July 2016 Roll 80, Exposure 7 Editor Tom McCall editor@twincitycameraclub.com Website: http://www.twincitycameraclub.com To encourage and develop an interest in photography. We hope you are Focusing on Photography and having fun... Our Competition Season: We wrapped it up with the Annual Competition on Saturday June 25 th. All of the winners in each of the four (4) divisions are posted on the Annual Competition Winners page on the TCCC website. The First Place winning photos are included in this newsletter. The Judges, Cindy Young, Owner of the Brick School Gallery (now in her home in Watervliet); Tim Schroeder, http://www.twsphotography.com and Tim Langlois, a former President of TCCC. Cindy and Tim Schroeder judged in last years Annual Competition. We really appreciate them judging our Annual Competition this year. The judges expressed their pleasure with finishing so early and a couple even wondered out loud what they were going to do with the extra time they hadn't planned for. The Annual Competition consisted of 476 images; 56 Black and White Prints, 91 Color Prints, 140 Black and White Digital Slides and 189 Color Digital Slides. This was due to the continuing effort by your Board Members to reduce the numbers of images in the Annual Competition and shorten the time needed for the judging. This year everyone was permitted to select up to 10 eligible images in each of the divisions, Black and White Prints, Color Prints, B&W Digital Slides and Color Digital Slides. We removed the scoring restrictions imposed last year and made all of the images receiving an Honor or Acceptance eligible. Another change this year involved the Digital Divisions, this year the members had to submit a list of the images they wanted in the competition to Ted Post by a deadline a week before the competition. Print makers had to have their prints in the building by a deadline of the Monday before the competition. Some members chose not to submit any eligible images or less than what they could, that's always been the case and is a personal preference. This year we had 1366 images that received an Honor or Acceptance and even with the restrictions we would have had way to many images again. Last year we had 1645 eligible and 1191 of those in the competition with the restrictions and the judging went into the later part of the afternoon. This year we had a judge delayed and so we didn't get started until a little after 10 am. We had a few technical delays (they seem to happen just because they do and some people seem to forget, like me, because we only do this once a year and then there are the things that just happen in a competition) and believe it or not we still finished by noon. Well, the judging was finished at 12:00 pm. and there were a few discussions that continued between the members and the judges for a while. My work of taking the photo copies of the prints and creating lists of the prints that received 12's and 11's for the Honorable Mention list took me a couple more hours before I could leave the building. Editors Note: I think you can expect to see this format next year, unless someone has a better idea or a better one comes along. I think I'm going to set up a folder and after each month I'll put in my picks for the Annual Competition and be ahead of the game for next year. 1
The Annual Competition Judging: We instructed the judges that the competition was only to select the Top 3 images in each Division. That's what they did, the scores may seem to be a little lower for one of our competitions but it appeared they were concentrating on just selecting the Top images. In Black & White Prints the top scorers were 1 14 which became the Black & White Print of the Year. 2 13's and the Tie-Breaker ended up with the 1st. Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up. In Color Prints the top scorers were 1 13, which became the Color Print of the Year. Then there were 6 12's with a Tie- Breaker that ended up with a Tie for the 2nd Runner Up. In Black & White Digital Slides the top scorers were 1 13 which became the Black & White Digital Slide of the Year and 5 12's with a Tie-Breaker that ended up with a Tie for the 2nd Runner Up. Color Digital had 1 13 which became the Color Digital Slide of the Year and there were 7 12's with a Tie-Breaker for the 2nd Runner Up and 3 rd Runner Up. The Annual Competition Results: Black and White Print of the Year: Barbara Kirby - Night in Paris 1 st Runner Up: Sheila Elkins - Thinking 2 nd Runner Up: Barbara Kirby - Silver Beach Carousel Color Print of the Year: Barbara Kirby - Best Friends Tie 1 st Runner Up: Barbara Kirby - Quiet Morning Tie 1 st Runner Up: Helen Petlick - Utah Canyon Black and White Digital Slide of the Year: Ted Post - Pyramid Lake Sunrise Tie 1 st Runner Up: Dennis Hafer - Reaching For The Sky Tie 1 st Runner Up: Will Hayes - Am I Blue Color Digital Slide of the Year: Gary Huttenstine - Yellow Lily 1 st Runner Up: Gary Huttenstine - Zebra Longwing 2 nd Runner Up: Ron Bonczkowski - Cathedral Congratulations to all of the winners: Of all of them, Barbara Kirby, our newest member, did an excellent job of garnering Four (4) of the top Six (6) Print winners. Gary Huttenstine was the only other multiple winner. Way to go, great competition for all. Editors Note: Members Barbara Kirby and Ron DeKett, have elected to move to Class A for the new season in the fall, the TCCC Board has approved the request, so get ready Class A, here they come. :O) ALL the Help is very much appreciated: Many thanks to all that helped to make this a really good competition. Thanks go to Amber Tibone for preparing all of the prints, Amber and Helen Petlick for handling the Print Competition, Jim Long for handling the scoring computer, Ted Post for handling the Digital Competition, Will Hayes for handling the scoring sheets, Gary Huttenstine for obtaining the judges and to Gary Huttenstine and Tom McCall for handling the Tie-Breakers and overall coordination of the competition. Everyone did their jobs well and made it a good competition for all involved. We even had a couple of members, Dick Lyon and Barbara Kirby, who were there just in case we needed someone to fill in. It's always good to see members stepping up willing to help out. Thanks again, we appreciate it. Special congratulations: go to all of the competitors. We only have a few photos that make the Top Three each year but it was very evident that we had a lot of really great photos for the judges to choose from. So I say Thank You, I know it takes a lot of effort to prepare and submit all of the entries that we have in our monthly competitions. Thanks again for letting the rest of us enjoy all of your contributions of such wonderful photographs. We definitely appreciate all that you do and wish you all continued success in your photography. We hope you are having a lot of fun doing it. 2
