Kansas City Zoo Photo Club Meeting Minutes
June 2003

Bill Pasek called the meeting to order at around 7 p.m.

He asked our guests to introduce themselves.  Dawn said she found out about the club through the Internet.  Also, Carol Mitchell met her at the digital camera club and told her how to get here!  Tom said he had known about the club for a few years and is retired now, so he has more time to get involved.  AJ said he visited the zoo recently and saw the club's photos on display.

 Bill welcomed the guests and invited them to attend a few meetings to see how they like it before they decide whether to join.  Welcome!

 Jim Rendina told of a neat e-mail he received from a lady in Georgia.  She had very nice things to say about the Web site and the display.  She is planning to start her own zoo photo club in Georgia!

 Terry Fretz, our treasurer, could not make it to the meeting tonight due to a conflict, so he informed Bill that we have a $1,468.74 balance in our account.

 Bill asked Jim for an update on the photo kiosk.  Jim said he has the mat board for the new pictures now.  Anyone with reptile photos for the kiosk was to call him, but no one did.  Linda Hanley gave him a few pictures tonight, but it turns out they are not of the summer exhibit reptiles.  The group discussed challenges of photographing the exhibit.  Fellow member John Voiles had gotten some pictures of the exhibit recently, so it's certainly possible.  Michelle Riley said she tried but had problems with her film.

 Sarah O'Bryan reminded us that we have a walk-through scheduled this Saturday.  Meet at the Zoo Ops building at 8:15 a.m.  The walk-through will start at 8:30 a.m. and last until 10 a.m.  We will go to one or two animal buildings with a keeper or guide and then will be on our own.  Sarah said she needs at least five people to commit; if we have enough people signed up, vehicles may be available to transport us.  A sign-up sheet was passed around.

 We have two more walk-throughs scheduled after this one -- one on July 24 and the other on August 7.

 Marie Bohndorf was not feeling well so is not here tonight, and the speaker presenting the program cancelled at the last minute.  We have some great programs coming up soon, however.

 Peggy Lawrey was asked about the photo wall in Deja Zoo.  She said the wall is still full and she's got a few extra prints to hang if any should sell.  Bill asked that she take his prints down the next time she is there, since they have been up for a long time. 

Bill said he finally got a hold of Malinda Welte about her picture from the photo wall.  Malinda is no longer a member, and he was trying to give the picture back.  He and Malinda have been leaving messages back and forth for each other but haven't connected yet.

 Jim will do a Tech Talk presentation later.

 Does anyone have anything to Buy-Sell-Trade?  Peggy said she gave her slide projector to the zoo and took the flatbed scanner to work, so she has disposed of her equipment.  No one else had anything to advertise.

 Dan explained that seven members went to the Tallgrass National Prairie recently for the club's day trip.  Conditions were less than ideal; it was very windy, but still everyone seemed to have fun.  Barbara Chase said she brought some prints from the trip to share.  All but two members did the mile-and-a-half walk that included the old schoolhouse.  Barbara and Ann Moss took a one-and-a-half-hour bus ride instead.  The group did not make it to the town of Cottonwood Falls but did stop for lunch at Pizza Hut.

 Bill asked if it was possible to buy the flower clips that were discussed at last month's Tech Talk.  Wayne Hickox said these generally are advertised in magazines like Outdoor Photography.

 Bill said he was at Powell Gardens on Saturday night.  It is a gorgeous place to take pictures, and they have the giant insects on display there this summer.

 Jim presented the Tech Talk for the evening.  Anyone interested was asked to gather around the computer at the back of the room.  Jim gave tips on how to prepare some interesting slides in Photo Shop.  If you are preparing a slide show, it's fun to do these types of slides.  This is complicated enough that if you are really interested, give Jim a call and he will send you the information.

He started with an image and added a mat with drop shadows and writing.  He then showed how to manipulate the image to make it considerably sharper than before.

 We moved on to showing digital slides from members.  Dan showed several taken at Ernie Miller Nature Park in Olathe, and then shared images of the trip to Tallgrass National Prairie, which included some scenics plus close-ups of flowers.  He was shooting at ISO 400, with no tripod -- all shots were handheld.  He was using a Tamron 28-300 mm lens on his Nikon D100 digital camera.  This is comparable to a 42-450 mm lens on a film camera.

 Dan said the old schoolhouse was a neat building, and there was an old outhouse too.

 The bus ride was $5, and Barbara said it was well worth it.

 Bill said we could talk at the next meeting about whether the group wants to do another day trip, for example, to Powell Gardens.

 Peggy shared some fun pictures of her cat.

 Sarah said the zoo photo contest is under way.  You can submit pictures taken from January 1 to September 7, 2004.  The photos must be of the zoo, and categories include animals, plants and nature, and black and white.  You can send in as many pictures as you like, and they should be 8x10.  This will be in the newsletter next month, and Sarah also has a flyer on it.

Linda shared pictures she took during FOTZ night at the zoo recently.  Her images included a parrot, cockroaches, a skink, a snake, and millipedes.

 Bill asked how many members shoot digital versus film.  The consensus was about half shoot digital or both.  He suggested we survey members and vote next month to find out things we want to cover that we aren't covering now.  What do you want more of, and what would you like to do differently?  For example, do you wish our speakers would tell more about how and what they shoot?  Bring these ideas and we will vote on them next month.

 Jim said that Crick Camera Shop is putting on a seminar on the 30^th with a factory representative from Canon on hand.  They have a Web site if you want more information.

 Barbara passed out a flyer on the upcoming Lewis & Clark activities.  Linda explained that the reenactors were at Fort Osage recently and will be at Kaw Point, at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, from perhaps next Saturday to Monday.  There will be exhibits, reenactors, a keel boat, and so on.

 Peggy shared two digital pictures of Union Station taken from Liberty Memorial at night, one using auto white balance and one using custom white balance.  You can go up to the top of Liberty Memorial.  Peggy said next time she would take a tabletop tripod or a sandbag, since it was hard not to move.  The Web site for Liberty Memorial is www.libertymemorialmuseum.org.  It costs about $2 to go up during the day, and $5 at night (from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.).  It's more fun and a bigger challenge at night.

 There was quite a bit of difference between the two pictures.  Peggy said she uses a Pringle's can lid to set the white balance on her digital camera, rather than buying an expensive gadget for this.  There is little difference in the results.  The Pringle's lid gives the lights a bluish cast, while the sodium lights have a white cast without the Pringle's effect.  White balance corrects the effect of artificial lights.  You can get in trouble using it if you forget to switch back to automatic once you go outside in daylight.

 Bill mentioned that we haven't done a Plaza night shoot for a while like we used to do at Christmas.  We might want to do that again, since we have some new members who wouldn't have done it in years past. 

The meeting adjourned at about 8:15 p.m.  The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, July 19.

                                      -- Tracy Goodrich