Jon Williams won first place with his photo Water Drop Descending.
The photo Watch Out for the Big Drops, by Larry Hudson, placed third.
John Tubbs took second place with his photo Rock Squirrel Eating Berry.
The Photo Club of Quail Creek continued with its quarterly member’s challenge, with quarter 2 having the topic of “small.” Each club member could enter up to three photos taken during the quarter. This subject was a very popular one for the members and drew 43 entries. All of the photos can be seen on our Flickr site tinyurl.com/27b4m93s.
Jon Williams won first place with his photo Water Drop Descending. Jon commented, “This image was taken at a recent Arizona PhotoScapes macro photography workshop in Phoenix wherein one of the assignments was to photograph a water drop. The set-up consisted of a black tray containing about 1 inch of water behind which was a plexiglass holder vertically supporting a sheet of colored photographic paper and a tripod to which was attached one clamp end of a Wimberley The Plamp II and the other clamp end holding a vertically mounted, water-filled, needleless syringe over the tray of water. With the pre-focused camera mounted on a second tripod and the syringe dripping water, the goal was to image the water drop in mid-air using a wireless handheld flash strategically positioned to also cause the colored paper sheet to be reflected in the water. After many attempts over an approximate 45-minute period, I was able to image the water drop just after a previous drop dimpled the water and created the symmetric ripples.” Jon used his Fuji X-T5 with an 80mm macro lens, shooting 1/200 sec at f/5.6, and post-processing in Lightroom.
John Tubbs took second place with his photo Rock Squirrel Eating Berry. John commented, “This image was taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where my wife and I are docents. There was a tree with ripe berries right next to where I was working, and this young squirrel was munching on the berries and storing more in its cheek pouches. It was ignoring me completely and came within a few feet—almost too close for the camera to focus. I carry my camera most of the days I’m on docent duty, because serendipitous opportunities like this can happen. There was a small ‘window’ through the leaves and branches that allowed me to get this shot.” John used his Sony ILCE with a 100-400mm lens, shooting at 400mm, 1/320 at f/8.0, and post-processing in Lightroom.
The photo Watch Out for the Big Drops, by Larry Hudson, placed third. Larry said, “The photo was taken in my backyard. A pair of quails with numerous very small chicks were getting a drink in the hot weather. One of the chicks went under the edge of the fountain, and the photo shows how small the chick was in comparison to the drops of water from the fountain.” Larry used his Canon R6 shooting at 500mm, f/7.1 with a shutter speed of 1/1600 sec.
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest for its members and schedules numerous photo field trips for members throughout the year. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Kino Conference Center, Mesquite Room. Room venue could vary each month. Consult the club’s constantly updated website www.pcqc.org as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for additional information.