Barb Donovan has some interest in entering photos into this year’s SD Fair Photography Competition. Here are a few for the black&white category – we especially enjoyed the street vendor expressiveness. A wonderful image for the documentary category was the LA Dodgers Post-World Series Parade image.
Gary has a few fantastic images he’s considering for entry into the SD Fair competition. A particular favorite is the “Boat Jetty on the Lake” with some amazing light in the background. He also shared some photos from his recent trip to AZ & the Grand Canyon where a sudden snowstorm interrupted his travel plans.
Gary participated in the Safari Park meetup and shared some of his favorites. The gorilla relaxing and lion snacking are excellent examples of catching amusing animal behavior that can elevate a zoo safari.
He is also considering submitting one of his favorite Dios de los Muertos portraits in this year’s fair.
After February’s meeting focus on the San Diego International Photography Competition. This month’s meeting was a follow-up with discussions and photo-sharing partially focused on SD Fair photo categories.
We had an informal meetup in February at San Diego Safari Park since it was free Senior admission month. Three of us explored the grounds, hunting for interesting animal behavior and general practice.
Black&white is always an interesting style of photography that many of us pursue, often presenting our photos in both color and b&w. This month was no different. Plus Lois mentioned that black&white is an under-represented category at the SD Fair Competition. Since they only accept (have room to display) ~1200 photos and they receive tens of thousands of entries. Any strategy to help gain entry in the Fair’s exhibit is useful.
The last category this month was Macro – Bokeh which, in my opinion, is one of the hardest styles of photography. Finding the right combination of critical focus for a sharp image AND blurry background is challenging. Here are the photos shared this month, some were “open-theme”:
Barb Donovan – has some interest in entering photos into this year’s SD Fair Photography Competition. Here are a few for the black&white category and a wonderful image for the documentary category.
Barbara – continues to explore street photography with her new full-frame Nikon Zf. She also loves photographing birds so, of course, there are some great bird photos. Using her tried-n-true Olympus/OM System gear, she caught some wonderful insect-flower images.
Cathy – is our most experienced SD Fair exhibitor, even participating in a panel at last year’s Fair after being awarded some ribbons. She is also great at finding appropriate titles for her photographs, an under-appreciated skill. Here are some contender for possible entry into this year’s competition, many for the black&white category. I’m sure she has plenty of others for consideration.
Gary – has a few fantastic images he’s considering for entry into the SD Fair competition. A particular favorite is the Boat Jetty on the Lake with some amazing light in the background. He also shared some photos from his recent trip to the Grand Canyon where a sudden snowstorm interrupted his travel plans.
Gary participated in the Safari Park meetup and shared some of his favorites. The gorilla relaxing and lion snacking are excellent examples of catching amusing animal behavior that can elevate a zoo safari.
He is also considering submitting one of his favorite Dios de los Muertos portraits in this year’s fair.
Sharon – dug into her archives for an interesting photogram – a technique of photography done without a camera. Photographers like Man Ray explored this form of photography thoroughly enough they dubbed it “Rayograph”. Placing physical objects directly on a sheet of photo paper (or film), exposing with light, then developing was a darkroom process done without a camera – creative fun!
Jim – took a recent daytrip to Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge looking for burrowing owls and water fowl. No owls unfortunately, and the Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese aggregated on the farside of the ponds. So, to make the best of a long drive, he pivoted and focused on the great light at sunset and blue hour.
Jim joined the Safari Park meetup, practicing long lens and macro-with-flash photography.
A recent visitor to his backyard hummingbird feeder warranted a couple photos. He had never seen an iridescent orange Rufous Hummingbird before.
Lastly, he demonstrated the new “reflection removal” feature in Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop by removing the glare off the enclosure glass at the zoo.
During our February UCSD Photography Interest Group Meeting, Lois Fong-Sakai, one of the photo coordinators for the San Diego County Fair Photo Show, gave a comprehensive presentation on their International Photography Competition.
Her hour-long talk discussed all aspects of the photography competition rules, categories, judging and photo preparation & presentation. She also included a short video of last year’s 1st place winners.
There are two video clips: the 1st is her entire Powerpoint talk; the second is a short Q&A with a few members of the photography interest group.
Short Q&A with remaining meeting participants
Cathy took a daytrip out to Anza-Borrego and captured the wildflower blooms from all the recent rains we’ve had. She arrived just after sunrise and got some great light and clouds. Cathy used the Clear Outside app (free; for iPhone & Android) to plan her photo outing, tracking the cloud coverage in the area.
Cathy brought three different setups to test and compare the results. She photographed with her full frame Canon R6II with 24-105mm f4 lens; her Canon Rebel SL3 with 90mm f2 macro lens; and her iPhone 15 Pro Max ultrawide.
Her other images were from King Low Tide of a starfish (they’ve made a recent recovery & their population is booming). Plus a long exposure at Wind-n-Sea surf shack, at sunrise. Photographing the Wind-n-Sea surf shack using long exposures at King Tide is an ongoing project for her.
