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Austin Pond Society September 2014 Meeting

The third Monday of the month rolls around and with it the APS Monthly Meeting held at the usual time, 6:30 pm at the Zilker Gardens Meeting Room. This past Monday was no exception so promptly at 6:00 pm, I walked into the Meeting Room to set up my cameras. I was especially looking forward to this particular speaker, whose name is Rose Krohn-Epps and her topic for the evening is Photography. I am always looking to pick up tips and information on how the really good photographers perform their work. Me, I’m just an amateur with an expensive camera that has more bells and whistles than I will ever use. But, I am always willing to learn…

We started off as usual with a meal provided by the APS.  Our new Chef, Laura Wisdom, is away on her honeymoon so we had to make do with Pizza. As I hadn’t had Pizza in a while, it was OK by me and I thoroughly enjoyed the two small pieces that I quickly gobbled down. For desert, there were an assortment of cookies some provided by the members. I cheated on my own good eating habits and  ate a couple of chocolate coconut cookies and boy, were they good.

Promptly at 7:00 pm, the President, Jeannie Ferrier brought us to order and then the Programs organizer, Barb Lenhardt

Rose Krohn-Epps Photographer

introduced the speaker, Rose Krohn-Epps. Rose opened up her presentation by showing us a slide show of some of her photographs and they were absolutely beautiful. She then went on to explain with the help of a Power Point show what the different terms used in photographic work meant and how they are derived and what purpose they have in taking pictures. Explanations of F-stops, light, speed and the different variables that all go in to making a good picture. She had brought with her many of the “tools of the trade” and showed us her lenses, cameras, tripods and other items much too numerous to mention by name.

I found her presentation very interesting and realized just how many were my own short comings in this field. Well, she is a professional after all and has been taking pictures for more than twenty years. It turns out that I was not as prepared as I should have been and in setting up, discovered that both of the batteries to the video camera were flat so I had to resort to using my Nikon 5100 as a video camera. These cameras take just as good videos as the regular video camera with  the only difference being they can only run for twenty minutes and then they shut off. By keeping an eye on the camera clock, it is possible to stop and then re-start them with no break in the action. I heard that the twenty-minute thing is to bypass some regulation that says a camera can only be sold either as a video or as a camera even though both of them can do both.

But wait, that is not the end of my tail of woe. Towards the end of her presentation, I noticed a message on the camera screen stating that the

Serving the food

memory card was bad so I rapidly changed it out for a new one to capture the end of the presentation. The test will be when I try to download the memory card to the computer…

My attempts to film Rose’s presentation did not come out at all well as the camera filming a film always comes out cloudy and way too light to read. You can view the presentation at www.rosekrohneppsphotography.com/Nature_Photography.html . You will need to have Power Point on your computer to view it as it is a Power Point presentation. If you are a budding photographer or even one with some experience, I highly recommend taking a look at this slide show. None of us should ever stop learning as all of us can learn something new no matter how experienced we think we are. Below is the Q and A session of the speakers presentation.

Rose Epps from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

Following the Photography presentation, we turned to the business part of the evening of which one of the highlights was the presentation of a check for $2000 to the Dell Children’s Hospital, The money was raised from proceeds from the Pond Tour and the Dell Children’s Hospital were nominated as this years beneficiaries. Linda Tinsley was the main mover and shaker behind this effort and she presented the check to Audrey Pendergrass, the Dell Representative. Carl Tinsley also presented her with a ceramic tile that had been handed to all of the Pond Tour entries. for their participation.

Photos

The other highlight would be choosing the winners of the Photography Competition. The photographs from the membership had been laid out on the last row of tables and we had each been given four sticky notes on which we had to write the number (displayed on each photo) of what we considered to be the best picture in each category. The four categories are Fish, Ponds, Pond Related Plants and Pond Critters (not fish). These would then be tallied up and the one with the highest number of votes would be the winner with second and thirds to complete the twelve pictures necessary for the Calendar. The one with the most number of overall votes also got to be the cover picture. Given how high tech’ the process was, it all worked out well in the end. Thanks everyone for making this part of the evening a fun time.

The final piece of business was the Nomination Committee looking for nominations from the floor for ALL of the Board positions some of which will be open with the current members stepping down at the end of the year. Many of the current members are still willing to continue. Positions are open and I urge anyone who has the time and the interest to be thinking about volunteering for one of the committees. We will be holding elections at the November meeting.

Jeannie brought the meeting to a close at almost 9:00 pm. The next meeting is scheduled for October 19th and the speaker for the evening will be Dr. Alfredo Geigel-Ortiz, V.M.D from Vida Veterinary Mobile Services. he will be discussing all of the things that can (and do) happen to our fish. Bring along your problems to share with the group. The meeting will start at 6:30 pm for the dinner (Bolognese over Spaghetti with a tossed green salad) and the speaker is scheduled for 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held in the usual place at Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin.

APS Meeting September 2014 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.