Summer 2000

Action Information

President‘s Message

Looking at the "new" millennium.....

Eric Nicewanger

Congratulations Iowa! It's a real thrill to see everyone's participation at this year's Affiliated Judging held March 31-April 5 in Des Moines.

Because of the large task of hosting this every eight years, lots of Iowa people showed their real skill and talent for an outstanding convention.

Much of the credit must go to the 30 people on the print crew who handled prints for almost three days! Also, thanks to the leadership of Bob and Sari Hawkins who were instrumental as co-chairs of the print judging.

It's great to have lots of reliable people that get the job done well. The Convention tallied over 600 print entries and approximately 40% merit acceptance!

Thanks to Gary Sterling and Chris Becker who guided us into the convention with knowledge and experience! I would also like to acknowledge our newest P.P.I. board members. Eaton CotÈ from Waukon and Joe Hlubek from Clinton will serve with open ears and enthusiasm.

The P.P. of I. continues to serve many opportunities of the educational freeway. So often, it's because of you, with ideas, suggestions, or concepts that we all may learn more from each other in our great profession. Some of the best material comes from right here in the midwest. As Winston Churchill once said "You make a Living by what you get... You make a Life of what you give!"

Remembering that, we look forward to some important upcoming dates of which you should take note. Coming up will be the P.P. of A. National Convention in Las Vegas July 28-August 2 where the largest trade show of all will be held, along with superb programs and the General and Loan Collection prints on display.

Locally, stay tuned for area seminars hosted by different regional groups in the state. Always a great place to network with your own bunch, whose participation is becoming stronger all the time!

And the BIG NEWS...We have a NEW LOCATION hosting next year's Winter Seminar. Jan. 27-30, 2001 “A Space Odyssey” at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, Des Moines Airport, 6111 Fleur Drive Des Moines, IA 50321

Reservations (800) 248-4013 Telephone (515)287-2400

Some may remember that we have been there years before and the staff promises great accommodations and plenty of food.

Plans are being made for a variety of speakers you'll all enjoy, with lots of unique entertainment!

If anyone ever has any questions or desires, feel free to contact any members of the Board of Directors. We would like this association to work together for everyone's benefit and if you have opinions we are here to listen.

If I can be of help personally don't hesitate to call or e-mail me and we'll work on it together! Have a GREAT summer!

Next Board meeting September 25, 2000 9:00A.M. Holiday Inn Conference Center Des Moines Airport

Art Program Director’s Message

Your Opportunity to Learn

Just wanted to send out a word of thanks to all those who participated in the Art-Tech judging. I know it’s difficult to get things together for competition. Congratulations to everyone!

Are there any programs you’d like to see for next January seminar? Just give me a call at 319-291-7373. Leave a message with your name & number or try e-mailing me at asyuwish@server.silo.lib.ia.us. If you can’t reach me, let anyone else on the board know what you’d like to see. Do you have any retouching advise for the new films? Let me know & we’ll try to get the info out to everyone. Thanks.

We're also trying to put together an Artist Listing. We need to know.... Who You Are, Where You Are, and What type of Artwork You Do. Give me as much information about yourself and your business so people will know who to call when they have specific work they need done. Thanks.

Take some time to get away this year & get out to enjoy the great outdoors. Have a fantastic summer!

PPI New Members - 2000

We would like to welcome the following new members. Our association has added 54 new members since January!!

Laura Benson Active Dubuque

Kay Evans Associate Carson

Penny Hale Associate Dubuque

Mike Harris Active Iowa City

Holly Hess Associate Sioux City

Jennifer Householder Active Emmetsburg

John Lee Active Newton

Linda Moore Active Muscatine

Lori Nordstrom Active Winterset

Tish Njoe Associate Slater

Erin O’Hara Active Marion

Carolyn Rael Active Ossian

Jon S. Read Associate Cedar Rapids

Attention All Members!

Do you have stacks of old “Actions” just sitting around? We are looking for a few past issues for our archives.

Missing Issues

1992 Summer & Winter

1993 Winter

1996 Winter

1997 Fall & Winter

1998 All 4 Issues

Please send them to:

Brian Wedemeier

209 East First Street

Sumner, IA 50674

Welcome Donna!

Donna Barner will be our new Executive Secretary after June 1. Donna and her family reside in Sumner, where her husband, David, is the pastor for the Faith Evangelical Church. They are blessed with two boys, Dane, 20, a junior at UNI and Stephen, 16, is going to be a junior in high school. Donna also is employed by Tiedt Photography, ordering all the weddings, and this summer will be working more in the studio. Donna enjoys listening to most styles of music and attending her son’s concerts. When she’s relaxing you will find her curled up with an afghan, a great book and cup of coffee.

