Robert Thoresen
January’s contest was open to all Quail Creek residents. There were 88 entries. Gift certificates were awarded to top finishers. Eleanor Houts, who just joined the club last November, garnered a first place tie with a recent portrait of an Arizona Puma while on a visit to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. The sleek and agile cat, a symbol of strength and power, does not see humans as prey. Except for humans, they have no predators. Eleanor made good use of composing her image in thirds and had very good eye contact from the cat. Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ70, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO-250,fl 133mm, Aperture 4.969, no flash.
Resident Jerry Bryant also earned a first place finish in the judges’ vote with his picture of space shuttle Discovery. In April of 2012, prior to going on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s Advar Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, Discovery made a farewell flight over Washington D.C. Jerry bivouacked at Bolling AFB on the Potomac and was treated to several passes of Discovery atop the NASA 747 along with the accompanying T-38 chase plane. A great image was his reward after a multiple of shots. Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel, f/9, 1/640 sec, ISO-100, fl 300mm, Aperture 4.971, No flash.
This past December club member Loretta Klingenberg took a two week trip to Australia. While there, she visited the Cairns Botanic Gardens (Cairns is a town on the Northeastern coast of Australia), that dates back to 1876 and now houses 4,000 plant species. Her entry, Cairns Botanical Beauty, placed second and was one of many taken by Loretta to document the diversity of species in bloom at the Gardens. Camera: SONY Cyber-shot DSC-HX50V, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO-80, fl 21mm, hand held, no modification.
Club member Steve Piepmeier’s third place image Icy Web was taken at one of his favorite places to photograph at sunrise, the Black Butte Ranch in Oregon (www.blackbutteranch.com) near Sisters, Oregon. Rising an hour before sunrise and riding his bike to the far side of the ranch to a field of pasturing horses, Steve was anticipating photographs of cold steamy horse breath but soon realized that there were eight or more frosted spider webs that made a more interesting composition. Camera: Canon Power Shot SD 700IS, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO not listed, fl 6mm, Aperture 2.969, no flash.
PCQC member Greg Hill also placed third with an owl picture taken at the Queen’s land in England late last fall. One might note that Queen Elizabeth II is the legal owner of 6.6 million acres of the earth’s land surface, only a small portion of it is in Great Britain. Greg moved around to get good natural lighting on the owl’s face and moved in close to capture the owl’s personality. At just the right moment the bird looked to see what Greg was up to and the picture was snapped. Camera: Canon Power Shot G15, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec, ISO-800, fl 30mm, Aperture 2.9685, no flash.
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest for its members and also schedules numerous photo field trips throughout the year. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Madera Clubhouse. Room venue will vary each month in 2015. Consult the club’s constantly updated website http://www.pcqc.org as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for additional information.