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TRANSCRIPT
1 Jan 2019
FOCUS
Newsletter of the Mayslake Nature Study and Photography Club
Hosted by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County www.naturecameraclub.com
Up Coming Programs
January 7th - Members’ presentations
featuring Rick Shoenfield, Don Cochrane,
Chuck Peterson and Steve Baginski
January 21st - Competition
February 4th
– Macro Workshop Introduction with
Nettlehorst Images
January 7th at 7pm
A Wild Montana Wolf by Sheila Newenham
See Conservation News on page 4
2 Jan 2019
Competition Reminder—January 21
The next competition night is January 21, 2019. The deadline for submitting digital images is
Sunday January 13th. Please check the website for instructions and forms. Also, remember
that submitting make-up images is only allowed for those members who act as judges.
The forms for each competition image, digital and print, are submitted on the night of the
competition. If you cannot attend the competition, please send them with a friend on that night.
Normally, forms will not be able to be emailed ahead of time. For digital images, if you cannot
make the meeting please email your forms to Ron Szymczak at [email protected]
before the meeting.
Please hand in prints and paperwork in by 6:45 pm so that committee members can get
everything organized and ready to go at 7 pm.
By submitting either prints or digital images in competition, you can receive individual honors, can
have images submitted to CACCA inter-club competition and can have images eligible for Image
of the Year.
Even if you decide you don’t want to submit images for competition, consider attending
competition night to see the scoring and hear the critiques. Both are great learning opportunities.
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County (FPDDC) Interaction
Once again Mayslake will be hosting the Wonders of Winter event on Feb. 2nd from 10am-2pm. Tim Jensen and Beverly Bartos have volunteered to attend. Thank You! We are looking for a few additional volunteers that will be able to represent MNSPC and conduct some photo walks for interested event participants. Remember this is our commitment to FPDDC to help them with these events in exchange for the free meeting facilities. Let's show them we are a good partner. We probably will also have a photo give away as we have done in the past. We currently have a Peabody Estate photo to give away but we would like to have one or two more. They do not need to be framed and any photos, preferably winter-related images, mounted on 11x14 poster mat board would be fine. Please let Noriko and Cheryl know by January 14 if you can help out with this event.
3 Jan 2019
Upcoming Outings
Fran Piepenbrink
January TBD Morton Arboretum
I am hoping to make an impromptu outing in January to see and take pictures of bald eagles. This website, https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Mississippi-River-Project/Education/Eagle-Watching/Eagle-Counts/ is a great place to find current recorded counts of bald eagles. As weather permits, I will also explore the Morton Arboretum this winter on rented snow shoes/cross country skis to capture fresh snow images. If you would like to be on my call list, please let me know. Contact me at [email protected] if you interested in any or all of the above.
March 23rd 8:30am – 10:am
Orchids by Hausermann Located in Villa Park, this is a family owned business that grows 300 species of orchids by automated, specialized methods in 3.5 acres of greenhouses. Carl Hausermann founded the business in 1920 growing sweet peas, roses, and gardenias. His son, Edwin, began acquiring orchids in 1935 and eventually replaced all other flowers with orchids. Every year they hold an open house. We will have access to the greenhouses before the business opens to take images of the orchids. Tripods and backdrops are allowed. Please contact me at [email protected] for more information. After the photo shoot at, we will end our morning with a late breakfast/early lunch.
Bev Bartos
Gail Chastain
December’s Outing Report On December 13th, a small group of us met up at Lombard’s Holiday Lights at Lilacia Park. All the holiday lights in shapes of polar bears, trains, snowflakes, gingerbread houses to name just a few were brilliantly brilliant! The whole park was ablaze in color. Unfortunately, soon after arriving the rain started. We took what pictures we could and then met up for a delicious dinner at Babcock’s Grove House in Lombard. It was a wonderful evening.
