Member Survey
I would like to thank all the members who took the time to respond to the NVPS survey, it was a big success.  Lots of valuable information about our members preferences, pleasures and problems with NVPS have been recorded and will be shared anonymously with the board of NVPS both this year and in years to come.  I believe this will be a tremendous value to current and future boards in making decisions.  Congratulations to Vivian Luu & Kelly Wilson the lucky winners in the Penn Camera gift certificates.
 
More Judges Now Available
I would like to ask everyone to give Joe Miller a special thank you for his tireless effort of cultivating, training and encouraging new judges for local photographic competitions.  Without Joe's efforts the pool of competition judges would be getting about as dry as our local reservoirs.  Joe has worked with Steve Passman (our NVPS judge in April 2007), creating the Northern Virginia Alliance of Camera Clubs site which contains information about the judges who have been trained and ready for judging local competitions.  Quite a few are NVPS members that you will likely know or recognize.  You can see information on the judges at www.NVACC.org.
 
Photo Opportunities
While fall colors were a little disappointing this year, they still were enjoyable.  The tendency for many folks is to put their gear away until the weather warms again or until their families get together during the holidays.  As we lose daylight savings and night comes even before some of us get home from work a new photo opportunity awaits us, and that's night photography.  Before it gets too cold and with the waning hours of daylight it's a great time to consider night photography.  A tripod, cable release and a thermos of your favorite warm beverage is all you really need.  Architecture, traffic, all sorts of things are fabulous subjects for night photography.  Here's a website that might give you some additional inspiration for night photography.   As you look at these images keep in mind these images were taken mostly at dusk and no image manipulation (other than color correction and dust spotting) http://www.lostamerica.com/.
 
Help Wanted
Equipment assistant - someone control the lights at meetings, move prints on competition nights, transport the print display box and to learn and/or help with the presentation equipment. Contact Scott Musson, smusson@mindspring.com

Other volunteers needed for a number of temporary and permanent positions are always needed at NVPS.  You are encouraged to enhance your experience at NVPS by volunteering, there are always a number of people needed.  If you have any special interests or care to help out, please contact Scott Musson at smusson@mindspring.com or speak to me at one of the weekly meetings

Photography vs. Photoshop
I recently was reading Tim Grey's "Digital Darkroom Quarterly" as I regularly do, along with his daily email and many of his books, and his editorial on Photoshop verses Photography really struck a chord with me.  I asked Tim for permission to reprint this article in Fotofax and he graciously agreed.  Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
 
Scott Musson
NVPS President
smusson@mindspring.com
703-278-2828
 
Photography Verses Photoshop by Tim Grey
Originally Published in Digital Darkroom Quarterly - Autumn 2007
Reprinted with Permission of the Author
http://www.timgrey.com/

As I wrapped up an article for my new print newsletter, Digital Darkroom Quarterly, showing how to reproduce in Photoshop the effects of various filters you would normally put in front of your lens, I started thinking about the difference between photography and Photoshop. I'm sure we've all heard the saying, "I'll fix it in Photoshop". Many of us have probably even uttered that line when we knew current conditions or limitations of our digital camera were going to result in an image that didn't quite match our photographic vision.

While I love that Photoshop and other software tools enable us to exercise tremendous control over our photography, I also realize in many cases it can be used as a crutch to replace less-than-optimal photographic skills or situations. As someone who helps photographers learn to produce the best results in Photoshop, I realize I may be perceived as contributing to this problem. It's actually something I think about regularly. Whenever I'm writing or speaking on the subject, I try to reinforce that you need to start with the best captures possible (aesthetically and photographically), and that Photoshop should be seen as a tool for making your great images amazing, not for salvaging your challenging captures (though it is indeed very useful for that as well).

Considering all this, I find it exciting that there seems to be a renewed interest in focusing on photography again. This is a trend I've noticed recently. It seems photographers are in large part getting to the point that they have at least a basic understanding of how to use digital tools in their workflow, and now there's a renewed interest in "getting back to photography" and making a priority of improving photographic skills first and foremost. I'm sure there will always be a need for more education on digital technology (and for my livelihood, I certainly hope so!), but it is encouraging to see photographers focusing more on photography than Photoshop these days.

 

 
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