2nd place, entry 04, Ron Skelton’s “Cactus Flower at Sunrise”
1st place, entry 30, Monte Hudson’s “Bobcat at Fountain”
3rd place, entry 17, Shari Rogers’ “Got Ya”
Jim Burkstrand
The Photo Club of Quail Creek just completed its sixth quarterly photo challenge which had a theme of nature. Each club member could enter up to three photos which had to be taken within the calendar quarter, and the photographer/artist could post process the photo in any way, including using Photoshop filters and manipulation. This challenge proved to be quite popular and drew 32 excellent entries. Club members voted on their favorite photos. This does not replace the current Photo Contest, but adds to the clubs offerings of photo opportunities. All of the photos can be seen on our Flickr site at www.tinyurl.com/ya45cldf.
Monte Hudson won first place with her photo “Bobcat at Fountain.”
Monte commented: “The opportunity for this bobcat photo came in my own back yard. She obviously thought it was five o’clock somewhere! I shot it through glass so not as crisp as I would have liked it to be, but was grateful I had the camera handy to capture her. Cropping was the only post processing.” Monte shot this with a Canon Rebel T6i, a focal length of 265mm, at 1/400 sec, f/7.1, and ISO 200.
The photo “Cactus Flower at Sunrise” by Ron Skelton placed second. Ron wrote: “This cactus blooms at night and the flowers only last one day so I went out at dawn to take some shots while the flowers were fresh. When the first rays of sunlight hit the top bloom, it seemed to light up from within showing beautiful colors and textures. I attempted to capture that by shooting from this perspective. I was very happy with the way it came out.”
Ron used Canon 90D with Canon 55-250mm lens, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 at 135 mm.
Shari Rogers took third place with her shot “Got Ya,” and she commented: “We have a roadrunner who visits frequently to taunt my dog. I was looking out and saw him on a tree in the wash behind our home. Grabbed my camera and started shooting. I realized looking through the lens he has this large bug! I cropped the photo and did some basic dodge and burn. Adjusted some color settings to give the photo the darker look as well.” No post processing was done.” Shari used a Nikon D3300 with a focal length of 375 mm at 1/2000 sec, f/8.0, and ISO 320.
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. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Kino Conference Center in the Mesquite room. The room venue can vary each month. 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.