01/22
2012
At our next meeting on February 11 the club will be hosting a guided critique session. This meeting is intended to help our members understand how to critique and judge photographs, and is also an opportunity to get input and feedback on your photograph. All photographs will be presented anonymously, however members may self-identify if they would like specific questions answered or specific feedback.
Be sure to submit one digital image for critique!
Don’t forget an upcoming digital competition is “Winter at Forsythe”. You can be out now getting those shots that convey this time of year and capture the animals we have visiting now. Remember, you have access to parts of the Forsythe refuge that you don’t have the remainder of the year. See January meeting minutes for details.
12/14
2011
Evenings at Forsythe presents
Whales and Walruses and Polar Bears, Oh My!
A Voyage to the Arctic
Dr. Ed Bristow
Friday, January 20, 2012, 7pm
Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge
800 Great Creek Rd. Oceanville, NJ 08231
(609) 652-1665
Free event open to the public
11/27
2011
Our annual holiday party will be held December 10, at the Ocean City American Legion, 3304 Bay Ave, Ocean City, NJ and I hope you can attend! Click here for directions from your location:
Directions
From the Forsythe area, take the Garden State Parkway south to exit 25. Turn left onto Roosevelt Blvd, and follow for 1.8 miles, then turn left onto Bay Avenue. The American Legion building is about 500’ on Bay Avenue. Set-up will start at 10:00 a.m. with the luncheon starting at noon. We’re looking forward to a great time revisiting memorable moments from the past year in addition to just having fun.
See you all there!
11/3
2011
Ed Jones was the force behind the effort to establish a photo club at the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. It was an honor and a privilege to have worked with him in this effort. The Stay Focused Photo Club will be 10 years old in January. Thousands of beautiful photos have been taken and hundreds of aspiring photographers have volunteered their talents to Forsythe because of his dream. We will miss him but never forget him. We have lost a dear friend, our nation has lost a model citizen, and our world has lost a wonderful human being. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Dennis Loughlin
11/1
2011
Don’t forget to upload your photos for this competition by November 9, 2011. Your are allowed up to four! For more details see the Sally Rowland Memorial Shootout link.
10/20
2011
Oct 28-30
Upcoming field trip to New York and great opportunity to see photography vendors, attend seminars and workshops. You’ll see the latest and greatest, and maybe even get a great deal. Contact Dennis Loughlin for more details. New York Photo Expo
09/17
2011
Alex Anton has agreed to be the speaker for the Stay Focused Photo Club next month and will spend the time critiquing our photos from the Summer Challenge and offering ways to improve. He can’t do it on the regular date, so we have opted to move the club meeting date to October 15 instead of October 8. Start time will be the same, but don’t arrive on Oct 8 — you won’t be able to get in! There is no contest for October – just the speaker. But there is a big contest coming up in November (the Refuge shootout). So, don’t forget about taking pictures…just focus on a national wildlife refuge like Forsythe. More instructions for the Refuge shootout later. See you all on October 15.
05/14
2011
Next month at our June meeting, we will NOT be meeting at Forsythe, but at Alex Anton’s studio in Pleasantville for a workshop on preparing photos for competition using your images (balloons outside the studio will mark the right location)! Some of you will remember Alex as a successful commercial photographer who frequently is a speaker as well as a judge for many of our competitions. You are invited to bring one or two images on a flash drive with you for Alex to use in the workshop (instructions below). Please note that if you are bringing images, you need to arrive by 9:30 a.m. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch a master photographer at work, showing the steps he goes through taking your image straight from the camera to one ready to take first place in a competition.
Because this is a workshop, we will not be running a club competition in June.
We need to know how many people will be attending the session, so please let Ed Idzik know by June 4 if you are planning on attending, and also, let him know if you are going to bring a photo image on a flash drive. If you have general questions, please call Ed.
StayFocused President Anne Harlan
PREPARING YOUR PHOTOS FOR A COMPETITION
OFFERED BY MASTER PHOTOGRAPHER ALEX ANTON
June 11, 10 a.m.
