The club’s August meeting is this wednesday, the 20th.

We’ve got a great speaker this month, Mark Comon from Paul’s Photo in Torrance. Mark teaches a lot of classes there, and I’ve found his advanced class to be really inspiring.

His talk will be on  the “Fun of Digital Photography” and he’ll bring some prints and products.

The comp theme is “Three Musketeers”, Anastasia has the upload form going for it.

Here’s more on Mark:

Mark Comon eats, sleeps and breathes photography. A photographic professional since the age of 15, Mark is currently Vice President of Paul’s Photo, Torrance, CA. As a photographic counselor, photo instructor and photographic artist Mark has the knowledge and experience to solve any photographic problem.

Since 1988, Mark Comon has taught more than two hundred students per month in his popular classes at Paul’s Photo. As a dynamic lecturer, Comon has entertained and educated audiences from first-time snap-shooters and hobbyists to industry professionals. He delivers concise information, plain-language explanations, and inspirational images. In addition to teaching his inspirational programs popular in and out of the photo industry as motivational programs. Mark’s Basic Photography class is now running on cable TV in Southern California.

Mark has taken student groups on photographic tours through Europe, Africa and the American Southwest. Mark’s popular Photo Adventures to California’s natural wonders (Death Valley, Monterey, Eastern Sierra and Yosemite) are always sold out! He is the originator of the Los Angeles Zoo Photo Day, now in its 19th year. His images have been featured in many publications, including Outdoor Photographer, PC Photo and Photographic magazine.

As a photographic artist Mark’s images have been featured in many local and regional photographic and artistic exhibitions. His beautiful landscape, insightful travel and stirring documentary images capture the light, drama and full range of the human experience. Twelve landscape images were recently selected for permanent display at the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley.

Winners for the July minicomp, “Titanic,” have been posted to the LAUPS Gallery:

July Minicomp Winners

We’ve also posted the winners from June’s 3-minute Video Edited Competition:

June 3-Minute Video Edited

We’ll be having our usual club meeting this Wednesday 7/17 at the Los Angeles History Museum.

Our speaker will be Speaker: Rob Sheppard, www.robsheppardphoto.com, speaking on Adobe Lightroom.

Rob Sheppard has had a long-time and nationally recognized commitment to helping photographers connect with digital imaging technology. He was one of the small group of people who started PCPhoto magazine nearly eight years ago to bring the digital world to photographers on their terms. He is the editor of PCPhoto as well as Outdoor Photographer magazines (second only to Popular Photography in circulation), group editorial director of all Werner Publication photo magazines (PCPhoto, Outdoor Photographer and Digital Photo Pro) and is the author/photographer of over a dozen photo books, including Adobe® Camera Raw for Digital Photographers Only, the PCPhoto Digital SLR Handbook and the Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing.

He also writes a column in Outdoor Photographer called Digital Horizons and teaches around the country, including workshops for the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, Santa Fe Photography and Digital Workshops, Digital Landscape Workshop Series and the Great American Photography Workshop group.

As a photographer, Rob worked for many years in Minnesota (before moving to Los Angeles), including doing work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Norwest Banks (now Wells Fargo), Pillsbury, 3M, General Mills, Lutheran Brotherhood, Ciba-Geigy, Anderson Windows, and others. His photography has been published in many magazines, ranging from National Geographic to The Farmer to, of course, Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto.

The Club Mini-Comp theme will be “Titanic” - Anastasia sent out a link to the upload form, contact Anastasia or Roger if you need it.

 

 

Time to nail down your spot on the July 20^th one-day shootout photo competition boat dive. We will again be using the Sundiver out of Alamitos Bay landing. Planned dive sites include an oil rig and Ship Rock plus a third spot. The fee is $125 which includes food and air. Contact Cory for more information.

 

Join Annie Crawley and Friends for the Diving & Imaging Event of the Year

This is a trip to the Channel Islands on the Vision out of Santa Barbara. In addition to the diving, Annie will be giving lectures and available to help with your images and editing. She will also have some of the latest toys from Light and Motion, Sea & Sea, and Gates to name a few. The trip dates are Sept. 2-6 for the Southern Islands and/or Sept 7-10 for the Northern Islands. Go to www.diveintoyourimagination.com and look under the travel section for a full write-up.

