|
Hi Members,
there's not much to report this month except that it seems Winter is really gone by looking at all those beautiful Spring scenes. Theo is working his butt off on Phodia3 and the result of all that work will be fantastic, that's for sure. I would also like to mention in this place the programme for the October meeting for Phodia members. I think it's a fine program with lots of opportunity's to take some wonderful pictures Details of the program can be found at FotoRob hidden under the "Phodia user meeting" tab on the frontpage. There are built in links that will give a fine impression of the places we will be visit during that weekend. I would like to point out the great advantages of using a RAW-format. The possibilities to make corrections on a capture are numerous compared with shooting in jpeg. But make no mistake when you see a RAW picture the first time you've opened it, it looks like nothing. But after some corrections you'll be amazed. I've read several books from "Scott Kelby" an American PhotoShop guru translated in almost every language. The second writer I can recommend is Johan W. Elzenga a Dutch writer They can help you to make the first moves with the RAW-format and after a slow start you'll be convinced. gr. Rob :-) Phodia3I can inform you all "I still have my butt" :-)) but because of other things I had to do last month I have hardly been able to work on Phodia3 There is some progress but not enough to launch Phodia3 on the 15 of May, I won't give a new date but I hope that before the summer starts Phodia3 will be on air 
Greetings Theo!!! |
||||||||
IN THE SPOTLIGHTthis month is Phodia member Luc Grollie.
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Places to Visitby Jenipher Baker This month we are visiting St Peter-Ording situated in northern Germany on the North Sea. The ever changing tidal landscape offers a wide range of motives for wildlife, nature and landscape photographers. The coastline extending from the Den Helder in the Netherlands to Skallingen in Denmark belongs to an area known as the Wadden Sea. This coast line of approx. 500 kms was added last year to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Wadden Sea At St. Peter-Ording, close to the Danish boarder, the beach is approx. 12 kms long and up to 1 km wide in some parts. So if you like to go for a stroll along the beach, here you have plenty room. At low tide you can wander through There are many organised tours on offer. Other favourite activities are wind surfing and wind buggies. Or you can take a boat trip out to one of the many islands, some of which include seal colonies. A couple of kilometres south of St Peter-Ording you will find the West Coast Park, a small reserve where many of the animals are free to roam. Many of the birds, including a large number of storks, have made the park their home. A further 10 kms south will bring you to the mouth of the Eider and enipher Baker |
The Phodia Link Reference Libraryby Lawson mcCulloch Wildlife and especially Wild Bird photography is my passion and the name of Robert Scholl is an American Wildlife photographer that I recently came across. Born in Michigan U.S.A, his love of all things wildlife comes across strongly in the beautiful photographs he has taken and shares with us all in this very fine Website of his. Schollphoto Another Website I enjoy looking at is that of National Geographic, where there are great Galleries to look at .In fact I think it is one of the very best websites there are, having something of interest for all tastes in our great hobby. They have lists of photographers you can look up, Tips on photography, suggestions on planning a photography holiday anywhere in the world, in fact too many items for me to list here. I do hope that you will take a few minutes to have a look, as I know you will not be disappointed. National Geographic For those of you who like to Blog, and I am showing my age now as I haven’t a clue what it means, then here is a site for Photo Blogging that may interest some of you. beautyinpixels Another place I found that may be of Interest to some is a site by a Photographer by the name of David Gafney, where he gives 50 Tips to Great Outdoor Images, and as I know we are always striving to improve our Photography there may be something here for us to learn. Anyway it may be worth having a look at. gafneyphoto Phodia member Ken Piros has sent a link on Off-Camera flash that I found very useful , so many thanks to Ken for taking the time and trouble to send to the Newsletter, and remember we are always looking for new sites to visit and learn from. So just send them into newsletter@phodia.net and they will be used sooner or later. strobist |
||||||||
Monthly ThemeIt was a hard theme for the month April with only 7 pictures sent in, the best picture, chosen by the other members was "Traces" by Manu with an average of 7.5 
|
second Jenipher Baker with her "Darwin's Theory" with an average of 6.2 
|
||||||||
|
Third Third Ken Piros who sent in "The Last Traces" 
Congratulations Manu on your win. |
|||||||||
Trianglesby Colonel Arbuthnot We all know about the famous triangle where everything mysteriously disappears, the the Bermuda triangle, When we take a picture we want to have the light into the camera, there are three different elements that controls the amount of exposure. If you do everything on automatic your camera will do the job for you, but as a photographer you need full control on motion, depth of field and noise, thats what the exposure triangle is all about. The three elements that makes the exposure triangle are Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO Shutter speedShutter speed is the time your camera recieves light from the scene your capturing. Changes in shutterspeed can be used to freeze a scene or in the opposite case to give your scene some motion blur. The shorter your shutterspeed the better is your scene frozen, the longer your shutterspeed the more motion blur you will get on your image. There is also a relation with your focal length,the longer your focal length