Photos slide show on homepage
Norm has a particular speciality – 360deg imagery – that is very unique to the group. He did not use a 360deg camera that is currently available. He took a series of images using a superwide or fisheye lens then stitched them together using PTGui software. He processes the image set into a 360deg panoramic image which, when view on 360cities.net, is immersive and interactive. Click on the panoramic image to open it’s 360deg link. You can view all of his 360 panoramics at 360cities.net.
Jim traveled to Japan several times from 2004-2023 and wants to compile his favorite photos. It is not meant to be a travel log or photographic journal but a gathering of his favorite images. For his portfolio, he wanted to use a 16×9 horizontal format for stylistic consistency. So the images he is compiling fit this horizontal format.
Barb shared two ideas in May – “Green” and “Architecture”. We’ll see if one or both of these themes/styles/subjects continues to fill out her portfolio.
Green
Architecture
Barbara’s portfolio for May-July 2026 are of her street photography favorites. Since purchasing a Nikon Zf with the 40mm & 50mm primes, she’s focused on exploring street-style photos. Using the Nikon’s built-in b&w live view, she’s been shooting more images in black&white.
May Images
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
