Hello, digital image and video enthusiasts,

Attached you will find the latest page I’ve submitted to the Chapel Hill News & Views for publication. Unfortunately they  can’t publish it this month because they ran out of space, I was informed today, but we can pretend it is going to come out or at least the top half may come out, hopefully on November first instead of the October 1st issue.  We are grateful to the hard working people at CHN&V who seemingly never sleep. Because we don’t have strong “contest oriented” deadlines, our work will appear whenever they can find space.

There are a number of other ways we intend to publicize the group. If any of you have promotional ideas feel free to get in touch with me. Thank you all for your support and interest!

Before I present the minutes below, for the benefit of those receiving this message who haven’t already hear this, the Digital Image Group’s mission and vision statement is as follows:

Here is a rundown on the August 21st meeting of DIG. We had 26 attendees and 15 presentations. There were 7 people who attended for the first time, bringing our current membership up to 48. We received $18 in donations, which is $3 over the rental of our meeting space. Thank you very much!

Our presenters for the evening included the following:

1. Norma Nichols – “Photographic Illustrations” – a number of Norma’s designs using pictures of building interiors, sculptures, flowers and animals. Her work often includes the use of Reindeer Graphics’ Adaptive Equalization Filter which can be downloaded free at http://www.reindeergraphics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=56 . You might also check out other free Photoshop plugins on the Reindeer Graphics site. Our discovery of this “ detail enhancement” filter comes from Wilson Hurst of www.wilsonhurst.com whose website is one of the visual delights on the web. You can also experiment with many other plugins that don’t come with Photoshop by searching on Google for “free Photoshop plugins” and “free Photoshop Actions”. Norma told the audience that she used several of these plugins for each of her images. They often offer more control over the results than the filters that come built into Photoshop. 
2. Diane Yancey presented “Harper Lee’s South” – a series of images she is putting together for the “Douglasville Celebrates Photography” show at the Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/Douglas County coming up in October, 2008. Diane’s images included still lifes created at her home. Her compositions included images of very old furniture and southern cooking. Diane combined moody lighting with old fashioned subject matter resulting in timeless images of the Old South. She also showed a number of pictures of hydrangea blossoms. Harper Lee wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
3. Professional Photojournalist Tim Hale showed “A Month’s Worth of Work.” He wanted to prove to the audience that he doesn’t just shoot photo journalism and commercial work, he also shoots pictures for his own enjoyment. His work included scenes from the Villa Rica Gold Mine, a vegetable still life, images from Cochran Mill nature reserve of a snake, a tortoise and a waterfall. He also showed a self portrait. Tim  is launching a new local sports website at www.chapelhillsportsreport.com . Check it out!
4. Professional Videographer and Photographer Angelo Muhammad of Omar Images presented two very professional video pieces, “Earl Albertson” and “Debutante Atlanta.” Earl Albertson is Douglasville’s historian. Angelo’s portrait of Earl included footage of early Douglasville dwellings and businesses, etc. “Debutante Atlanta” is a speculative piece put together by a number of people. It was lensed and edited by Muhammad. Very professionally done.
5. Rebekah Calhoun (who happens to be associated with Mr. Electric here in Douglasville) presented “Stuff”, mainly images of her son, done in a very artistic fashion. One image was black and white of her son in a wash tub, facing away from the camera. Another was a sepia tone of her son in a Radio Flyer wagon, tinted to look very old. Rebekah’s work tends to be very strong graphically. Great impact! Rebekah is obviously a scrapbooker.
6. Jim Gardner gave a “Softbox Lighting” demonstration during the social break. He purchased a small foldout fabric softbox (officially called a photography light tent soft box lighting cube) through E-bay for about $15. The softbox allows the photographer to insert items such as jewelry and shiny metal objects into the enclosure and control all reflections. An example of a similar softbox can be seen at http://xrl.us/orgrs and currently costs between $9.99 and $14.99 .
7. James Campbell showed us ten minutes of “Cell Phone Images.” James, who is just beginning his journey into image making, presented close-ups of flower pots, experiments with his cat, pictures of yards and landscapes, etc. It is great to see his interest and early work.
8. Alan Cordrey’s presentation was entitled “My First Showing.” A number of his images were made in Australia including the Sydney Opera House at Dawn.
9. Natasha Stansel has been taking a photography course and showed her recent “Contrast” assignment. Her images included silhouettes, illustrations, and arcade images that illustrate the concept of contrast in photography.
10. Lois Volper, fresh off the golf course, gave a PowerPoint show entitled “Douglas County Chamber of Commerce Golf & Tennis Classic.” Her show captured the event from start to finish, showing sponsors, golfers, golf course landscapes, and features of the Chamber’s biggest fundraising event of the year.
11. John Fuller presented “Deer Fighting and Grooming.” He discussed and depicted the natural selection process at work when deer collide after explaining why golf courses have 18 holes – hint, it has something to do with drams of Scotch whiskey.
12. Frank Karycinski showed the results of some of his recent commercial ventures in the area of Photo Restoration. He gave a before and after glimpse of what is possible when valuable old torn and tattered photographs are restored to health using a variety of image editing techniques.
13. Jim Enterkin presented “Saturday Morning Special.” His show consisted of pictures of a backlit buzzard, a covered bridge in North Georgia, a red fox squirrel and several butterflies. He discussed his macro focusing techniques with the audience.
14. Jane Cupp presented a 14 minute multimedia presentation complete with music entitled “Ave Maria Grotto.” Ave Maria Grotto is a stone and concrete miniature city of Jerusalem. Located in Cullman Alabama, Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk spent a lifetime creating 125 buildings on 4 acres of land. Jane’s visual landscape covered the subjects in great detail.
15. Charles Phaneuf showed “Basketball.” He set his camera on “continuous” and captured a flow of images depicting the motion of family members playing basketball-- passing the ball, running, jumping, throwing and guarding, He set the still images to music and called on the Ken Burns effect to add motion and excitement to his video. Because the video did not play smoothly at one point, we reverted to still photos and the audience enjoyed looking at the progression to see how swiftly and easily the camera told the story.     

See you there!