4 Jan 2019
Conservation News: Your Voice Matters By Sheila Newenham
Recently, a habituated wolf, unaware of geopolitical boundaries, ventured out of Yellowstone Park and into the path of a hunter. This human, who took her life, looked like all the rest of the people that this wolf had encountered in her six years. People had never caused her to alter her path or make her flee to safety. Legal hunting in such proximity to Yellowstone National Park, a world-renown wildlife watching destination is confounding. In areas populated by people no less. Something has to change. Doug Smith, senior wildlife biologist, has suggested it might be time to start hazing wolves within the park to teach the wolves the survival skills they need. Of course, I love to be able to watch wild wolves and I don’t want to lose that. But not at the cost of their lives. I suspect that hunters are as passionate about their wild interactions and don’t want to give those up either, even though I don’t understand it. We can’t have it both ways. If Montana won’t change hunting regulations near the park, then we need to consider our role in habituating these wolves. But, before that, WRITE SOME LETTERS. Here are some suggestions from Nathan Varley and Linda Thurston of https://www.wolftracker.com/ to help you to be heard. Your letters matter! While residents carry a lot of weight, visitors are also recognized as important to the future of Montana. “The first step would be to write respectfully, so that your words will be heard, and ask them to close the area around Cooke City to wolf hunting and trapping. Close it immediately, and keep it closed in perpetuity. This request seems to be reasonable for a number of reasons. First, this is a residential area. It is a place where people live. Many do not want hunting and trapping in their midst, and its effects can pit neighbor against neighbor. The fact that states don’t normally offer hunts in residential areas suggests that this request should be low-hanging fruit for us to pluck. Secondly, this area is not far from Lamar Valley, a premier wolf and wildlife watching location where we can anticipate animals that are accustomed to being safe around a lot of people watching them become very vulnerable to hunters. This is not a ‘fair chase’ hunt. Animals that support a thriving ecotourism industry should not also be ones that are hunted. This inevitably creates social conflict among stakeholders. There are over 200 wolves ‘harvested’ each year in Montana. Why should two of them potentially come from this very unique and sensitive area? We have some tips for talking to the state. Avoid the use of the term ‘buffer zone.’ This is a hot button one for them because they consider a buffer an attempt to extend the park boundaries (an age old issue between the state and the feds, due to differing missions). Instead, ask for a “no hunt zone” around Cooke City for safety, for protection of unique wildlife resources, and for ensuring the prosperity and viability of Montana’s ecotourism industry in this area. Avoid the phrase “park wolves” when talking about wolves that spend most of their time inside the park but occasionally are outside of the park. If wolves leave the park and enters Montana, the state considers those wolves the state’s wolves. Reassure them that these particular “Montana wolves” are still very valuable to Montana residents, and thousands of visitors, in many unique ways. We recommend writing letters to Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks, its commissioners and Governor Bullock.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Commissioners (this body of 5 appointed officials have the ultimate say in hunting/trapping matters in the state): [email protected]
Montana Governor Steve Bullock http://governor.mt.gov/Home/Contact.
The agency professionals at Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks [email protected]
5 Jan 2019
The tables were each decorated with Mason jars filled with candies,
candles and lights that added a very festive mood. These were
later raffled to 6 members. Thanks to Cheryl Rausch, Janice Henry, Dee Hudson and Becky Davis for
creatively filling the jars and to David Schooley for donating the jars. Thank you to Karin Grunow who contributed beautiful center piece jars filled with lights and
ribbons creating a warm holiday glow.
Gail Chastain & Steve Baginski brought holiday cards for our
military men and women around the world who can’t be home for the holidays for us all to sign. We all thank them and Mission BBQ Restaurant who sponsors this
mission for our troops!
Six of Steve Ornberg’s and Bill Dixon’s photographs were chosen
from 250 photographs of the Mayslake Mansion and to be
displayed raffled off at the party. Chuck Klingsporn printed them and Josh Merrill dry mounted
them.
Shannon Burns, an education program coordinator from Forest
Preserve District of DuPage County, shared interesting facts
about the Peabody mansion.
Of course we all enjoyed the 200 Abstract/Creative image slide
show compiled by Fran Piepenbrink from the images
submitted by our members. Thank you, Fran!
The Holiday Party on Dec 3rd was filled with laughter, great presentations, delicious food and raffles.
6 Jan 2019
Nature Corner
Nature Corner aims to educate about animals,
flowers, plants and trees. Each month we will
include a plant or animal photo and a few
words about the subject so you may be able
to identify it when you see it.
Everyone is encouraged to submit a photo to
Sheila Newenham via the club e-mail for
inclusion in an upcoming newsletter. Include
the name, location and date if relevant, and a
little information about the subject.
Resident Orcas (male on the left, distinguished by the tall dorsal fin, female on the right)
Resident orcas tend to live in large family groups consisting of a matriarch, her offspring and
the offspring of her daughters (called matrilines). Closely related groups of 2-4 matrilines form
a pod and groups of pods are called clans. Matrilines are highly stable with members only
leaving the group for hours at a time, whereas pods may separate for months. Resident orca
are smaller, live closer to shore in Washington and British Columbia waters and feed
exclusively on fish, primatrily Chinook Salmon.
Transient Orca, more appropriately called Biggs Killer Whales and possibly a distinct species,
live further out from shore from Alaska to California. These larger orca live in small family
groups with a mother and one or two offspring, feeding on marine mammals, primarily seals
and sea lions, but porpoises and small whales, too. The two groups are morphologically
different as well and experts can distinguish the groups by the shape of their dorsal fins and
individuals by the “fingerprint” of their saddle patch (the white behind the dorsal fin).
