Mark McCall is South Plains
Professional Photographers'
Photographer Of The Year!
Congratulations Mark!
South Plains News (SPPPA) – as of December 20, 2007
By: Valerie Brasher-Tharp
Well fellow “photogs”, it has been
one awesomely eventful year in West Texas and SPPPA wrapped up that
year in style. The guild met at Valerie Brasher-Tharp’s new studio
for an early Thanksgiving dinner …at which a panel of “seasoned
photographers” allowed the group to ask business-oriented questions
on everything from sales tax to marketing. How interesting it was to
hear advice from those with years of experience in the industry. The
panel consisted of Don Dickson, Mark McCall, Tina & Jon Thompson,
Robert Suddarth & Cyndi DuPont. A special “thanks” goes to that
panel and all those folks who contributed to that wonderful meal.
It is “preaching to the choir” in
reporting to readers that SPPPA photographers were incredibly busy
with preparation for the holidays. However, the guild did make time
for our annual Christmas party and we had a blast as usual! The year
in photos were compiled into a video bringing laughs as well as
tears…remembering past meetings, events and honoring our lost
friend, Ken Porter. Various honors were also given to members in
recognition of their accomplishments. And, once again, Mark McCall
makes us proud by achieving “SPPPA Photographer of the Year”. Even
further, Mark also accomplished “PPA Photographer of the Year for
2007” at the silver level. A fantastic job…way to go Mark!
Finally, SPPPA would like to
recognize and send thanks for this year’s hard work contributed by
its members, officers & speakers. Speakers for the year were Ken
Porter, Valerie Brasher-Tharp, Mark McCall, Tonya Cozart, Bill Weaks,
Cory Sinklier, Chris Hanoch and the above mentioned panel. 2007
officers were Brenda Williams (President), Chris Hanoch (Vice
President), Leslie Kitten (Secretary), Tina Thompson (Treasurer and
Historian), John Barnhart (Director), Valerie Brasher-Tharp
(Director), Cyndi DuPont (Director) and a special thanks to Terry
Osborn for the longs hours of web site maintenance. Check out
www.spppa.com
for a list of members and links to their awesome work.
What an honor it has been to be a
part of such an incredibly talented and classy group of
photographers. Excitement is in the air as to what the New Year will
bring!
Thanks everyone
for a great year and here's to many more to come!
October 2007>>>Our
October 22nd meeting was a panel of Jon & Tina Thompson, Robert Suddarth,
Don Dickson, Cyndi DuPont and Mark McCall who answered questions the
members ask about things from running a studio, customer service and
legal issues to taxes. This is meeting was along the lines of how to
run your business rather on technique.
The meeting was at Studio FX (Val's studio).
Open Print Competition
1st Place
Cris Duncan
 2nd
Place
Mark McCall
Digital Manipulation
1st Place
Mark McCall
2nd Place
Chris Hanoch
September 2007>>> SPPPA members
had two days of Photoshop...
Some of our members spent a full day with Mark McCall and Lori Gragg of
Fitzgerald, Georgia. This was a 2 day class on Photoshop and Makeup and
Retouching in the Digital Age. Mark covered a variety of things from
Scratch disk, making your own brushes, working in layers, layer mask,
Simple Viewer, and many other techniques.
The evening class was Chris Hanoch showing different techniques we could
apply in working the images we had taken the previous month at the SPPPA
Shootout.
Then on Tuesday we were back for Lori Graggs class of make up and
retouching. She touched on making the skin look more glamorous and even
toned, eyelashes, eyebrow issues and many more wonderful tips and
tricks.
Chris Hanoch is showing SPPPA members new techniques in Photoshop.
Chris is working on the images that were taken at the Shootout in
August.
Lori Gragg and Mark McCall had a 2
day Photoshop class. They covered things from Simple Viewer, masks,
brushes, borders, to digital makeup. Lori showed how to apply
glamour makeup, skin correction, enhancing the eyes and many other
techniques to make our subject look more pleasing.
Congratulations to September's print competition winners!! Look for
their winning images and more information about this month's
meeting on our 2007 News Page. (We will post all
the winning images as soon as we get them all in.)
