Please join us on 7:30pm Wednesday, August 19 at the Natural History Museum in the Upstairs Education Classroom.

Our guest speaker this month is Todd Winner.  Take your creative approach to underwater photography to the next level!  Todd Winner will be sharing some of his favorite tips and techniques that will be sure to help you elevate your skills.

Todd  has been diving and photographing marine life since 1990. As a professional underwater photographer and cinematographer, his work has appeared in commercials, museums and private collections. Todd is a regular contributor to Sport Diver and Scuba Diving magazines and has won over 60 international underwater photography competitions.

August Competitions:

• Minicomp: "Wide-Angle"

Please see new submission instructions, and submit your entries by 11:59pm MONDAY, August 17. (Note early deadline to give us time to deal with the new process)

Video entries may also be brought on thumb drive to the meeting, or you can arrange with the webmaster to send them via email, Dropbox,  WeTransfer, or other method.

Please join us on 7:30pm Wednesday, July 15, in the Times Mirror Room at the Natural History Museum.

PLEASE NOTE that the old entrance to the Times Mirror Room is not accessible at present. Enter on the north side of the building as though heading to the upstairs classroom (the location currently described in our directions page), but instead of taking the elevator upstairs hang a right and follow the signs (or keep an eye out for helpful security guards if you arrive before we manage to post the signs).

Our speaker this month is Dana Roeber Murray from Heal the Bay, who will be speaking about California coastal protection policy, including the recent Refugio Oil Spill.

Dana Roeber Murray is the Senior Coastal Policy Manager at Heal the Bay where she works on science and policy issues related to coastal habitats and marine wildlife in California. Dana is committed to conserving our oceans and has worked in the environmental field for over 15 years. Her current work includes marine protected area (MPA) research and education, and advancing policy recommendations before agencies on issues such as coastal climate change adaptation, ocean wildlife conservation, coastal oil drilling, industrial ocean intakes, sustainable fisheries management, and coastal land-use planning. She also developed and directs Heal the Bay's MPA Watch citizen science monitoring program, assessing how people use L.A.’s underwater parks. In addition to her work at Heal the Bay, since 2003 Dana has completed hundreds of underwater surveys of marine life as a volunteer scientific diver for Reef Check.

Dana earned her master’s degree in Environmental Science and Coastal Marine Resource Management from UC Santa Barbara, and her bachelor’s in Geography from UCLA. She was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer, a conservation science researcher for the World Wildlife Fund, and the Director of Education at the California Wildlife Center. Dana enjoys volunteering, traveling, and SCUBA diving around the world, and can be found sailing along the coast, diving in kelp forests, or playing on the beach with her daughter, Coral.

July COMPETITIONS:

• Minicomp: "Macro"

Please see new submission instructions for July 2015, and submit your entries by 11:59pm MONDAY, JULY 13. (Note early deadline to give us time to deal with the new process)

Video entries may also be brought on thumb drive to the meeting, or you can arrange with the webmaster to send them via email, Dropbox, or other method.