Meeting Minutes: Women in Focus, February 10, 2010

Taken By: Valerie Gruner

Meeting presided over by our president, Gittel Price

Members and Guests Present: Anupama Vishwamitra, Gittel Price, Debra Booth, Sheri Garza-Pope, Peggy McKinney, Valerie Gruner, Alicia K. Gelford-Holtz, Karen Varsha, Myrtie Cope, Dana S. Kemp, Vicki Bethel, Margaret Foust, Nancy Cutrer, Alek Hodges, Anne Berry, Carol Butz, Jennie Helderman, Aixa Caldera, Chris Mitts, Joanne Green, and Cindy Michaels.

Guests and New Members:

Margaret Foust likes to shoot all kinds of things, but especially landscapes and flowers. She joined us because Nancy Cutrer told her about WIF.

Nancy Cutrer, who spread the word to Margaret, also shoots all kinds of subjects, but recently and most especially, architecture. She was looking to join photography groups in which are open.

We were joined by our first AGS student, Alek Hodges. She is taking an independent study in photography, and her teacher encouraged her to join us. She likes to take pictures of water droplets and reflections.

Members In Shows:

Anne Berry is in the Elements of Water show at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, which opens February 17. She is also in the Animal Magnetism show at the Vermont Photoplace in Middlebury, Vermont.

Gittel Price and Debra Booth have pieces in the Roswell Photography Society Spring Members Exhibit.

Joanne Green and Valerie Gruner have works at the Atlanta Artists Center February show at the AAC Gallery on Grandview.

Chris Mitts has work at the Ice House in Madison, Georgia.

Vicki Bethel has a short video at the WCA in Chicago, Illinois.

WIF members who were awarded ribbons (alas, they had no prizes) at the Southeastern Flower Show were Valerie Gruner (HM in Flowers), Gittel Price (HM in Water Features), and Hazel Berger (two HM’s in Flowers and 3rd in People and Critters). Also, one of Gittel’s pieces sold.

Women in Focus Pin Up Show:

Friday, February 26, 2010 - 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

at Studioplex Loft 138, 659 Auburn Ave. NE / Atlanta, GA 30379

The poster announcement that was sent to the membership should be forwarded via email to friends and family. Post it on your own Facebook page wall, and send it out to friends. It is on the wall of the WIF Facebook page, not in inboxes.

Send an email to Debra Booth, debrabooth@comcast.net, if you plan on participating.

This is an event designed as a membership drive and as a chance to contribute, through our sales, to CARE Atlanta.

March, Women’s Month, WIF Virtual Show:

Since we have no physical venue, WIF will have a virtual show on our website and our Facebook page. The theme was discussed, and Red was decided upon. Instructions and directions for posting for the online shows will be coming in a detailed email. So, look for those images with powerful red elements, or images with subtle red elements, or images with surprising red elements...

ACP Juried Show:

WIF needs a venue! October books quickly because of ACP, so we need to lock down a location ASAP. Look, inquire, pitch in and get creative with the search! Contact any board member with your ideas. One suggested venue was King Plow on Huff Rd.

Possible Critique Guests:

In preparation for our juried show, WIF will have a series of guest critique speakers at meetings leading up to our submissions. Suggested guests included Kathryn Kolb and Dean from Showcase. If you have any suggestions, please email a board member.

Speaker: John Williams, aka Mr. Showcase

John has been a sales rep for many companies, like Gallery Wrap, but he got tired of repping, and decided to settle in at Showcase (I-85 and Cheshire Bridge Rd. at LaVista). Showcase is the last great store standing for photographers in Atlanta because they have all the good stuff, with a great staff to explain it all.

The staff of Showcase are mostly all photographers, and a lot of the prints on the Showcase walls are works of the staff. Kevin Nickell, a Showcase staffer, has an exhibit in the atrium at the Atlanta Airport.

John passed out camera bag tags as party favors for those at the meeting, and some of them had a surprise inside. He told a story in which after having given a presentation at SCAD, he had left his camera bag with hundreds of dollars worth of camera equipment inside. He went back to SCAD, and he actually got his bag and all it’s stuff back because someone had turned it in and he had his name on it with a tag!

The surprise in the some of the tags was his card, and, depending on the number written on the card, John awarded door prizes. Throughout his excellent presentation, John gave to lucky members a Lowepro bag, an eight-gig card, a four-gig card, a pocket bounce, a soft screen, and a puffer. (Explanations of those last three, coming up.)

