Our last Photography Interest Group Zoom meeting of 2025 had 8 participants. The “holidays” theme was appropriate for the season. This theme will continue next month since Christmas & New Years are not here yet. The second theme – weather – seemed appropriate since we’ve actually had some rain & fog, plus King Tides, since last meeting. We scheduled a King Tides meetup in early December but the waves were small so not much drama at the coastline. Gary had some images from November’s King Tides which were what we were hoping for. Hopefully, our January King Tides will be more photogenic & dramatic. Last category was Portraits, and there was an eclectic variety of portraits shared. Here are the images shared:

Sharon – I always enjoy seeing how Sharon interprets the themes each month. There is often humor or a wittiness to her interpretation of the themes. Its hard to view her images without them making you smile. Sharon was the 1st person to submit photos to me and unfortunately I missed adding them to the folders. By the time I realized my mistake, it was 4pm – sorry Sharon, you’ll go 1st next meeting. She only had 4 images so here are her festive holiday images:

Barbara – Barbara went to Ocean Beach during Dec 5th’s King Tide and the small surf was perfect for surfers shots but not dramatic high-tide waves crashing. She makes great use of her OM System camera and lens for sports, birds, insects and wildlife. But tempted by the Black Friday sales and the group’s persistent full-frame gear-talk. She was inspired to buy a new full-frame Nikon Zf camera with 40mm lens. We look forward to seeing images from her new camera soon.

Barb D – Barb has recently “upgraded” from iPhone photography to a compact but capable Sony RX100VII. It has a 1″ sensor with a 24-200mm fixed zoom lens. It squeezes all of Sony’s bigger camera features into a tiny point-n-shoot. She recently returned from a month-long trip to Japan and shared a variety of wonderful images taken with this pocketable camera. Her images of fog (weather) in Kyoto and Cabrillo Beach coastline during King Tides show off this camera’s output.

Cathy – Cathy gets inspiration from multiple sources and is continually challenging herself. She’s been sharing images from her recent photography trip to Arizona & Utah. This month she shared an amazing double-rainbow taken over AZ’s Horseshoe Bend during a rain storm. An iphone is perfect for when it’s raining and you want to protect your bigger camera. She uses a Canon R6m2 mirrorless camera, Canon Rebel APS-C and an iPhone. A long exposure Christmas-themed ocean & pier shot at blue hour was a particular favorite. Plus a Christmas tree ICM (intentional camera movement) photo shows her creativity.

Gary – Gary shared a recent moonrise photo taken earlier this month on his latest trip to Yosemite. Planning his shot using Photopills, he captured the moon rising in Yosemite Valley. He also shared some portraits from our Nov meetup at Old Town for Dios de los Muertos. Gary had some spectacular surf crashing against the coast from November’s King Tides event. Big waves combined with King Tides are the optimal conditions for showing the power of this event. Gary uses a Nikon Z7 with his favorite 100-400mm lens, plus a 24-70mm for people, and an iPhone when kayaking.

Heather – Heather loves her compact (micro-four-thirds) Panasonic GX85 and never ceases to amaze us with the quality of her images. She has a great eye and timing especially with people photos. Her Do Dah Parade portrait is particularly strong and we think worthy of submission to the SD Fair. She proposes a Pasadena meetup in Nov 2026 for the parade. Her other portrait was from our Dios de los Muertos meetup Nov 1st. Other images were weather-themed and had great depth. Her backup camera is an iPhone proving the best camera is the one you have handy.

Mikky – Mikky visits India frequently and his portraits capture the warmth of his subjects & the culture. One of the motivations for the Portraits theme this month was his excellent “passion-project” portfolio of portraits from Jan 2025. But the majority of this month’s photos were black & white landscapes. A style of photography he hasn’t shared before so the group may be influencing his photography. I know it has affected mine.

Jim – Jim was unable to get out in December so most of the images he shared this month were photos from the Nov 27 2025 Oceanside Annual Thanksgiving Holiday Turkey Trot . The other holiday image was from a 2019/2020 trip to Italy at New Years. His single b&w portrait was a homage to photographer Diane Arbus’s “Child with a toy grenade in NYC Central Park“.