Jordan welcomed everyone to the meeting as our new leader. He thanked Debbie for her club leadership in the past. He encouraged everyone to come every month. He is working on finding sponsorship and hopes to have drawings for books, software and giveaways at future meetings.
Several first-time visitors were welcomed to the meeting.
Jordan asked for suggestions from members for future events or meeting topics. Several people were interested in field trips. Field trip topics suggested included flowers and wildflowers at Civic Green Park next to the library, city skyline shots and low light photography. We also discussed picking a general topic and having an assignment to bring three to five photos on that theme. We will also continue to have show and tell sessions periodically. Any other suggestions should be addressed to Jordan.
Sports and Portrait Photography
John Leyba
Denver Post photojournalist John Leyba was our featured presenter at the July meeting. We were treated to an interesting account of his experiences at the recent Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
John was on assignment in Vancouver for a month. His day typically starated at 4 a.m. and lasted until 1 a.m. every day. Although his goal was to cover three events each day, that was not always possible. The bus ride to mountain events took 2 1/2 hours each direction.
Weather was not an issue as far as being too cold, but the big problem was rain. Some days he was covering mountain events, it was a big problem to keep his equipment dry and free of condensation.
His favorite event was the gold medal hockey game. From Leyba’s point of view, it was better than being at the Super Bowl or a Stanley Cup final.
Leyba explained the nuts and bolts of this kind of sports photo assignment. He lived on M&Ms and Coke because he did not have the opportunity to leave for meals. In order to save a good vantage point for shooting, he had to arrive at a venue early and stay there. If a photographer left, he or she would lose the spot.
In addition to a firsthand look at his Olympic coverage, John answered a variety of technical questions from club members. He also treated us to a slide show with a variety of his sports and portrait photography.
Unlike the casual photographer, newspaper photographers must adhere to a strict code of ethics. Very few changes are allowed. John explained the allowable changes as the sort of thing that might have been done in a darkroom in past days. Some allowable changes would be to straighten, lighten or dark. When editing for news photos, there can be nothing taken out or added to the photo. He gave several examples of photojournalists who were fired for removing something on a table or adding extra people to improve the composition.
John’s next big assignments will be to cover Rockies games and the Bronco’s football camp which begins August 1. Thank you very much for sharing the evening with us!
Show and tell:
- Jim brought photos from Mt. Evans and Roxborough.
- Joyce brought 4th of July photos, a bee on a lavendar plant, a day lily with photo effects and a sunset shot.
- Lou brought a variety of photos from Germany, Austria and several U.S. locations. His photos included some bird closeups.
- Dave shot his cats and some intriguingly humorous shots from the Monaco Hotel.
- Jordan showed several homeless beggars from a recent trip to India, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Ireland, downtown Denver at summer solstice and a butterfly using image stabilization for a handheld shot.
On the schedule:
- August 10, 2010: To be determined. We may have a software representative.
View reports from previous meetings – News Archives
