Kelly Walkotten, described her introduction to scuba diving, her desire to share the underwater sites and her experiences with others through photography. She detailed her introduction to underwater photography and the several stages she went through in her journey to gathering all the right equipment. Completely outfitted and ready to take underwater pictures, Kelly wears 80+ pounds of diving equipment and another 35+ pounds of photography equipment! And someone needs to accompany her to carry and manage the lighting, a very important and key element to good, colorful, pictures. Not much lighting in the deep! Kelly explained the different way light performs at various depths and how she compensates for the lack of light and various factors that need to be considered for getting the perfect picture.

On June 5 an open theme print competition was held. Ray Pfeiffer was our guest judge for the evening and did an excellent job of evaluating and providing comments on the prints. He noted that evaluating and grading the Black and White prints in particular was a daunting task — he grumbled a bit about not being able to use a half point scale! Great work photographers! A silent auction of the printer paper was also held during the meeting. Everything was sold and it netted the club $63!

The May 15 presentation introduced us to floral photography with a twist. Jackie Kramer’s presentation opened the possibilities of reflecting motion and emotion in floral pictures by comparing a floral picture juxtaposed to a picture of human expression. She discussed the tools and props she uses as well as some of the camera equipment such as Lensbaby lenses.

The first meeting of May, held in the Abbott's Creek Community Center, was a print critique. Melissa Southern did an excellent job of critiquing each image, providing great comments, suggestions, and possible things to think about in shooting such images.

We had the pleasure of meeting Luke Colwell in our monthly zoom meeting the night of April 17. Luke is a young nature photographer from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, introduced to us by Hunts Photo. Luke described techniques he has used to enhance the impact of his bird photos illustrating with photos he has taken.

A print competition was held on our first meeting of April. The theme for this competition was "Wheels". Some very creative interpretations of that theme were presented. The scheduled judge was unavailable and by chance a member from the past was in attendance. That past member, Chris Schonwalder, volunteered to judge. His critique of the prints was well received.

Billie Weiss described his role as photographer for the Boston Red Sox baseball team showing a number of examples of his work. His discussion included equipment and techniques for use in the fast motion sports photography.

On March 6, Simon Griffiths’ presentation was a review of his experiences and the visual art he creates. He shows a number of examples illustrating his work and discussed the techniques involved. He closed the presentation by looking to the future and showing an image created using AI, followed by a discussion the implications.

Our Field trip on February 23 to the NC Museum of Art was well attended. Everyone seemed to enjoy walking the museum grounds on a beautiful spring-like day. And there was photography.

The second meeting of this month was held on Sunday the 19th for the joint Sister City Photo Competition with the Brooklands Photo Society in Kingston-Upon-Hull in the UK. Brian Fullingham judged this competition.

On February 6, Kate Medley gave an in-person presentation entitled: "Documentary Photo Journalism". After some technical difficulties associated with the video equipment, Katie gave an interesting and informative presentation. She showed a number of examples of her work at demonstrations and other current events.

The club enjoyed an informative presentation by Gerri Jones on the 16th. Gerri illustrated her techniques for adding textures in Photoshop and described the process in detail.

On January 14 we had our first field trip for the new year. We went to the Aloha Zoo. There was a good attendance.

For the first meeting of January,on the 9th, Charlie Twine gave an in-person presentation on his experiences photographing the NASA space shuttle, its launches, and on the remote operation of cameras in very harsh conditions. He and others taking these amazing pictures, learned a lot of the hows by true "trial under fire” — literally fire! The videos he showed, and the earth shaking audio he played, were truly stunning.

On December 5 the annual meeting was held in person. All attendees enjoyed being back together again. After some business topics, Jim Lamb gave a short presentation on Lightroom techniques. Photographer of the Year award was presented to Paul Atkinson.

On November 21 Tim Grey hosted a presentation on Zoom entitled "Tidying Up Your Lightroom Organization"

A print competition was held at Abbotts Creek on November 7. The title for this competition was "Geometric Shapes". Local architect Sterling Stevens evaluated the print images. See Fifth Image Competition Results

During the October 17 meeting, Beth Yarbrough present a session on Photographing Historic Homes at Abbotts Creek.

Dick Cicone served to evaluate print images for a critique on this October 3 meeting. Dick is a long time club member and an accomplished photography judge whose presentation was both educational and enjoyable.

John Paul Caponigro provided an entertaining and informative presentation on the subject of photographic printing. He discussed why we should print and the many aspects of printing, both technically and aesthetically.

For this first meeting of September, the club met in person for a print competition. This was the first in person competition in some time. A total of 29 color and 20 monochrome prints were submitted. Ray Pfeiffer judged this competition, giving interesting commentary and analysis of the prints. Fourth Image Competition Results

This program was sponsored by Hunt's Photo and Video who arranged for a young bird photographer, Ronan Nicholson, to speak. Ronan gave an overview of his approach to photographing birds and showed a number of example photos.

On this first meeting of August, the scheduled judge canceled at the last minute because of an emergency so the meeting was changed into an audience participation critique of photos. The discussion was amiable and constructive. The meeting was attended by about 23 people and concluded by approximately 8:30 PM.

During the second meeting of July, club member, Lynne Necrason gave a moving and inspiring presentation based on her visit to Romania. With words and photos she painted a vivid picture of the lives of some rural Romanian people.

On July 11, Brooks Jensen, of Lenswork, offered insights and motivation for "collecting assets" and from them preparing a project for publication.