The results of the Annual Competition. Black and White Print of the Year Barbara Kirby - Night in Paris 3
Color Print of the Year Barbara Kirby - Best Friends POM Stuff: Remember the comments and questions about how the POM s, selected by the members, were going to make out in the Annual Competition. Well the results are... Only one of the Photos of the Month, Dennis Hafer - Reaching For The Sky, made it into the Top Three. Another tidbit: All of the Top Three winners in Black & White Prints and also in Color Prints, were Honors during the regular season. In Black & White Digital, only one was an Honor, two (2) had been Acceptances. All Three in Color Digital had been Honors. In the past we had 7 out of 12 that had not been Honors in the Monthly Competitions. So this year it was only 2 out of 12 that had not been Honors from the Monthly Competitions. Free Upgrades: Steve Campbell told me that Photomatix Essentials version 4.1 is now available for download. This update adds a Crop Tool, resizing options, an improved workflow for loading single photos, and support for the RAW files from some recent camera models. You can upgrade to Photomatix Essentials 4.1 by downloading it from here: http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/pme.html 4
Black and White Digital Slide of the Year Ted Post - Pyramid Lake Sunrise Free Upgrades continued: Dennis Hafer tells me that the Topaz Impression 2 Update is ready for downloading. Get it here: http://www.topazlabs.com/downloads The upgrades are free of charge for all customers who purchased an earlier version of the software. This information and the links will also be on the TCCC website Announcements page, if you prefer using that instead of the links in the newsletter. Computer News: For those of you that have been asking me about upgrading your computers to Windows 10, call me next week at 269-983-5986. I should have upgraded several of my computers by then and will have some information for you about how you can get it done. The deadline for upgrading to Windows 10 for free is July 29 th. Don't wait until the last minute, I'm ready to do mine now. I have a friend that sells and repairs computers that can prepare your computer for the upgrade, then do the upgrade in a lot shorter time then it would take someone to download the upgrade. He will do all of this at a very reasonable price right in your home. It's a July Special just for the upgrades. I can explain it all to you if you call, including information about ways you can save even more money, get multiple computers done at the same time, getting Windows 10 on the machines, beating the July deadline so that it is free and on the computer, then possibly switching back to Windows 7, for those of you that would prefer to continue with Windows 7. I'll know more about all of this next week after we've performed the upgrades and switched back at least one of my machines. The switching back is supposed to be something that can be done if it is done within the first 30 days after the install. Microsoft is going to release what they are calling Windows 10 Anniversary update (something like a Service Pack) for Windows 10 on August 2 nd. I think that will be something that installs directly from Microsoft if what I've been hearing about Microsoft's control of the software is true. 5
Color Digital Slide of the Year Gary Huttenstine - Yellow Lily Please Note: The new selections for our print displays, at both the annual banquet and the clubhouse walls, will be selected from the Annual Competition prints. Please Do Not Disturb or pick up your prints at this time. Photo of the Month: Your winners of the Photo of the Month for June, in Black & White, Tom McCall Mega Watts and Spencer Hughes - Beach Chairs for the Color selection. Congratulations. The Photos are posted on the Announcements and Photo of the Month pages. The information telling about the experience in capturing the winning photos will be posted soon. Photo of the Month for the Year: It is now time for you to pick a Black & White and a Color photo from the 21 monthly POM winners to become the POM for the Year. You have to the end of July, the 31st. at midnight, so be an early bird, vote soon and make your Votes count. Go to the Photo of the Month page on the TCCC website and Select One (1) Black & White and One (1) Color photo and get your votes in... Send your picks to: POM@twincitycameraclub.com 6
Report on the Picnic: On Monday June 27 th. We held our Annual Picnic at The Vineland Center. Many thanks to Chef Don Damron and his staff for taking very good care of us, everyone said the food was great and very tasty. Thanks so much for inviting us, Don, we always enjoy our visits with you. A REALLY BIG THANK YOU to Dennis Hafer for another entertaining and fun photo show... Great job Dennis! Thanks to all of the members that sent in your favorite photos for the show, we enjoyed them all... Reminder on the DUES: The Membership Dues for 2016 2017 Membership year; are due and payable on or before August 31st. The amounts are $30 for an Individual or $45 for two (2) adults in the same household. The 2014 Dues Renewal Forms are on the website on the Get Involved, ViewFinder, and/or SiteMap pages. Please print clearly and include all of the information so we can update the rosters. We want your Cell phone number including area code, so that it can be included in the rosters. Be an early bird and send your dues in to Ted Post now. If it is more convenient for you, Ted will accept cash or checks at the meetings. Thank You. NOTE: NO Dues for NEW members that paid AFTER February 1, 2016, your dues are extended through to August 31, 2017. Members Photos for the Roster: Still asking, we need a photo of everyone for the roster. For those of you that haven t sent one in, Please do so. Thanks Photography quote for today: A good photograph is knowing where to stand. Ansel Adams Just a Thought: The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground. ~ Author Unknown Happiness is: Success is not the key to Happiness Happiness is the key to success. ~ Author Unknown Enjoy your 4 th of July Holiday Weekend... Wishing all you a safe and Happy summer! Keep those shutters clicking P.S. You are looking great today! 7