Review of recent convention – Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Last week I discussed the merits of photo critiques. I hope that you have looked at a few of those sites, or others you may find on the Internet and submitted some of your shots for critique. At the same time, there is a lot you will learn by critiquing others as well.

For the past couple of weeks, I have mentioned the Niagara Frontier Regional Camera Club annual convention that was taking place last weekend. Today I will give you a summary of the event.

About 200 people attended over the weekend and we had some excellent presenters. Friday night was a competition of 200 slides followed by a presentation by Joe Lefevre displaying many of his composite panorama photographs. Joe creates his panoramas from several photographs to maintain the quality in his work, rather than create them from a single negative using a wide angle lens. Joe also presented a seminar on Saturday explaining his techniques in shooting for a panorama, as well as creating them in Photoshop.

Saturday was split into two tracks. The first track featured an all day session with retired professional photographer Monte Zucker. Monte has received many photographic awards including the United Nations Portrait Photographer of the Year award, 2002. Monte’s presentation focused on lighting and posing techniques for portraits. He explained things and a very easy to understand manner and demonstrated with members of the audience. His informative session was well worth the price of the weekend ticket.

Also on Saturday, Ethan Meleg gave his presentation Life on the Edge: Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula which included a large array of photos of the Bruce Peninsula. Bogden Fundalinski presented a Photoshop tutorial on Creating Science Fantasy in your photos. A second Photoshop tutorial was presented by Randy Zack. Bob Harris, listed by the Photographic Society of America (PSA) as the world’s top color slide competitor, gave his presentation “Searching The World For Compelling Images”. The evening was capped off by a one hour multimedia presentation by Gil Lopez Espina. The event closed with Bob Harvey presenting a two part slideshow, Capturing Drama in your photography and the second revolved around communicating with your images.

Along with the presentations there was both a Slide Salon and a Print Salon. Both events gave the attendees an opportunity to have their work scored against other delegates from the convention.

There is a lot of information at the websites for some of these presenters, from forums where you can discuss photography and have your own photos critiques, to tips and techniques to improving your work.

An event like this offers a lot of opportunities to learn, not only from the presenters, but from all of the other photographers in attendance. They present you with a chance to interact with skilled photographers eager to share their knowledge and in turn, better your own photography. Photographic clubs often have similiar events to this. Check to see if there are any in your area. If you have any questions about camera or photographic clubs, contact a local club. many offer free guest admission to their meetings, or send me an email and I can try to answer any questions you may through my experience in my club.

Next week I will discuss saturation in your digital images, what it is and how you can leverage it for better photos.

The digital photography tip of the week is written by the PCIN Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Chris is a long time photographer and is currently the vice-president of the Niagara Falls Camera Club. You can see more of his photography at his Photo of the Day website.
If you have a tip to send Chris, or a question about digital photography he can address in the newsletter, send it to chris@pcin.net.

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