John explained the physics of light, especially for photography. On a sunny day, shadows are sharp because the light source (the sun) is small. On a cloudy day, the clouds act as diffusers, making the light source larger. In other words, the bigger a photographer can make the light source, the softer the light becomes. Personally, this photographer had never heard it explained so succinctly.

When using a flash, it is best to diffuse (make larger) the light source. There are several tools by which this can be accomplished, and John demonstrated them all with the actual products.

For a camera pop-up flash, there are two products that diffuse the flash. The first is a soft screen, which is a soft, white plastic screen that attaches to the camera over the pop-up flash to diffuse the light. The second is a puffer, which is a hard, white plastic oval bubble that attaches to the camera on a frame which positions it in front of the flash to diffuse the light.

Puffers, which are made for pop-up flashes as well as shoe mount flashes, were invented by Gary Fong, who used to work for Tupperware. His inventions are very Tupperware-like, and inspiringly inventive.

The options for shoe mounted flashes are more numerous. A shoe mount flash attaches to the camera and can be turned and bent to bounce the light. Bouncing the light does diffuse the flash, but there are drawbacks. If one bounces the flash off the ceiling, it can cast shadows under the eyes (never flattering), and if the ceiling is black, the light is absorbed rather than diffused. A bounce sideways off a wall is usually better.

A pocket bouncer, by Lumiquest, attaches to a shoe mount flash to create a low ceiling off of which the flash can bounce. It also comes in an 80/20 version which is a quick bounce that has a kind of barn door in it to open up the surface off of which the light bounces. A soft box attaches to a shoe mount flash that bounces the light around and out.

When using a flash, the closer the camera is to the subject, the softer the light is because of the relative size of the light source.

Hannal makes a kind of pocket bouncer, but it’s soft, and can be rolled to be made into a snoot (directing the flash light into a beam). Hannal also makes gels that can attach to your bouncers with velcro to change the color of the light. These gels come in four to five varieties.

A light sphere can attach to a shoe mount flash, and it diffuses the light all around. One can purchase different tops on the sphere (which is actually a half sphere) such as an amber top for golden light, a chrome dome for reflecting the light. Light spheres also come in collapsible versions to save camera bag space.

Photographers may also take the flash off of the camera to even further improve images. The closer the flash is to the camera, the more danger of red-eye is. One may use an off-camera flash cord with a flash bracket to connect to the camera. A flash flip bracket always keeps the flash over the lens, whether shooting horizontally or vertically. There is also a collapsible version of the flash bracket for space-saving.

Light completely removed (not even bracketed) from the camera are off-camera. Showcase sells a continuous light kit which includes two stands, two lights, two boxes, and two covers. Optimal is the lights at 45% from the camera position and slightly higher than the subject. A disadvantage of continuous light is that it’s hot. Somewhat of a solution is fluorescent lights, but they are not as bright, so more fixtures may be required.

For optimal photography, the camera has to know what color the (available) light is, therefore one should custom set the white balance on the camera. This function is pre-set on digital cameras, but it can be easily custom set via the menu. The in-camera histogram shows the exposure, and an optimal setting is one which shows three equal peaks. One can use a grey card to aid in calibration, but remember that they fade over time and become inaccurate. Another tool is an ExpoDisc, which is an electronic grey card. Put your camera on manual focus, hold the ExpoDisc over the lens, point it at the light source, make an exposure, and then set the white balance to that exposure.

If one is using only one light source, a fill light or a reflector is recommended. A reflector gives you free light. Reflectors are terrific tools for fill light. They come in silver, gold, white, and translucent. Showcase sells a set that comes with five reflector surfaces and an arm on which to hold and direct the reflector.

A Tech Trek is a monopod that can be used as a walking stick that also changes into a tripod to hold a camera or some other apparatus.

Backgrounds can be purchased at Showcase in various forms. John brought a collapsible background with a mottled brown surface that popped out to be about 5x7 feet. There are also paper backgrounds. Just buying fabric from Hancock usually doesn’t work out well because the sizing in those fabrics plays havoc with your lights.

John encouraged us all to come and visit Showcase and the Showcase School. There is a terrific line-up of afternoon classes. There will be a Gallery Wrap class on March 20th, 10 am to 11:30. And, Showcase has a two and a half hour lighting workshop once a semester.

More info on Showcase and all of the wonderful tools John showed us can be found on their website, www.showcaseinc.com.