First Place: Steve Piepmeier – One Moment
Second Place: Jeff Krueger – Raptor Ready
Third Place: Jim Burkstrand – Walking at Sunset
Robert Thoresen
Steve Piepmeier was out riding his bike again this past January. A cold winter storm blew rain through Quail Creek as he bicycled through units where soon new homes would be. His trusty pocket camera was able to capture One Moment of a beautiful late afternoon light breaking over the northern end of the snowcapped Santa Ritas. In winter snow does tend to get deposited above an elevation of 5,000 feet while Quail Creek escapes with a chilly rain. Steve also proves that you don’t need an expensive digital reflex camera to take great pictures. Camera: Canon Power Shot SX 260SH, 1/320 SEC, fl/ 5.6, 40.31 mm, ISO 100.
March’s contest aligned around the generic theme of lighting in any combination; daytime ambient, moonlight and artificial. Steve relied strictly on daylight while the second and third place photographers used a combination. Jeff Krueger’s second place photograph, Raptor Ready, was the result from an invitation to do some night and sunrise photography on the military flight line at the annual Sun and Fun fly-in at a Lakeland, Florida airfield. Oshkosh, Wisconsin is famous for its annual summer fly-in. Granted permission to approach, there happened to be a new U.S. Air Force Raptor on the tarmac. The security lights were positioned just right. Camera: Canon EOS 7D on a tripod with an exposure of two seconds fl/9, 35 mm, ISO 400.
Jim Burkstrand’s third place photo Walking at Sunset was taken this past February. Jim was walking around his neighborhood in Unit 21 looking to take a nice shot of the sunset and/or a silhouette of a cactus. Instead he spotted a neighbor who walks his two dogs a few times a day. While conversing, he noticed that the dogs seemed to almost glow in the low light. His neighbor said that they had just been bathed, so the fur appeared quite fluffy. Jim framed them against the setting sun, kneeled down to their level and snapped a few shots. Camera: Canon EOS 60D, using a Tamron 16-300 mm lens with vibration control; shot at 39 mm, 1/160 sec, fl/9.0, ISO 100. Shot in RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest and education sessions for its members and also schedules numerous photo field trips throughout the year. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Kino Conference Center. Consult the club’s constantly updated website http://www.pcqc.org as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for current information and events.