EDUCATION NIGHT THIS THURSDAY

So, the first Salon is in the books and we are into the full swing of this 80th year of the Fargo Moorhead Camera Club.  This weeks Education night is on Thursday at 7PM at First Presbyterian in Fargo, and the topics will be on Preparing Your Images for Competition, and Storm Chasing with Ryan Mauk.  I hope you can make it out for this one as it will be pretty interesting.  Also, bring your laptop along to embed the tips and potentially create some presets to help with sizing and file naming.  

PQ:
This blogs Philosophical Question is, Why or Why not specialize in Photography?  Some say that the only way to get to be a "World Class" photographer is to specialize in one genre of photography. (Weddings, Events, Sports, Scenery, Street, Portraits, Wildlife, etc.).  My contention is that the only way to get better in photography is to try many different genre's and get better at all of them.  I always talk about light being the key to photography and that you need to learn how to use and create light and shadows to make the shot what you want.   Another component of great photography is composition.  You need to learn to see the leading lines, the background distractions and what makes an interesting photograph.  This being said, improving your scenery photography will improve your wedding photography.  Improving your street photography will improve your scenery photography and improving your ability to focus quickly will improve your street, wildlife and sport photography.  It all works together. 

News
I'll have to confess that I've been out of the loop on the news of late, but the biggest news I've seen is that Adobe is updating Lightroom and Photoshop CC versions and adding Photoshop as a IPad app. 
For you drone photographers... The flying kind not that you are unresponsive... DJI is updating their software so you can create a line of communication between the local airport tower and the drone pilot.  This means you will be able to fly closer to an airport as long as you are in communication with the flight controller, allowing for safer operation in and around airports where drone flights are now prohibited. 

Tips:
This blogs tip is take a photo walk with a lens that you don't normally use.  (If you only have one lens or a zoom lens, limit yourself to not zooming.) 
Tonight I went out to walk my dogs and just on a whim, threw my 90 Macro on.  I was interested in what I would find to photograph and found many things including my dog.  By limiting your choice to a specific focal length, you will expand your view of the world and get better at looking for interesting things to photograph.   I'll call this one "Braving the Fall Winds".