2025 – Page 9 – UCSD Photography Interest Group

Dec 18th Meeting Minutes: The Dec 18th meeting from 2-4:00pm had 8 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Holidays”, “Weather”, “Portraits”.
- 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Jim discuss recent updates with the Retirement Association & meeting with the new Director Larissa. There are some organizational changes, added resources information, and space for in-person meeting at the Retirement Center. A presenter from SD Fair will be our main event at Feb 18 2026 2-4pm Zoom meeting. They will offer information and examples of how to enter photos in 2026 SD Fair Photography Contest.
  Cathy proposed a Jan 2nd moonset meetup at Crystal Pier ~6:15am, photographing the pier & moon from Thomas Street (Photopills recommendation). Jan 2-3 are King Tides so Jim proposes a Jan 3rd meetup along the coast, tentatively La Jolla Cove to photograph the 7ft high tides.
- 2:30-4:05pm: Participants shared a wide variety of theme and non-theme images; with the lengthy discussion, the last few porfolios were browsed quickly. Jim plans to keep the pace moving so everyone has equal opportunity to get feedback. Plus the order of portfolios will switch alphabetically from month to month so the order changes.
- Themes for Jan –
  - Holidays-cont’d“. Please share photos celebrating the holiday season – Christmas/Hanukkah, New Years.
  - “Oceanscapes/Landscapes” – with the upcoming King Tides both high & low, share oceanscapes and tidepool photos. Landscapes from recent trips are also game.
  - “Travel” – always a favorite, share images of recent travels – goes along with Landscapes.
  - “Open Subject” – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
Nov 19th Meeting Minutes: The Nov 19th meeting from 2-4:00pm had 5 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Moonrise/Sunset”, “Shadows/Night”, “Nifty-fifty”, & Dios de los Muertos meetup photos.
- 2:00-2:30pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Our recent Dios de los Muertos meetup in Old Town Nov 1st & UCSD Fallen Star moonrise meetup Nov 5th. The overall consensus was this year’s Old Town festival was not as photogenic as last years. But that could be because we had already experienced the festival & there was nothing new. The moonrise was disappointing to many participants because of the wide dynamic range between Fallen Star house and the full moon. By the time the moon rose over the building, the difference in exposing the house and the moon was 7-8 stops. This make an in-camera single exposure impossible.
  If we plan another moonrise meetup, we’ll try a day earlier than full moon so the moonrise will happen before the sun sets. This may result in a moonrise image between golden & blue hour so a single exposure will catch both moon & foreground detail.
- 2:30-3:50pm: since there were only 5 participants & one additional set of images to share, the pace of image discussion was less time-dependent. Often, we do not linger on images because we have a larger number to view before 4pm. Participants shared a wide variety of theme and non-theme images.
- 3:50-4:00pm: discussion of next month themes and a Dec 4-6th King Tide meetup at La Jolla Shores or Cove.
- Themes for Dec –
  - “Holidays“. Please share photos celebrating the holiday season – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, New Years.
  - “Weather/Clouds/Rain” – with the recent rain we’ve had locally, get out and photograph the weather. Evening clouds have made for some dramatic sunsets.
  - “Portraits” – always a favorite, share images of people, kids, pets, flowers, insects, birds, animals – I’m using the term “portrait” loosely but isolate & define your subject.
Oct 15th Meeting Minutes: The Oct 15th meeting from 2-4:30pm had 7 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Fall”, “Scary/Halloween”, “Moonrise/Moonshadow”.
- 2:00-2:35pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Our recent San Diego Shelter Island Moonrise meetup was fun but the weather was hazy.
  Gary talked about his recent trip to Page Arizona and Antelope Canyon. Cathy is planning to go there soon so Gary shared tips on how to get successful photos. Plus how to obey the Navajo guides conducting the tour. Cathy also share more of her itinerary to photography Monument Valley, Durango, & Bisbee.
  John shared the news of our founding group leader Jerry Vaughn passing away Oct 10th. This was surprising news to all participants since we thought Jerry’s health was improving. It was a really sad announcement, he’ll be missed.
- 2:40-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of Fall, Scary/Halloween & Moonrise/Moondshadow photos.
  Participants also shared wonderful non-themed travel images like Gary’s Antelope Canyon photos.
- 4:05-4:30pm: discussion of next month themes and another potential Dios de los Muertos meetup Nov 1st