Our third image competition was held on June 20. In total, 44 images were submitted. Kenny McKeithen evaluated the images and provided a thorough analysis of each. The results of this competition can be seen on the Third Image Competition Results page.

On June 6, from the UK, Bill Ward described his work with Intentional Camera Movement and In Camera Multiple Exposures. Bill described techniques he used and showed a number of example images.

Club member, Dawn Willis, evaluated digital images for the image critique on May 16. The open discussion that occurred illustrates the value of these critiques. A lively discussion with Dawn and club members took place online.

Club member, Rick Cornell, gave an excellent presentation on sports photography on May 5. Not only did he show us some of his outstanding sports action pictures, but he shared his knowledge of camera settings and field locations he found most useful for a number of sports.

On this last meeting of April, Cole Thompson discussed black and white photography and his philosophy for producing Fine Art images in black and white.

For the April 4 meeting, Melissa Southern evaluated the digital images submitted by members. The theme of this competition was "Break the Rules". That theme was open to many interpretations as was demonstrated during the judging process. The results of this competition can be seen on the Second Print Competition Results page for 2022.

On March 21, club member Frank Clemmensen gave a live demonstration while making a magazine for the club containing the Fuquay exhibition photos. Frank explained how to use the Book module in Lightroom to publish the magazine on Blurb.

Simon Griffiths gave a presentation entitled "Compositing, Editing and Lighting" on March 7. He described in detail how he created a number of images using compositing techniques in Photoshop.

On Saturday March 5 members participated in a field trip to the Revolutionary War Living History Day (Hillsborough, NC).

Brian Fullington judged the digital images for the February 21 Digital Print Competition. He gave a detailed description of the strong and weak points of each photo. The results of this competition can be seen on the First Print Competition Results page for 2022.

On Saturday February 12 members participated in a field trip to the Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC).

For the first meeting of February, Jon Kolkin talked about his experience travelling for photography in a presentation entitled: "Planning an Overseas Photography Trip".

The presentation on January 17 was "Visual Storytelling" by Diana Bloomfield. Diana described her experiences with alternative methods of printing and displaying images.

Hazel Meredith started our new year schedule with an informative presentation on the use of textures and gradients. She gave step-by-step instructions for use in photoshop on applying both techniques to images.

On December 6 the annual meeting was held in person. All attendees enjoyed being back together again. After some business topics, several members showed recent photographs and discussed techniques employed. Several awards were made: Photographer of the Year award to Alan Clark, Outstanding Achievement award to Michele Alias, and an honorary membership to Jim Lamb.

November 15 "Being Respectful When Photographing in Unfamiliar Cultural Settings" by Jon Kolkin. Jon gave a very interesting presentation describing his travels and a doctor and how his connection in that capacity offered him unique photographic opportunities. With examples the presentation illustrated the need to be sensitive to cultural differences when traveling.

This first of November online meeting held the fifth Digital Image Competition of the year with theme of "Architecture", judged by Sterling Stevens. This competition followed up on the August presentation where Sterling presented his views on architectural photography. The competition results may be seen on the Fifth Print Competition web page.

October 4 meeting featured a very enjoyable, informative photo critique by Simon Griffiths. Simon gave a very thorough critique of each print and offered suggestions for improvements where he judged they would be useful. His discussion included how post-processing can be used to improve images.

The last September meeting, on the 20th, allowed for members to present and discuss recent work. It served as an online forum for all to share things we have learned and to become inspired and learn new ideas from each other. Members described different photographic projects they had undertaken.

On September 13 Hector Astorga talked on how to be successful in competitions. He bagan with the question: "What makes an award winning images?" He then discussed, in detail, his recipe for success.

On August 21, club members participated in a field trip to the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

This fourth competition of the year was conducted via Zoom with digital images submitted some days prior to the meeting on August 16. The theme for this competition was "Creatures". Both color and monochrome digital images were submitted for judging by Mary Louise Ravese. Mary Louise graded the images prior to the online meeting so her comments were carefully planned and informative. The results may be seen on the Fourth Print Competition web page.

The first August meeting saw an interesting presentation on Architecture with Sterling Stevens. There will be a print competition featuring "Architecture" judged by Sterling himself this fall!

Travel photography was the topic of discussion for the July 19 meeting. Denise Silva gave an informative presentation stressing planning and the need to be flexible in order to get the most value from a photography trip.

The third image competition was held on June 21 with Chris Ogden judging. This was again a virtual competition held on Zoom with Chris having studied the images before the evening session. The critique of images was thorough and Chris showed some changes he might have made to the images. The session was an educational experience. The results may be seen on the Third Print Competition web page.

Mary Presson Roberts described her adventures with personal projects during the June 7 Zoom meeting. She found that projects allowed her to explore new tools and techniques and encouraged her to take more photographs. Personal projects also offer the opportunity to preserve memories. She ended her presentation with a powerful video of a project involving her first grade students.

During the May 17 meeting, a digital image critique was held. Kenny McKeithan studied the images beforehand and gave a very informational critique. Not only did Kenny discuss each image, he made modifications of images to show how they could be improved. The result was a very educational presentation.

On the first meeting of May, Brooks Jensen discussed alternative ways of displaying and distributing photographs. These are alternatives to the traditional matted print for wall display. Brooks described his search for alternatives and gave examples such as folios, chapbooks and PDFs.

