Astrophotography Presentation by Jeff Shockler Highlights April Meeting

 

 

 

Retzer Nature Center

Camera Club

April 2021 Newsletter

 

April Meeting – Wednesday, April 7th, 2021, 7:00 PM

 

Club Meeting Covid Safety Procedures:   Our club meetings will continue to be conducted in a manner that will provide a safe environment for all.  The following guidelines will be used for our meetings until further notice:

1.     Face masks are mandatory for indoor gatherings.  Please bring your mask to the meeting.

2.     Standard 6-foot social distancing must be followed.

3.     Chairs will be spaced out to allow members to keep an appropriate distance from each other.

4.     Hand sanitizer will be available.

5.     We will not be using name tags to avoid personal contact.

6.     The attendance sign-in sheet will be at the door.  Please sign in as you enter so we can avoid passing it among members.

7.     And, as always, if you are not feeling well or are experiencing symptoms of Covid-19, please stay home.  We will miss you, but it is better to remain safe.

 

Zoom Meeting:  In addition to the in-person meeting, we will be using the Zoom application to allow members to join us from remote locations.  Sign-in information will be provided to members in an email.

 

Program – Astrophotography - Jeff Shokler

 

Our program will feature a presentation by Jeff Shokler on astrophotography.  He will include many of his photos as well as information on how he captures and processes the images.  Jeff has provided the following biographic information:

Jeff Shokler has been an amateur astronomer for over three decades and has been an active astrophotographer for six years. In 2003 he joined the Madison Astronomical Society (MAS) and has served on its Board of Directors as President, Vice President, and Board Member-at-Large. Many of his deep sky astrophotos are taken at the society’s dark sky site, the Yanna Research Station, located 35 miles south of Madison. He enjoys doing science and astronomy outreach at events like “Moon Over Monona Terrace,” star parties at Devil’s Lake State Park and Donald Park, and also often gives public presentations about astronomy and astrophotography at MAS monthly meetings, photography groups, school science classes, and senior living communities. Jeff’s astrophotography interests span a wide array of subjects including the moon, planets, sun, nebulae, globular clusters, galaxies, and more. When processing his images his aesthetic leans toward the “realistic” with the goal of bringing out as much fine detail as possible and the natural colors of the objects that are often quite faint and very, very far away. Jeff is the Director for Advising Technology and Assessment in the Office of Undergraduate Advising at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His educational background is in anthropology, archaeology, and geoscience from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

 

 

Member Image Sharing:

 

Members are encouraged to submit several (up to five) images to share with the club for gentle critique.  This is a great way to get suggestions for improving your images and developing your photographic skills.  In order to give everyone a chance to share their images during the year, we will select several individuals who will be featured at each meeting.  Other individuals may also provide images which will be shared as time permits. 

 

The following members will be featured this month: Paul Underwood, Elizabeth Whitcomb, Tom Wright, Rick Zielgler, Jill Arth, and Mark Blackman.

 

Please email your images to Jim Hobbick ( jim-dawn-hobbick@wi.rr.com  ) by Tuesday, April 6th. This will help to streamline the process of viewing member images. We look forward to seeing your images.

 

2020 Club Programs:

 

We need your help!  Our Program Chair, Randy Scherkenbach, has done a great job finding interesting and informative speakers for our monthly meetings.  But he can use your help. We want to provide programs that are interesting to you!  Please let Randy know what topics would interest you for future meetings.  If you are aware of any speakers that might be of general interest to club members, let Randy know that too.  Any input you can provide to Randy will help our future meetings be interesting for all members. Please forward your ideas to Randy (rscherkenbach@gmail.com).

Our future programs and meeting dates are listed below. 

 

2021 Program Schedule:         

 

·         May 5, 2021 – Video editing with free DaVinci Resolve software - Randy Scherkenbach

·         June 2, 2021 – Flash photography – John Koster

·         July 7, 2021

·         August 4, 2021

·         September 1, 2021

·         October 6, 2021

·         November 3, 2021

·         December 1, 2021

 

Field Trips:

 

Photo field trips are a great way for us to share our common enjoyment of photography, learn some new techniques and share in camaraderie while getting to know our fellow club members.  Our Outings Co-chairs, Elizabeth Whitcomb, and Caryl Sedushak are working on a schedule that will include some of our traditional outings plus a few new ones. They are always looking for your ideas of some places you would find interesting for a club outing.  If you have any ideas of places you would like to have us shoot, please send your ideas to our Outings Chairperson, Elizabeth Whitcomb (lizannwhit@gmail.com)  Better yet why not offer to coordinate a field trip.  It's not hard - find a place you would like to go; pick a date and we can announce it to the club.  Perhaps you have a favorite place for fall colors or winter scenery. 

