Norm added standard panoramic images to his immersive 360 panoramas. Some of these are crops of his 360º panos, some rectilinear versions. He already has a nicely produced portfolio at his website normolsonphoto.com. So we’ll compile the images he’s shared during the meetings with links to 360cities.net and his website.
Cathy shared more photos of San Diego Landmarks. This month’s iconic locales were landscapes.
Barbara shared photos for her street photography portfolio. She uses her Nikon Zf’s black&white mode to improve the visualization of photos in black&white. A handy & useful feature of this camera.
Barb shared more architectural photos to add to her portfolio. Architectural photos are often great subjects for black&white so she’s exploring DXO Nik Collection’s Silver Efex post-processing. Stay tuned for black&white versions of the color photos if she likes the results.
Another lively Zoom meeting with the several regular and semi-regular participants. We discussed the SD Fair and the photos members of our group had accepted. I compiled the photos three members of the group had accepted, some winning ribbons or honorable mentions: https://ucsdphoto.group/2026/07/2026-san-diego-fair-photos-from-ucsd-phig/
This month’s theme is the third & final installment of the Portfolio Project. The idea was to compile 30 or more images of similar style, subject, or technique. The portfolio theme can continue if participants want to keep working on the project.
The alternate themes were Fourth of July, America’s 250th birthday, and SD Fair. Many of us visited the SD Fair to check out the photography exhibition, take photos, eat fried Oreos, people-watch and go to photography workshops. The photos we had accepted into the exhibition are here.
Barb – shared more architectural photos to add to her portfolio. Architectural photos are often great subjects for black&white so she’s exploring DXO Nik Collection’s Silver Efex post-processing. Stay tuned for black&white versions of the color photos if she likes the results.
Barbara – shared photos for her street photography portfolio. She uses her Nikon Zf’s black&white mode to improve the visualization of photos in black&white. A handy & useful feature of this camera.
Cathy – shared more photos of San Diego Landmarks. This month’s iconic locales were landscapes.
Norm – added panoramic images to his immersive 360 panoramas. Some of these are crops of his 360º panos, some rectallinear versions. He already has a nicely produced portfolio at his website normolsonphoto.com. So we’ll compile the images he’s shared during the meetings with links to 360cities.net and his website.
John – shared some 4th of July/America’s 250th parade photos from Bristol, RI. The parade participants marched in wilting summer upper 90º heat (+100º heat index).
Bristol Rhode Island hosts America’s oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration, which began in 1785. The nearly two-week event spans from Flag Day on June 14 to July 4, featuring concerts, a parade, and fireworks.
John splits his time as docent between the Star of India Maritime Museum in San Diego and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol.
Sharon – shared more of her favorite backyard decorticating eucalyptus tree bark photos. These become a humorous Rorschach test.
Jim – continued his Japan portfolio with 16×9 crop/style. Inspired by Cathy’s San Diego Iconic Locations, Jim added more iconic locations in Japan. His multiple trips from 2007-2023 have been limited to southern Japan, visiting Tokyo, Yokohama, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara (deer city), & Kagoshima.
His photos of Diabutsu of Kamakuri were from 2010. Photos of Kagoshima & its volcano, Sakurajima, were taken in 2007. Sakurajima, one of the world’s most active volcanoes erupts hundreds of times a year, sending dramatic ash clouds into the sky on an almost daily basis.
If you visit Japan in April, the cherry blossoms are blooming, especially around Kyoto, adding to its charm.
Jim continued his Japan portfolio with 16×9 crop/style. Inspired by Cathy’s San Diego Iconic Locations, Jim focused on iconic locations in Japan. His multiple trips from 2007-2023 have been limited to southern Japan, visiting Tokyo, Yokohama, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara (deer city), & Kagoshima.
His photos of Diabutsu of Kamakuri were from 2010. The Diabutsu Buddha was cast in 1252 and weighs over 200,000lbs.
Photos of Kagoshima & its volcano, Sakurajima, were taken in 2007. Sakurajima is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupting hundreds of times a year, sending dramatic ash clouds into the sky on an almost daily basis.
