Photochrome Camera Club

by Garrett Griffin

Four weeks into winter, several members of Photochrome met at Civic Center on an unseasonably gorgeous Spring-like day. The thermometer bounced off 75° and the blue sky with mare’s tail clouds begged for a polarizing filter to set off the images members would record. City Hall never looked better, pedestrian and vehicle traffic was light and the stately Federalist-style architecture of government buildings glowed in the low winter sunlight. For two hours Photochromers wound around City Hall, over Van Ness to the Opera House and Veterans Hall, back down McAllister to Civic Center, across Larkin, passed the Asian Museum into UN Plaza and back again, snapping pictures all the way.

Photo by: Bob Nelson & Steven Lee

With so much to choose from, subjects became easy pickings for those Nikon and Canon shooters. If one wanted people there were many, from tourists in shorts to homeless pushing carts loaded with their possessions to kids in the playground to weekend civil servants scurrying from government office to office as well as local families out for a weekend visit to a museum or just enjoying the sites at the seat of city government. Civilian photographers shot the same subjects as the Photochromers, although not as skillfully, I’m convinced.

About 11:30AM, the members convened at the Asian Art Museum coffee shop for coffee, snacks and debriefing. As they discussed the ramifications and technicalities of fine city photography, the city continued on as if Photochromers had never been there. However, the images captured that winter morning will survive for countless years.

Roll Call:

Alan Heald, Steven Lee, HH, Susan Higgins, Joe Higgins, Idalia Larsen, Gary Larsen, George Gibbs, Jim Elliot, Pam Nelson, Bob Nelson, Julie Nunez, Rick Smythe, Charlie Wambeke, Chris Kibre, Garrett Griffin

Of course it can’t be comprehensive in 25 minutes but here’s a great introduction to what PhotoShop can do in less than half an hour:

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Over the holidays your Photochrome web team spent many hours redesigning and rebuilding your Photochrome site. The predominant purpose was to move from a 3 column, to a 2 column layout that would accommodate media files better – this is a photography club after all. While we were doing this we took the time to re-categorize the organization of data somewhat and to restyle the display into something more conducive for the display of photography.

Some members have said that they have trouble reading the site in it’s new form. We hear you and have implemented a site style switcher on the site. What does that mean? If you find the light grey of black is straining your eyes you can change the way the site looks. In the right hand side bar look for the heading “Site Style”. Under this you will find three styles you can use:

• Default - is the new gray of black look
• Dark - makes the text true white of black and makes the text a little larger. This is gives the site a higher visibility look and also is a good choice if you want to print out anything from the site.
• Old - is there if you want to switch back to the way the site used to look before the redesign.

The site style you choose should stick for the browser and machine you are using and you can switch to any other style on the fly at any time. In the future we will code a black on white version for those who prefer a more print-like look but, in the meantime, we hope you find a way to read the site that suits you.

Junkyard photography!! That’s what this field trip is all about. We have three acres to wander through photographing all sorts of building materials and household goods to electronic equipment and musical instruments. The list goes on and on. Half of this recycling center in indoors while the rest lies in stacks or piles outside.

Let’s get there no later than 9:30 AM before the crowds arrive. Flashes and tripods are alright although I recommend a monopod due to tight spaces at times.

Directions: Urban Ore Eco Park is located at 900 Murray Street in Berkeley 94710.

• Take I-80 East over the Bay Bridge, towards Berkeley.
• Exit right after Emeryville at Exit 10 to merge onto CA 13 S/Ashby Avenue.
• Turn right on 7th Street at the first signal.
• Immediately turn left onto Murray Street.

“You have arrived at your destination “. Look up to your right and see the big sign on the building “Urban Ore Eco Park”. Sometime between 11:00 – 11:30, let’s go to The Berkeley Bowl Café at 920 Heinz Avenue, just a few blocks away for Peet’s coffee and/or other goodies . There is a parking lot on the left side of Heinz Street for Berkeley Bowl customers.

See you there, Gary Larsen

Exploring photography this month will include a presentation of creating and using masks in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Masks are a powerful tool that can be used to restrict the area an adjustment layer affects or to cut out an item to be used in composite image. The trick is being able to create and use masks without your viewer being able to tell that you did anything.

In addition we will project images from the Civic Center and Asian Art Museum field trip.

Send your digital images by midnight Wednesday to: Photochromeprojectionist@gmail.com

Mark your images:

• Category*-First Name-Last Name-Title. Jpg

*categories are:

• Pic2 (up to 2 images taken on Field Trips )

Please note: digital images should be re-sized so that the longest side is no more than 1024 pixels. That is how they fit properly on our projection equipment.

For more information please also see:

• Submission Instructions
• Ambient Light in the Digital Darkroom

All members are invited to attend these monthly meetings where activities of the Club are planned.