Year: 2025

UCSD Photography Interest Group > Blog > 2025

Meeting Minutes 2025

Posted on by jrwilkinson

  • July 16th Meeting Minutes: The July 16th meeting from 2-4:15pm had 6 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “San Diego Fair Cont’d”, “Summer Adventures” & “Sports”.
    • 2:00-2:35pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. With our San Diego Velodrome meetup to photography bicycle races Tuesday Jul 22nd coming up soon. Cathy wanted to discuss logistics and camera gear ans settings at the beginning of the meeting since she had to leave early.
      A new recent retiree and participant, Barb Donovan, happens to be a cyclist and has knowledge of the velodrome. Bard also mentioned a local photographer, Willie Sakai, who photgraphed and posted images from a local cycling competiton. Barbara has also been to the velodrome with the photography interest group a few years ago.
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of San Diego Fair, Summer Adventure, and Sports photos.
      Participants also shared wonderful non-themed images shared.
    • 4:05-4:15pm: discussion of next month themes.
    • Themes for July –
      • “Summer Vacations“: many of us have taken summer vacations and have photos to post-process and share
      • “Sports/Velodrome”: continuing the Sports theme from last month, plus our Jul 22nd SD Velodrome meetup.
      • “Pespective/Strong Shapes”: completely unrelated to the 1st two themes unless you have some great architectural photos from a summer trip. Any photo, new or old, that has strong perspective and/or shape(s).
  • Jun 18th Meeting Minutes: The June 18th meeting from 2-4:10pm had 5 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Missions”, “San Diego Fair” & “Open theme”.
    • 2:00-2:40pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Cathy and Gary talked about places in Lake Tahoe to hike & photograph. Jim is traveling next week to Sequoia National Park and asked for tips and photo destinations. There was a lively discussion about bears, bear encounters, and bear prevention. Also how to protect your vehicles undercarriage from Marmot attacks. Cathy & Jim talked a bit about their SD Fair Photo entries, the new photo reception format (verbal reveal vs exhibit unveiling). SD Fair Photography Themes will be a perpetual option for any monthly meeting, including discussions on Fair entry categories, image formats and post-processing.
      Jim demo’d some new Lightroom features in the June update. Lightroom has some features that were only available in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. These are:
      • AI distraction removal such as people or reflections
      • Denoise/Enhance is now non-destructive – Lightroom does not create a new dng file when denoise is applied to a raw image. The denoise amount is now dynamic and adjustable after being applied.
      • Lightroom’s AI Landscape masking was actually discussed last meeting
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of Mission & San Diego Fair photos.
      Participants also shared wonderful non-themed images shared.
    • 4:05-4:10pm: discussion of next month themes.
      Themes for July –
    • “Summer Adventures“: many of us have summer plans so photos of any summer-related trips or activities are good.
    • “San Diego Fair”: continuing from last month, since the Fair is opened till July 6th.
    • “Sports”: there is a lot of interest in a sports theme so both July & August themes will include sports.
    • “Open Subject” – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
  • May 18th Meeting Minutes: The May 18th meeting from 2-4:10pm had 7 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Silhouettes/Backlit”, “Selective Color” & “Spring Is In The Air”.
    • 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Cathy talked about her outing to Lone Pine, Mono Lake, & Bodie with the Pacific Photography Society, another group she belongs to. Gary discussed his recent trip to Yosemite and John wanted to invite participants to Anza-Borrego for Milky Way photography. Heather talked about her photos taken at on her recent hikes.
      At Gary’s request, Jim did a Photoshop Sky Replacement demo. Using a few of Gary’s images, Jim replaced a plain blue sky with clouds from Gary’s cloud collection.
      For Barbara, Jim also demonstrated using Apple Photos and Lightroom to edit her backlit baboon photo.
      Lastly, a quick demo of Color Splash, an iPhone app that lets you highlight certain colors in an image. Also, Heather was introduced to converting iPhone Live images into long exposures.
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of silhouetted & backlit photos.
      Selective Color & Spring is in the air were the alternate themes and there were some great images shared.
    • 4:05-4:10pm: discussion of next month themes.
    • Themes for June –
      • “Missions“: please take and share photos of one or more California Missions like San Luis Rey or Mission San Juan Capistrano.
      • “San Diego Fair”: we are having a meetup June 11th at 6:30pm at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Photography Hall. A couple members have photos on display, then well walk around the fairgrounds and photograph. These photos can be shared during the June 18th meeting or in July since the fair goes until July 4th.
      • Open Subject – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
  • Apr 16th Meeting Minutes: The Apr16th meeting from 2-4:15pm had 8 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Flowers”, & “Perspective: leading lines, layers, frames”.