- Themes for Nov –
  - “Shadows/Night“: with Daylight Savings ending, it will get dark earlier so a night theme may be easier since the days will be shorter. Shadows – images with strong shadows or negative space.
  - “Nifty-fifty”: use a 50mm or single focal length for several photos to improve your creativity and zooming with your feet.
  - “Sunrise/Sunset/Moonrise/Moonset”: Sunsets have been beautiful lately and are always a popular photography theme. There are also some great low tides coming this month. Nov 5th will be the full moon and there’s a potential meetup at UCSD to photograph it rising over Fallen Star.
  - “Open Subject” – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
Sep 17th Meeting Minutes: The Sept 17th meeting from 2-4:30pm had 6 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “Still Life”, “Flash/Moonrise” & “Storytelling”.
- 2:00-2:35pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Our recent San Diego Coronado Bridge Moonrise meetup was fun but some photographers were not satisfied with the results. Reshooting the USD dome is a potential location for an Oct 6th fullmoon meetup. Gary talked about his recent solo kayaking trip to Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake and Lone Pine.
  There were also a discussion about local and regional photography contests. Particularly the California Native Plant Society & San Diego Floral Association which Cathy got an honorable mention.
- 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of Still Life, Storytelling & Moonrise photos.
  Participants also shared wonderful non-themed travel images.
  Jim briefly demonstated a recently discovered Photoshop layer blending technique that helped feather the moon’s edge with the brighter moonrays. This layer blending technique can work when compositing two or more layers more smoothly.
- 4:05-4:30pm: discussion of next month themes and another potential moonrise meetup Oct 6th
- Themes for Oct –
  - “Fall“: although a little early for Southern California, if you are traveling or have Autumn-themed photography such as changing leaves to share.
  - “Scary/Halloween”: Comeone proposed a scary image theme and with Halloween coming, seems appropriate although, again, a little early.
  - “Moonshadow”: taking photos under the full moon can create some amazing results. The moonlight can create hard shadows like sunlight but with a starry sky.
- “Open Subject” – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
Aug 20th Meeting Minutes: The Aug 20th meeting from 2-4:30pm had 6 participants via Zoom. This month’s themes were: “San Diego Velodrome”, “Summer Vacation” & “Refelctions/Geometic Shapes”.
- 2:00-2:35pm: Before photo-sharing participants discussed their recent activities, events, and general goings-on. Our recent San Diego Velodrome meetup was fun but some photographers found photographing at this time of day and venue challenging. There is interest in using on-camera flash so we discussed using TTL settings on a flash to simplify the complexities of flash exposure. Mikky recently upgraded his Windows 10 to Windows 11 and has been suprised at the sluggishness of his new hardware. We discussed so ways to optimize his computer to possibly improve his computers performance without starting from scratch.
- 2:30-4:05pm: participants shared their photos. Participants shared a wide variety of San Diego Velodrome, Summer Vacation, and Reflections/Geometic Shapes photos.
  Participants also shared wonderful non-themed images.
- 4:05-4:30pm: discussion of next month themes and another moonrise meetup Sept 6th or 7th
- Themes for July –
  - “Still Life“: embrace your inner Edward Weston or Georgia O’Keefe and photograph a still life in classic style or your interpretation.
  - “Flash/Artificial Light”: Gary proposed continuing the flash photography theme so share images using on or off-camera flash or artificial light, such as led panels.
  - “Three-photo Story Telling”: a common style of travel or location photography is to take a series of photos: a wide establishing location photo, a medium more detailed photo, and a closeup photo. Using all three lenses on an iPhone would be a great technique, just find an appropriate locale.
  - “Open Subject” – any photos that you’ve taken recently are always welcome.
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.

Year: 2025

19 Feb 2025 Passion Project/Minimalism: Harold

19 Feb 2025: Passion Project Cont’d/Minimalism

19 Feb 2025 Passion Project/Minimalism: Gary

19 Feb 2025 Passion Project/Minimalism: Cathy

19 Feb 2025 Passion Project/Minimalism: Barbara

Meeting Minutes 2025

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

15 Jan 2025 Favs of 2024/Passion Project: Barbara

15 Jan 2025 Favs of 2024/Passion Project: Sharon

15 Jan 2025 Passion Project: Mikky