Founded in 1953 - Dedicated to the art and fun of photography!

The Newsletter of the New York Botanical /Zoological Photographic Society

We LOVE when you participate and share your photos with your fellow Club members! And February is a great month to do so. Share your winter images, or those still life photos that you set up inside on a cold wintery day. For those of you who have been sharing, the scores through January follow. Happy Hearts Day!

Volume 62 Issue 6 February 2016~ Celebrating 62 Years: 1953 - 2015 ~

Be Our Valentine!

BLACK & WHITE JAN TOTALRaquel Gonzalez hm 18.5 88Anastasia Tompkins 17.5 85Doreen Rose 16.5 84Linda Tommasulo 16 83Harvey Augenbraun 15 82.5Annette Collazo-Comito 16 81.5Gerald Liddelow 14 79.5Bob Feldman 16.5 73.5Elaine Kirchen 0 67Suzanne Carter 26 67Rudy Finelli 14 66Franco Piras 32 63.5Frank Price 0 62Michael Brummett 15.5 61Gloria Abraham 16 58.5Conrad Tinney 16.5 56Teena Miller 0 48Morrell Daniels 30 38Wing Cheuk Lui 8.5 30.5George Hansen im 26.5 26.5Lisa Castro 8.5 24Mario Fiacco 0 16Milagros Rodriguez 0 16Bob Wine 0 15Paula Pillone 14.5 14.5Hec Stephens 9 9Bob Schwartz 0 7.5David Waddle 7 7Stephanie Charczenko 7 7GROUP B JAN TOTALAnnette Collazo-Comito 17 88Stephanie Charczenko 17 83.5Conrad Tinney im 18 74.5David Feldman 17 66Franco Piras 31 64.5Hec Stephens hm 18 51Morrell Daniels 33 41.5Lisa Castro 32.5 33Paula Pillone 32.5 32.5Mario Fiacco 0 31Nate Williams 0 25Milagros Rodriguez 0 16Bob Wine 0 15David Waddle 14.5 14.5

THEME JAN TOTALAnastasia Tompkins im 17.5 85.5Andrea Nelson 16.5 84Linda Tommasulo 15.5 82Bob Feldman hm 16.5 79Frank Price 14 72Gloria Abraham 7 70Raquel Gonzalez 15.5 67Annette Collazo-Comito 16 65Suzanne Carter 12 60David Feldman 0 50.5Rudy Finelli 15 47Harvey Augenbraun 0 45.5Lisa Castro 17 32Teena Miller 0 31Franco Piras 15 30Wing Lui 10 27.5Doreen Rose 16.5 25Conrad Tinney 7.5 22.5Stephanie Charczenko 5 20.5Milagros Rodriguez 0 17.5Morrell Daniels 16.5 16.5Paula Pillone 15.5 15.5Hec Stephens 15 15Mario Fiacco 0 14.5Bob Wine 0 14David Waddle 14 14Morrell Daniels 0 8George Hansen 8 8Mike Brummett 7.5 7.5

THIS MONTH:February 6:

Competitions: Digital #6 / Altered Reality #3Theme #6: Steps, Stairs or Ladders

Judge: Martin Joffe

February 27:Photo Critique

Submit up to four (4) images in PhotoContestPro

Executive Board President ...............................................................................Harvey Augenbraun1st Vice President & Competition Chair ....................................... David Feldman2nd Vice President & Program Chair ...................................... Veronica Saunders3rd Vice President & Membership Chair & Webmaster ........... Sharon Gumerove4th Vice President at Large, PFLI Representative ................ Anastasia TompkinsSecretary ............................................................................................. Frank FotoTreasurer/Historian ........................................................................... Martin Lewis

Iris Editor: Linda Tommasulo-2-

JANUARY’S WINNING IMAGESJudge: Phil Echo Theme: Skyline

GROUP AA JAN TOTALAnastasia Tompkins im 18 89Linda Tommasulo 17 87.5Doreen Roses hm 17.5 87.5Harvey Augenbraun 16.5 86.5Bob Feldman 15.5 77Suzanne Carter 15.5 74.5Miguel Mongui 31.5 65.5Sharon Gumerove 0 64Bob Schwartz 0 60.5Veronica Saunders 0 60.5Tina Miller 0 48

B IM / “Looking” / © Conrad Tinney

Theme HM / “ Chicago Bean“ / © Bob Feldman Theme IM / “Roosevelt Island“ / © Anastasia Tompkins

Standings, Cont’d.GROUP A JAN TOTALRaquel Gonzales im hm 19.5 88.5Elaine Kirchen 16.5 88Andrea Nelson 15 81Rudy Finelli 14 79.5Michael Brummett 23.5 73Frank Price 0 61.5Wing Lui 15.5 57Martin Lewis 8.5 49Gloria Abraham 8 42.5Gerald Liddelow 8 40.5George Hansen 25 25

ALTERED REALITY DEC TOTALAnastasia Tompkins 17 35.5Frank Price 18.5 35.5Linda Tommasulo 16.5 33.5Gloria Abraham 15 32Rudy Finelli 16 32Suzanne Carter 16.5 32Annette Collazo-Comito 15.5 31Raquel Gonzalez 16.5 24Teena Miller 0 16.5Wing Lui 16.5 16.5Mario Fiacco 0 15.5