 

2021 Field Trips:  None scheduled at this time.

 

 

 

            Facebook:

 

Our camera club has a Facebook page!  If you are on Facebook, simply put Retzer Nature Center Camera Club in the search box and you will find us.  Click on the Join button and Elizabeth or Randy will approve you.  This is a Closed Group and open only to club members.  This means that anything posted here can only be seen by members of the group.  You can feel free to share your work here without fear that someone outside the club will have access to it.  Anything posted here is private, so feel free to ask questions – don’t be embarrassed or shy about it.  The monthly Newsletter, meeting topics and outings will also be posted here.  Check it out!

 

            Future Events of Interest:

 

If you are aware of any events of general interest, please let us know so we can share them with the club.

 

Photo Contests and Exhibits:

 

Saturday, May 1, 2021 - WACCO 2021 Spring Competition.  Members may enter images in several Nature/Open, Color/Monochrome categories.  Entry submission opens on February 6, 2021 and closes on April 12, 2021.  Please see the WACCO website ( www.wicameraclubs.org ) and click on “Competition Info – Uploader” for more information, rules, category definitions and instructions on how to submit your images.

 

If you are aware of any photo contests or exhibits, please forward the information to Rick Vollbrecht at Rvollb@wi.rr.com

 

Photographic Society of America (PSA):  PSA is an international organization providing abundant resources for photographers, from the novice to the professional. PSA offers on-line learning, webinars, study groups, competitions, mentors, and consultants. Membership is open to individual members and camera clubs. Our club and many of our members are members of PSA. There is also a Wisconsin chapter which has quarterly meetings and an annual weekend outing. 

PSA membership is available for $45/year.  There is a small additional dues charge for the Wisconsin Chapter. You can check out the PSA at www.psa-photo.org. Contact Linnea Matthiesen

(trekkielaw@aol.com) for additional information

 

Retzer Club Page on WACCO Website:  The WACCO website (www.wicameraclubs.org) has pages for each member club to display photographs from club members.  Check it out to see what our members and other clubs are shooting.  If you would like to see some of your images on our club page, please send several of your images to Caryl Sedushak ( caryl.sedushak@me.com ).  The images should be 2100 pixels on the long side and no larger than 1 mb.  Let’s see some of our great member photos on the WACCO site!

 

Photo Ops:

As a club, our members have a wide variety of subjects that we enjoy photographing.  This newsletter can serve as an excellent way to share various photo opportunities with club members.  If you know of interesting subjects or events that may interest other club members, please forward those to Rick Vollbrecht (Rvollb@wi.rr.com) so they can be included in future Newsletters.  If you are interested in having others join you, that information can also be included.  It is fun to shoot with a group.

 

 

 

Photography Classes:

 

Art’s Cameras Plus and Mike Crivellos Cameras have an extensive list of classes covering everything from camera basics to photographing in a variety of situations and use of Photoshop Elements.  Check out their web sites: www.Artscameras.com and www.MikeCrivellos.com for updated lists of available classes.

 

If you are aware of other photography classes or seminars, please forward the information to Rick Vollbrecht.

 

Websites of Interest:

 

Retzer Camera Club blog: www.RetzerCameraClub.blogspot.com  

WACCO (Wisconsin Area Camera Clubs Organization): www.wicameraclubs.org  

PSA (Photographic Association of America): www.PSA-photo.org

PSA Wisconsin:  www.PSA.wisconsin.org  

Friends of Retzer Nature Center: www.FriendsofRetzer.org

Jim Edlhuber’s blog: http://www.windowtowildlife.com/   

 

Club Organization:

 

Our club officers are:

           

                        President          Jim Hobbick                 jim-dawn-hobbick@wi.rr.com

Vice President  Elizabeth Whitcomb     Lizannwhit@gmail.com

Treasurer          Jim Edlhuber                JimEdlhuber@gmail.com

Program Chair  Randy Scherkenbach    rscherkenbach@gmail.com

Outings Chair   Elizabeth Whitcomb     Lizannwhit@gmail.com

                                                Caryl Sedushak            Caryl.Sedushak@me.com

 

Members should feel free to contact the officers with any questions and suggestions they may have for the club.