Open-door night gives camera tips to public

By Rex Dolby

On Thursday, January 12, the Van Wert Area Photography Club opened its doors to anyone having questions about their camera, how to use it, or photography in general.

Rick and Bev Boroff  of rural Van Wert took advantage of the invitation and got a wealth of facts and tips from the club members.  With a ratio of 3 to 1, there was no lack of advice and comments directed to the Boroffs.  Bev was the family photographer and has a Canon DSLR (digital single lens reflex) with two lenses.  She was taking notes as fast as she could write while Nick was listening to all that was said.  At the end of the session the Boroffs were given a copy of the club’s directory and an invitation to call anyone if they had further questions.

Some of the advice anyone can use, included:  Become familiar with your owner’s manual.  Learn the meaning of the terms the manual uses.  Learn how shutter and aperture work together.  Learn how the aperture (lens opening) affects the depth of field (the point closest to the lens to the point farthest away that is in sharp focus) and how to use it to your advantage.  Take a lot of practice pictures at different settings to see how those settings change the outcome of the picture.  Purchase a card that will record your photos rapidly and store a large amount of data.  Purchase a card reader to move your pictures from the card, which saves the camera’s battery.  Purchase an external drive to store your pictures, which saves your computer’s memory.  Think of all the various groupings (family, trips, nature, etc.) and times (annually, monthly, Christmas, reunion, graduation, etc.) then create folders for each.  Inside each of these main folders, create subfolders for each time you shoot a new series. (This is a situation where dates with the title may come in handy when you want to find a photo later.)

Being the first meeting of the new year, it was also time to pay annual club dues, which five did.  Dues are $25 for a single member and $5 more for each family member up to a maximum of $40.  At that point all additional family members are free.

The club’s next meeting will be Thursday, February 10, 7 p.m. at 114 S. Race St.