Camera Owners of the Bay Area

The August 2009 and final regular meeting of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Agenda

• 19:00-19:30: Sign-in and mingling period
• 19:30-20:15: COBA Retrospective
• 20:15-21:00: COBA Celebration Party and Potluck

COBA Retrospective

At the July 2009 meeting, I announced that the August 2009 meeting of Camera Owners of the Bay Area will be the last regularly-scheduled meeting of the user group. When I first started COBA — then called Canon Owners of the Bay Area — back in January, 2002, there were few, if any, user groups focused on the emerging digital camera market. Seven and a half years later, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t own a digital camera or DSLR! And today, there are numerous user groups catering to all types of photographers and subjects. For instance, I plan to attend the SMUG user group held each month at SmugMug headquarters. There’s also several clubs in the San Francisco and East Bay.

During the meeting, I will present a slideshow of highlights from over the years. COBA’s very first presenter, Jim Rose from Canon, will also be on-hand to share some of the Canon products demoed at COBA.

I do plan to hold an annual reunion for COBA members. Be sure to join the COBA Facebook Group to hear about future meetings!

COBA Celebration Party and Potluck

I hope you’re not getting misty-eyed over the prospect of no COBA in the future. Instead of lamenting COBA’s end, let’s focus more on celebrating the past seven years of digital photography and the friendships made with a COBA Celebration Party!

Beth from SmugMug has graciously provided us delectable snacks during each COBA meeting. Let’s pay her (and SmugMug) back by participating in a COBA Potluck. Bring a dessert, snack, or beverage to share with your fellow COBA members.

Meeting Location

COBA is meeting at SmugMug offices in Mountain View.

SmugMug
67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, CA 94041

http://tinyurl.com/apnhvz

The July 2009 meeting of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held this Wednesday, July 8, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

Note: This meeting was originally scheduled to happen in June, 2009 but had to be postponed until this month.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Richard Ressman takes photos as a volunteer for an infant bereavement organization, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Parents of stillborn or dying infants need only call Dr. Ressman and he will drive to a local hospital, set up a small studio in a hospital room, take photos and produce prints as well as a CD and DVD that the parents can treasure. At the June 10 COBA meeting, Dr.Ressman, an Area Coordinator and Certified Trainer for NILMDTS, will present information and photos highlighting his experience with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Attendees will be given information should they be interested in joining and working with the organization. (www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/)

Richard Ressman bought his first Nikon camera in 1969 as a Surgical Intern in Chicago and has been taking photographs since. He developed and printed his first photos in his eleven by seven foot Intern’s call room. In 2002, he changed careers from that of orthopaedic surgeon to full-time photographer. Exhibits include three photos in the eMotion Pictures Exhibit sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons which traveled to San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, and Madrid, Spain. He had a photo of Bo Diddley in the 2008 eMotion Pictures Exhibit in San Francisco.

He practiced orthopaedic surgery for thirty years before becoming a full-time photographer. He did everything from operating on fractures to replacing arthritic knees and hips. Dr. Ressman recently traveled to Viet Nam to donate all his unused surgical equipment. He got two companies to donate thousands of dollars of equipment, and as a volunteer taught surgical techniques to surgeons in Ho Chi Minh City. His reason: The Vietnamese people suffered enough during the Viet Nam-American war and he wanted to give something back to the Vietnamese people. It was a rewarding experience for everyone involved. He now calls himself a Photosurgeon: that’s an orthopaedic surgeon who aspires to do photography on the cutting edge. Some of his work can be seen on his website www.photosurgeon.net.

How Accurate Are Your Prints?

How happy are you with printouts from your printer or from your favorite print provider? At the last COBA meeting, we had a long discussion about various printers and printing providers. Now’s the time to test and compare them with your fellow COBA members!

1. Go and download the 60MB COBA Test Print Photo from Sam Linville
2. Print an 8×10 photo. Either do it yourself at home or take it to your favorite print shop. Do not perform any color correction yourself in Photoshop.
3. If you are having this printed out, try to get two copies done at different times.
4. Compare with your fellow COBA members, who will be doing the same!

Perhaps after this meeting, you’ll change print providers!