During the meeting of April 19 Irene Sacilotto of ospreyphoto.com presented on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. Irene described some of the history of the Refuge, its geography, and many photo opportunities availabile in the Refuge.

A special virtual presentation was held on April 9 by digital artist Cheryl Parris. Cheryl described how she became interested in digital artistry, the tools used by a digital artist and showed many examples of her work.

The second digital image competition with theme of minimalism was held on April 5. Chris Richman and Mike Ligett shared judging the images which yielded an interesting and in depth discussion. The results may be seen on the Second Print Competition web page.

On the evening of March15 we participated in a Zoom session led by David duChemin. David based this discussion on his book entitled, "The Heart of the Photograph". The session explored what it means to think like a photographer. He discussed the use of visual tools to better express the subject of a photograph.

During first meeting of March Al DaValle shared his enthusiasm and skill for fine art photography. Al blends music with images in haunting and powerful ways. He discussed techniques for preparing his mind as well as camera for capturing images.

This first digital image competition of 2021 was held on February 15 with Graham Marshalls judging. The theme of this competition was "OPNEN". The results may be seen on the First Print Competition web page.

On February 1, Ed Gordon of Exploring Light discussed the use on luminousity panels with black and white photos. He used the Luminosity Panel of Joel Tintjelaar's. Ed's work may be viewed at Exploring Light

On the evening of January 18, Theo Kefalopoulos spoke on his long exposure B&W fine art photography techniques. Theo presented a number of images illustrating the use of motion and long exposure to make the subject of the image stand out.

For our first meeting of 2021, Hazel Meredith of Meredith Images presented on combining textures into images to enhance impact and interest. Hazel gave some examples using differing types of software. Her work and training opportunities may be viewed at Meredith Images

This years annual dinner meeting was Zoomed online without dinner. David Strevel gave a review of the community service work being done by himself and others. The annual election of board members was held and the photographer of the year award was announced.

For the second meeting of this month, November 16, Bernard Chen presented "The Power of Motion". Bernard described some of his time-lapse photography techniques and showed some short videos of his work.

Chris Richman judged the print competition scheduled for November 2. As has become the norm, digital images were submitted to Chris prior to the meeting so she gave her evaluations in a zoom session with club members. The theme for this online digital image competition was "Still Life". Results may be viewed on the Fifth Print Competition web page.

On October 19, Rich Haas from the Cape Fear Camera Club gave an interesting presentation on the topic of Street Photography. His talk was entitled "Just Around the Corner".

Melissa Southern judged the digital competition on October 5. The theme for this online digital image competition was "Symmetry". Again this competition was held online with club members viewing by Zoom. Results may be viewed on the Fourth Print Competition web page.

On the afternoon of September 23 CCCC participated along with Cary Photographic Artists, in a webinar conducted by Mike Moats. The subject was "The Properly Equipped Macro Photographer".

Continuing to hold our sessions online, the evening of September 8, Tom and Lisa Cuchara led a webinar entitled; "Focusing on the Details: Create Fine Art Photographs from Urban Exploration"

Brian Fullington served as judge for our digital image competition this Monday night, August 17. For these digital competitions the judge is provided with images prior to the meeting. So the evaluations can be done more carefully. This has allowed for a more thoughtful discussion of the qualities of each image during the online meeting. Brian gave an interesting and informative discussion of the images. For results see: Third Print Competition

With no presentation scheduled, the August 3 meeting served as an online gathering for all to share things we have learned during this pandemic, and to become inspired and learn new ideas from each other. Members described different photographic projects they had undertaken and shared some experiences with software applicatiuons.

For the Monday night July 20 online meeting, Lisa Langell presentated a session entitled, "An Artist Lies in All of Us." Lisa gave an inspiring discussion with exercises designed to guide the photographer in enhancing the artistic value of their photographs.

On July 15 the club was treated to a Zoom presentation by Glyn Dewis, originating from the UK. The topic was about personal photography projects. Glyn described how he became involved in his "The 39-45 PORTRAITS PROJECT", introduced some of the subjects he photographed and showed examples of his work. This project honors surviving World War 2 Veterans. The presentation was quite interesting, moving and enjoyable. His work may be seen on his website .

This second judged competition of the year was held online on the night of June 15. Because of the ongoing pandemic, the standard print competition was replaced by a digital image competition with judge, Ray Pfeiffer, and club members participating over Zoom. The number of digital images was smaller than usual so Ray was able to spend time carefully discussing each image. For results see Second Print Competition

The June 1 virtual meeting began with brief business, then David Schultz presented "Photographing Antarctica, Yellowstone and More". David is a professional photographer, trainer and owner of the West Light Images gallery in Park City, Utah. Drawing from experience, he discussed preparation for photo excursions and stressed the need to be prepared. Interesting opportunities can occur unexpectedly when wildlife are involved. The presentation was illustrated by some of his photos taken in Antarctica, Yellowstone NP and areas near his home. David's work can be seen at davidcschultz.com.

It will come as no surprise that all meetings at JCRA starting in mid-March have been cancelled. At this time, JCRA is scheduled to be closed until the end of June. In addition to the continuing Photo of the Month competitions, the club has remained active online. On April 28 club members were invited to participate in a webinar by Mark Kloskowski entitled: "How to Edit Your Photos Like a Pro in Lightroom and Photoshop". On Monday May 4, club member and past president Dick Cicone conducted a webinar entitled "Make It Your Own". Dick discussed how post-processing can be used to improve images. On May 18 a digital critique was held online. Also in May, club member and past president Jim Lamb made two YouTube videos available in which he discussed Digital Asset Management and organizing photos in Lightroom. Links to the videos may be found in the Resources tab on the CCCC web site. The next scheduled meeting continues to be announced on the club website home page.