Here is Donna’s information so you may contact her:

Donna Barner

P.O. Box 108

Sumner, IA 50674-0108

Phone: (319) 578-1126

CPP Trip 2001…A FOTO ODDITY

After all the votes were counted the majority went to Savannah, Georgia. We will be staying on Tybee Island just outside of Savannah. Beach-side homes that sleep 6-15 people, depending upon occupancy. We will be making reservations in the fall. We need to know approximately how many homes we are going to need so please e-mail Brain Wedemeier at photofun@psaccess.net to let him know how many people we can expect. Spouses are welcome when accompanied by a CPP member, the cost is the same for spouses as for members.

We have selected Gary Box from Oklahoma for the main speaker, also joining him is Fuzzy Dunkel from Wisconsin. We are saving half the amount we have spent in years past for Bruce Hudson and Joyce Wilson. Gary and Fuzzy will be taking us on FOTO safaris, learning about PhotoShop, and discussing business and marketing. Later in the week we will be touring the Savannah College of Art & Design. Sandy Hall from SCAD has arranged for some models for us to photograph. This art school offers lots of mediums to study, but their photography program is unlike any thing I have ever seen. Their students are studying and implementing everything from tin-types to futuristic digital composites. Please take time to check their web site www.scad.edu.

The rest of the time will be filled with mini-sessions of local talent, fellowship, golf, shopping and touring some of the historical sites of Savannah. Remember to mark your calendar February 18-24, 2001. Anyone wishing to be a CPP needs to take and pass the test by January 2001. Please contact any CPP Commissioner for information. We still need volunteers to help with organizing food, tourist attractions, etc. Please contact Bruce Belling, Angela Wagner or Brian Wedemeier.

Upcoming Seminar

Let’s play with Polaroid!

Bring your SX-70 camera (if you don’t have one and want to learn, you can come too!)

Includes:

SX-70 film, lunch and a great folder full of Polaroid ideas.

Call Barb today! 319-578-8666

Class size is limited.

New Board Members

Eaton CotÈ

Eaton CotÈ, M. Photog. PPA Certified of Waukon is one of our newest board representatives. He and his wife Kris have owned and operated CotÈ Color for 12 years, located in beautiful northeast Iowa. Their portrait business consisted of mostly seniors, but also photograph many families and children, along with a few weddings. Kris & Eaton have two children, Alex, 12, and Zachary, 8. They are currently building a log home and hope to be finished the end of July. When Eaton isn’t in the studio he enjoys going fishing and just spending quality time with his family outside.

Joe Hlubek

Joe Hlubek, M. Photog., PPA Certified and his wife, Gail, have also been in business for 12 years. Their first two years they were located in a retail shopping complex in Clinton, then moved their business to their home so they could also be home for their two kids. Casey, 17, and Jesse, 13, keep Gail and Joe busy, running to sporting events. Joe enjoys relaxing on the golf course when he’s not busy with the studio. Joe & Gail have built a very successful business of seniors, families, along with sports and activities.

Let us move forward with Metering Technology

By Jerry Grier

Over the last year, I have been hearing rumblings from Iowa photographers about Hawkeye’s instruction using the "spot meter" and not the industry standard "incident meter." It is true, Hawkeye has been teaching exposure with the spot meter for seven or eight years now. We made the decision based on technology not because of popular demand. My analogy is the typewriter versus the computer. When I bought my first computer in 1980, everyone thought I was a fool. They were content with their typewriter, but technology was clearly moving away from them. I bought my first spot meter in 1969, but really the relevant technology took hold around 1990. Let me first give a little history to support the case.