In Nara Japan, ~1687 wild sika deer roam freely around the city. I have a vague memory of my visit in 1970 so we had to make the 30min train ride from Kyoto east. They are plentiful throughout the parks, temple grounds, and many green area in the city. Tourists can buy packets of special “deer crackers” (shika senbei, rice crackers) sold by local vendors to feed them. The deer can be aggressive if they know you have crackers to give, even in pockets. They will bow “politely” to earn a cracker, if prompted by you bowing as well. If you love seeing or being around deer, this is a unique and wonderful place.
Sharon shared more of her favorite backyard decorticating eucalyptus tree bark photos. These become a humorous Rorschach test which can be her portfolio theme.
We had a total of 23 photos accepted out of over 4000 entries. Getting accepted is awesome but winning a ribbon in your category is even better. Here are the entries from Cathy, Barb, and Jim that were accepted. The ribbon winners are at the top.
Cathy 1st Place “Mechanical” Category
Cathy’s 2nd Place “At The Fair” Category
Cathy Honorable Mention “Abstract”
Cathy’s other accepted entries
Barb Donovan 3rd Place “At The Fair” Category
Barb Donovan 3rd Place “All Other Plants & Trees” Category
Barb Donovan Honorable Mention “All Other Plants & Trees” Category
Barb Donovan Honorable Mention “Architecture & Cityscsapes” Category
Barb Donovan’s accepted entries
Jim Wilkinson’s five accepted entries, no ribbons
Our June 17th meeting themes this month were: the continuation of the portfolio project, and “color”. An alternate theme for everyone but especially those not participating in the portfolio project. After catching up on everyone’s travels, goings-on, and SD Fair photography ribbon winners. We shared an eclectic variety of photos:
BarbD – continues with her dual portfolio ideas – architecture and “green”. She uses a compact 1″ Sony RX100VI pocket travel camera. It produces photos of suprisingly great quality with little or no post-processing. I’ve started carrying mine around a lot more, inspired by her stuff.
Green
Architecture
Barbara – continues her black&white and color street photography porfolio. She also captured photos of Rock-n-Roll Marathoners later in the race.
Cathy – has been out-of-town a bunch recently but she submitted photos for her “San Diego Landmarks” portfolio. We browsed through them during the meeting and have questions saved for her next participation. We also want to discuss her ribbon-winning SD Fair photos. A dedicated webpage for these images, including Barb’s will be forthcoming.
Gary – continues to share images from his recent trip to Arizona, particularly Antelope Canyon. Definitely makes you want to go there with your camera more than once. He also revisited (reprocessed) his elk in snowstorm photo. Revisiting and reprocessing an image is a great way to fine-tune your photo processing skills. Often improving or re-interpreting an image.
Mikky – apologies to Mikky, I mucked up his photo downloads from OneDrive. Why can’t Macs and PCs get along better in this day-n-age? He had a great group of portfolio images centered around birds of prey, particularly Peregrine Falcons. Also some long exposures of the San Diego Bay Skyline that smooths out the choppy water. He’ll go first at the July meeting since this all happened late in the meeting.
Norm – expands on his 360 panoramic image portfolio. Of everyone in the group, he has the most specialize and technical group of images. I respect his focus and the amount of effort to create one immersive image from a set of fisheye or wideangle photos. Please click on the thumbnail to connect to his 360cities.net version for the full immersive experience.
Sharon – is not building a specific portfolio although she could compile her black&white prints into one. She worked on the “color” theme this month, particularly her favorite shade of blue. Focusing on a particular color when out taking photos is a wonderful exercise. It’s surprising how a particular color can be everywhere and make a great image.
Jim – continues his Japan porfolio, focusing on 16×9 horizontal compositions in particular. Although many photographs in his archive are vertical – a suprisingly large percentage he realizes during this project. He’s recomposed verticals or selected horizontal compositions to crop into this semi-panoramic format.
Mikky had a great group of portfolio images centered around birds of prey, particularly Peregrine Falcons. Also some long exposures of San Diego Bay Skyline. The focus on his peregrine falcon sequence is amazing tack-sharp. Eye-focus tracking was definitely working – great sequence.