On March 2nd Mark Buckler presented his "Amazing Photo Destinations Series: The Outer Banks of NC". Since Mark lives on the outer banks, the banks and nearby regions are some of his most photographed destinations. The talk was interesting and entertaining and filled with beautiful shots.

For the second meeting of February, popular judge, Sue Rakes, conducted an open theme print competition. Sue does judging at many clubs in the area, but said she especially enjoys coming to our club for its excellent quality images. We award points towards the Photographer of the Year Award which includes color and monochrome print categories, with additional points from digital Photo of the Month competitions.

On February 3 Ray Pfeiffer gave an engaging presentation entitled "Photography and the Creative Process". Ray discussed the importance of passion and discussed nurturing creativity by setting goals, imposing limitations, establishing a routine and viewing the work of others.

During this January 20 meeting, Greg Kiser presented "Creating Epic Images Locally". Greg discussed the advantages to be had by photographing in the local area. Doing so allows one to become more of an expert on the area and its subjects. This allows a more studied approach to making images. Greg says: "Look for epic photographs, not epic locations."

For the first meeting of 2020, a popular member, and past Photographer of the Year, Fran DeRespinis, presented Wabi-Sabi, the eastern culture of seeing art as not permanent, not complete, not perfect, but with feelings. He suggested many books relevant to the subject.

The Annual Meeting and Dinner was for 2019 was held on December 2. New Officers for the 2020 year were elected and the President reviewed the club activities for the past year. The November POM winners, the POM of the Year were announced. An outstanding service award was given to Jim Lamb. Each year the Photographer of the Year award is given to the member acruing the most points in club competitions. For 2019 that award went to Mike Guin. David Strevel gave an overview of the community service work done by himself and other club members. There was lots of good food and fun.

For the second meeting of November, over 60 members with four guests watched accomplished photographer, JJ Raia, talk about how he prepared and shot Iceland last spring, by camping out or sleeping in his vehicle. He called it "Homeless in Iceland."

On November 4, a club favorite, Chris Ogden, judged our fifth print competition. The theme was "Rust, Rot and Ruin". Chris gave led with an informative description of his judging techniques. He then followed with a thoughtful evaluation of the prints.

On the single October meeting we were to have a Print Critique. However, the the judge was unable to attend so the meeting was opened to a group discussion of the prints. The discussion was lively and entertaining.

For the second meeting of September, after conducting a workshop for us the day before, Karen Klinedinst, showed how a professional photographer can make award winning and sale-able images with just a smartphone for capture and processing (sometimes with the help of a tablet). She even presented using Lightroom on her iPhone. Many other apps were demonstrated. She does not use a standard camera or computer.

Jamie Konarski-Davidson gave a very entertaining and informative presentation on Infrared Photography(IR) at the September 9 meeting. She discussed such issues as setting white balance, camera choices, filter choices, camera conversion, and post processing in Photoshop. Slides of her presentation may be view here.

For the second meeting of August, Mary Louise Ravese judged our print competition with the theme of "Abstract." For this competition, 40 Color entries and 21 Mono entries were submitted. Some of the winning photos may be seen on the Fourth Print Competition page.

On the night of August 5, club member David Strevel gave a fascinating presentation on life in Buddhist monasteries and rural India. As well he dicussed suggestions for equipment, and described the tremendous amount of preparation and planning required for the arduous travel involved. The use of both still shots and video combined with David's running commentary resulted in a very entertaining and fascinating look into a vastly different lifestyle and culture.

For the second meeting of July, NC State Entomologist, Matt Bertone, gave a fascinating presentation on "Techniques in Macro Photography of Insects." Using modest equipment, he makes extremely closeup images of insects, which are very sharp and well lit. Matt finished with a live demonstration of focus stacking from capture to final image on the screen.

During this July 8 meeting Arnie Zann and Margo Pinkerton of Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures presented "Conceptualizing the Final Image". They gave an inspiring, informative presentation on pre-visualizing your final image before you shoot.

On the night of June 17 Melissa Southern judged a print competition of some 38 color and 22 monochrome prints. The theme was open so there was a wide range of categories of very excellent images for display. Melissa did a very careful search for the prints she judged to be the best.

Chris Ogden gave the second part of his "Life of an Artist" series to the club on June 3.

The May 20th meeting featured a very enjoyable, informative photo critique by Brian Fullington. Brian gave a very thorough critique of each print and offered suggestions for improvements where he judged they would be useful.

On the night of May 6, Chris Charles presented his concert and portrait photography. He described his background and how, through contacts, he was able to begin photographing concerts at times from unique vantage points on stage. He described some of the difficulties and etiquette of concert work.

Past member, David Spector, described his venture into video media. David discussed the equipment requirements for shooting video with DSLR and more complex cameras. He described shooting techniques, stressed the importance of using high quality audio pickup devices and described software for editting video and syncing audio to the video. He showed a completed example of the work done by his Digital Media company.

Our second print competition was held on April 1 and was judged by Simon Griffiths. The theme for this competition is "Rural Surroundings". A total of 78 prints were submitted for judging. Of those 51 were color and 27 were monochrome. Some of the winning photos may be seen on the Second Print Competition page.