When photography was first invented, there were no exposure meters. Images were made at F8 for all afternoon, give or take. At some point early on "extinction meters" came along. These were hollow tubes one would look through. Around the edge of the tube was a graduated film, and the photographers would match an object in the scene to one of the graduated values and that would indicate the exposure. (I am a geezer, but I have never met an extinction meter though I used an extinction densitometer at my first photography job.) These meters were replaced with early ancestors of today’s meters, the "photo-electric meters." Light was converted to electrical charges with this new technology, and the electrical signal was monitored on a meter calibrated to exposure. This idea was improved upon with an amplified signal making the meters more sensitive. Radio technology was moving parallel to this with crystal radios and then amplified radios. Both technologies moved rapidly through tube, transistors, and now integrated circuits. I have a copy of an old non-amplified reflected meter, but mainly meters became incident meters for one simple reason, there was more light falling on the scene than reflected off of the scene, and these meters needed all the light they could get to generate the signal. Here is where technology split from photographic logic. We photograph light reflected but the meters needed more light energy than that. As the technologies advanced we ended up with two types of meters, reflected and incident with the incident being more sensitive but the reflected being more logical. In the reflected metering technology it split into two areas, "wide angle" and "narrow angle" (spot) again based on the technology and the need for light. Add to the soup that lights were changing from ambient to "flash." Reflected meters were getting very sensitive and manufactures were incorporating them into cameras and defining metering patterns and other complex light analysis, but this was only possible with ambient light. They were not sensitive enough to collect enough information from the short duration of an electronic flash. Since reflected light metering is the only logical way to meter (again since that is what we are photographing), and since narrow angle metering is the logical way to meter within reflected light, some of us ended up being "bi-meter able." Like I said earlier, I bought my first spot meter in 1969 and it worked great for everything except flash where I needed to use an incident meter. Well technology caught up with logic around 1990. A new generation of reflected meters and then spot meters were introduced that were sensitive enough to read electronic flash, and I proudly threw away my incident flash meter. (I threw away my typewriter in 1981. Still have my first spot meter; it works.)

Another history lesson; this time a sad one. Since incident meters were more sensitive, photographers gravitated to them. In so doing they needed to also invent ways of interpreting the reading since they were not following the logic of light reflected. Front light do this, backlight do this, night photography guess, contrast whatever, too dark that’s how it is supposed to be, too light see too dark, and so on and so forth. In reflected metering, specifically narrow angle reflected metering, it was straightforward. Meter, decide which value you want it and calculate the exposure. (Yes, a problem exists here. Meters are dumb, both incident and reflected. They read 18% value and tell you a reading. In reflected metering this is a problem if you metered something other than middle gray. You have to do a simple calculation in your head to adjust the reading. End of problem.) With the incident meter, as different variables popped up so did different ways of interpreting the readings. In studio the real tragedy was that photographers started thinking about lights and measuring them, and not about the effects of light reflected and measuring that. (I am baffled that anyone thinks that measuring raw light could possibly tell anything about the light coming back to the camera. In my world of product photography with all its different surface qualities there were/are hundreds of incident "if this, do that" rules. It boggles my mind that very intelligent people can accept this way of thinking; it is simply not logical from our perspective as humans with eyes.)

This is where the current rub comes. If we acknowledge that incident meters have been superceded, then it appears we also have to re-learn photography. Not true, but maybe. To best explain this I would like to break from meters and go back to my typewriter analogy. The reason computers were slow catching on is because everyone thought they would have to re-learn how to type. The fact is you would type differently, and I think better. It is amazing to me how many people use a computer as if it were a typewriter, using spaces to move letters for example. Typewriters couldn’t setup tables or insert dates or stuff computers can do with ease, so people who "grew up" on typewriters may not use those features. Ok, we all love spell chek. Computers did not make typing different they just expanded the possibilities. This is true of spot metering. Why worry about the light ratio, expose for the values desired.

At Hawkeye when we made the shift to spot metering the student’s exposure accuracy and exposure confidence skyrocketed. All the "if this, do that" rules stayed away and didn’t clutter up their brains. This free brain space could be filled with reflected light logic, exposure placement, contrast adjustment, and stuff that are consistent with photography and physics. When these students graduate and get a job, they do not know incident meters or typewriters. If your studio still has a typewriter their typing skills will also be terrible; where is the sacred delete key, why doesn’t the backspace also erase, what is white-out, how do you send Tmail? Likewise if you expect them to know all of your "if this, do that" stuff with your incident meter you will have to train them. On the other hand, I would suggest you ask them to train you. This is not an arrogant statement but one of hope and awareness, technology has moved away from typewriters and incident meters. I am glad I learned the computer when it was still an infant. I would be overwhelmed with its current adolescent power if I was just getting into them, but I would also know I need to learn it since this technology is growing up rapidly and is not being held back nor is it looking back. Reflected metering is still in its infancy, and it will never grow to the power of diversity of the computer, but it is the future of photography. It is being held back only because so many photographers insist on holding onto their old ways and their old incident typewriters.

