Photography is our passion!
The Grand Rapids Camera Club is a member of the Photographic Society of America and the Southwestern Michigan Council of Camera Clubs. We usually meet once a month for a presentation which is both interesting and informative. This is followed by our photo competition for those members who want to enter. We all get to see the photography of others, and this helps us learn and improve.
Visitors are welcome to attend our meetings!
***PLEASE NOTE***
GRCC has resumed Face to Face meetings. Given the current status of the pandemic, Masks are strongly encouraged, but not required. There is a nominal $5 guest fee to help defray our expenses. A virtual Zoom option will be available for those who don't wish to attend in person. Zoom links can be found on the meeting pages under Events/News. Club members will also receive the link by email prior to the meeting.
Recordings of many of our previous online programs are available on the club's YouTube channel.
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IMPORTANT MEMBER LINKS:
Please refer to the Membership Manual for a full description of the categories, rules, and procedures of competition.
Click for a brief Summary of Competition Rules.
Click for a PDF of the results of our 2021 Year End Competition.
Or click for the Image gallery of the 2021 Year End results.
Visit the GRCC YouTube channel to see a recording of the awards program, as well as other club programs.
Current Newsletter
Upcoming Events
Online Meeting Program Recordings
Program: Previous Online Program Videos
October 19 2022 Meeting
October 19, 2022 at 07:15 PM
Program: “Shooting Yellowstone & the Tetons in All Seasons”
Image of the Month
The Juggler
Photographer:
Jan Lewis
Selected by:
Steve Port
Why I liked the image.
My selection for Photo of the month is “The Juggler.” The look on the juggler’s face is one of deep, deep concentration. As one who hasn’t a clue, I am blown away with this capture of talent and dexterity! Taken in monochrome, the effect is even more profound to my perception.
About my image.
I made this image in early July at a Thursday evening Street Performers event in downtown Holland. Thanks are due to Becky Humes, who reached out to me, and a few other GRCC members to meet her at this popular summertime event to take photographs. I never would have gone without her encouragement.
This gentleman (unfortunately I cannot recall his name) was the featured performer on July 7. He was incredibly talented and entertaining, and had a very intriguing face to boot! There was a large crowd surrounding him the entire evening as he tossed a wide variety of items, including hats, knives, pins, and balls in the air. The biggest challenge photographically was the distracting backgrounds of audience members, store fronts, or people strolling the street. I tried to reposition myself to eliminate as much of that as possible, and found a spot where a tree masked much of the background scene. I knew I needed a fast shutter speed to stop the action. I set my camera to 1/1000 sec at f/11 (I was shooting with my 100-500 f4.5-7.1 telephoto lens at 100mm). Auto ISO was engaged, and the camera chose 12,800! My Canon R5 was on electronic shutter so it fired off at 20 frames per second so I took hundreds of images! This frame was one of my favorites because of the intensity in his eyes and I caught 4 of the 5 balls in midair. I liked the image in color, but the background colors still pulled your eye away from the juggler. So I went with Black and White.
I used Lightroom’s masking feature to select the juggler, and then inverted and duplicated the selection to create a second mask of only the background. This permitted me to work on the background and the subject separately allowing me to reduce the sharpness and contrast of the background, while increasing the exposure on the subject. In retrospect I should have run it through AI DeNoise but forgot! It is amazing the ISO capabilities of these new mirrorless cameras!