the more motion speed you will get with the same shutterspeed. ApertureThe aperture controls you depth of field (dof), it's a measurment for how big the hole is the light is tarveling through. The hole is measured in F, you can adjust the aperture in so called stops. When light travels through your lens it will give a sharper ISOISO stands for International Organization for Standardization and this describes a whole lot of standards for all kind of things, but we need only the ISO for film speed formely known as ASA. In the time of analogue photography it was a measurement for The lower the number the more light you will need but the benefit is that you will get less grain in your scene, with a higher number you will need less light but it will result in some grain. Bring it togetherYou can compare the three mentioned elements with sunbathing. The ISO is the way your skin can adapt sunlight, some have a sensitive skin and that can be compared with a high ISO. The time you spend in the sun can be compared with shutter speed, the longer you stay in the sun the more sunlight you will recieve. Aperture is the metaphor for sunscreen, you have different strength in sunscreen the better it blocks the sun the less you will burn, the higher your F (smaller opening) the more you block the light. You can play with these three elements when sunbathing and handled proprerly you will not burn but become a darker colour on your skin which is the equivalent of a well exposed picture, a burnt skin can be compared with an overexposed picture. In the same way you can play with ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. For every scene you want to capture you have to ask yourself what do I want to show on my picture, if you need a large depth of field, you use a large F (small opening), you have to compensate with a slower shutter speed and/or a higher ISO. If you want motion blur, use a long shutter speed compensate this by using a low ISO and/or a high F. You want a grainy picture, use a high ISO, compensate with a higher shutter speed and/or large F. 
|
Survey resultsby Jenipher Baker Firstly, a big thanks to the people who participated in the survey and a special thanks to the few members who only pop into Phodia once it twice a month for taking the time. It was a great result with approx. 30% of the active members taking part. Theo was able to get some good ideas and tips which he can use in the development of Phodia 3. Some of the suggestion are already in progress to make Phodia a faster and more user friendly site. As said in the last Newsletter, surveys don’t answer all questions but it was a tremendous help in understanding which members are being attracted to Phodia, what is expected from Phodia and what people would like to see happening in Phodia. Listed below is some of the information extracted from the survey; We have a balanced membership between male and female with 73% of the members in the age group 45-60. 50% of the members work full time with the balance evenly broken up between part time, retired and N/A 30% of the members have been involved in photography less than 5 years, 25% 5-10 years leaving 45% involved with photography over 10years. 90% of the members log into Phodia daily, though the most just upload photos 2.3 times a week. The Monthly Theme seems to be well accepted by the most members. 60% of the members have participated in the monthly theme either on a regular or occasional basis but surprisingly over 90 % of the members like the competitive aspect of the Monthly Theme. Though Photo Edit is not used by many members, approx 85% of the members find it a useful part of Phodia. 75% of the members belong to 1 or more photo clubs other than Phodia. 60% of the members think Phodia is just ok or could be better. This result reflects the following taken from answers in the survey. Members are generally looking for my participation and interaction between members, a showcase or photo of the week, would like to see more uploads. On the other side members like the freedom in writing constructive critique and this generally accepted by most people as a valuable learning guide. The friendliness within Phodia also came across strongly. |
||||||||
| newsletter@phodia.net || jenpiher.baker@phodia.net || lawson.mcculloch@phodia.net. | |||||||||
this wonderful hobby of ours Luc.
to explore the local forests and ponds looking for all things that lived in there, think nature has always been my favourite subject (beside the family pictures of course) and after all these years I still get surprised by the beauty of it...
but when digital camera’s were introduced, my curiosity was reactivated and when I got a D50 for Christmas couple of years ago, I soon got hooked again...
the mudflats to observe the wildlife or the many birds that come to feed on the mudflats left from the receding tide. 
Here you will also find Germany’s largest seal enclosure.
the Katinger Watt Nature Reserve. A real haven for bird photographers. Along many of the tracks around the reserve you will find small observation huts set up for the purpose of watching and taking photos of the surrounding wildlife. 
or what about the golden triangle, also a place where you can disappear. But these triangles aren't the subject of this month article, this month I want to talk about the exposure triangle.
It is measured in seconds a shutterspeed of 1/60 means your shutter was open for just one sixtiest of a second.
image of the scene when you have a small opening, the smaller your opening the longer is the field in which your picture becomes sharp. That's why we partly close our eyes if we can't see things good enough, partly closed eyes are the same as a large F. The smaller your F the bigger the hole where the lights travels through, this will result in a smaller field in which your scene is sharp, which is also called a small dof.
how much light a film needed to get a proper exposure. In these days where we all use digital camera's the same measurement is used, the numbers tells you how much light your sensor needs to get a good exposure.