Emerald Bay Photography News and Updates

It's time again to dig into your photo files, stop by in your kitchen for some yummy food - and join us for the next Bend Slideluck Potshow on Friday, July 8th, 6:30pm.

Robert Agli has yet again generously offered to host the Slideluck at his home (please email for directions to his house).

The theme this time is (in a nod to the fact that we have lots of wildlife/outdoor photographers in the group): WILD THINGS. But of course, good old non-themed work is just fine too.

Also - two things are new this time around:

1. Due to an utter lack of traditional slides being shown, we're abandoning the slide projector in favor of an all-digital presentation format. Tom Merrow will again be the good soul providing his digital projector. Thanks, Tom!

2. Folks - bring something else to eat but DESSERTS! Last time we had something like 8 sweet dishes and 2 main courses. So to make things easier (and this might bomb - or not): people with their last names starting with

A - I : bring an appetizer
J - Q : bring a main course
R - Z : bring a dessert

And last, but not least: For those who don't know yet, Slideluck Potshow is half slideshow and half potluck. It's an informal gathering of photographers and photo groupies to admire and discuss photography while enjoying food and drink. Pros, amateurs, and neophytes - short, all those interested in photography and supporting local photographers - are encouraged to attend.

Everyone should try to bring food or beverage (homemade food is encouraged), but the most important part of Slideluck Potshow is to your work. Without the slideshows Slideluck Potshow can't work, so don't be shy.

Here's how it works:
Each photographer will get 5 minutes (more or less) to show a digital slideshow. You can narrate, play music, mime or whatever as the pictures roll. (Projectors, computers, screen and stereo provided.)

For any other questions, please call Simone (cell: 771-6670) or Matt (382-2996), or if you want, you can RSVP to me (always appreciated ...).

Forward this to people you think might enjoy this gathering, and hope to see you all there!

Labels: photography

Great article in the New York Times today. Renowned photojournalist David Burnett explains why he prefers lugging around a 55-year-old 4-by-5-inch Graflex Speed Graphic camera to his Canon 20D digital SLR.

On the screen was a wide overhead picture of a John Kerry rally last fall in Madison, Wis., which Mr. Burnett shot with a Canon 20D digital camera, the same camera used by thousands of other professionals around the world. Not surprisingly, the picture looks like thousands of others that were shipped around the globe during the campaign.

The colors are bright. Every part of the image is crisp, so crisp that just picking the minuscule figure of Mr. Kerry out of the huge crowd takes a "Where's Waldo?" moment.

And then Mr. Burnett flipped to a photograph taken seconds later with the ancient Speed Graphic. Suddenly, the image took on a luminescent depth. The center of the image, with Mr. Kerry, was clear. Yet soon the crowd along the edges began to float into softer focus on translucent planes of color.

The effect is to direct the viewer's eye to Mr. Kerry while also conveying the scale and intensity of the crowd. In accomplishing both at the same time, the old-fashioned photograph communicates a rich sense of meaning that the digital file does not.

The digital picture pretends to display raw reality. The analog picture is a visualization of human memory.

Alert photographers might also remember the image David Burnett took of Al Gore on the campaign-trail that won him a "Eyes of History" award. It was taken with a $15 plastic Holga camera.

Labels: photography, photography gear