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Tonight’s topic: Photography Goals
We tried this last year, and had a great discussion! I think it is a great way to start the year. (Credit for the original idea came from the Worcester Photography Meetup group)
The topic for our next Education Night on September 22, 2014 will be a discussion about our individual artistic goals for the coming year This meeting will start at 7:30 pm and take place at 17 Fox Hill Drive in Natick as usual.
I’m starting with the assumption that we all have our own ideas and our own pace. We don’t all work the same way, and different approaches help each of us be productive. That said, it is generally helpful to envision where you’d like to be in a year’s time and to express it in your own words. This will be an open-ended discussion, including:
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What type of goals do you want to set for yourself? Will you have succeeded if you produce a certain number of pieces, if you complete a specific project, or if you spend the desired number of hours each week. How will you decide that your goal has been achieved?
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How much detail to you want and/or need? Is it enough for you to just state your goal, or would it be helpful for you to identify some interim steps (milestones) in the direction of your goal?
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Would it help you to put your goals down in writing, or are you more comfortable just discussing them? Would you be comfortable sharing your written goals with the group? Would this help you?
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What can NELP do to support you and encourage you? What can you do to support and encourage the rest of us?
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How often would you like to discuss progress towards your goals? Annually? Quarterly? Monthly?
Please give a little thought to the above, and come prepared to discuss your goals (if you have any) for the coming year and how NELP can support you. Please come even if you’re not sure what you want to set as goals (spectators welcome). I’d like to have as many different perspectives represented at the meeting as possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Optional theme: Motion
Please join us for our monthly image review night. This is a great opportunity to share your work with other artists and receive useful feedback. Feel free to ask for our thoughts in specific areas, or to seek general impressions of your artwork. Some of our artists bring more than one variation of a piece, or several stages of a work-in-progress. Let us know what you’re seeking, and we’ll do our best to provide it.
The “optional theme” for each meeting is just that … optional. Some of our members enjoy finding or creating images that fit the theme, while other members have specific images or projects that they would like feedback on. Whatever works for you is fine.
Our general guideline is that each artist may bring up to 8 images for a typical review. Prints are encouraged, as this is the best way to see an artwork as its maker envisions it. Digital images are (of course) welcome, on USB memory sticks and a variety of other digital media. If you bring more than eight images, we’ll need to go through them quickly. If you want to spend more time discussing an image, just bring fewer. We want to make sure everyone has time to present their work.
Our digital display is 1920 x 1080 resolution. You may want to optimize your image for this size, though our display software will scale your image if it is larger or smaller. The JPG file format is preferred, to keep file size down and ensure compatibility with our software.
If you are new to the group or have any questions, please let me know. We look forward to seeing you and your photographs.
– David {artphotos(at]davidlkahn[dot)com}
With Adobe’s recent change in licensing approach, many photographers have expressed concern that they can’t count on continued use of the latest version of Photoshop unless they agree to pay a monthly fee. Even before this change, Photoshop was considered an an expensive, if useful, tool. Are there any viable alternatives to Photoshop that photographers can consider?
For our October Education Night, Dick Miller will be giving us an overview of Fotoxx, a free, open-source Linux program for photo editing and collection management. The goal is to meet most user’s needs while remaining fast and easy to use. Fotoxx upgrades are monthly, and each includes some significant additions. Did I mention it’s free!
Dick Miller is a recent NELP member, with background in electro-optical physics. He helps develop Fotoxx, is an enthusiastic Fotoxx user, and will demonstrate some of its speed, power, and ease of use. To emphasize these points, Dick will demo Fotoxx on an inexpensive computer.
Dick and his wife Jill are owners of Miller Microcomputer Services in Natick. For those who are interested in FOSS (Free, Open-Source Software), they also lead a free Thursday-afternoon FOSS User Group at the Natick Community-Senior Center.
The meeting will be at 7:30 pm, as usual. The location is 17 Fox Hill Drive, in Natick. See you there.
Optional theme: Orange
Please join us for our monthly image review night. This is a great opportunity to share your work with other artists and receive useful feedback. Feel free to ask for our thoughts in specific areas, or to seek general impressions of your artwork. Some of our artists bring more than one variation of a piece, or several stages of a work-in-progress. Let us know what you’re seeking, and we’ll do our best to provide it.
The “optional theme” for each meeting is just that … optional. Some of our members enjoy finding or creating images that fit the theme, while other members have specific images or projects that they would like feedback on. Whatever works for you is fine.
Our general guideline is that each artist may bring up to 8 images for a typical review. Prints are encouraged, as this is the best way to see an artwork as its maker envisions it. Digital images are (of course) welcome, on USB memory sticks and a variety of other digital media. If you bring more than eight images, we’ll need to go through them quickly. If you want to spend more time discussing an image, just bring fewer. We want to make sure everyone has time to present their work.
Our digital display is 1920 x 1080 resolution. You may want to optimize your image for this size, though our display software will scale your image if it is larger or smaller. The JPG file format is preferred, to keep file size down and ensure compatibility with our software.
If you are new to the group or have any questions, please let me know. We look forward to seeing you and your photographs.
– David {artphotos(at]davidlkahn[dot)com}
Please join us on Monday (November 24) at 7:30 pm for the next NELP Education Night. This month we’re having our annual “Book Night”. Books offer so much by way of inspiration and technique, and this is an opportunity to learn from each other about book’s we’ve found useful.
Our Education Night for November will be our annual “Book Night”.
For this year’s Book Night, please bring a book that says something to you about the concept of Color (or lack thereof). How has this book helped you, and how might it help us? (As always, our topics are a suggestion. You’re welcome to share any book you think we should know about.)
