Bruce Hartsell
Shari Rodgers won first place in the Photography Club’s second quarter challenge with Under the Sea! The theme for the second quarter was Nature. Shari captured the image of the octopus while inside a special aquarium in Bermuda. Shari said, “Inside this aquarium, it felt like you were under the sea with the creatures all around you moving about. This lovely octopus was putting on a show.” She said her camera was getting a reflection, so she used her cell phone and was impressed with the result, which she cropped and refined in Photoshop. Apple iPhone, 26 mm, f/1.6, 1/34 sec, ISO 640
John Tubbs won second place with Flame Skimmer, which he captured while on docent duty at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. John said he always carries his camera while volunteering there, “because wildlife photo opportunities present themselves. Every summer, the beaver and otter pond areas have dragonflies, mostly flame skimmers. This one stayed still in a nice composition with good backlighting.” He said he did a little post-processing, “just cropping and some slight global tweaks—mainly sharpening and a bit of saturation.” Sony ILCE-1 400 mm, f/8.0, 1/1250 sec, ISO 1600
Tom Cadwalader won third place with Eagle, an image made while on a jet boat excursion out of Petersburg, Alaska, toward the Le Conte Glacier. Tom said, “Besides seeing the glacier, we were expecting to see a lot of harbor seals on the ice flows. They are on the icebergs to give birth and raise their young. This area also attracts eagles, and that is where we found this one. I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the blood on its tail, indicating it had recently found prey to eat.” He said he processed the image in Adobe Camera Raw, cropped it lightly, and did some minor masking to call attention to the bird and iceberg while taking attention away from the background. OM Digital Solutions OM-1, 400 mm, f/4.5, 1/1600 sec, ISO 320
For additional information about the Photography Club and its activities, visit www.pcqc.org.