Convention Awards     2000

ART TECH AWARDS

Negative Retouching

Free Style

1 Bruce Belling - Making Memories

Combination

2 Kathy Fiddelke - Is A Rose Still A Rose  -  1 Kathy Fiddelke - Changing Locations

Art Tech - Electronic Imaging

3 Bruce Belling - Digital Jigsaw Puzzle  -  2 Bob Hawkins - Nicholas 2000  -  1 Bob Hawkins - Alan’s Gazebo

Electronic Imaging Artist Of Year

Bob Hawkins

Retoucher Of The Year

Diane House

Artist Of The Year

Bob Hawkins

Kay Isaacson Award

Bob Hawkins - Alan’s Gazebo

Electronic Imaging Awards

Digital Imaging

3 Jon S Read - Twins Of The Millenium

2 Bob Hawkins - Delta Sidekick

1 Bob Hawkins - Hot Scott 855

Digital Retouching/Enhancement

1 Bruce Belling - Coming Home

Electronic Imaging - Best Of Show

Bob Hawkins - Hot Scott 855

Top Three Electronic Imagers

3 Jon S Read

2 Kalen Henderson

1 Bob Hawkins

Print Awards

Non-Master Men Indoors

1 Paul Olson - True Grit

Non-Master Men Outdoors

2 Brian Wedemeier - Isn’t It Beautiful

1 Trudi Starbuck Miller - Viagra Beach

Non-Master Women Indoors

3 Amy Becker - Mystic Scarf

2 Eaton Cote - Searching For A Rainbow

1 Amy Becker - Wasting Away

Non-Master Women Outdoors

3 Brian Wedemeier - You Should Live My Life

2 Lisa Talsma - Living In A Different World

1 Woody Walters - Edna’s Gothic

Non-Master Child Indoors

3 Mark Mess - Precious Petals

2 Pamela Kamies - Lil Bare Hine

1 Pamela Kamies - Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Non-Master Child Outdoors

1 Michelle Schueder - Little Boy Blues

2 Shari Bailey - A Penney A Ride

Non-Master Group Outdoors

2 Toni Johnson - Shared Discovery

1 Trudi Starbuck Miller - Alley Dogs

Non-Master Weddings

3 Greg Grant - A Moment Of Solitude

2 Peggy VanZant - A Gentleman’s Agreement

1 Lisa Talsma - In A World Of Their Own

Non-Master Illustrative

3 Jen Hillenga - As Yet Unborn

2 Mark Mess - Hatched

1 Diane House - Circus Dreams

Non-Master Commercial

1 Fred Fiddelke - Digital Calibration Control Unit

2 Clark Davidson - I’ve Got Money, Lots And Lots Of Money

Masters Men

3 Larry Erickson - Two Rivers

2 Mary Anne Ricks - Sea Worthy

1 Dennis Fraise - Perfectly Aged

Masters Women

3 Joseph Hlubek - Cassie

2 Larry Erickson - Simple Vision

1 Kalen Henderson - Ride The Wave

Masters Child

3 Jean Poland - A Penny For My Thoughts

2 Bruce Belling - Water......Nature’s Magnet

1 Bruce Belling - He’s Mine

Masters Groups

3 Tom Belling - Dressed For The Show

2 Bruce Belling - His Pride

1 Jon Read - In Sickness And Health

Masters Pets

1 Rick Krebsbach - Buster

Masters Weddings & Wedding Albums

3 Don Knop - Step Of A Lifetime

2 Don Knop - Barbie And Ken

1 Don Knop - Our Wedding Story

Masters Illustrative

3 Jacquelyn Olson - Diamond Head Rush

2 Jerry Grier - Profile In Iron

1 Alan Adams - Freedom’s Quest

Masters Commercial

2 Vicki Sanborn - Designer’s Dream

1 Bob Hawkins - Mach Three

Out Of State

1 Steve Abbott - And The Two Shall Become One

Iowa Non-Masters Top Ten

10 Nancy Brechler 315.8

10 Brian Wedemeier 315.8

9 Diane House 316.6

8 Trudi Starbeck-Miller 320.0

7 Michelle Schueder 321.0

6 Amy Becker 322.2

5 Eaton Cote 323.8

4 Shari Bailey 324.8

3 Jen Hillenga 328.6

2 Lisa Talsma 331.0

1 Woody Walters 346.0

Iowa Masters Top Five

5 Alan Adams 329.2

4 Hope Scarff 329.6

3 Jon Read 332.8

2 Bruce Belling 336.4

1 Don Knop 347.2

Non-Masters Certified Top Two

2 Amy Becker

1 Eaton Cote

Masters Certified Top Photographer

1 Don Knop

Iowa Medlar Award

Woody Walters - Edna’s Gothic

4x4 Award

Shari Bailey

Don Knop

Jen Hillenga

Jacquelyn Olson

Eaton Cote

Joe Hlubek

Hope Scarff

Bob Hawkins

Kodak Gallery

Kodak Gallery - Portrait

Woody Walters - Edna’s Gothic

Kodak Gallery - Illustrative

Diane House - Circus Dreams

Kodak Gallery - Wedding

Don Knop - Barbie And Ken

Kodak Gallery - Commercial

Bob Hawkins - Mach Three

Kodak Gallery - Electronic Imaging

Bob Hawkins - Delta Sidekick

Fuji Masterpiece

Fuji Masterpiece - Negative Retouching

Diane House - Jeremy

Fuji Masterpiece - Print Retouching

Bruce Belling - Making Memories

Fuji Masterpiece - Art Tech/E.I.

