Camera Owners of the Bay Area

The March meeting for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, March 14, 2007, in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

PMA Roundup

Chris Pedersen will be returning from PMA with a roundup of the latest announcements and products.

TBA

Our second presentation will be announced in the coming weeks.

Monthly Assignment: Green

Each month, COBA will feature an optional monthly assignment and contest. Members are highly encouraged to participate as the point of the monthly assignment is to motivate you to take photos, try new techniques, and learn.

Spring is coming, the environment is big news, and more people will soon be buying their first digital SLR. The topic for this month is Green.

Only new photographs taken from today to the meeting date will be accepted. Please print a print of your photo to the meeting.

The same day that we’re having our first COBA meeting of 2007, Stanford will be hosting the conclusion of the 20th Anniversary Tour of Richard Avedon’s In the American West. The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University will be holding the exhibition from February 14-May 6, 2007. From the website description:

Richard Avedon was already world famous for elevating fashion photography to an art form and for his insightful portraits of men and women of accomplishment, when the Amon Carter Museum’s first director, Mitchell A. Wilder, saw Avedon’s 1978 portrait of a Montana ranch foreman. Wilder asked the artist to make portraits of others across the American West under the sponsorship of the Amon Carter Museum. From 1979 to 1984, Avedon traveled through 13 states and 189 towns from Texas to Idaho, exposing 17,000 sheets of film through his 8-by-10-inch Deardorff view camera.

Focusing on the rural West, Avedon visited ranches and rodeos, but he also went to truck stops, oil fields, and slaughterhouses. Rather than playing to the western myths of grandeur and space, he sought out people whose appearance and life circumstances were the antithesis of mythical images of the ruggedly handsome cowboy, dashing outdoor adventurer, or beautiful pioneer wife. The subjects he chose for the portraits were ordinary people, coping daily with personal cycles of boom and bust.

Happy New Year!

The first meeting of 2007 for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

Agenda

19:00-19:30: Sign-in and mingling period
19:30-20:30: Leica M8: The First 90 Days
20:45-21:30: Monthly Contest: My Valentine, Your Valentine

Leica M8: The First 90 Days by Glenn Edens

The Leica M8 or “digital M” has created quite a stir in the photographic community, running the gamut from ardent supporters to hostile detractors. What is all the fuss about? A bit of Leica history and development leading up to the announcement of the M8 will be presented. A review of the Leica M8 camera, lenses and accessories will be presented along with an analysis of the problems and potential of the camera and my experience using the system for the last three months.

Glenn Edens has been an avid photographer for 40 years both as an enthusiast and as a professional. Glenn has worked in color as well as black and white using 35mm, medium format and 4×5 large format. He started going digital when the first Apple QuickTake was introduced in 1992 and switched to digital completely when the Canon EOS D30 became available. His interest in imaging the night sky using cooled CCD cameras dates back to the introduction of the SBIG ST4 imaging system in the late 1980s. Glenn’s day job is in high technology with several successful start ups including GRiD Systems and WaveFrame. He has held positions at major corporations including Xerox, National Semiconductor, Apple, AT&T, Interval Research Corporation, Hewlett Packard and most recently from 2003 to 2006 as senior vice president and director of Sun Laboratories.

Monthly Contest: My Valentine, Your Valentine

By popular demand, we are going to have an ongoing photo showcase and contest each month. Since the meeting coincides with Valentine’s Day, this month’s theme will be on love. Please plan on bringing one photo that best represents the theme for you.

In the future, we will restrict the monthly photos to new photos. For this meeting, however, we’ll make an exception and allow photos taken prior to this month.

We will also come up with next month’s contest theme during the February meeting.

Location

Cordura Hall 100
210 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94309

Cordura Hall is on the corner of Campus Drive and Panama Street. Park in the lot across the street. Cordura 100 is next to the courtyard between Ventura Hall and Cordura Hall.