For this second meeting of March, Joe Lipka discussed his techniques and methods for developing photographic projects. Joe gave some guidelines for choosing and designing projects as well a examples of some of his projects.

On March 4, Tony Granata of 3G Aviation Media gave a lively presentation on his experiences with shooting aircraft both on the ground and in flight. His presentation included many photographs as well as descriptions of preparations for flight, safety concerns, challenges, and types of aircraft his team has used and photographed.

"Compositional Design in the urban landscape: Embracing the Architectural Abstract" by Mary Louise Ravese was the topic for the February 18 meeting. A key word in this topic is abstract. Mary Louise discussed selecting portions of architectural structures to create abstract images composed of patterns, color variations and interesting lines.

For the first meeting in February, judge Chris Richman evaluated a print competition with open theme. More than 70 prints in total of Monochrome and Color were submitted. Members of the leadership of the Wake Forest Camera Club attended to see our projection methods, to aid their growing membership. Chris seemed to be in good mood, giving no "6's" and actually awarding a "9" to a risk-taking member's rusty vehicle image.

The 2019 club activities began on January 3 with a fascinating presentation of his photographic series "Portrait (Trauma)" by Durham photographer Tim Walter. The meeting was well-attended with over 60 members present.

The Annual Meeting and Dinner was for 2018 was held on December 3. New officers for the 2019 year were elected and the President reviewed the club activities for the past year. Membership has grown to more than 120 active members.

For the meeting of November 19 John Schwaller and Dick Cicone, two long-time club members, presented a program on Focus Stacking. Dick began the session by describing the basic concepts of focus stacking. He showed examples and gave a realtime demonstration of processing multiple images into a stacked image using Adobe Photoshop. John followed with a discussion of other hardware and software tools available for managing the acquisition and processing of images. He gave a demonstration of stacking and tweaking images with Helicon software.

This fifth print competition of the year was held on November 5 and judged by Sue Rakes. The theme was "Let's Ride" and 46 prints in total for the two categories of color and monochrome were submitted. Some of the winning photos may be seen on the Fifth Print Competition.

During the October 15 meeting John McCorsley presented "Understanding Color Management for Better Prints". John explained topics such as color profiles and their use within Lightroom and Photoshop, color gamut, printer icc profiles, and the need to calibrate monitors and printers. He illustrated some techniques and tools for performing the calibrations.

The first meeting of October was a print critique by Chris Richman. She gave thorough comments while being entertaining. One of her suggestions was to find distracting highlights by turning the image upside down. Rather than being a competition, these critiques offer a chance for discussion between the reviewer and the photographer.

Only one meeting was scheduled for this month, that on the 17th, but it was cancelled because of weather.

On August 20 a print competition was held. Some of the winning photos may be seen on the Fourth Print Competition. display.

For the first meeting of August Jim Lamb presented a very thorough and informative session on digital darkroom software, "Getting Started with the Adobe Photographer's Plan." The presentation included a number of documents to be used as guides for learning techniques and improving performance with the Adobe software. A number of Jim's shortcuts and workflow documents may be found in the "Files" section on the Yahoo CCCC group.

During our mid-July meeting, Hal Goodtree presented an interesting discussion covering night and street photography. Hal began by describing the history leading to modern street photography and then extended that to photographs taken at night. Hal described some techniques to help with both. Hal is an accomplished photographer and filmmaker and teaches course at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies.

Jeff Beane of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences discussed his use of photography in connection with his work.

The Monday June 16 competition was a record breaker in number of prints. The color and monochrome prints combined for a total of ninety entries. Melissa Southern did an excellent job of providing concise and informative comments with touches of humor as appropriate. And she finished by 9PM!

Judging for the 2nd Annual Sister Cities International Photo Competition was the program for the June 4 club meeting. John Stanton did an outstanding job judging and commenting on the 60 images juried into the competition. It was a much closer competition than last year. But the Capital City Camera Club won the event again this year. Kingston Upon Hull placed second and the small, but very talented Rostock Germany club placed third.

For this May 21 meeting Mary Louise Ravese offered a critique session of member prints.

The May 7 club meeting was a "triple E" affair - enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening! Did you know that the only people who care about noise in photographs are.....other photographers?! Those words of wisdom are from speaker Dan Beauvais who delivered a refreshing, down-to-earth look at photography. He backed up this statement using cropped enlargements of images taken with a Nikon D700, which has "only" 12.1 megapixels. They looked fine! Also, for those who don't already know this, you have a new best friend....the crop tool in LR or PhotoShop.

During the April 16 meeting local professional photographer John Kolkin judged a print competition. The competition theme was "America the Beautiful". A total of thirty seven prints in color and monochrome were submitted for judging. The winning photos may be seen on the Second Print Competition. display.

John Kolkin,a local professional photographer presented information on creating photographic projects. John showed photos from some of his projects and described how projects are composed of photos with shared qualities.

Dr Roland Kays, of NCSU and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, gave a spirited description of his scientific research and how he has made use of triggered camera traps to capture photos of animals in their natural environments. He discussed his collaboration with professional photographers to further document animal behaviour and to bring this information to the public.

For the first meeting of March, club member Ron Lowe gave a motivating and informative presentation on providing for a future for our photographs. Ron's message included information about maintaining proper backup procedures for one's photos as well as ideas to be used in planning for a future life of the photos beyond that of the photographer.

