4-5-16 --- Coral Springs Camera Club meeting:

We got a break from home improvements today.  Angie was working on the disclosure letter and doing random things around the house like touching up paint and putting down mulch.  We could have done the mulch, but didn't really know where she wanted it.  So we went to a movie and to an early dinner instead!  Then she joined us for a trip to TJMax for some more stuff to stage the house with for pictures and showing.  Then we helped her move a bunch of boxes from the foyer out to the garage.   Even took  my camera over so she could start taking photos of the house.   I think tomorrow will be the day we rent a RugDr. and hit the carpets.  She had more running to do and I had a camera club meeting to go to, so we parted ways about 7.

Only have 2 more camera club meetings left before we leave---one with judging of photos and one with a talk about street candids.  I don't know what I expected from a camera club, but I've learned quite a bit about what judges look for.  A lot of their points are valid, a lot are personal taste.  There are a lot of really good photographers and a lot of strict judges.  In the past meetings I learned to edit out power lines and stray hairs, remove highlights, be careful who prints your photos because everyone has poor color correction except for that judge, and add a vignette to almost every picture.  Today the guy was big on eliminating backgrounds by using gausin blur or cloning, make water soft by using a tripod and slow exposure, and things going from left to right even if you have to invert the picture. 
Anyway---I didn't fare too well today.  Actually, not too many people did.  I only remember there being one 10 and a hand full of 9s.  So I guess I fared ok.  He even scored a lot of 6s.   I don't remember anyone else scoring that low.  I ended up with 2 - 8's and my printed one was a 7.
The theme this month was railroads and pavement and what goes on them.  For my assigned photo, I entered:
He liked the perspective and colors, but didn't like the 2nd guy in the picture.  I actually left him in for the juxtaposition of the serious photographer with the tripod and the casual photographer with a point and shoot or cell phone camera.  He didn't mention the digital matte that I put on it.

For the open digital category, I entered this Oregon waterfall.  He thought the colors were good, but thought I should have had a tripod and used a slower shutter to totally blus out the falls.

 I also entered an 8x10 print that I had just gotten from Shutterfly.  He really didn't like the coloring on it.  He mentioned the range of gray the mountain should be and that the sky color was off.  It got a 7.

Oh well, it's entertaining and I have met a few good people there.  One lady even announced she is selling her 650 Rebel with 18-135 lens for $200 and a 16-300 lens for another $200.  I couldn't resist!  I haven't decided yet whether to give it to Angie and take back the 20D I gave her before so I have a decent back up camera, or keep this one for my back up.  I figure I'll give her one of the super zoom lenses, too, just need to decide which one.

I hope to find a camera club near Buford.