Digital Photographers, Videographers and Graphics people:

At our December 18^th meeting of DIG we had 17 attendees and 12 presentations. Despite the smaller audience due to Christmas, the presentations lasted from 6:30 until 10 p.m. There were 3 people who attended for the first time, bringing our current membership up to 65. You become a member by attending one or more meetings and membership is free. We received $16 in donations, which covers the monthly rental of our meeting space ($15) as well as some office supplies. Thank you very much for your contributions!

The purpose of sending you these DIG Minutes is to show you the work of others and to help motivate you to get out and create new digital content! Then bring it over for tomorrow’s “show and tell” on January 15^th, 2009.  Anyone who would like to bring a few refreshments, snacks or drinks is encouraged to do so. Our audiences so far have ranged between 16 up to 34 people.

In attendance at the December 18^th meeting were:  Bob Adams, Diane Yancey, Greg Knobloch, Jane Cupp, Jim Gardner, John Fuller, Kent Owings, Larry Harper, Linda Britt, Mike Fleshood, Natasha Stansel, Norma Nichols, Richard Nichols, Roger Luo, Steve Pritchard, Suzanne Owings and Tim Hale.

Below are the details from last month’s Digital Image Group meeting on December 18th. Actually, this is more than the “minutes” it is a group of links that lead you to the DIG website to view all the work shown last month, both the digital images and the digital video presentations.

A.      If you wish to cut to the chase, go to http://www.digitalimagegroup.org/photo/index.php?folder=/2008/2008-12_December/ to view images and a demonstration .pdf made by 6 of our presenters in December, including Bob Adams, Norma Nichols, John Fuller, Natasha Stansel, Kent Owings, Diane Yancey and Jim Gardner.

B.      To view the two videos shown last month by Jane Cupp and Richard Nichols, please go to http://www.digitalimagegroup.org/ where you will see both flash videos featured on the front page. Stay tuned below for more specific information.

Presentations are in the order in which they took place:

1. Bob Adams presented “Western Travel ” including seasonal landscapes and animals out west.
   
2. Jim Gardner gave a brief tutorial on “ Copyrighting an Image” using Photoshop to edit the EXIF metadata embedded in images by your digital camera. EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. You can learn more about EXIF data at About.com. During Jim’s presentation he opened the metadata in Photoshop and added his image copyright information which is then embedded into the final image.
   
3. Norma Nichols showed a digital video presentation entitled “Christmas,” a group of special effect images done in Photoshop.  Some of her images were made with free Xero-Graphics plug-ins she found on the Internet. You can download these free plugins at http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/freeware.htm and place them in the plug-ins folder of any program that is compatible with Photoshop’s plug-in architecture.   
   
4. CDC professional photographer Greg Knobloch gave a presentation entitled “Pandemic Flu Exercise” showing one of his projects for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). It depicted a training exercise at the Miami Airport for the authorities and EMS personnel screening passengers for deadly diseases. He shot the images with a Nikon 3 set at an ISO of 1600 to 3200. Greg often used a very wide angle lens without a flash due to the crowded quarters in the airport with a television crew he was working beside. Each passenger arriving from outside the country gets a body temperature scan to determine if they have a fever and could be a potential carrier of flu. Greg used both Adobe Bridge and Adobe Raw Converter to edit and balance his images. Because of the nature and ownership of the images, they are not placed on the DIG website for public review.
   
5. Photojournalist Tim Hale displayed his “Pictures of the Year” which included many of his pictures made while he works for the U.S. Army. He showed images of the Georgia State Capitol, student protests at Virginia Tech, Nascar race photos from Atlanta Motor Speedway, culinary images, pictures of an Easter Egg drop in Douglas County and the Renaissance Festival near Atlanta.  Because of the nature and ownership of several of the images, Tim’s images are not placed on the DIG website for review. Tim  also gave a demonstration of off-camera flash borrowing Natasha Stansel as his model during our social/refreshment break.
   
6. John Fuller presented “Pemaquid Lighthouse, Rock Bound Coast of Maine” consisting of images he made of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol, Maine.  Pemaquid Lighthouse was built in 1835 and parts of it were replaced in 1856. You can find more information about this popular tourist attraction here. John’s photographs include several of the amazing granite formations that surround the lighthouse and go down to the sea.
   
7. Natasha Stansel showed “Favorites, Christmas & the Statue” consisting of 17 black&white and color images. Many of Natasha’s pictures involve major Photoshop techniques, simplification, posterization, high contrast, and digital paintings as well as straight photography.
   
8. Kent Owings entitled his presentation “Washington D.C.” His imagery included his visit to the World War II Memorial , Arlington Cemetery, Washington Monument, the White House, the U.S. Capitol building, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials at night and some street scenes. 
   
9. Jane Cupp played portions of a video she made of her computerized “Christmas Lightshow 2008.” The video was made outside her home at night with the Christmas musical audio track coming from her vehicle radio. Her lightshow consisted of almost 50,000 lights installed in and around her home and landscape.
   
10. Diane Yancey brought festive pictures of  “OpryLand Christmas Lights” made in Nashville recently. A large portion of the displays in her images are made out of clear and colored ice. Diane photographed the attraction called “ICE! Featuring the Grinch” which is part of “A Country Christmas Celebration’ in Nashville. The sculptures are hand carved from almost 2 million pounds of ice and contained in the 20,000 sq. ft. refrigerated Gaslight Theater.  Many of the ice sculptures are over 25 feet long. She also shared other Christmas pictures made in and around the Opryland Hotel.
    
11. Richard Nichols finished out the evening with an insane video he put together entitled “Shreik IV: The Musical – A birthday tribute to my sister Kathryn.” Complete with donkeys, a pig, a wild hog and fireworks, the video contains many sound effects and songs that the Nichols family grew up with as well as a purely amateur video. Richard used this as an exercise to learn video-editing with Pinnacle Studio 12.

Please take some time to study each of these visual artists’ offerings. We hope these creative people stimulate you to make more images of your own and bring them over to DIG to show them.

Again, the agenda for tomorrow looks like this:

What: Digital Image Group Meeting – 9th meeting ever!

When: 6:30 P.M. till we are done (you don’t have to be on time and you can leave when you need to go). Thursday evening, January 15^th and every third Thursday of the month from here till eternity.

Where: St. Julian’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 5400 Stewart’s Mill Road, Douglasville GA 30135

Why: Because people with digital still and video cameras, computers, graphics and image manipulation/editing software need a place to meet, share their knowledge and see what other people are doing in the visual arts. If you desire, you may also show your own images, designs and digital videos to the audience, get some feedback and participate in the discussions.

Admission is Free. A donation of $1 is accepted but not required. Any money collected goes to pay for the rental of the Parish Hall and for a few office supplies and miscellaneous expenses.

Part 1 starts at 6:30 and runs until 8 p.m. It will consist of shorter presentations and discussions.

Part 2 is a 20 minute informal social break from 8 p.m. until 8:20 p.m. -- Chat with participants and attendees. Bring your camera, accessories, prints etc. and ask questions, meet new people, make some friends.

Part 3 starts at 8:20 p.m. and remains open-ended: it goes until the last person has presented. Longer presentations and demonstrations are usually presented later in the evening during Part 3. You may leave at any time, once you reach “information overload” status. Everyone who wants to show their work will get the opportunity, so there is no formal ending time—as long as the presenters and audience last. This is your chance to enjoy visual arts in a highly condensed discussion group.

If your schedule won’t allow you to make it to part 1, plan on coming to part 2 or 3 of the evening or any time in-between.
We hope to see you tomorrow evening, Thursday, January 15^th , at 6:30 and beyond.

Richard