing rounded slide mount corners on scanned images is allowed. Adding elements to your images, removing pictorial elements from your image other than by cropping, combining pictorial elements from separate images or rearranging and/or cloning and/or copying elements in your image are not acceptable and can lead to disqualification of your image in the competition. HDR techniques and focus stacking techniques such as Helicon Focus techniques are techniques that enhance the presentation without changing the pictorial content and considered allowable techniques. Please note that all adjustments must still look natural. Just because a technique is legitimate does not guarantee the image it was used on will get a good score.

Please note that “pictorial quality” is not the same as technical quality. Technical quality is still an important criteria for evaluation and judging of images. Images are not required to meet the requirements of the PSA Definition of Wildlife. Zoo shots and Game Farm shots are eligible provided the artificial habitat is not apparent in the image. Since titles will be read, I recommend you do not advertise the fact something was taken at a zoo or other controlled situation as part of the title. For informational purposes only, here is the revised Wildlife

Definition:

“Authentic wildlife is defined as one or more organisms, living free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted habitat. Therefore landscapes, photographs of zoo animals, game farm animals, or any living subject taken under controlled conditions are not eligible for Wildlife competitions.”

Congratulations to the winners of the May Competition.

Bill has purchased (not the club) 50 white and 50 black 8x10 {opening size} mats. I will sell these mats for club use at $3.00 each. Contact me if you wish make a purchase and I will bring them to the meeting. I will not be transporting them to each meeting unless someone wishes to make a purchase.

PSA changes starting in September.

These subjects have been suggested for the 2015 competitions: night photography, nails, pillows, individual leaf, candles, handles, waves, lace, fish, cans, sleeves, silhouettes, books, mats, snow, motorcycles,, horses, eye glasses, buds, mustaches & beards, insects, phones, mirrors, old barns, country roads, trees, butterflies, insects, tabletops, painting with light and pin hole photography. If you have any more ideas email them to me by Wednesday, day prior the meeting. Subjects such as pin hole and painting with light (using a flash light to illuminate selected areas of the image) Instructions for both pin hole and painting with light will be included. My email address: billdee1013@comcast.net.

June's competition is "People at Work" self explanatory. The program will be Angelo Perrotta who will talk to the club about videotaping and explain what they do at the TV station. He also will explain what the TV station can do for the club.

Roy Passarelli had the projector checked by an electronics repair shop - it burned out irreplaceable computer chip. And the dead machine has been trashed. Roy and Mike provided a list of machines from Best Buy and B&H. The machine will be purchased soon. Audrey is loaning us a machine for this meeting so send your electronic images to Ray.