    • 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. We welcomed a couple new participants – Sanford Shane and Christine Hunefeldt. There was a general discussion about travel and reservations at Yosemite National Park. A short discussion on Del Mar Fair photography contest entries.
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of Flower photos. Mikky, in particular, had a great collection of bloom photos.
      Perspective was the alternate theme and there were some great images composed using leading lines and frames. John managed to combine the two themes, capturing flowers inside a frame.
    • 4:05-4:15pm: discussion of next month themes.
    • Themes for May –
      • “Silhouettes-Backlit“: please take and share photos with strong backlighting.
      • “Selective Color/Single Thematic Color”: selective color – single subject photo with one strong color or multiple subjects with the same color. Selective color can be a processed image where all colors are desaturated except one. A Single Color example would be an image of someone holding a red umbrella, wearing red clothes, walking by a red car or wall or dog.
      • “Spring Is In The Air”: Share any travel or seasonal photos with a strong Spring influence.
      • Open Subject – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
  • Mar 19th Meeting Minutes: The Mar 19th meeting from 2-4:15pm had 5 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Weather”, & “Animals”.
    • 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Jim talked about organizing our vast archives of photos using some photo-organizing software – Apple Photos, Windows PhotoMove app, and Adobe Lightroom. We also discussed some potential meetup ideas such as Carlsbad Flower Fields on Thursdays in early April. Also a trip to photograph Anza-Borrego wildflowers and possible Milky Way photo trip in late April during the new moon.
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Most participants shared Animal photos of birds, butterflies, and Bighorn sheep. Weather was the alternate theme and Gary shared some weather-themed photos. With the full blood moon lunar eclipse just occuring Mar 13th, Cathy and Jim shared there eclipse photos.
    • 4:05-4:15pm: discussion of various meetup ideas – Safari Park, Zoo, Carlsbad Flower Fields, Anza-Borrego, Little Italy for airplane landings.
    • Themes for April –
      • “Flowers“: With the rains in January and February, Spring’s arrival, Carlsbad Flower Fields opening – flowers are next months theme.
      • “Perspective: leading lines/layers/frame in frame”: Typical compositional styles applied to architectural, street/urban or landscapes photography.
      • Open Subject – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
  • Feb 19th Meeting Minutes: The Feb 19th meeting from 2-4:15pm had 7 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Minimalism”, & “Passion Project(s) cont’d”.
    • 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. A preliminary spreadsheet planner for the group was presented by Jim. So the group discussed future themes and outings. The spreadsheet will be available on the website and as a Google Sheet live document. A Safari Park outing was planned for Feb 25th during their free senior admission month.
    • 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Most participants shared their Passion Project photos not shared last month. Minimalism was the alternate theme and quite a few followed that theme.
    • 4:05-4:15pm: discussion of various meetup ideas – Safari Park, Zoo, birds in La Jolla Cove.
    • Themes for March –
      • “Weather“: With the rain in January and possible future storms, weather was one of March’s themes.
      • “Animals”: With Zoo or Safari Park meetups proposed, animal photos are the alternative theme for March.
      • Open Subject – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
  • Jan 15th Meeting Minutes: The Jan 15th meeting from 2-4:15pm had 7 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Favorite Photos from 2024”, & “Passion Project(s)”. Cathy submitted photos but was unable to attend the meeting.
    • 2:00-2:15pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Gary submitted a spreadsheet planner for the group to consider. Planning the monthly photographic themes for the year in advanced, as well as outings.
    • 2:15-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Most participants shared their favorite photos from 2024 but a few shared Passion Project photos. Since some of us had 10 photos of favorites, the Passion Project theme will carry over into February.
    • 4:05-4:15pm: discussion of various meetup ideas – Safari Park, Zoo, birds in La Jolla Cove.
    • Themes for January –
      • “Passion Project“: Share photos that are your theme or style. If you enjoy mainly photographing landscapes or seascapes, travel, street. Compile several images of “your style/theme”.
      • “Minimalist: Share photos that follow a minimalist style with a majority of negative space, texture, pattern, or color.
      • Open Subject – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.

15 Jan 2025: Favs of 2024; Passion Project(s)

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month’s photography themes were Favorites of 2024 and Passion Projects.Some participants shared their favorite images from previous meetings, some were re-processed images seen earlier, and some were new images. Either favorites taken during 2024 but not shown or Passion Project images that a photographer has compiled but not shared. Here are the images that were shared this meeting:

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Harold

Heather

Jim

Mikky

Sharon