Here’s a link to get you started: http://char.txa.cornell.edu/
Optional theme: Kaleidoscopic
For this meeting, you’re invited to produce Kaleidoscopic images using any technique you wish, including photography through an actual kaleidoscope. For those of you with iPhones or iPads, you may wish to try this app which provides some interesting features.
Please join us for our monthly image review night. This is a great opportunity to share your work with other artists and receive useful feedback. Feel free to ask for our thoughts in specific areas, or to seek general impressions of your artwork. Some of our artists bring more than one variation of a piece, or several stages of a work-in-progress. Let us know what you’re seeking, and we’ll do our best to provide it.
The “optional theme” for each meeting is just that … optional. Some of our members enjoy finding or creating images that fit the theme, while other members have specific images or projects that they would like feedback on. Whatever works for you is fine.
Our general guideline is that each artist may bring up to 8 images for a typical review. Prints are encouraged, as this is the best way to see an artwork as its maker envisions it. Digital images are (of course) welcome, on USB memory sticks and a variety of other digital media. If you bring more than eight images, we’ll need to go through them quickly. If you want to spend more time discussing an image, just bring fewer. We want to make sure everyone has time to present their work.
Our digital display is 1920 x 1080 resolution. You may want to optimize your image for this size, though our display software will scale your image if it is larger or smaller. The JPG file format is preferred, to keep file size down and ensure compatibility with our software.
If you are new to the group or have any questions, please let me know. We look forward to seeing you and your photographs.
– David {artphotos(at]davidlkahn[dot)com}
Our annual NELP holiday dinner will be Monday, December 22, 2014 at 6:30 pm, at the Lotus Flower restaurant in Framingham (near Walmart). They have an excellent dinner buffet ($16.95), or you can order exactly what you’d like from the menu. They have a great bar too, with a selection of delicious drinks.
If you can’t make it at 6:30, it is ok to arrive a bit later. The buffet is open until 8:30. If you’d like to join us, please let me know so I can reserve enough seats. I’ll call in a count on Sunday (Dec 21), with a few extras for walk-ins. Friends, spouses, etc. are welcome too. I initially reserved a table for 12.
See you then!
Tonight’s meeting has been CANCELLED, and will be rescheduled.
I’m pleased to announce that our guest speaker for our January 12th meeting will be Paul Toussaint. (We’re swapping our Image Review and Education nights this month.) Paul is among the leaders in the practice of iPhoneography – the use of an iPhone (or other smartphone) to create amazing photographs.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhoneography
IPhoneography has been made possible by the continual improvements in smartphone camera technology, the availability of inexpensive accessories, and the support of software vendors that have created a wide array of exciting applications to support the creative vision of modern photographers. Among the advantages of using your iPhone to create photographs is the fact that you usually have your phone with you!
Paul will be showing us examples of his work, discussing the plethora of available apps, and offering suggestions on how we can explore the many creative possibilities. We’re encouraged to download and explore some apps in advance of the meeting if we have time, and Paul welcomes our questions – both general and specific.
Paul usually shoots with the native iPhone camera app. Some of the other apps Paul has used include: Procamera, Slow Shutter, IcameraHDR, TrueHDR, Filterstorm, Photofx, SnapSeed, ScratchCam, ImageBlender, Pixlromatic+, iColorama, BlurFX, Eraser, DistressedFX, Grunge, ModernGrunger, PhotoSize, iResize, Rainy Daze, Romantic Photo, WordFoto, Rays, Retouch, TiltShiftGen, PhotoToaster, FilterStorm
We’re meeting at 7:30 pm on January 12th, at our usual location: 17 Fox Hill Drive, in Natick. Please join us for what is sure to be an exciting evening.
From Paul’s Web site:
As a photographer that has completely embraced iphoneography, my artistic visual eye has developed tenfold. I want people to look at everything because EVERYTHING is art. All the so-called rules should be broken when it comes to taking a picture because with this technology all perspectives can become extraordinary.
I study both lighting and texture. If an object has potential to be stronger, I’ll bring that element out or if the subject has a calm, soothing look, I like to make the average eye feel calm and relaxed as they view the end result. I also love to use enhanced textured paper to make the image “pop” and to even make the viewer ask the question, “Is this really a photograph?”
As a photographer and artist, iphoneography has changed my life and vision. For over a year now all of my photographs have been taken, processed and completed with only the iPhone. With the iPhone, my artistic vision has allowed me to produce a portfolio that at one time I only dreamed of having. When I graduated photography school, digital images were in the infant stages of development, and now the most incredible technology is in the palm of my hand.
Optional theme: Windows
Please join us for our monthly image review night. This is a great opportunity to share your work with other artists and receive useful feedback. Feel free to ask for our thoughts in specific areas, or to seek general impressions of your artwork. Some of our artists bring more than one variation of a piece, or several stages of a work-in-progress. Let us know what you’re seeking, and we’ll do our best to provide it.
The “optional theme” for each meeting is just that … optional. Some of our members enjoy finding or creating images that fit the theme, while other members have specific images or projects that they would like feedback on. Whatever works for you is fine.
Our general guideline is that each artist may bring up to 8 images for a typical review. Prints are encouraged, as this is the best way to see an artwork as its maker envisions it. Digital images are (of course) welcome, on USB memory sticks and a variety of other digital media. If you bring more than eight images, we’ll need to go through them quickly. If you want to spend more time discussing an image, just bring fewer. We want to make sure everyone has time to present their work.
Our digital display is 1920 x 1080 resolution. You may want to optimize your image for this size, though our display software will scale your image if it is larger or smaller. The JPG file format is preferred, to keep file size down and ensure compatibility with our software.
If you are new to the group or have any questions, please let me know. We look forward to seeing you and your photographs.
– David {artphotos(at]davidlkahn[dot)com}