Category: Albums

Photos shared during UCSD PhIG monthly meetings

UCSD Photography Interest Group > Blog > Albums

15 Apr 2026 Themes Clouds; Spring-Flowers: Mikky

Posted on by jrwilkinson

One of Mikky’s favorite subject is Flowers and he works particularly hard at achieving the right bokeh (amount of blur) using lens aperture. Depth of field in macro photography is always challenging. It’s use can be creative and, at the same time, critical for focusing on the subject or feature of interest. He shared a set of vibrant colorful flower photos and some more subtle & delicate.
Mikky also shared a great shot of Clouds over Bryce Canyon, a wonderful destination for landscape photographers.

15 Apr 2026 Themes Spring-Flowers: Sharon

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Sharon always seem to find something interesting in her backyard. Her eucalypus trees shed bark that can test the imagination, like animal-shaped clouds. The choice of different backgrounds also changes the interpretation – same object but different mood – interesting.
Her photos continually bring a smile and can be visually-provoking. Meaning, they make me want to slow-down and look carefully. Sometimes, interesting images are right under your feet.

15 Apr 2026 Themes Before/After; Clouds; Spring-Flowers: Gary

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Gary shared some pairs of straight-out-of-camera photos followed by cropped, post-processed. One of his favorite post-processes is to flip a reflection to add to the interest – always fun. His passionfruit flower image was critically sharp and almost abstract. He continues to process and share timeless landscape photos from his recent Sedona trip. Lastly, for the Flowers theme, he included a favorite backyard-after-rain flower image – beautiful!

15 Apr 2026 Themes Before/After; Clouds; Spring-Flowers: Cathy

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Cathy shared straight-out-of-camera followed by cropped & processed images. Her photos of flowers against a bright sky demonstrated the use of Lightroom masking to reduce the brightness of the background.
Cathy also shared another image from her recent trip to Monument Valley. Using sky replacement of the amazing sunset the day before, she composited a beautiful Shiprock photo. Photography is almost always about timing and the difference a day can make, for landscapes in particular.
Talk about timing – her wonderful boat image caught some dramatic clouds with late afternoon sunlight. It was one of ten of her photos accepted into the SD Fair Photography Competition.

15 Apr 2026 Themes Before/After – Barb

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Barb focused on the Before/After theme showing two sets of images from her recent trip to Japan. The first images are straight-out-of-camera and the second are cropped & processed. The beautiful “trees in fog” image was particularly beautiful and made it into the SD Fair Photography Competition. She also mentioned of the other 15 images she entered, 11 additional photos were accepted – amazing 12 out of 16! We hope she’ll share the other images next meeting since we are all curious what they are.

15 Apr 2026 Themes Before/After; Clouds; Spring-Flowers: Jim

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Jim shared some springtime photos from his Easter weekend Joshua Tree National Park trip. Most of the Joshua Trees and plants were in some stage of bloom. He combined the Spring/Flowers with Before/After, sharing SOOC photos followed by cropped and processed images.
His Safari Park vulture and eagle shots were for Before/After. The eagle shot demonstrated the recent reflections removal AI tool in Lightroom/Photoshop, greatly improving the photo taken through netting with a single click. The eagle image was one of six images accepted into the SD Fair Photo Competition (6 of 9 entries).
The last two images were three minute long exposures of Clouds over Mission San Luis Rey.

Note: Jim was approched by security and told tripods are not allowed on Mission San Luis Rey grounds. So be sure to check the venue’s photography policy before assuming you can shoot without restriction. It is published on their website that tripods are not allowed on the grounds, not just the church. Learned something new – fortunately, he said I could continue “this time” since it was late in the day. Doing a three minute exposure absolutely requires a tripod.

15 Apr 2026 Themes Before/After; Clouds; Spring-Flowers: Norm

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Norm shared some wonderful Flower photos taken in a lightbox. These images generated a lot of interest and discussion on backgrounds and lighting. Photographing in a lightbox allows the photographer maximum control over background and lighting, light placement. It can be a wonderfully creative option versus photographing ourdoors under harsh sunlight.
Additionally, some photos were processed with the Orton Effect which combines a critically sharp layer with a diffused layer, creating a dreamy, soft focus effect.

18 Mar 2026 Themes Animals/Safari Park; Black&White; Macro/Bokeh: Jim

Posted on by jrwilkinson

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.

Adobe Lightroom Reflection Removal Demo Photos:

18 Mar 2026 Themes Open Category: Sharon

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Sharon dug into her archives for an interesting photograph, a photogram – a technique of photography done without a camera. Photographers like Man Ray explored this form of photography thoroughly enough they dubbed his photos “Rayographs”. 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! This might be interpreted as a “landscape” photogram.