Simon Griffiths judged the print competition of 31 Monochrome and 57 Color prints for a grand total of 88 entries! Simon did an outstanding job of providing concise meaningful comments in a timely manner.

For the February 5 meeting, club member Christer Berg gave a presentation entitled "Fabric of Raleigh - Story & Anecdotes". Christer described his work and showed photos that make up his Fabric of Raleigh project. The work resulted in the publication of a photography book by that name.

On the second meeting of 2018, club member and professional photographer John Stanton described his photography career. John talked about his mentors, showed some photos of interesting photography projects he has worked and offered his thoughts on composition and subjects.

On the first meeting of the new year, Mary Louise Ravese pgave a presentation entitled "Creative Abstracts".

The Annual Meeting and Dinner was for 2017 was held on December 4. New officers for the 2018 year were elected and the President reviewed the club activities for the past year. Membership has grown to more than 120 active members.

Kent Thompson from the NC Museum of History gave a presentation entitled: "The Nature of Light & Lighting Your Subject". Kent showed a number of items photographically preserved in the museum and described the techniques used to capture those images. He described how to manage light to preperly illuminate the objects and how to use shading to control and position shadows.

The first regular meeting of November was a print competition. We again enjoyed pro-photographer, Chris Ogden, when he judged prints with the theme "It's All About Raleigh" in preparation for that theme at our upcoming exhibit at the City of Raleigh Museum (CORM). Again, a masterful job of how the mind views an image.

On November 4, the club conducted its annual special program, an all-day seminar entitled "Take Your Best Shot, and Make It Better" with professional photographer, Chris Ogden, ChrisOgden.com. About 75 attendees participated by submitting their images for Chris' comments. It proved to be very educational and entertaining.

Lisa Langell, a photographer and educator from Arizona presented Wildlife: Stop Documenting & Start Creating. Her presentation was both entertaining and informative. Lisa described a number of techniques for enhancing photographs. Lisa is a professional photographer and leads nature workshops. See her website.

On Tuesday night, October 17, a number of club members met for a field trip at the NC State Fair.

On October 2, a print critique was held with Dick Cicone and Sandra Blake.

On September 18, the only meeting for the month, Melissa Thiel described her photographic journeys to "Four Continents".

During the August 21st meeting club member Susan Bailey judged the print competition. The theme was "Open " to all subjects. This was the fourth print competition of the year. Submissions are limited to three per photographer. A total of 64 prints were submitted for judging. The prints of Lisa Kruppa and of Fran DeRespinis tied for first place in color. While Jim Trull won first place for monochrome prints.

Denise Silva presented a discussion of Photo Post Processing Techniques for the August 7th meeting. Denise described herself as a photographic artist and showed techniques for artistically modifying images. Discussed were some customizations helpful when using photoshop, some masking and some compositing techniques. Examples of some of her work will be found on her website.

For the second meeting in July, our past president, and long time officer, Dick Cicone, presented "Portrait Photography." Dick's talk was informative and entertaining. He described in detail his "patented" (not really) portrait process using one speedlight setup.

For the first meeting of July, Major Stephen Long presented "Astro, Night, & Eclipse Photography." He is a photography hobbyist concentrating on astrophotography. Stephan discussed techniques for use with DSLR as well as telescopes.

In June, we had William McEwen return as a print competition judge when our scheduled judge could not make it. The theme was "The Rule of Thirds" (and some similar so-called "rules" of composition). Submissions are limited to three per photographer and we had 60 entries. Lynne Necrason hit a near trifecta by getting 1st and 2nd in Monochrome, plus an Honorable Mention in Color. Dawn Willis was 1st in Color.

On June 5, Mark Buckler gave a presentation entitled "Landscape Photography & the Rule of Thirds". Mark gave a very thorough presentation on composition, discussed techniques in detail and showed some examples of his work to illustrate.

Club member and local professional photographer, Christer Berg provided a critique session examining member prints. These critiques offer added value in that members may discuss the evaluations with the reviewer. Members felt Christer's comments were helpful.

Local professional photographer, Jerry Blow, talked about shooting architectural photography. Jerry pointed out some of the criteria for composing commercial architectural photographs and as opposed to other types of photographs and he showed some examples.

On April 8 some club members participated in a field trip to the Duke Gardens.

Monday night's meeting was a presentation "B&W: Concept & Capture, Print & Present" by Mary Louise Ravese. See bellavistaphotography.com

On the night of March 20 Christian Fowler discussed some issues associated with publishing a photo book. Christian runs a small photo book publishing company in Raleigh. His discussion covered choosing the proper color space and image resolution, choosing book sizes and paper. He also discussed photo publishing alternatives, the capabilities of his company and realistic expectations for the results of publishing.

In March, the club created a new exhibit at the Mayton Inn in Cary. About 38 prints were hung in two rooms, much to the delight of the inn keepers.

For this first meeting in March, Sue Rakes gave a thorough discussion of the criteria for judging photographic prints. She followed that discussion by applying some of those criteria to sample prints. Attendees had the opportunity to discuss the sample prints.

This February 20th meeting consisted of a print competition with Simon Griffith evaluating the images. The theme was open. 79 prints in total for the two categories of color and monochrome were submitted. The results of the judging may be seen in the
print competition page.

On Saturday, February 18 we held a field trip to the Vintage Village on Durant Road in Raleigh. About a dozen members searched the Vintage Village for interesting shots of antiques. Most gathered for lunch afterwards.

