Category: Themes

UCSD Photography Interest Group > Blog > Themes

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

15 Oct 2025 Themes: Fall, Scary/Halloween, & Moonrise/Moonshadow

Posted on by jrwilkinson

With Halloween approaching this month’s themes included Scary/Halloween. Many participants found this to be the easiest category to fulfill, me included. We also had an informal Oct 6th moonrise meetup at Shelter Island to photograph the moon rising over One America Plaza, a unique skyline building in San Diego. Weather conditions were hazy but we manage to get some images of moonrise although a few building north of PhotoPills predicted arc. Moonshadow was also a subject but there were no moonlit landscape images shared this session.
Gary returned from a recent trip to Page Arizona and shared some wonderful images taken in Antelope Canyon. Cathy is planning a trip there so the discussion included tips from Gary on how to be successful photographing the sandstone slot canyon. Cathy share two images from this month’s and last month’s moonrise meetup, plus a fun experimental macro shot of soap+glycerin bubbles, and a “made scary-by-AI” Bodie church black& white image.
Mikky shared a portfolio of beautiful African bird images from his recent safari trip to Africa. With the wealth of images he’s shared so far, you can tell a trip like his is a photographer’s dream.
Jim shared some moonrise images from Oct 6th of the San Diego skyline. Plus he attended the first Oaxaca Festival in Oceanside Oct 12th. Luckily, the traditional “Dance of the Devils” was performed and fit the “scary” theme. He added a bee on marigold macro shot for Fall.
Sharon found some scary images while browsing the local store loaded with Halloween & Dios de los Muertos decor.
Heather joined the meeting from Idaho where she’s capture some amazing Fall colors & weather. Being further north or at elevation helps find fall colors this early.
Lastly, John shared an image of the moonrise over San Diego in tribute to our founding group leader Jerry Vaughn. He gave us the sad news that Jerry passed away Oct 10th. Jerry founded the photography interest group in 2015 & found us space on upper campus to meet before Covid moved us to Zoom. He was our mentor and inspired us to excel at our photography passion. He offered great technical advice and had insightful feedback on our images. He will be missed.

John

Image taken standing next to Jerry

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Mikky

Sharon

Jim

17 Sep 2025 Themes: Still Life, Flash, Storytelling

Posted on by jrwilkinson

The themes this month are classic photography ideas – Still Life can be the classic tabletop subjects such as flowers, fruits, and objects or it can be a play on the theme ‘still life’. All participants went classical and shared images that would fit an Edward Weston or Imogen Cunningham workshop. There was a successful use of Reflect photography software to add a reflective effect to a still life whisk.
Sept 7th we had a Harvest Moonrise meetup in San Diego by the Coronado Bridge. Some others in the group preferred the San Diego skyline from Shelter Island.
Gary requested a revisit of the Flash Photography theme and he shared an image taken on film years ago. The rest of us did not have anything in this category although it’s one of my favorites in recent months.
Storytelling is the general idea of using three or more shots of a location to tell a story photographically. Usually starting with a wide ‘establishing’ shot, then a medium shot, and finally a detailed closeup. There were a few sets, one from from Heather – a graffitied levee, and Jim’s Oceanside Museum of Art current “Fabulous Fiber’ exhibition. Jim’s ‘still lifes’ were closeup images of artworks.
Norm, whose been absent from the meetings for awhile, submitted some wonderful still life images. (Thanks, Norm and join us anytime)
Thyrra missed the meeting but submitted some Sept 7th Harvest Full Moon Rising images.
“Still Life” images were my favorites of September. Here’s the images shared:

Barb Donovan

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Norm

Jim

Sharon

Thyrra

20 Aug 2025 Themes: Sports, Summer Vacation, Reflections & Geometric Shapes

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month meeting had a variety of photos shared with many from the July 22nd San Diego Velodrome meetup. This was our 1st time shooting the bicycle racers and many lessons were learned. We hopefully will do it again and have even better success capturing the cyclists. Heather shared wonderful vacation photos of the festival in Oaxaca Mexico. Gary shared a photo of beautiful light on Lake McDonald, West Glacier Park. Plus photos taken on the visiting USCG sailing ship Barque Eagle, and San Diego resident Star of India. Mikky shared more images from his recent trip to Africa. This time it was of his elephant and leopard encounters on safari. Barb Donovan, our newest member, is traveling but I culled several images from her velodrome folder. Cathy has some of the best velodrome images showing the racers in action. Sharon shared some wonderful macro flower shots and an unusual geometric building that defies conventional aesthetics. Jim experimented with long exposure flash photography at the velodrome. Additionally, he made to Balboa Park Aug 9th for a full moon rising behind the California Tower. A popular vantage point for moonrise in San Diego.

Here are the images from this month’s meeting:

Barb Donovan

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Mikky

Sharon

Jim

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

21 May 2025 Themes: Silhouettes/Backlit, Selective Color, Spring Is In the Air

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Our May themes were silhouettes/backlit, selective color, and “Spring is in the Air”. Silhouettes and/or backlit are self-explanatory. Selective color can be a couple of things – photos with one specific dominant color, black&white image with a single color visible, or any artist’s interpretation. “Spring Is In The Air” would be any photos displaying the Spring Season. There were 7 participants in the May meeting. Here are the images shared:

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Jim

Sharon

16 Apr 2025: Flowers & Perspective

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month’s Flower theme celebrates Spring season and the beautiful blooms it brings. Many meeting participants shared some colorful photos of flowers. The secondary theme was Perspective: leading lines, layers, and framed-in-frame, standard compositional elements for photography. Here are the images shared this month:

Barbara

Gary

Jim

John

Mikky

Sharon

19 Mar 2025: Weather & Animals

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Our March 19th meeting had 5 participants. Some members who could not attend were traveling or under-the-weather. This month’s themes were: Weather – with all the rain and snow lately, we thought this might be a timely subject. Alternatively, Animals are always a fun subject and this included birds, insects, pets, and zoo animal photos. Off-theme – March 13-14 there was a full blood moon lunar eclipse. With the rainy weather, no meetup or travel was planned with the photography group. But a few individuals were able to photograph the eclipse through breaks in the clouds. Here are the photos shared this month:

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Sharon

Jim

19 Feb 2025: Passion Project Cont’d/Minimalism

Posted on by jrwilkinson

The themes for February’s Photography Interest Group Zoom meeting were “Passion Project Cont’d” and “Minimalism”. Some participants last month did not get to present their passion project photos because they focused on their Favorites of 2024. We limit our photos to ~10 photos per participants so we have enough time during our meeting to discuss everyones images.
In addition to Passion Project Cont’d images, meeting attendees shared their Minimalistic or favorite non-theme images. Here are the images shared:

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Mikky

Harold

Sharon

Jim