Did you ever wonder...

Did you ever wonder what went on at those Meetup groups? Well I did, so last week I decided to go to one and see what went on.

When I arrived I was warmly greeted, and entered into a conversation with the Bucks County Photography Meetup Group's creator, Jess Grave. She is a very interesting woman as well as the owner of Jess Graves Designs (http://jessgravesdesigns.com/) which makes custom cabinetry. She is also a very good photographer. This Meetup was unique (I think) in that two Meetup groups met together, the BCPMG and the TIPS group(Tri-State Imaging and Photography Society)headed up by Rex Alfes.

My thoughts: As meetings of this sort often go, the itinerary was a bit ambitious for the amount of time that was allowed. We broke into two groups, "How to Use Rear Curtain Sync" & "Sports Photography." I went with the Rear Curtain Sync crowd led by Rex, and it was very informative, as this was the first time I had my flash mounted atop my D90.

After about 25 minutes or so the two groups got back together for refreshments, and almost an hour later, people were still "shootin' the breeze" as my father used to say.
So, not knowing if the itinerary would pick back up, I decided to take the bull by the horns and put my very modest lighting setup together and shoot the two models that very graciously showed up to "sit" for us.

Colleen and AnnMarie are Model/Actresses, and apparently show up quite often to the Meetups. They were a blast to shoot! I have ZERO experience with shooting people let alone models, and they couldn't have been more accommodating. I felt quite at ease with them both and got, what I think, are some very nice shots.

So... If you have any inclination toward going to a Meetup, I would certainly encourage you to just do it.

Muggs

"Hello World"

I'm going to be brutally honest from the start; I'm not really sure I have anything to say.

I mean I thought it might be interesting to put pen to paper (so to speak) about my transition from film to pixels. You see I've been taking photographs literally since I can remember, and developing and printing negatives since I was 14 years old in my friend Buddy's basement. I fell in love with the smells and actions of processing the Kodak 126 film. I'll never forget the first time I cracked open the Instamatic film cartridge and, after picking up the film off of the floor, loading it into the stainless steel film reel.

I transitioned into 35mm, 2 1/4 Sq., 4x5, and 8x10, and at age 52 I decided to leave the world of silver halide and join the digital revolution. So... I sold all of my film "stuff" and bought a Nikon D90 DSLR. Now I'm a pretty tech savvy guy, by day I masquerade as a product designer using a CAD package called SolidWorks, but this thing has more bells and whistles than I've ever seen in a plastic box before in my life. But after playing, reading, playing, more reading, I finally made what I think is a decent photograph. In other words, it looks like film to me.

It was a cold day at Tohickan park and being down at the creek (crick) brought back many memories. I used to camp there with a friend and his family in the summers, and my family had our yearly Memorial Day picnic there every year. I was there about 4 hours. What bliss, just being out photographing and freezing my A__ off (it grew back).

I probably have some other photos from the trip worth printing as well but this was the first to catch my eye, and so it is the first to show up here. I hope this will be a place where I can document my digital growth.

I look forward to hearing what you think.

Muggs