On Monday night February 6th we had a presentation "African Safari" by Ed Braz. Ed leads Safari Photo Tours of Africa and moved here several years ago from South Africa. Some of Ed's work may be seen at
ed braz photography

Two club members presented on the night of January 23. David Strevel gave a thorough overview for the public service work done by some club members. David has coordinated these activities for a number of years. Fran DeRespinis discussed his journey into IR photography, provided helpful suggestions and discussed workflow. Notes from Fran's presentation are available online.

The Annual Meeting and Dinner was for 2016 was held on December 5. New officers for the 2017 year were elected and the President reviewed the club activities for the past year. Membership has grown to more than 120 active members.

The presenter for the November 21 meeting cancelled hours before the meeting. As the alternative an interesting movie about the photographer, Sally Mann was shown.

On November 7 a print competition was held with the theme of "Light and Dark". Ned Winn evaluated the nearly 50 prints were submitted across a wide range of subjects. Ned gave a very detailed critique of the prints. The competition results may be seen at Results.

For the October 3 meeting Chris Ogden gave a very entertaining and informative critique of some prints submitted by club members.

Barbara Blaisdell presented her photos of her journey to Iceland during the September 19 meeting.

On August 29 Hal Goodtree presented "The History of Night Photography" wherein he showed a range of mostly night photographs starting in the late 1800's. A number of photographers and works were discussed. Hal used much of the discussion to define his view of what it means to be a documentary photograph.

On Saturday August 20 some club members assembled at The Magic Wings Butterfly House at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham to photograph butterflies. There were a number of colorful butterlies and interesting tropical plants in bloom.

Portrait photographer William McEwen volunteered as judge for this print competition. The theme was open to all subjects. More than 60 color and monochrome prints were entered. See the results of the judging at Fourth Competition .

Portrait photographer Brooke Meyer gave an in-depth presentation on "Composition".

The destination for our field trip on July 23 was the Jim Hunt Library at NCSU. 17 members were in attendance. This futuristic library offers interesting opportunities of shape and color for investigation with photography.

We enjoyed local pro, Chris Ogden, who presented "Cuba" from his workshop to the nearby land stuck in time. Samples of his presentation are at www.chrisogden.com in the "Cuban Flavors" album.

On July 16, in conjunction with JC Raulston Arboretum, we co-sponsored a Tim Grey seminar on "Optimizing Photos with Lightroom and Photoshop". Tim is a well-known instructor, book author, and expert on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. The seminar was well received. About a 120 photographers enjoyed the day with Tim's humor and excellent instruction.

We invited the Bass Lake Camera Club to join us at Water & Garden Creations in Johnston County. About 20 photographers enjoyed a good morning for shooting flowers and a few critters. Lunch was held at the Cleveland Draft House.

Melissa Southern judged the print competition with theme "Lines in Nature". 20 Monochrome prints and 40 Color prints were submitted for this competition. See the winners here .

Interpretive Nature Photography by Jamie Davidson. Jamie discussed a number of techniques for interpreting nature photography in order to express a personal vision in each image.

For this second meeting in May Charlie Brown provided critical comments on prints submitted by members. This was a great opportunity to have one-on-one conversations between the print maker and an accomplished photographer.

On May 2 Justin Cook presented "Made in Durham".

On April 30 we had a Field Trip in conjunction with Carolinas Nature Photographer\'s Association Triangle Region to the Plant Delights nursery. A cordial lunch was held at the Cleveland Draft House.

On April 18 Peace Camera's Jim White judged our print competition. The theme was "Open". Members submitted more than 75 prints combined in color and monochrome.

On April 4 we enjoyed a presentation by member, Melissa Theil called "African Safari." Melissa described her adventures among the big cats and other African creatures.

On March 21 Jim Ruff presented showed some of his photos and videos taken in the North Carolina Mountains and on some of his photography trips. Jim pointed out some of his favorite locations in the mountains. He also discussed his techniques for producing time-lapse videos.

For the March 7 meeting, Bernard Chen presented "Last Standing Giants". Bernard discussed his path into photography and showed some of his incredible photographs. The presentation title video showed adventure in which he accompanied tree climbers in a California redwood forest. He also showed some scenes and videos of his trips throughout the US.

On the evening of February 27 members had an enjoyable and educational night learning about light painting and the endless possibilities for creating long exposure images. David Spector demonstrated different techniques using spinning wisks with steel wool which he ignited to create orbs at 30 second exposures, wheels with light sticks and images created using a pixel stick. We made several test runs in groups of 5 and then created the grand finale, a scene with a star wars theme designed by David.

On February 15 the first print competition of 2016 was held. The theme for this competition was "Along Country Roads". The number of partiticapnts was smaller than usual because of difficult weather. Even so more than 50 prints were entered in the competition. We are thank Sue Rake for serving as judge. The winning photos may be seen here.

On February 6, some 20 club members met for a photo shoot in Cameron, NC about an hour south of Raleigh. The subject was the old tobacco barns that were painted with murals some years ago. The barns and the paintings had deteriorated quite a bit and presented interesting subjects.

For this first meeting of February, Chris Morgan gave a presentation on his wet plate Collodion photographic processing. Chris discussed the techniques he uses and the goals he has for producing images. He stressed the hazards in the use of chemicals required for the process and demonstarted some techniques and equipment. He showed some slides of his work as well.