Meeting Location

COBA is now meeting at SmugMug offices in Mountain View.

SmugMug
67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, CA 94041
http://tinyurl.com/apnhvz

The May 2009 for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held this Wednesday, May 13, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

WP-SmugMug

I’ve written a plugin to integrate your SmugMug galleries into your WordPress blog. I will go over the features of WP-SmugMug and solicit feedback for the next version.

• http://tow.com/projects/wordpress/wp-smugmug/

Current Event Photos

Have you seen a photo in the news recently that caught your eye? Why? Was it the technical execution, the subject matter, or artistic value?

Bring the source of the photo (magazine, newspaper, or URL) to the meeting and let’s have a group discussion.

Here are some sample photos:

• Cosmic Hand
• Storm Clouds
• Thirty-Year Old Execution Photo

COBA Member Tamara Danoyan has another show coming up at Stanford Art Spaces. She will have 16 large scale black & white pieces on the walls of CIS building and Jordan Hall (Psychology). Details below. All work is available for sale. There will be a reception on Friday, March 27, from 6-8. If you are planning to come, please let Tamara know. Information is below, as well as the directions, map, and parking info.

Photography by Tamara Danoyan
showing at the
Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University
March 20 – May 14

http://cis.stanford.edu/~marigros/

Opening reception
Friday, March 27, 6-8pm
At the Center for Integrated Systems
Via Ortega & Campus Drive West

Directions: http://cis.stanford.edu/~marigros/directions.html
or http://cis.stanford.edu/misc/directions

Parking is free on campus after 4:00. Visitor parking near CIS consists of $1.50/hour metered parking places in the parking structure at the corner of Via Ortega and Panama Street and in the small parking strip on Via Ortega.

One day “Visitor” scratcher permits can be used at the metered spaces and at in “Pay and Display lots elsewhere on campus. The Visitor permits are available for purchase at Stanford’s Parking and Transportation Services office. For details, see

http://transportation.stanford.edu/parking_info/VisitorParking.shtml

The art is displayed in public areas of three campus buildings

• Center for Integrated Systems (CIS)
• Building 550 – Global Climate Project
• Building 420 – Psychology Department

Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm

A searchable campus map can be found here: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/

The March 2009 for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

Meeting Location

As a reminder for those who were not able to attend the February meeting, COBA is now convening at SmugMug offices near downtown Mountain View.

SmugMug
67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, CA 94041

http://tinyurl.com/apnhvz

Agenda

• 19:00-19:30: Sign-in and mingling period
• 19:30-20:30: Wireless Digital Photography
• 20:45-21:30: Sensor Cleaning

Wireless Digital Photography at Events

What do you become when you combine your digital camera with an Eye-Fi wireless memory card, an EVDO modem and an EVDO/Wi-Fi router? You’ll transform into a walking, talking, snapping, wireless digital photographer! Come and see how this set up can be used during your future event photography jobs: weddings, parties, and conferences.

Information on this setup can be found at http://tinyurl.com/8gnlkg.

Sensor Cleaning

Most recent DSLRS have features to combat sensor dust. Despite their best efforts, these features sometimes don’t completely rid your sensor of dust, prompting you to go in manually to finish the job. JC Dill will be demonstrating several sensor cleaning products, including Dust Aid. If you have any products that you find useful, bring them to the meeting to share!

COBA member Tamara Danoyan is part of an upcoming exhibition in Palo Alto. Details below:

Foto Nova 19 Exhibition at Modernbook Gallery in Palo Alto

Reception for the Artists
Friday, March 6, 7 – 10 PM

sneak peek: modernbook.com/fotonova19.htm

Modernbook Gallery
494 University Avenue, Palo Alto
650.327.6325 info@modernbook.com
Exhibition Dates: March 6 – 29, 2009
Gallery Hours 11 AM – 9 PM Daily

• Waterprints Postcard Invitation

The first meeting of 2009 for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

New Location

After several years meeting at Stanford’s SLAC and Cordura Hall, COBA is moving to where it all started, Mountain View! This month, we’ll be meeting at the SmugMug offices near downtown Mountain View.