Congratulations to this months
winners in the print competition!
Open Print Competition Winners
1st Place Winner
Cyndi DuPont
2nd Place Winner
Tonya Cozart
 3rd
Place Winner
Mark McCall
Digital Manipulation Competition
Winners
 1st
Place
Mark McCall
Victor Mosquedo's Musician Series
Show
The exhibit will
begin on October 2, 2007 at the Buddy Holly Center,
Lubbock, TX. The Title of the exhibit is: Lubbock Music, The
Legend Lives
On. It features musicians from Lubbock and the South Plains Area.
All ages
of musicians are included, as long as they are performing or were
instrumental in creating the Lubbock Music.
A reception will be held at the Buddy Holly Center on Friday,
October 5,
2007. Several of the local musicians will be performing with
acoustic
instruments in one of the Exhibit rooms at the Buddy Holly Center
on
October 5.
The musicians will be displayed in BW or Sepia. Each will be 16x20,
or
ideal format, with a white matte, mounted on a black frame. Short
biographies will be included with each portrait.
September 6, 2007
Everyone's friend, Ken Porter, is now cancer
free and is able to spread his loving kindness with the Lord. His pain
is gone and is now able to rest comfortably.
Ken passed away early this morning at home with his family by his side.
Cyndy, Hannah, and Hillary each have demonstrated such remarkable
strength beyond our comprehension these last few months. May they now be
comforted knowing that Ken is in peace.
We all have different memories of Ken; however, the prime factor was
that Ken had the ability to make us all feel that we were his best
friend. He helped so many people during his life - not only fellow
photographers, but many individuals and charitable organizations - all
without question and without expecting anything in return. Ken truly
cared.
Always with a smile and a pun or joke for any occasion, Ken loved
people. And that love is evident in every photograph he made.
Ken, we miss you.
A memorial service for Ken will be on Monday, 11:00, Lakeridge Methodist
Church on 82nd St.
(Letter submitted by Tina Thompson)
August 2007>>>We really had a
great turn out for this months meeting. We all gathered at McKenzie Park
for our BBQ cookout and afterwards we had our shoot out. Leslie
Kitten and her husband Nick served brisket, potato salad and beans for
all of us.
Victor Mosquedo done the honors of being our print judge for our print
competition. Victor also told us why he chose the ones he did by
critiquing them.
Then everyone broke into groups and started shooting away. We had several
models that worked with us.
Next months meeting will be Chris Hanock working some of these images in
Photoshop. So, don't miss it!
Here are a few shots from the shoot out!
Here are this months print
winners...Congratulations everyone!!
Open Print Competition Winners
1st Place
Cyndi DuPont
2nd Place
Mark McCall
3rd Place
Tonya Cozart
Digital Manipulation Winners
1st Place
Cris Duncan
2nd Place
Mark McCall
3rd Place
Chris Hanoch
July 2007>>>Round Table
Discussion.....I'm sorry I missed out on this meeting....
It was to be that everyone brought 5 of their favorite things that
pertained to photography. Whether it be actions, albums, websites,
backdrops....you name it.
We do want to welcome our newest member.....Pam Stewart from Midland.
Print Competition Winners for July
Open Print Competition Winners
1st Place Winner
Leslie Kitten
2nd Place Winner
Cyndi DuPont
3rd Place Winner
Mark McCall
Digital Manipulation
Winners
1st Place Winner
Chris Hanoch
2nd Place Winner
Mark McCall
3rd Place Winner
Cris Duncan
June 2007>>> Mark McCall went over
the Certification Exam with us in order for those interested in becoming
certified would have a good idea as to what to expect.
Mark touched on everything from the procedure in which you have to follow
to become certified to the importance of being certified. He also went
over things that are generally on the test such as exposure, metering,
lighting, lens, lens attachments and color.
May 2007>>>Cory Sinklier
"enlightened" us with Studio Lighting. He explained everything from the
eight types of lighting to using fill, kicker, hair and background
lights. He also went over the characteristics of light, and the
instruments used to achieve these different effects. He and his wife
Jill graciously demonstrated how to to use all of these lighting
techniques. It was a fun and very informative meeting.
