Newsletter of the Johnson County Camera Club
Established April 1963
jococameraclub.org
jococameraclub.blogspot.com
Meeting: February 13, 2012 (second Monday)
Time: 6:30 P.M. (chat time), 7:00 P.M. meeting
Location: Asbury United Methodist Church
Music Room
75th St. and
Nall Avenue, Prairie Village, Kansas
(Park behind the church;
meeting entrance is near the corner on the back of the building near
Nall.)
Meeting Agenda for February
At our February meeting
we welcome Harland Schuster a freelance photographer from Morrill, KS, where he
lives with his wife Suzanne. Harland’s work has appeared in local, regional and national
publications and two current books. He was the photographer for The 8
Wonders of Kansas Guidebook , published by the Kansas Sampler Foundation,
and contributed to My Kansas , published by Meredith Publishing.
His work has also been published in numerous magazines throughout the
Midwest.
Subjects for his photographic assignments have ranged from food
shots to nature to wind farms. Though Harland’s photographic travels have
on occasion led him beyond his native Great Plains, his favorite subject
remains the Midwestern landscape.
A portfolio of Harland’s photography
can be viewed on his website: www.harlandschuster.com
Harland will
have copies of the book for sale, $29.95 + sales tax. If you already have a
copy, you may bring it and Harland will gladly autograph it.
We will have Show &
Tell images only if time is available following Harland’s presentation. Please see the requirements for image sizing
listed herein.
Flames in the Flint Hills –
Bruce Hogel
For those of
you who aren't aware, the Flying W ranch is putting on their
"Flames in the Flint Hills" event again this 14 April; see http://www.flinthillsflyingw.com/announcements/2012-flames-in-the-flint-hills.
It was a great event last year, I thought. The burns were
spectacular! Imagine a couple of thousand acres on fire. You, being able to get up close and personal
with your camera. Also, Josh is a terrific chef!
Bio Sheet for our Spotlight Section
Don’t miss out on an
opportunity to be featured in our newsletter.
This is your chance to let the other members learn a little about you
and your photography. Please send your
bio sheet to Erin Schuerman, Program Committee Chair, at .
Notes from Our Last Meeting
Revocup
Coffee, 11030 Quivira (behind McDonalds), Overland Park, KS (913) 663-3695.
Hours:
Monday thru Friday 6:30am-7pm, Saturday 7am-5pm, and Sunday 8am-5pm.
"Photography
by Ernie Lowden" JCCC member Ernie Lowden's 17 photographs offer the viewer a broad
range of subject matter and pictorial genre, from traditional landscapes and
nature, to subjective abstraction
- Closes February 28.
Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art - Block Building, 4525 Oak, KCMO (816-561-4000).
Hours:
Wednesday 10am-4pm, Thursday and Friday 10am-9pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, and Sunday
noon-5pm.
The
Photographs of Brett Weston This exhibition features 38 photographs, and presents a
concise survey of the career of Brett Weston, son of famed photographer Edward
Weston. Brett's work exemplified the modernist aesthetic. In the details of
everyday things, he combined fact and form, objective reality and abstraction.
Reports from those who have seen the exhibit agree, its a "Do not miss!"
experience for any serious photographer
- Closes April 1.
The Editor’s Corner – Bill
Staudenmaier
Warning: What
follows has nothing to do with Nikon or Canon.
Therefore should you choose to dismiss these ramblings I will
understand. I realize this is bordering
on camera heresy.
Let’s get this out of the way
right now. My camera of choice is the
Pentax K-7. In the film days I also used
Pentax, and perhaps this is why I have continued with them. I have nothing against the aforementioned
brands, but I shoot with Pentax, and enjoy complete satisfaction. One of my initial attractions to Pentax was
their claim that you could attach any of their older lenses to their digital
DSLR’s and shoot in manual mode, but with image stabilization, since this
feature is incorporated into the Pentax body rather than the lens. Now this claim is true, somewhat. With screw thread lenses you need an adaptor,
but beyond that you do have complete manual control. Some K-mount bayonet lenses have no aperture
recognition and stay wide open, but the later versions have full manual
control. You can also use the medium
format 645 lenses, with adaptor, on the Pentax bodies. But I mostly use two present day weatherproof
dedicated Pentax zoom lenses for my K-7 and they work quite well. The technology has improved so much with
computer design that there is no reason to do otherwise.
We spent Christmas in Fort
Collins, Colorado with my daughter Rebecca and family. My son-in-law is starting to collect film
cameras; although he says he isn’t. He’s
been reading up on the great cameras and lenses of the past century, and has
purchased some of them. For the most
part I think it is really Tony’s skill as a photographer that shows
through. These cameras present a challenge
for him, and he likes the unknown. This
is why he is into research, and is a respected scientist.
