Category: Meetups And Outings

UCSD Photography Interest Group > Blog > Meetups And Outings

19 Nov 2025 Themes: Nifty-Fifty; Moonrise/Sunset; Shadows/Night

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Our November 19th Zoom meeting was attended by 5 participants – two had emailed they couldn’t make it. So our photo-sharing time went quickly and we finished before 4pm. Barb shared colorful images she took at the Oct 27th Dios de los Muertos festival in Oceanside. Heather, Gary, John, & Jim met-up Nov 2nd at Old Town for their Dios de los Muertos festival & some festive photos were shared. John had some festival photos taken a week earlier, when Old Town was 1st decorated and less crowded. His moonrise photos were taken at Junipero Sierra Museum in Presidio Park.
There were other moonrise photos, some from the UCSD Fallen Star meetup Nov 5th. Barbara shared a great SD skyline moonrise from Oct’s Shelter Island meetup. Her other image had great light and clouds, taken on the San Diego River Trail.
Nifty-fifty was another theme – photographing with only a 50mm focal length. Jim found it particularly challenging not to use a zoom lens or crop. For sunset theme, Jim re-processed some older images from the Grand Canyon North Rim from a 2022 trip (before the tragic wildfire) & Hawaii 2023.
Gary shared some wonderful b&w shadow-themed photos plus an Antelope Canyon image. His other images included a tide pool still life & an abstract river reflection. Cathy was unable to attend but sent some of her beautiful Antelope Canyon color & b&w photos for us to review & offer feedback. She also shared two Fallen Star moonrise photos. Here are this month’s photos:

Barb Donovan

Barbara

Gary

John

Jim

Cathy

20 Aug 2025 Themes Sports, Reflections & Geometric Shapes: Jim

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Jim participated in the San Diego Velodrome meetup and photographed bicycle races for the 1st time. He experimented with long exposures with flash to combine motion and freeze detail. He also photographed the full moon rising over the California Tower August 9th. He added one reflection image from a SD Padres baseball game to fulfill the “reflections” theme.

18 Jun 2025 Themes: Missions, San Diego Fair

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month’s themes were images of the California Missions and the San Diego Fair. We had a meetup June 11th at the SD Fair Photography Exhibition to review accepted photos. After the ribbon award announcements, a few of us wander the Fair in search of some evening and night photos. Here are the images shared at the meeting:

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Jim

20 Nov 2024: Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Dia De Los Muertos

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month’s Photography Interest Groups main themes were: “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (+Boats)”, “Halloween/Dia De Los Muertos”, & “Fall Colors”. The “Fall Colors” theme was not represented because some of us went to the Nov 2nd San Diego Old Town Dia de Los Muertos celebration. It was a fun street photography outing and many photos this month were from that celebration. The candlelight parade was under-whelming but the afternoon festivities in Old Town presented a lot of photo opportunities. Other non-theme photos shared were of the mid-October Supermoon and Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
The “Planes, Trains, Automobiles, & Boats” themes were well represented with everyone sharing photos of vehicles or taken from vehicles .

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Jerry

Jim

Sept 17 2024 Moon Rise Meetup

Posted on by jrwilkinson

September 17th will be a full supermoon rising right after sunset. Weather-permitting, hopefully we’ll have a clear view of Univ of San Diego’s Immaculata Church Dome & Steeple . A photo taken by Stephen Bay posted on Instagram is our inspiration.

We are hoping to capture similar images from Ski Beach or Fiesta Island on Mission Bay. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, Ski Beach on Mission Bay San Diego should be the right angle to photograph the moon rising over USD. Moonrise is 6:51pm; sunset is 6:51pm so the light conditions could be optimal.
Mission Bay Park on Fiesta Island could be a better location depending on weather and lens focal range.
I will arrive early, if possible, to scout the view and can update participants on which spot is more favorable. There should be plenty of space for everyone to setup their tripods. I hope to see you on Sept 17th.