A/24 Points: Anastasia Tompkins(Hands at Work in Vietnam)

B/24 Points: Paula Pillone (Cholla at Sunset)Morrell Daniels (Halong) / Gloria Abraham (Red Chair)

Creative/23 Points: Anastasia Tompkins(Textured Violin)

PFLI HIGH SCORES - JANUARY

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© Linda Tommasulo

A IM / “The Greenmobile” / © Raquel Gonzalez

BW HM“White Stairs”

© Raquel Gonzalez

B HM / “Botanical Garden Water Lily” © Hec Stephens

AA HM / “Game Time”© Doreen Rose

A HM “Creepy Doll Collection”

© Raquel Gonzalez

AA IM / “Puffin” © Anastasia Tompkins

BW IM “All’Board”© George Hansen

NYBZPS BOARD ELECTIONSNominations are being accepted in February and March to serve on the NYBZPS Board. Elections will be in April. Anyone interested in joining the nominating committee, please

contact Sharon Gumerove.

The New York Botanical/Zoological Photographic Society invites photography enthusiasts of ALL LEVELS to join us at our bimonthly meetings (Saturdays at 9:45 am), Sept. thru June, at Fordham Prep, Room 243/244 (on the campus of

Fordham University, Bronx, NY). Check the web site (www.nybzps.org) for program details, photo shoots and more!

Photos/articles/comments/suggestions for future editions of The Iris are always welcome. E-mail text and photos (approx. size 4”x 6” at 200 ppi min.) to: linda@lindatommasulo.com.

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What I Believe About Photography by Dennis Smith

If people call me a pro or a hack I really don’t care. Either way, clients pay for me to take pictures for them. For personal work, I create images that are both photography and art, some of which are liked, some are ignored, and some tic up an occa-sional nose — I do it because it feeds my soul.

I don’t care what camera anyone uses. I can get a great picture or an awful one with any brand or price point. If you’re asking me what kind of a camera I use, you’re missing the point of my photography.

My exposure settings aren’t relevant, since the sun angle, light and shadows are different every time anyone goes back to a place.

It doesn’t do much good to tell you where I took a picture so you can get the “same one.” You’ll never get a picture like mine because the seasons, wind, fog, humidity, plants, and most everything is different every time.

How expensive your camera is doesn’t really matter; my most sold picture was taken with a $300 camera. I don’t care what brand of camera you use or if you use digital or film, DSLR or mirrorless. I care what results look like. More megapixels don’t make for a better camera, but big numbers do make for great ads.

If you are going to ask a question online, check your manual and try an experiment first. Take the initiative to learn every-thing about your camera yourself — asking @Random45684 won’t get you there.

Before you upload to Facebook, please delete your bad shots! I won’t look through your 700 shots of Paris no matter what. Absolutely will not. I might look at the best 10 pictures from that trip, but if I see junk in your gallery, that’s the end of my looking.

Do I edit? You bet. I always fix color, brightness, white bal-ance, and straighten. On a few pictures that show promise, I will remove distractions. Do you want to see 90 TV antennas or another photographer in this beautiful Italian harbor shot? Probably not.

I don’t add elements to my pictures unless I am creating art. I think pictures with oversized moons or the Milky Way Photo-shopped into the sky look fake to the point of being insulting. In my “Imaginary Places” gallery all bets are off, everything is layered and Photoshopped. No such nonsense in my other gal-leries – no passing ‘shopped’ off as real.

In my real estate work I capture the true look of properties. I don’t fix drywall, clean windows, green lawns, paint walls, or other tricks. Once I did remove a moose head from a living room wall — but that was not being sold with the house. Occa-sional edits include removing a doorknob that intrudes on the edge of a shot, a wrinkled bedspread, or a crooked throw rug. I adjust color balance and brightness of rooms so they look good on the internet.

It’s fun to cruise through the beautiful pictures on 500px or other sites, but looking doesn’t go far in making you a better photographer. Taking and editing thousands of pictures will make you a better photographer. Creating and sharing one great picture every day for a few months will make you a better photographer.

Knowing how to use every feature on your camera well enough to operate it in the dark will get you better pictures. Knowing all of the editing features in Lightroom will make your pictures much better. Knowing how to use Photoshop layers and adjust-ments on those special 0.1% of your pictures can make your best pictures sing.

For the past few years I have taken about 10,000 pictures a year — not a huge number. I base my comments on that expe-rience and spending too many hours reading nonsense about photography. Great photography takes practice, real work, and a bit of theory — not web surfing.

I wrote this as I was putting together my 2015 retrospective and goals for 2016. I used to believe a lot of web photography conventional wisdom. I am pretty much over it.

P.S. The more you have invested in your kit, the less you will like this post.

Dennis Smith is a landscape, real estate,

and corporatephotographer living

in Uxbridge,Massachusetts,

in the Blackstone Valley.

You can find more of his work on his website (www.densmith.com) and more of his writing on his blog (www.densmith.com/blog).

(Reprinted with permission)