Have we lost our minds? Only in trying to decide just which luscious veggies to put in front of our lenses! Okay, so when you quit laughing, just consider ... we're now in fall season, and there are all kinds of neat fall season-only veggies now available in our grocery and local restaurants. Putting that wonderful creativity to work that I know we all have in abundance, our members not only went out and found some of these natural works of art, they made works of art out of the ordinary, resulting in a highly entertaining slide show! Check it out by clicking on the link below!

Veggies! - November 2004 assignment

The CAUG DigiCam SIG meeting was held on November 15 at the Parkdale library with 13 enthusiastic photographers in attendance.

The meeting started out with RECOGNITION of Patty Beasley (see above photo). Patty takes all our picture assignment entries, loads them into her lap top computer and with her projector puts on our monthly program. She does this faithfully every month - we could not function without her dedicated participation. Then Patty puts the pictures here on her website. Check it out. THANKS PATTY - enjoy the roses, as you are one. (EDITOR'S NOTE: I am so touched by everyone's thoughtfulness! What a shock! The roses are just gorgeous! Even more appreciated are every single one of our members, past and present, who have made this group one of the highlights of every month for me, led by a fantastic SIG leader! Thanks so much, John!)

Some carry over pictures of BIRDS were initially shown - Pam Bomar's pictures  from the Corpus Christi Aquarium birds and Ken Parson's bird pictures from England.

The next showing was the RED MOON pictures taken on October 27, 2004. A special opportunity and very nice pictures submitted by Chumbe Salinas, Patty Beasley, John Hoffmann, and Gary Spenser. Thanks, guys.

Another offering was made by Bruce Switalla and Patty Beasley - sunset pictures of a very strong cold front entering Corpus Christi in October. Really beautifully photos.

Finally to the assignment which was VEGETABLES. What a hoot.

Bill Draper showed a bowl of colorful vegetables and vegetables being washed in the kitchen sink - neat water effect.

John Hoffmann showed pumpkins, gourds on their vines, and gourd settings.

Patty Beasley showed big, big gourds, irregular shaped gourds, and very nice close-ups of Indian corn with all those colors. Also some very big gourds and pumpkins from Port Aransas' Moby Dick restaurant.

Chuck Guion had pictures of Ohio's pumpkin festival- including an 11 row high pyramid of pumpkins. Chuck had pictures by an Alaskan photographer with very large vegetables (76# cabbage, 35# broccoli, 31# cauliflower, 20# carrot, 45# red cabbage, and a 59# zucchini squash).

Bruce Switalla showed a nice veggie salad with PhotoShop altered tomatoes. He also had some beautiful shining green and red peppers.

Brian and Drew Jacob's show of decked out/dressed up/painted up vegetables was super great. WOW! I did not know that Mr. Broccoli can surf the Gulf waves.

Ken Parson showed us his veggie pictures taken at the Black Sea, Ukraine, Yalta, and Turkey. Glad you are back, Ken. Pictures included numerous market sales of many many different vegetables. Ken's pictures were shown as a DVD video clip slide show. Very nice, Ken.

Finally, Chuck Guion showed us a 1999 video clip of A Steam Boat Festival on the Ohio River - lots of "Delta Queens" style boats.

All had a fun time (lots of giggles and comments) viewing all the pictures, which ranged from the great shots to the creative to the bizarre.

The November meeting ends our DigiCam's year 2004. We do not have a December meeting. A quick tote of the years activities is as follows:

Year 2004 1068 pictures shown by 21 different people plus another 100 or so pictures shown via the auto slide shows.

Year 2003 716 pictures shown by 19 different people.

We seem to be growing. I would say we are also having more fun.

Another 2004 highlight was Ben Luna's instruction for making automated slide shows with music. Thanks Ben. A lot of people (including me) are doing it.

We will not have a December meeting but we do have a December assignment. The assignment pictures will be shown at our January 17, 2005 meeting.

The dual assignment is:
1) your 2004 Xmas pictures - whatever, your choice.
2) show 5 to 10 of your all time ever photos taken during your "photograph career". Should be a very interesting presentation.

Some other agenda items in the planning for year 2005 include

1) A ShootAbout where we all gather to take the same pictures (for instance at the Bay Front or Botanical Gardens).
2) Computer altering of photos. All start with the same "poor" photo and do their adjustments and then discuss what and how they did the changes. A friendly Competition with lots of learning going on.

SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!

For the scribe -
John Hoffmann