By Sheila Newenham
Highly intelliengt, one of few to outlive thewir reporoductve years
Resident fish eaters vs transient dolphin eaters
Orca (Orcinus Orca)
First stuck with the misnomer, Killer Whale,
and then labeled as residents and transients,
orcas have long been misunderstood. These
highly intelligent members of the oceanic
dolphin family live in matriarchal family
groups in the Pacific Ocean.
7 Jan 2019
Tech Tidbit: Copyright preset
Have you created your 2019 copyright preset yet for your editing software? It’s a good idea to create a new copyright preset at the end of each year — but don’t just overwrite the previous year’s preset. Keeping all year’s presets will give you the option to go back in time and add a previous year’s copyright information to images. (Robert Vanelli, Photofocus 12/28/18) Here is additional information about updating the copyright preset in LightRoom. https://photofocus.com/2016/12/23/have-you-created-your-2017-copyright-preset/ We are looking for contributions for tech tidbits. If you have an item you love in your software or came across a good tool, share it with us. Send tidbits to Sheila ([email protected])
Exhibits By Fred Drury
Our next Exhibit theme is ‘Maker’s Choice’ which means ‘anything goes’ (we still would prefer minimum of
‘hand-of-man’). I know the Christmas Season is busy for all of us, but there’s still time to submit images for
this show. I do need your ‘show info’ no later than this coming Thursday so I can prepare the ‘info cards’ to
hang with the images. Show info includes: 1) Your name, 2) Price or NFS, and 3) Maker’s Info (max 250
words). Please check your word count does not exceed this 250 word limit. You can check your word count
in ‘Word’ by selecting your Maker’s Info then choosing ‘Review/Word Count’. Email your ‘Show Info’ to me
at: [email protected]. I’m going to take down the current Exhibit and hang the new on this next
Sunday morning, January 6, so you’ve still got a few days left to drop off your images.
Our Exhibits will run quarterly this year. Next up will be ‘Macro’ followed ‘Abstracts & Intimate Landscapes’,
and finally with ‘My Backyard’ in the October-December quarter.
Nature as Art What appears to be a child sitting and reading in a palm tree in Delray Beach, FL. is actually a broken palm frond dangling from the tree. Seeing the scene was prompted by a seagull screech to my left as I left a home we were visiting en route to a photo walk. I shot it with a Nikon D810 and a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom, hand-held while leaning against an adjoining palm for support. Exposed at 1/320th of a second at f/9 in January of 2018. © 2018, Lee Balgemann. All Rights Reserved.
8 Jan 2019
MNSPC Member
Adventures
This column highlights the
nature photo experiences of
our intrepid members. Seeing
where members have been
and what they have been
doing may pique your interest
in visiting some of these
areas. We encourage
everyone to contribute a
nature-related story for this
column. Please email Sheila
Newenham at
with a few of paragraphs and a
couple of images about your
experience.
Fermilab Prairie, Batavia, IL Sheila Newenham
I park right at the prairie and start up the mowed prairie trail. The big bluestem in bloom is taller than I am. The winding path is like a maze. I’m glad to have the map in my pocket. I don’t want to be lost out here after dark. The curled leaves of the prairie dock grab my attention. Their spots remind me of saltwater fishes and coral. I linger to take in all of their forms and textures, photographing those bathed in the sunlight. I move a little further into the prairie. The delicate structure of the compass plant leaves stands out, exposed in this fall landscape. The feathery seed-heads of milkweed flutter in the breeze
The forest edge is a stunning curtain of brilliant yellows and golds. As I enter the woods, individual trees appear – thick, tall, gnarly, curving, branching, reaching, stately, old trees. The forest floor is open, littered with leaves of gold and brown. A collection of acorn pieces leads me to the door of some small furry creature’s home. As I squat to take in this miniature scene, a deep, clear, resonant hoot comes from the north. I stood to locate the source of the sound and saw a small coyote on the path ahead of me, just standing and watching me. The owl can wait. I slowly lifted my camera. The coyote trotted further down the path and stopped again to look at me as if trying to figure out what I was up to. We continued on, me a little slower, and quietly. The owl hooted again.
And here
The trail is littered with maple and oak leaves. I keep stopping to study their shapes, veining and textures. I love the look of fall leaves piled on the ground. My favorite part of fall would more commonly be called “past peak” when many of the leaves have fallen, and the beautiful structure of the trees is exposed. The gnarly branches of the oaks and the white bark of the birches with just a few colorful leaves left, that’s my peak fall.
As I follow the narrow path around a bend, I see a couple of huge (is there any other kind??) puffball mushrooms. I carefully step off the path for a closer look and find all sorts of mushrooms, another of fall’s captivating decorations.