SmugMug
67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, CA 94041

Agenda

• 19:00-19:30: Sign-in and mingling period
• 19:30-20:30: Emerging Trends in Digital Photography
• 20:45-21:30: Camera Bags

Emerging Trends in Digital Photography

Lloyd Chambers will discuss emerging trends in digital photography, followed by practical tips for attaining maximum image quality via appropriate choices in cameras, lenses, tripods, and post-processing, along with tips and tricks and “gotchas”, especially with today’s high resolution digital cameras.  Lloyd will bring his suite of Zeiss ZF lenses, and if time allows, discuss the reasons you might choose alternative lenses to the standard Nikon and Canon offerings.

Lloyd Chambers’s diglloyd.com offers a wealth of material on advanced photographic techniques, and his Zeiss ZF Lenses is a reference work on those fine lenses.   Lloyd is a lifetime photographer, having used a variety of formats including 35mm, 4X5, 6X7 and 617 film, as well as numerous digital cameras.

His web site, diglloyd.com, is targeted at photographers seeking objective and high-quality information which can be trusted to make buying decisions, to learn or enhance skills, or to find best-practices for a smooth photographic workflow. He also is author of the MacPerformanceGuide.com, a site dedicated to choosing a Mac and enhancing productivity.

Camera Bags

If there’s one constant in a photographer’s life, it’s that one can never have enough camera bags. Two and a half years have passed since our last showcase of COBA members’ bags. Be prepared to bring your collection of camera bags to the meeting. Bags come in all different shapes and sizes; some are best used for transportation while others are great to work out of but hard on the shoulders or back. Is there a perfect camera bag out there that can do everything for everybody? We’ll find out!

I’ve just been informed of some changes at Cordura Hall, the site of our COBA meetings. We won’t be able to meet there after the December 2008 meeting.

That means, it’s time to find another location for future COBA meetings in 2009 and beyond. If you know of any building that offers free meeting space for clubs and organization, I’m all ears! We’ll discuss this further at the Holiday Party tomorrow night.

The Holiday Party and final meeting of 2008 for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

Bird Photography

Why photograph birds? Birds are beautiful creatures. They are also interesting. They lead fascinating lives. They exhibit exciting behaviors such as predatory, courtship, reproductive, nesting, and more. However, they don’t stay still for long and can be challenging to photograph.

Oliver Klink has tackled various aspects of bird photography over the last few years. His work has progressed from photographing birds for identification purpose, to capturing their challenging behaviors, to finally turning photographs into stunning wildlife art print. You will be dazzled by the story of the Black Crowned heron picking up ducklings, the hummingbirds hugging a backyard fountains, birds in flight at sunset, and many others.

Oliver Klink has a Masters in Physics engineering and an MBA in business. Klink also studied photography in college in his home country of Switzerland. He says, “Giving Nature the ability to speak through my camera is what inspires me.” Oliver travels to many countries to teach workshops and photograph animals in the wild. Oliver’s work has been exhibited at various US and international galleries. His most recent exhibit was at ModernBook Gallery in Palo Alto, California

Creating a Dance Calendar

Marty Sohl has been creating a calendar for the Lines Ballet company for many years. Currently the calendar is sold at all Barnes and Noble bookstores nationwide. This 45 minute presentation by Edward Casati, Marty’s husband/assistant will outline the process that Marty goes through for photographing the dance company, sorting and proposing the photos that can be used in the calendar, processing the photos and submitting them for publication.

1. Introduction
2. Presentation of Materials
3. History with Lines Ballet company
4. How Marty established her relationship with Barnes and Noble
5. A calendar photo session explained.
6. Sorting and selecting process.
7. File output – Quality and specs.
8. Questions and Answers

Holiday Party

It’s the end of the year and time for COBA’s annual Holiday Party! If you can, bring some snacks, food, drink and holiday photos to share with your fellow COBA members. The more the better!

RED has taken off the wraps of its new Epic and Scarlet lines. Contained within the products is RED’s response to the 5D Mark II. Instead of buying a new camera every few years, you just replace the sensor modules and keep all of the remaining components — batteries, grips, viewfinders, input/output modules, etc. Very impressive if they can pull this off in the timeframe they specified (Spring 2009). It’s a great time to be a still photographer and videographer!