I. Intro to HDR - II. The Art of Tone Mapping

May: Wednesday night’s 7:00-9:30pm
Intro to HDR - May 12th, The Art of Tone Mapping-May 26th

June: Tuesday night’s 7:00-9:30pm
Intro to HDR -J une 8th, The Art of Tone Mapping-June 15th

I. Intro to HDR - This two hour course is designed to: educate you on what HDR is, how to use your camera to take HDR images and how to download a free trial version of Photomatix. Your camera is required for this class because John will be teaching us how to determine your cameras specific dynamic range, which will help you maximize image tonal range. $50

II. The Art of Tone Mapping - This two hour course is based on the program Photomatix, where John will be covering all the adjustment tools Photomatix offers. These tools consist of General Adjustments (strength, color saturation, light smoothing and luminosity) Tone Adjustment (white & black point gamma), Color Adjustments (color temp and saturation in both high/low light) and Micro Adjustments (Contrast and smoothening). How all these fine adjustments play together, becomes subjective to the artist. $50
*Photomatix offers a free 30-day trial, which can be purchased at 20% off after attending this class.

The cost for each class is $50 (handout included)

John Griffiths, an artist and our instructor is very passionate about photography. Read John’s Artist Statement below.

“My Primary focus as a photographer is to combine strong compositional elements together with synergy that direct and reflected light creates. This synergy results in an image that conveys the depth, form and feeling that existed in the original scene. I strive to create images that make a strong initial impression and possess lasting appeal through details that become apparent over time.

The Limitation of Photography is its greatest strength, the credibility that comes from reality. The advent of digital manipulation is leading to some “photographs” that are no longer photographs but creations more akin to graphic art that should be called photo-illustrations. My photographs reflect what I saw and felt at the moment of exposure.”

This weekend all the local camera clubs in Oregon and Washington come together @ Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham. There are 7+ workshops throughout the two day convention. It’s sponsored by Canon and Lewis Kemper will be discussing “Light & Composition” and “Landscapes of Iceland.” Friday nights keynote presentation is free to the public and starts at 7:30. Anyone interested in learning should come! Advance Camera will be there Saturday cleaning cameras and offering 1/2 price sensor cleanings! Which means, bring your camera! If you have questions, or want to see a list of events, check out the 4C’s website listed below. Hope to see you there! http://www.columbiacameraclubs.org

The Presenters
You can check out the work of many of the speakers on their websites:

Sean Bagshaw – www.outdoorexposurephoto.com

Jon Canfield – www.joncanfield.com

Michael Durham – www.durmphoto.com

Michael Henley – www.contimages.com

Ron Kaplan – www.ronkaplanphotography.com

Lewis Kemper – www.lewiskemper.com

Don Lyon – www.cuephoto.com

George Ostertag – www.ostertagphoto.com

Terry Tallis – www.terrytallis.com

The bargain table is hibernating for the winter, but will be back outside next spring. This will give us time to replenish with more goodies. Stay tuned…

Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest Spring Meeting

On April 4th, over 200 members from both Oregon and Washington congregate at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham for the biannual spring meeting. Tamron, ProPhoto, Advance Camera and Trek-Tech helped support this event while Don Gale, a successful commercial and industrial photographer taught various techniques that have earned him national recognition. If you care to see Don’s work, check out his website www.photographybydon.com. In addition, there is a photo contest that consists of up to 4 of your favorite images consisting of scenic’s, wildlife, and plan life. Members were allowed to bring up to two prints, 48’’ in size to the event to be judged by If you are interested in becoming a member of this group, or want to know more about the organization, check out their site. www.nppnw.org

Prior to the even, registered members were reminded to bring there cameras in for cleaning. Members started arriving promptly at 9am to drop off there camera with Dave for cleaning, and by the end of the day all of the cameras had been cleaned, tested and if needed the firmware was updated. This year, Dave cleaned almost 50 DSLR’s and helped many with various technical questions. With that said, when problems or questions arise, feel free and stop by Advance Camera for help. Everyone here wants to help.

Below are pictures taken at the NPPNW biannual meeting. The main photo shows the Advance Camera booth with owner Dave Sleeth in front. You’ll also see him smiling, busy at work cleaning cameras and checking them out. The bottom right picture is of the Tamron booth, shared with ProPhoto. Tamron had several knowledgeable reps showing off their latest high-end lenses.

The Sportsman show is an event where hunters, fisherman and anglers come to congregate to look at the latest equipment as well as buy product at the right price. This is also a place where many may not expect to see a local camera store, but for the last 4 years Advance Camera continues to grow with the support of the locals and the vendors whom contribute.

This year Advance Camera brought two new product lines to the show which were quite successful. Zen-Ray, a locally based company in Beaverton that makes high end, low cost binoculars and accessories helped us bring in a large amount of there product, which sold beyond what we had predicted. This start up company is new to the industry and currently only has an online presence. However, that is changing, since they are locally owned, they are able to drive there product over, rather than ship it which means you can come into Advance Camera to see and or purchase Zen-Ray products. In addition to there nitrogen filled 8X42’s (water proof, fog proof, phase coated) binoculars that start around $150. To my knowledge there is no vendor on the market that has this much product, at this price point, which is why we sell them. Though, there is no question that this year, the digital camera spotting scope adapter was the most popular item! We sold out with two days left in the show (Saturday and Sunday). Next year, this wont happen.

Samsung also contributed generously, though we did not sell as many digital cameras as binoculars, they had great show presence and better support from the local rep Ken Long, whom is seen in the picture below. This next year will be significantly better for them as there product line has increased, the price points have dropped below there competitors and there new innovations set them apart from all the other manufacturers.

Below are a couple pictures of this years Oregon Sportsman Show. If you have any questions, or want to see any of these new products, please stop by the store, call or shoot us an email. To contact us, go to…
advancecamera.com

Steve and myself (Jordan) showing off our booth, with product all around.

Both the Zen-Ray rep and the Samsung rep working the booth with Steve Haning

Steve Haning and Ken Long

Just a glimpse of how many people come to this show… on a constant basis. There must be a reason?