There are blue jays calling and the flash of a white-tail waving as a deer startles away. I walk back to the edge of the prairie where the sun is low, nearing the horizon and the light is fading. Looking back into the dusky woods, rays of the setting sun poke through the canopy
9 Jan 2019
"Did You Know?"
Selective Focus in Macro Photography by Anne Belmont (excerpted from Infocus Newsletter April 2
nd, 2018)
“When using selective focus, my first step is to slow down and study my
subject. I ask myself a series of questions. What drew me to this flower or
plant, what is the most interesting part of my subject? Where will I place
my focus? How can I compose my image to best bring that to the
viewer’s eye? How much do I want in focus and what aperture might
bring that vision to life? When using selective focus, I shoot in Aperture
Priority so that I can easily move between apertures as I experiment with how
much I want in focus. Even though I may have a good idea of what aperture
will work, I most often shoot in a range of apertures to see which is most
effective and give myself choices. If I am working on a tripod, I always use
Live View to zoom in and get the most precise focus where I want it.”
Read more here: https://visualwilderness.com/composition-creativity/capture-stunning-photos-using-selective-focus
New Equipment for MNSPC Meetings
We purchased a new portable lavalier
microphone and associated transmitter
to help improve sound quality for our
presenters. We will be testing this in the
next few days prior to using it at the
January 7th MNSPC meeting.
highlighting the yellow leaves and turning them to gold. The temperature is falling and the light is fading fast. The sunset is so beautiful silhouetting the fall prairie grasses and forbs, just a few more pictures before I go. Fermilab Prairie is over 700 acres of restored tallgrass prairie that is open to the public. You just need to show picture ID at the guard gate to get in. It’s nearby and worth a gander. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/visiting/hours/index.html https://ed.fnal.gov/samplers/prairie/fnal_prairie.html
10 Jan 2019
Anyone Still Storing Slides ?
Several months ago I started to look for some storage room in my cluttered office and again was reminded
that there were still two file drawers full of slides that hadn’t seen the light of day in years but knew that I
still ‘needed’. There were about 6,000 slides in those two file drawers. So, hoping to recover all that
‘wasted’ space, I again looked into digitizing the slides. My web research found all of the older systems that
have been there for years, drum scans, overseas conversion services, used slide scanners and a few others.
To my surprise, I found one new to me, a method to use my camera to take photographs of the slides that
could then be imported into my computer as raw files or any other format my camera could output. Since I
shoot with a Nikon D810 at 36 megapixels, I could create large digital files that could be safely stored and
processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. In some cases, the dynamic range could even be expanded from
what the slide had.
Nikon makes a product called an ES-1, Slide Copying Adapter. I bought one from B & H for about $60.
It is essentially an adjustable length extension tube with a slide holder and translucent panel that screws
directly onto a macro lens. All you have to do is point the front of the camera at a daylight balanced light
source and take a picture of your slide. Now as you would guess, there is a bit more detail to be aware of
but once details were worked out, I was able to create raw images of the 1200 or so slides that I wanted to
keep in about 5 hours of shooting time. Here is a link to a detailed article about how to use the adapter
and many other little details that are involved. https://www.scantips.com/es-1.html. While this is a
Nikon product, it can be used with any DSLR or mirrorless camera that has removable lenses.
There are several other considerations to be aware of; some good, some not so good. First off, your
resultant digital image will include the whole celluloid image and the rounded corners of the cardboard
holder. You will have to crop the rounded corners away thereby reducing the size of your image. There is
also a possible benefit. Recalling that slide film has a notoriously narrow dynamic range, this copying
method can slightly increase the dynamic range on some images. What I did on high contrast slides was to
shoot 3 versions, one at two stops under, one on meter and one at two stops over. Then I used HDR
software to combine the three. Where there was some detail in the shadow, I got more dynamic range in
the digital file than there was in the slide. Not a lot but enough that it was worth the effort.
The equipment I used was my Nikon D810, the ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter and a 60 mm Macro lens. As
noted in the web article, the process will work best with a ‘full frame’ camera. If you want a comparatively
quick and easy way to get out from under storing slides in the digital age this idea may work for you. I will
be glad to answer any questions.
Chuck Klingsporn
11 Jan 2019
PSA Honors
PSA has a slideshow of last year's winning clubs & photos; includes a number of our
members' photos. Also noticed a number of other CACCA clubs/photographers represented.
Link: https://psa-photo.org/index.php?2017-18-pid-interclub-end-of-year-video
We won 1st Place - Group B. Photos by Marcia, Ron, Bill Ludemann and John Janunas were
included, starting at 4:28 of the slideshow. Ron's House Finch image was selected for Best
of the Best. Some truly amazing images in the slideshow! So this is quite an honor.
12 Jan 2019