Bruce Hartsell
Members of the Photography Club of Quail Creek recently voted to select winners in the Third Quarter Challenge, which focused on subjects starting with the letter “S.”
Tom Cadwalader won both first and second place. The first-place image, Wyoming Sunset, taken from an overlook in Moran, Wyo., is an HDR merge of 2 stop variation across three images of different shutter speeds with a tripod-mounted Leica SL3, SL 24 – 70 mm zoom at 52 mm, f/8, ISO 200, and no flash. The merging was done in Adobe Lightroom and then adjusted in Lightroom. The second-place photo is of a trumpeter swan found at the swan refuge in Jackson, Wyo., where a mix of swans that are unable to fly and healthy swans come and go. This image was made on an Olympus OM1 camera fitted with the 150-400 f4.5 zoom. 1/1600 sec, f/8.0, ISO 125.
Ron Skelton won third place with his photo Sunflowers in the Mist. This image was made using a texture overlay. The sunflowers were arranged and shot against a plain white background. Then a texture file was created by photographing an area of a bush with yellow flowers but making the shot out of focus. That shot was then edited further in Lightroom to make the colors even softer. The flower shot was then overlaid with the texture file in Photoshop. The transparency of the texture was adjusted to allow the sunflowers to show through, giving an overall misty, ethereal look to the final image. Ron captured the image with a Canon EOS R7, 80 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 800, and no flash.
John Tubbs deserves honorable mention in this challenge for his hat trick of winning fifth, sixth, and seventh place!
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a quarterly photo challenge with an established theme, and members vote for the best photos. Photos submitted to the quarterly challenge must have been taken within the quarter, and extensive post-processing is allowed.
Club meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m., usually at the Kino Conference Center Mesquite Room. The club also schedules episodic photo field trips and educational meetings. Consult the club’s website at www.pcqc.org as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for additional information. Membership is open to all Quail Creek residents.