In the days of film you could
get a great image with just about any lens if you stopped down and used a
tripod. But today you have Lens Baby and
software that does what older lenses did, accidentally, because of their lack
of quality. Nevertheless old glass can
be fun to use. Thus in December, Tony (a
Canon disciple), and I went to shoot at one of the “wild areas” set aside by
the city of Fort Collins in the foot hills.
I borrowed a screw thread lens from his collection, a Pentacon 135mm 2.8
with a fifteen-blade aperture. These
extra blades in the lens offer an almost circular opening at any setting. Adding the screw thread adaptor to my camera,
I was then able to screw in the Pentacon and operate with total manual control,
along with image stabilization.
You will remember that Germany
was, after WW2, divided into East and West.
The original Zeiss factory in the eastern sector was taken over by the
Russians, equipment plans and existing camera stock. Meanwhile Zeiss moved into the western sector
and re-established itself. Thus Tony’s
135mm Pentacon is of GDR manufacture.
All Pentacon’s early cameras and lenses were based on original Zeiss patents.
The area where we shot is in a
valley between some lower rock formations, but the sun provided little direct
illumination until almost noon. The
temperature was about 20F with little or no wind. There was snow on the ground and a half
frozen stream meandering through the landscape.
After shooting with my Pentax lenses for a while I switched to the
Pentacon. Focusing was smooth and the
aperture stopped down without any problems.
Regarding the results later, the Pentacon seems a little soft even
stopped down, but not disagreeably so.
I’m satisfied with my shots that day.
The other screw thread lens I tried out was a Mamiya 135mm 2.8 (with the
standard number of aperture blades) of approximately the same time period of
manufacture, but made in Japan. Side by
side visual examination has the Mamiya scoring a little better. This was not a scientific test of course,
simply a fun way to spend the day doing something different. I’ve always enjoyed shooting in manual.
Even though Tony and I hiked
around the area, we still managed to get a little chilled. Constant stopping and standing in one place
allowed the cold to penetrate. After a
few hours of shooting, it was time to get back to his truck and head home.
Images for Show and
Tell
There is always a
possibility at all of our meetings (if time permits) for member images to be
shown and discussed. Please see the
information below regarding sizing of images.
All images should be sized for 1024 pixels on the
longest dimension and saved in jpeg format at 72 dpi. Images should be renamed to include the
artist’s last name in the first characters of the title. Check your image, if it looks blurry or
pixilated (unintentionally), you may have started with a low resolution or
highly cropped image. In this case, you
may need to increase the setting in the resolution box to improve the image;
but be sure to retain 1024 on the longest side.
Submit JPG files on a flash drive tagged with your name. Drives will be returned after the images have been
loaded into the computer for projection.
Subjects for the Year-End 2011-2012 Photo Contest
Submittals
for our Year-End-Contest are due at our May 2012 meeting. Only images shot since April 2011 are
eligible. There are nine subjects to
choose from. You may select a maximum of
six subjects with a maximum of two entries for each of the six subjects
chosen. A professional photographer will
judge the contest, with the results to be presented and discussed at the June
2012 meeting.
2011-2012 Year-End-Contest Subjects
- Abstract
- Autos/
Transportation/Wheels
- Close
Up
- Curves
- Rusted/Busted/Old/Dilapidated
- From
Below
- HDR
- Nostalgia
- “Wild”
Things
Please patronize the following area businesses when you need
photographic supplies or camera repairs.
Overland Photo
Supply, Inc. 8967
Metcalf, Overland Park, KS 66212 (913) 648-5950, FAX (913) 648-5966, e-mail – sales@overlandphoto.com, Hours: M-F 10-7, Sat 10-5
Crick Camera
Shop 7715 State Line Rd. Kansas City, MO 64114
(816) 444-3390, e-mail - crickcamera@sbcglobal.net Established in 1946
The Aperture, newsletter
of the Johnson
County Camera Club, is published monthly. Meetings are held the second Monday of each
month, unless otherwise announced, at the Asbury United Methodist Church. Short articles written by club members, or
selected from other sources of possible interest to club members, may be sent
to the editor for inclusion in the newsletter.
Membership dues of $25.00 for one year are to be paid during the month
of September, which is the beginning of the club year. Anyone who joins the club after March 1st.
will not be required to pay dues and will not be eligible to participate in the
year end competition.
For additional information or questions on the Johnson
County Camera Club, activities, meetings, and membership contact the following
members:
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