Cory demonstrating lighting
techniques with his wife Jill as his assistant.
Even Cory's daughter helped out
with her own style of demonstrations.
Cory judging our Print
Competition.
Open Print Competition
Winners
1st Place Winner
Cyndi DuPont
2nd Place Winner
Cris Duncan
3rd Place Winner
Chris Hanoch
Digital Manipulation
Winners
1st Place Winner
Mark McCall
2nd Place Winner
Chris Hanoch
.jpg)
3rd Place Winner
Cris Duncan
March 2007>>>SPPPA was honored
when Bill Weaks accepted the invitation to tell us about print judging.
Bill very graciously told us how the prints are judged and what the
judges are looking for in their judging. He went over scoring of the
prints with us and the 12 elements the judges use to score a print.
Bill also went over the different levels of degrees and what it takes to
reach those levels.
We would all like to thank Bill very much for his time and sharing his
knowledge with us.
We would also like to thank all of the visiting photographers for coming
that we don't usually get to see and invite them to come to more of our
meetings.
John Barnhart giving us the
news of the SWPPA Convention.
Bill Weaks explaining print
judging.
Bill Weaks was our Print Judge for
the entries of our local meeting.
Congratulation to all the winners!!
Open Print winners in the Print
Competition
 1st
Place
Tiffany Hicks
2nd Place
Chris Hanoch
 3rd
Place
Leslie Kitten
Digital Manipulation
Winners in Print Competition
1st Place
Mark McCall
2nd Place
Cyndi DuPont
3rd Place
Catey Mitchell
February 2007>>> Great turn out
for this month's meeting at Ken Porter's Studio. Book keeping and tax
programs were our topic for the evening. Ken Porter went over PhotoOne, Tonya Kozart covered QuickBooks and Val Tharp discussed
SuccessWare.
For more complete details on this meeting, visit our Business and
Minutes Page.
We have two new members this month... Art Roberts and Catey Mitchell. We
want to welcome you both!
1st Place Cyndi DuPont
2nd Place Mark McCall
3rd Place Chris Hanoch
New Entry Forms for Print
Competition
SPPPA Meeting
Print Competition Rules
Entries
Each entry costs $2.00. There is a maximum of 2 entries per photographer
per meeting. They can be entered in the same category or one in each.
Please use the entry form for each print entered.
Categories
This year there will be 2 categories: Open print and Digital
Manipulation.
Open Print category is open to traditional photographic processes
without major digital enhancement or altering.
Digital Manipulation category is open to images that have been
noticeably altered using Photoshop or Painter. Each entry must have a
smaller image of the original along with the 8x10 final print. This will
help the judges discern the degree of difficulty.
Places and Points
Each category will have a first, second and third place winner. First
place will receive 3 points, 2nd place = 2 points, and 3rd place = 1
point. At the end of the year Christmas Party the photographer with the
most points will become the SPPPA Photographer of the year and receive
an award and prizes.
Name_________________________________ Date____________
Open Print Digital Manipulation (circle one)
Title_________________________________________ 1 2 3
Name_________________________________ Date____________
Open Print Digital Manipulation (circle one)
Title_________________________________________ 1 2 3
February 5th>>>The New Mexico
Professional Photographers Association annual convention was good for
Mark McCall this year! Mark entered 4 prints and scored 80 and above on
all of them. Here are three of them.
Mail call scored 91 at the New
Mexico convention and also received a Judges Choice Ribbon. Mark also
won first place with this print in the TexasPhoto Forum Digital
Manipulation category.
Return to the Hornets Nest scored 85 and won
Judges Choice Ribbon, Distinguished Print Ribbon and Best Out Of State
Entry trophy.
Victory over Yucatan scored Mark another 91 at the
New Mexico Convention.
February 2007>>> Looks like we
have a great line up of programs for this year! As soon as we get them
all finalized, we will get them posted.
Keep checking back for more news and updates!
|