Bob Hawkins - Alan’s Gazebo

Fuji Masterpiece - Portrait

Kalen Henderson - Ride The Wave

Fuji Masterpiece - Illustrative

Alan Adams - Freedom’s Quest

Fuji Masterpiece - Wedding

Lisa Talsma - In A World Of Their Own

Fuji Masterpiece - Wedding Album

Don Knop - Our Wedding Story

Fuji Masterpiece - Commercial

Bob Hawkins - Mach Three

Fuji Masterpiece - Electronic Imaging

Bob Hawkins - Hot Scott 855

CHRISTIAN PHOTO

4 - hats 2 - Tamron shirts

7 - stuffed Nikon animals 2 - umbrellas

2 - Pentax key cases 1 - Pentax coffee mug

1 - Cannon coffee mugs 1 - Cannon coffee mug

5 rolls Kodak Royal Gold film 1 - Canon cooler bag

McKENNA PROFESSIONAL IMAGING

3 - $50 Gift Certificate 3 - $75 Gift Certificate

1 - $100 MAIPP Scholarship

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS OF KANSAS

2 - $100 Scholarship

HERFF JONES IMAGING

1 - Film Cooler 1 Calculator

RAMI DIGITAL TRAINING

1-day free training session

MICHEL FRAMES 2 - $25 gift certificate

LATTIN COLOR IMAGING

1 - $50 gift certificate 1- digital posing book

MILLERS COLOR IMAGING

1 -20x30 print certificate 1-$500 scholarship

SUPRA COLOR IMAGING

1 - 20x24 print certificate

EASTMAN KODAK

4 - Mugs and film 1 - Computer bag

2 - Kodak shirts 1 - Kodak film cooler

Marathon Press 2 - Photo gallery books

Gross-Medick-Barrows

Infinity album & pages

American Professional

1 - Notebook 2 - pens

3 - $100 MAIPP scholarships

Images of Praise 5 - $50 gift certificates

Professional Photographers of Iowa

8 - $25 Trade Show Bucks 6 - $50 cash

Art & Frame 1 - Eight opening frame

Burrell Color

2 - photographers appointment books

Fuji Corporation 3 - 4X Loupes

Hartcraft-General Products 4 - photo albums

Colormaster Color Lab

4 - 20x24 print certificates

Blackhawk Frames 2 - wall frames

Muslin Magic

1 - 25% off gift certificate

Sportsman Camera

1 umbrella 2 - lens clean kits

Excel Frames 2 - $25 gift certificates

Benson Color Tech 1 - gift certificate

Bogen 1 - monopod

Dates to Remember

July 8-10

PP of Nebraska Summer Conference

Holiday Inn Hotel & Convention Center Kearney, NE

Contact Tina Marie Ornio

402-658-5505

July 28 - Aug. 2, 2000

Imaging USA (PPA)

Las Vegas Hilton

Las Vegas, NV

August 28, 2000

Let’s play with Polaroid!

Sumner, IA 10 am - 4 pm

Call Barb Grabill 319-578-8666

Class size is limited, register by August 1.

October 21-23, 2000

Wisconsin Fall Seminar Olympia Resort & Spa

Oconomowoc, WI

Contact Delwyn Crave

608-365-0236

January 27-30, 2001

Iowa Winter Seminar

NEW LOCATION!

Holiday Inn & Conference Center Des Moines Airport

6111 Fleur Drive

Des Moines, IA 50621

February 18-24, 2001

CPP Photo ODDITY

Tybee Island, Georgia

Contact Bruce Belling, Angela Wagner or Brian Wedemeier for more information

April 6-11, 2001

Heart of America Convention

Park Place Hotel

Kansas City, MO

Action Publication Deadlines

Fall September 1

Winter November 1

Spring February 1

Summer May 1

Do you have an idea for an article? A question you’ve been wanting to ask? Found a better way to sell portraits?

Suggestions for the Action publication? We want to hear from you. Send your ideas to Donna Barner or Brian Wedemeier.

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