For the January 18 meeting, J. J. Raia gave a presentation entitled: "Abstracts and Extractions." JJ discussed several techniques for turning photographs into more abstract representations.

On Saturday January 16 a number of club members attended then Fort Fisher celebration.

The first meeting of 2016 provided a presentation by Mike Ligett called "Imagine an Island." Mike discussed his photobook project about Bald Head Island and offered lots of practical information from his experience with this project. He provided references to a review of 12 photobook publishers https://thedailydigi.com/12-different-photobook-printer-reviews and 3 approaches to publishing http://petapixel.com/2015/02/26/three-approaches-to-publishing-your-photo-book/.

For the last field trip of the year, 13 people participated in a "Raleigh Holiday Photo Walk." Most attended a lunch at Vic's in the City Market.

We hold our Annual Meeting in December and include a pot luck dinner. President Jim Lamb reviewed the year, which included going from 85 to 103 active members. New officers and programs were presented for 2016.

On November 28 many club members participated in the Annual Print Hanging at the City of Raleigh Museum on Fayetteville Street. Each year the club displays prints for an Annual Photo Exhibit. The exhibit will run until January 2, 2016. At that time members will meet to take down the prints. This display provides an excellent method for members to make their prints available to the public.

For our second meeting in November, Melissa Southern judged a competition containing approximately one hundred prints. The subject was "Open". This competition provided the last large point awards for the 2015 Photographer of the Year (POY).

For the November 2 meeting, we had a presentation called "Refuge Reflections" by naturalist, Mike Dunn. Mike has appeared before and as usual was very informative. He discussed the Wildlife Refuges in North Carolina and showed images he has taken in those locations of various creatures.

On this October 5 meeting past CCCC President and current Vice President, Dick Cicone gave a "Back to (Photography) School" presentation covering lighting, depth of field and perspective. The presentation was entertaining as well as informative.

For this September 21 meeting our past Photographer of the Year, Christer Berg, acted as judge for the print competition with the theme "People". Nearly 100 prints in color and monochrome were offered for judging. Christer offered many very constructive comments. The members enjoyed and appreciated his comments.

For this August 31 meeting Brian Fullington evaluated member prints in another critique session. Members had the opportunity to discuss his evaluations. The conversations were informative. Brian picked Mary Doherty's prints as his favorites.

The scheduled presenter was unable to attend the 2nd August meeting. Instead we viewed a news video and a movie presentation on the life and work of Vivian Maier. Her work was discovered shortly before her death and is being cataloged and made available for gallery presentation. More information and portfolios may be seen on vivianmaier.com

For the August 3 meeting, David Kelley provided hints and tips for the effective use of Adobe Lightroom. His presentation was titled "Neat Lightroom Tricks". More information can be found on David\'s website DEK Photography".

During the July 20th meeting Mary Doherty judged the "Something Old” print competition. A large number of color and monochrome prints were entered. The results may be seen on the 3rd Print Competition page.

For the July 6th meeting David Spector gave a presentation of some of the light painting techniques he uses to produce some very intriguing images. David discussed long exposure techniques and the use of fire, steel wool, home-made lighting devices, the pixel stick and other items to produce his images. See more photos at here.

On Thursday, June 25th, a dozen members went to "Carolina Barn Finds" between Siler City and Ramsuer.

Corey Lowenstein, a Staff Photographer with the News and Observer, presented: "images from both my daily assignments and some longer-term projects."

Mark Buckler presented "Ingredients to Great Nature Images". Mark presented some techniques and concepts for making better nature photographs and discussed some of his experiences in photographing the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Charlie Brown conducted a critique of club member prints. There was opportunity for discussion between Charlie and each photographer.

For this May 4 meeting Alan Clark presented his birding trip through Florida and Mary Doherty discussed her evolvement as a photographer, including shooting for Getty Images. More of Mary's images may be seen at www.mdohertyphotography.biz and www.flickr.com/photos/25385722@N07/ .

The April 20 meeting was a print competition open to all subjects. Dr. Brenda Scott, a fine art photographer and musician based in Durham, was the judge. Brenda gave a very detailed analysis of the prints and offered many helpful comments.

The April 6 meeting enjoyed a presentation by Stephen Fletcher, photographic archivist and photographer at UNC-CH. Stephen chronicled his travels through the Rochester Institute of Technology to fine art photography and its preservation.

At the March 16 meeting Diana Bloomfield judged this print competition. The topic was abstract images.

On this first meeting of March Sue Rakes presented photos and comments from her many photo adventures in Alaska and ANWR. Polar Bear, Polar Bears, more Polar Bears and Aurora. Her adventures stretched from Fairbanks up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay then over to Kaktovik and the barrier islands.

Peter Finkelstein presented beautiful images and travel info from his trip into Southern Utah. Petra Glorie presented images from her "Humans of Raleigh" project and discussed her experiences meeting those people.

During the month of January the CapCityCameraClub Annual Print Exhibit is on display in the City of Raleigh Museum, 220 Fayetteville St., Ste. 100, Raleigh, NC. In addition to more than 50 prints a slideshow of additional photos provided by club members is on display.

The first meeting of 2015 was very interesting. Christer Berg discussed his project "People with Purpose". Christer gaves some details on how he came to start the project, how he has picked some of the subjects and how he prepares for the photo shoots.

Joel Collins gave a stimulating discussion of Lightroom and provided some tips for establishing a digital workflow using Lightroom.