Falling back into photography

Monsoon storm over Arizona taken by Sun Lakes Camera Club

Monsoon storm over Arizona taken by Sun Lakes Camera Club

Nikon camera taken by Sun Lakes Camera Club

Nikon camera taken by Sun Lakes Camera Club

It’s that time of year when we are reminded why we fell in love with photography: the autumn colors; crisp, clean landscapes; Thanksgiving gatherings and holiday festivities. The Sun Lakes Camera Club is a wonderful club offering camaraderie and fun, along with knowledge and adventure. Our club offers presentations by prestigious photographers who have been featured in Arizona Highways and National Geographic. You can join in on organized trips to Antelope Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park, the city of San Diego or spontaneous night trips to Picketpost Mountain and the Desert Botanical Garden, to name a few.

Editing/Tips: Matt Kloskowski has teamed up with ON1, Inc. Matt is offering tutorials and tips via video and articles on using ON1 software alone and as a plug-in with Adobe software – a great alternative to those using Nik Software. Photoshop Tip/Intermediate-Advanced: Smoke – Draw and distort a line beginning with a background layer of black using the Paintbrush to create a white line, label this layer as Smoke, use the Smudge tool to create the desired distortion effect, use History brush to selectively undo any desired areas, Refine the effect using the Liquify tool and Liquify’s Reconstruct tool to undo areas selectively, Build a Complex effect by repeating as desired keeping separate elements on separate layers. Smoke can be added to enhance or create a desired effect to any image.

Meeting/Club News: The September club meeting is on Thursday, September 7, in the Ceramics Room beginning at 6:30 p.m. Bill Lewis and John Thoma will be leading a discussion on defining our October competition categories – Travel Photos and Perspective. Refer to sunlakescameraclub.com to download a copy of our 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 competition categories for rotating and special techniques. Our first Open House will be held on Saturday, October 7, Oakwood Country Club. Stop by to learn more and sign up to become a member. Local and neighboring residents are invited to drop in to participate and learn more on how to become a member at all meetings. Our first meeting of the new club year will be held on Thursday, October 5.

The Sun Lakes Camera Club (SLCC) meets the first and third Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., in the Navajo Room of the Sun Lakes Country Club from October through April. During the summer, the club meets the first Thursday of each month in the Ceramics Room of the Cottonwood Country Club. For more information about the SLCC and its activities, call SLCC President Burt Williams at 602-354-0266, Vice President Jan Ballard at 602-621-3344 or past President John Livoti at 480-895-6880 or visit our website at sunlakescameraclub.com.