Gary has been re-processing some travel photos using Lightroom’s HDR feature to bring out more details and improve contast. His images show a definite improvement with better color and contrast. Gary’s favorite place to photograph is Yosemite, often visiting the national park a couple times a year. Climber’s, dwarfed on El Capitan, are a favorite subject to watch and photograph. The “John Muir trail up to Vernal Falls” image was reprocessed, a high contrast photo improved by using HDR. He also likes the illusion created by inverting a reflection photo when its clarity adds a twist to the image. A bald eagle collecting nest material was a lucky shoot-from-the-hip grab shot. Lastly, the vivid colors and chrome of an Australian steam locamotive were brought out using Lightroom’s HDR post-processing.
John shared some King Tide images from Del Mar’s dog beach taken in 2019-2020 where the King Tides obviously affected beach access. But he returned to the same spot this last King Tide Jan 3rd to try photographing a third image. But the addition of 750k of sand in Carlsbad had transported down the coast and changed the Del Mar’s beach topography. So trying to continue the King Tide series will have to wait till, hopefully, the longshore current flattens Dog Beach.
Jim returned from a recent 5-day trip to Death Valley. He was lucky to visit during a fair weather window between rain storms. Much of Death Valley was unusually green and Badwater Basin was temporarily transformed into pluvial Lake Manly. Jim had one clear night to try out the Seestar S50 smart telescope he got for Christmas. This single image is actually a stacked mosaic of 180 20sec exposures. The Seestar iPhone app (also available on Android) makes often complicated astrophotography very easy. The app will stack the images, and denoise them automatically, creating a jpg. But the telescope can also save every (20sec) exposure for post-processing. Jim imported the 180 images into Siril, a free astrophotography image stacker & editor. Although the jpg produced automatically is good, processing the images in Siril can greatly improve the results. This photo is a 1 hour stacked image of the Orion Nebula (M42), a popular beginner’s target since it’s easy to find and visible on-screen after just a couple exposures. The Seestar was configured to track the nebula so stars are not elongated.
After returning to San Diego, he photographed the King Tide Jan 4th at La Jolla’s Children’s Cove. A mainly overcast morning had some sun break through, creating a favorable backlight.
Sharon shared more witty images which she has a real talent of catching in photos. The “no pets” and “T-Rex crossing” photos are easy to miss for most of us but she seems to have a knack of seeing these moments. Her oceanscape images were taken on an unusually uncrowded Hotel Del Coronado beach in Dec 2025.
The UCSD Photography Interest Group’s first meeting of 2026 was Wednesday Jan 21st. Some faces we haven’t seen in awhile – Norm and Karen – were a welcome addition to the usual participants. They did not share any new images but were part of the discussions and planning for future themes and meetups.
This month’s themes were: Travel – always popular; Landscapes/Oceanscapes – appropriate for the recent King Tides outings and travels. (Holidays was the third category but no images were shared.)
Barbara – continues to practice with her new Nikon Zf with 40mm f2 lens. Coming from micro-four thirds Olympus/OM Systems, the larger Nikon full frame camera is bulkier than her more familiar system. She shared a group of images from a vintage car gathering at Liberty Station, and a colorful hummingbird photo.
Cathy – took a daytrip out to Anza-Borrego and captured the wildflower blooms from all the recent rains we’ve had. She used three different setups to test and compare the results. She photographed with her full frame Canon R6II with 24-105mm f4 lens; her Canon Rebel SL3 with 90mm f2 macro lens; and her iPhone 15 Pro Max ultrawide. Her other images were from King Low Tide of a starfish (they’ve made a recent recovery & their population is booming). Plus a long exposure at Wind-n-Sea surf shack, at sunrise. This is an ongoing project for her.
Gary – has been re-processing some travel photos using Lightroom’s HDR feature to bring out detail and improve contast. His images show definite improvement and better color contrast. Gary’s favorite place to photograph is Yosemite, often visiting the national park a couple times a year. He also likes to invert reflection photos when the clarity of the reflection adds a twist to the image.
John – shared some older King Tide images from Del Mar’s dog beach where the super high tides really affect beach access. The last King Tide around Jan 2nd, he tried to photograph the same beach but the addition of 750k of sand had changed the beach topography. So trying to measure and photograph this month’s King Tide was a no-go.
Sharon – shared more witty images which she has a real eye. The “no pets” and “T-Rex crossing” photos are easy to miss unless you are really aware of the moment. Her other images were taken on an unusually uncrowded Hotel Del Coronado beach in Dec 2025.
Jim – returned from a recent 5-day trip to Death Valley. He shared a bunch of landscape images from it’s iconic landmarks – Mesquite Dunes, Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin/Lake Manly, & Artist Palette. Jim had one clear night to try out the Seestar S50 smart telescope he got for Christmas. This single image is actually a stacked mosaic of 180 20sec exposures.
After returning to San Diego, he photographed the King Tide Jan 4th at La Jolla’s Children’s Cove. A mainly overcast morning had some sun break through, creating a favorable backlight.