Comment- I recently met Annie on a trip to Indonesia where she was one of the photo/video professionals. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of the ocean is inspiring, and her attention to trip participants is like none I’ve seen before. Be sure to give this trip some consideration. No passport required, and she promises not to weigh your carry-on luggage when you board the boat.

Jamie Nixon, LAUPS member

We held our Digital Slideshow competition in June, as well as the first shootout of the year. Winners have been posted to the LAUPS gallery here:

June - Digital Slideshow

June - Shootout #1

The 3-minute Edited Video competition has been postponed until July due to equipment problems; we will not be accepting additional (or altered) entries, but will judge entries that were already received.

This Wednesday the 18th, we’ll be having our usual club meeting.

The speaker will be Andy Sallmon, local pro and instructor, who will be talking about his recent trip to Lembeh Straits and the surrounding area, and the latest Sea & Sea equipment.

The comp will be the Digital Slide Show for stills, Video Edited 3 min, and images and video from the 1st shootout.

Anastasia has set up a new web-based form for everyone to send in their submissions:

http://www.laups.org/comp_entry/upload.php

We’re going to use June as a chance to give it a good shake-down. Please email Anastasia if you have any problems with it, or questions/suggestions - and bring your submissions on a memory stick Wednesday just in case.

Some notes:

* You do NOT need to include the competition, date and your name in the filename anymore if you use this form (instead, you fill them out in other form fields)
* You can upload 3 files at a time, each up to 100 MB this month (since there are video submissions)
* As always, please resize your images to 1400 pixels wide
* Allowed formats: GIF, JPG, WMV, MOV
* You should receive email confirmation after successful submission

Thanks!

Manta Ray Bay’s 2nd annual Manta Fest will be held during the entire month of September. From September 3rd through 17th, Eric Cheng of Wetpixel fame, as well as our former photo pro Mike Veitch, will be on hand to offer advice, conduct seminars and show off their own wares nightly. The 2nd session will feature Marty Snyderman and Eric Hanauer from September 17th through October 2nd. For more information, visit their website.

The Shecklers have updated

A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, to the 4th Edition.

Beach diving in Southern California is easy, fun and exciting. Clear, life-filled waters, and game (including lobster) are right in Southern California’s back yard. Southern California’s most outstanding beach dive sites—70 in all—are covered in the newly released book A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4th Edition.

All information in this revised edition has been updated. Many new dive site chapters have been added. Inside, you will also find informative and entertaining sidebars on marine life, hunting, photography, beach diving techniques and more.
Dive sites covered were chosen for their consistently good conditions, quantity and quality of marine life, and ease of the dive. Site descriptions include native marine life, depths, skill level required, hazards, facilities, directions, important phone numbers, website addresses, and more. Detailed maps are included with many of the dive site descriptions.

This 4th edition has many stunning color photos. Also included are beach diving tips to make your excursion as fun and easy as possible.

A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4th Edition is published by California Diving News, the foremost authorities in California underwater exploration. This guide is authored by Dale and Kim Sheckler, editors of California Diving News. It is the most extensive and detailed guide of its type available. Additional books from California Diving News include A Diver’s Guide to Monterey County and A Diver’s Guide to Northern California, both by Bruce Watkins.A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4th Edition is 6” X 9”, 156 pages with numerous color photos. The book is available at Western dive stores or by sending $24.95 to Saint Brendan Corporation, P.O. Box 11231, Torrance, CA 90510 or visit www.saintbrendan.com on the web. Dealer inquires call (310) 792-2333.

H2O Photo Pros Underwater Photo & Video is celebrating their official Grand Opening Celebration for the Newport Beach Showroom  on Saturday, June 7th from 10-6. 
Located at 2429 West Coast Highway, Newport Beach, CA, H2O photo Pros grand opening will feature Raffles, Sales, a FREE BBQ, Beer, Wine, Cigars and all the fun you can handle.

Come join the professionals at H2O Photo Pros as they celebrate their new showroom and classroom facilities. 
For more information, visit the store’s website.