2011-06-15 FCDCC Meeting Notes

The June outing will be to Roxborough State Park for sunrise. The park opens at 5:30am on this Saturday especially to provide sunrise access. Sunrise will be at 5:29am at 57.7 degrees.
Where: Roxborough State Park, Littleton, CO
When: Saturday, June 18; 3:30 a.m. for sunrise
Meet: NE corner of the Harmony Transportation Center parking lot; sunrise is at 5:32 a.m.; drive is 1.5 hours and then a ¼ mile hike to the Fountain Valley overlook; we will leave at 3:30 a.m. so please try to arrive a few minutes earlier
Cost: $7 per vehicle fee to enter park
Directions: Take I-25 S to exit #207B/Santa Fe Drive onto US-85 S;
Head south on Santa Fe (Highway 85) to Titan Road. (4.2 miles south of C-470 intersection)
Turn right (west) on Titan Road.
Continue heading west on Titan Road.
It will curve and begin to head south—becoming North Rampart Range Road (3 miles).
Continue south on North Rampart Range Road past Roxborough Village and the Foothills Water Treatment Plant (3.5 miles).
At the intersection of North Rampart Range Road and Roxborough Park Road, turn left onto Roxborough Park Road.
Take the next right (about 50 yards away) to enter the park.
More info: http://www.parks.state.co.us/Parks/Roxborough/Pages/RoxboroughStatePark.aspx

This month's informal meeting will be Thursday 6/16 at The Full Throttle Coffeehouse at 9am. We will decide what to do about our pictures that are hanging in the coffeehouse.
Where: FTC Coffee House on Mason north of Horsetooth (above Boomer Music)

This month we will have an additional informal outing to Coyote Ridge in the evening. Meet at Coyote Ridge parking lot on Tuesday 6/21 at 6pm. (no fee) Sunset will be 8:33pm at 302.3 degrees. Someone has been breaking into vehicles that are left in the Coyote Ridge parking lot, so you might want to not leave anything valuable in your car. 1 mile walk up to nature trail through prairie dog colony where hawks, rabbits, coyotes, snakes and badgers frequent
Directions: Parking lot on west side of Taft Hill Road approximately 3 miles south of Harmony Road (about 1 mile south of the Larimer County Landfill).

We have yet another additional informal outing this month. We have scheduled a portrait shoot for the Northern Colorado Writers' Association on Saturday 6/25. (Setup from 8-9am, shoot from 9-12pm) The writers want photographs that they can use on book jackets. Their office is located at 108 E. Monroe, near the Foothills Fashion Mall in Fort Collins.

July's outing will be to Brainerd Lake on 7/16.

Our club will be teaching another Workshop at the Library on Wednesday 7/20 at 7pm.

The Greeley Stampede is coming up. There will be plenty of photo opportunities. They charge an admission for the main rodeo, but the slack rodeo sessions are free. (parking is $5)

New West Fest will be 8/12, 13, & 14 this year. Rich has spoken to the organizers and they want us to photograph the event again this year, but they have just started getting organized and they will be contacting us later with details.

We had 3 new visitors and one returning visitor at our meeting. Welcome Fred, Dennis, Wally and Rick. If you are still interested in joining our club, please pay Rich Ernst $20 for annual dues and then contact Mike Barry to add you to the website and email list.

Last month's casual evening outing went well even though it rained and only a few members showed up.

The Photo Shoot 6/4 went very well. We had 6 models and about 12 photographers show up. If you haven't already given your pictures from the model shoot to Dawn, they are due by the June 30. Please put your best pictures on a CD or DVD and make sure to include your name on the package and/or the DVD/CD. Mail photos from June 4 portrait shoot at Primrose Studio to Dawn at: 2833 Sage Creek Road, Fort Collins, CO 80528

The club would like to create a portfolio for Sarah. She has been critical to the success of our Model Photo Shoots and the club would like to thank her. All the models that actually showed up for this year's shoot were friends that Sarah brought. If you have good photos of Sarah, from this year or any year in the past, send them to Ken Eis (or bring them to a club meeting or outing on a CD/DVD). Ken wants them at their highest resolution and uncropped.

The Taste of Fort Collins was a good photo opportunity, with about 12 different bands. I wasn't able to get a press pass for the event, but Rich said that the Kiwanis were looking for photographer volunteers earlier. We should try to contact the Kiwanis early next year and volunteer to photograph the event for them in exchange for press passes.

The FCDCC has sent out an email survey to all members. Please fill it out. If you just click the reply button in your email tool you will be sending the results to Mike and Guy, and we will forward them to Jack, but they won't be anonymous.

Some members have suggested that we need lower quality Fix-It pictures. The last couple of pictures were quite good before any changes. Please send in your Fix-It pictures.

Thanks to Tony and Ken for demonstrating how to clean up portraits using Aperture and Photoshop.

Jim has been using Portrait Professional to clean up portraits and he may demonstrate it to the club next month.

Several plug-in filters were discussed by members: Topaz Adjust, Pixel Bender, Dynamic Auto Painter, Topaz Remask, Nik, and Painterly.

The club is assembling a Realities for Children Ride and Rally photo book to show at The Full Throttle Coffeehouse. Please bring in up to 3 8x10 prints of the Ride and Rally, or motorcycles, if you would like to add them to the photo book.