STUDIO 53
53 NORTH MAIN STREET
PLEASANTVILLE, NJ 08232
1-609-641-2934
Click this link to get the location of the studio:
Alex Anton Studio
Once you have the map, you can plug in your location to get directions.
It is with great pleasure that I announce a workshop where you will learn how to prepare your photos for a photo competition. This workshop will be offered to us by Alex Anton at his commercial photographic studio, on June 11th, beginning promptly at 10 a.m. This is a working commercial studio and Alex’s work will be prominently displayed throughout his studio. (Some of his photos will exhibit nudity, but very tastefully done.)
This is an exceptional opportunity to learn the ins and outs of preparing your photos for a competition, and have Alex work with YOUR photos so you could be more competitive. So please bring an image or two (preferably a raw image, but a jpeg is ok) straight out of the camera with no adjustments (not even cropping). If you have a camera that will shoot both RAW and JPEG image files at the same time please bring those files. These images should be in a folder marked “Alex” and copied to a thumb drive. The workshop begins at 10, but if you are bringing images for Alex to work on please come in at least a half hour earlier. Please bring your notebook so you can take notes.
If you have Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, the information presented to you can be applied to your photos immediately. If you don’t have Lightroom, this workshop may help you decide to purchase this software.
If you have any questions, feel free to call Alex directly at 1-609-641-2934.
04/10
2011
This will take place at the regularly scheduled May meeting on May 14.
Theme is Open/Open-any subject matter.
1. There will be three (3) divisions: Color prints, Black & White prints and Digital projected images.
2. You may enter up to three (3) images in each division (for a total of 9).
3. No additions can be made to the original image. Minor corrections are allowed, such as removing spots, deleting minor elements (wires, etc.), color or contrast adjustments, sharpening, cropping or sizing.
4. Minimum image and mounting size is 8×10″.
5. Maximum image and mounting size is 16×20″
6. All photos must have been taken between January 2009 and May 11, 2011.
7. Prints MUST be mounted on a stiff mounting board (no wood or metal).
8. Prints may be matted. All prints and mats must be firmly attached to mounting board.
9. No names, titles or other identifying marks are allowed on front.
10. Prints must have maker’s name and image title on back of mount with arrow indicating the top.
11. Prints must be accompanied by a summary sheet.
12. There will be no Champion/Challenger distinction.
13. Prints must be dropped off at the Refuge no later than 3:30 pm on Wednesday, May 11. Digitally projected images may be submitted until midnight, May 11.
14. Labels for the back of prints and the summary sheet can be downloaded from the Stay Focused website.
These are in PDF format:
Labels for May competition
Summary Sheet
04/8
2011
In light of the fact that there is no budget agreement yet, I have decided to go ahead with the plan to hold tomorrow’s photo club meeting at the Richard Stockton College, Room F-111. (I realize that an agreement could come late tonight, but many of you need to travel early to make it to the meeting which starts at 9:30 a.m.)
The room we will meet in, F-111, is directly across from the library and will meet our needs well. The only issue is that it is a little confusing to reach with all the construction. If you enter on College Drive (now Vera King Ferris Drive) off of Jimmie Leeds Road in Pomona, follow College Drive until you see a large blue building on your left which is the Sports Center. Turn left into the Parking Lot and park as close to the left side of the construction fencing as you can (that will be Parking lot 4 or 3). Walk to the left of the construction and follow the signs to the J Wing. Enter that building and continue walking on the first floor. Before you reach the E Wing, construction will block your walkway, so you need to take the stairs or the elevator to 2nd floor. Walk past the construction and come back down stairs and continue to F-111 which will be on your right. The room is directly across from the Library, so if you get lost, ask anyone to point you in the direction of the library. We will try to have signs up for those unfamiliar with the campus.
We will have some snacks but not drinks at this meeting, so bring water or coffee with you. We will start promptly at 9:30 with our photo competition, take a short break at 10:00, and then have Ron Wyatt, our speaker, talk to us on sports photography. This is a fabulous presentation since Ron was the photographer for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. From the parking lot, plan at least 15 minutes to wind your way through campus and find the room, so please allow yourself enough time.
See you all tomorrow!
President Anne Harlan
