First place, entry 36, by David Wolf
Second place, entry 01, by Tom Cadwalder
Third place, entry 05, by Jon Williams
Jim Burkstrand
The Photo Club of Quail Creek (PCQC) continued its annual tradition of having a contest that any Quail Creek resident could enter. The topic was open, and any Quail Creek resident could enter one photo taken in the last three years. This subject was a very popular one and drew 46 entries. All of the photos can be seen on our Flickr site at tinyurl.com/yyomfwj3.
David Wolf won first place with his photo Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch. David commented, “On Sept. 22, 2018, I joined friends in a local Phoenix area camera club for an early morning trip to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, Ariz. This is a special place with its combination of desert and riparian environments. The variety of wildlife is amazing! I love capturing wildlife as well as the Arizona landscapes in the company of fellow photographers. We all learn so much from each other.” David used a Panasonic FZ-2500. Shooting parameters included a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec, f/5.0, ISO 125, and a focal length of 176 mm. The photo was processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Tom Cadwalder took second place with his photo Untitled. Tom commented, “While visiting the Galapagos Islands in January of 2020, we were traveling in the afternoon between island destinations and a group of Magnificent Frigate birds were following us. They were gliding effortlessly along, swooping down to the water and then back up above the small ship. I got up on the upper deck of the ship and started composing bird in flight images. I had my camera set up for 1 stop of exposure compensation to help light the underside of the dark bird. Because we were not far from shore and it was breeding season, the males were displaying signs of their red inflatable throat pouch, making for a more interesting image.” The camera used was an Olympus M.40. Shooting parameters included a shutter speed of 1/800 sec, f/6.3 and ISO 200, and a focal length of 40 mm. The photo was processed in Adobe Lightroom.
The photo Airborne Anna by Jon Williams placed third. Jon said, “Hummingbirds are magnificent, amazing creatures of which we have a number of species here in Southeastern Arizona. I love to photograph them in their natural habitat and Madera Canyon is an ideal venue in which to do so, especially in the morning sunlight. This is an Anna’s Hummer that I photographed on Sept. 1, 2020, at 10:42 a.m. This was a very lucky shot as it is quite difficult to obtain a decent hummer image while in flight due to their size and speed.” Camera was a Nikon D500, 200-500mm zoom lens, focal length was 400mm, 1/2000 sec., f/5.6, and ISO 4000. Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop were used to process this image.
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest for its members and also schedules numerous photo field trips for members throughout the year. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, we are meeting via Zoom. Consult the club’s constantly updated website www.pcqc.org, as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for additional information.