Summer, 2009
Volume 2, Issue 3

Woodrum-Media - 1619 N. Bowman, Danville, IL 61832
info@woodrum-media.com - http://www/woodrum-media.com - Phone:217.443.4403

Les Woodrum is Winner at 2009 “Arts in the Park”

Les Woodrum exhibited at the recent Danville , IL “Arts in the Park” Art Show held annually at Lincoln Park . Les entered a booth in the open art show and three photos in the Danville Art League show.

Fall Creek Gorge – The Potholes #2

The photo titled “Fall Creek Gorge – The Potholes #2” received the award of First Place – Photography in the Danville Art League competition. The photo was taken last fall at the Fall Creek Gorge Nature Conservancy Area north of Williamsport , IN.

In the open “Arts in the Park” show, prizes were not awarded for a single photo. Judging was based on the overall display. Les exhibited over 40 photos in the open show, and his display won first place - photography.

The weekend was almost a perfect weekend weather wise, especially on Sunday. This year's “Arts in the Park” was the first time that Les had exhibited a booth in an art show in 21 years. He plans on exhibiting a little more on a regular basis in the future.

Les Woodrum's booth at the 2009 Danville “Arts in the Park” Show, June 27-28 at Lincoln Park

There is a full schedule of “Visual Communications” classes offered this fall semester at DACC (taught by Les Woodrum). The following classes will be offered:

Digital Photography
Traditional film is almost a thing of the past. This workshop will emphasize digital photography techniques, explain digital photography terms, camera operations and settings, basic photo manipulations, and file management of digital images.

Lincoln Hall, Rm. 218 – Tuesdays,
September 8-29, 6-8 p.m. - $96

Photography "THE BASICS"
This course of study introduces the student to: The use and handling of 35 mm as well as digital cameras; a working knowledge of film and digital imaging; the basic elements of a photograph; an understanding of lighting, both natural and artificial (flash); basic portrait lighting and posing; and the care, storage, and display of printed photographs as well as digital images.

Requirements: 35 mm camera & film or and/or digital camera.

Clock Tower, Room 102 – Wednesdays,
September 9-30 6-8 p.m. - $96

PHOTOSHOP
This class will introduce you to the basics of working with Photoshop for retouching images and drawing. Students will be able to use various techniques for selecting in order to edit and retouch images, prepare images for inclusion in a website or for printed documents. Students will be able to edit images using the painting tools, clone stamp and drawing tools, and they will be able to create new images using the pen tool and the drawing and painting tools. Participants will be able to create and edit images using layers and make photo composites and montages.

Lincoln Hall, Rm. 218 – Tuesdays
October 6-27 6-8 p.m. - $96

Dreamweaver
Learn how to make a basic website using one of the most powerful web authoring programs available. In this workshop, you will learn how to construct basic web pages, templates and graphics, make links and publish the web site.

Technology Center , Room 136 – Tuesdays
November 3-24 6-9 p.m. - $96.00

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0
Photoshop Elements is a program that comes with many new digital cameras and scanners. It can perform many of the functions that the more expensive Photoshop CS3 or CS4 can do, but is more user friendly to amateur artists and photographers. The class will teach how to view and organize, fix, and enhance photos, and produce photo creations and composites.

Village Mall C&CE office – Thursdays –
November 5-19 & December 3, 6-8 p.m. - $96.00

For more information, or to register for any of these classes, call the DACC Corporate and Community Education department at (217) 477-0603.

Let me know what classes or Workshops you would like

Besides teaching classes for DACC, I also try to offer classes, workshops, photo trips and tours that you want. Past classes and workshops have included basic studio portrait photography, advanced black & white photography, and B&W darkroom techniques. Tours have included overnight trips to Southern Illinois and one day trips through west-central Indiana .

I will soon start making plans for fall classes and workshops. If you have any ideas, or if there are any special topics you would like to see offered in a workshop, contact Les at lesw@woodrum-media.com

Future Exhibits

The show is a retrospective collection of Les ‘s photos taken over his career (and in celebration of his 50 th birthday). Following are current scheduled dates and locations for this exhibit.

Les at SIU's Vergette Gallery, 2008

Photo by Jane Woodrum

Westville Public Library September and October, 2009

Illini Union Art Gallery , University of Illinois
September 3-27, 2010
Opening Reception – 7:00 p.m., 9/3/2010

Bicentennial Art Center and Museum, Paris , IL
January 18- February 18, 2011

Photo Wins 1st at Danville Art League's
Town & Country Regional Art Show

Les Woodrum received a first place – photography award in the Sharon Schmitz Open Art Show Competition at Danville Art League's Town and Country Art Show. The show was held at the Danville Village Mall, April 24-26.

The winning print was a 20” x 20” print mounted in a 30” x 30” frame titled “Fall Creek Gorge – The Potholes #1.” The photo was taken last fall.

This photo was also featured as a “Photo of the Quarter” in the Winter, 2009 issue of this newsletter. Details behind the photo include:

•  Camera – Bronica SQa w/40mm lens

•  Film – Fuji Velvia transparency film

•  Exposure – 1/4 sec., f/16

•  Transparency scanned using a Canon CanoScan 8800F scanner

•  Printed on Epson Paper and printer by Naples Custom Photo, Naples , FL

Photo Rummage Sale

Woodrum-Media is in charge of the liquidation of all of the photo equipment and supplies for a local camera store that went out of business. Items are being sold for pennies on the dollar. There are some larger items that do have a reserve price on them. Some of the “stuff” that has been salvaged includes:

•  Beseler 4x5 enlarger

•  Some assorted Ilford B&W paper in sizes from 5x7 to 16x20

•  Camera bags, all shapes, all sizes

•  Darkroom supplies and equipment

•  Filters galore from 38mm to 72mm

•  Flash units – lots of different brands

•  Studio backgrounds

•  Tripods and tripod heads

•  Folders, negative sleeves/preservers

•  Misc. camera accessories

To check out the “stuff,” give Les a call at 217-443-4403 after 4:00pm or on weekends.

About six items every two weeks are being sold on e-bay. To check out current listings, search for items sold by leswphoto at www.ebay.com

Black & White Custom Processing

If you are in need of custom B & W film processing or printing, I just want to make you aware of my services. I offer custom processing of film in formats from 35mm to 8x10 sheet film. I can also provide you with R.C. or archival b&w prints up to 16” x 20”. Selenium or sepia toning is also available. I specialize in museum grade archival printing. I also specialize in custom Panalure® b&w prints from color negatives (up to 8x10). If you are looking for the highest quality available in a black and white print, please contact me. I can also provide you with digital scans form negatives or transparencies with scan quality almost equal to the original negative or transparency.

I see a lot of photos where the photographer is trying to catch the moon and a subject on the ground at night. Most photos come out like this one on the left where there is no detail in the moon. It is just a big white bright spot.

The first thing I ask students is “What is lighting the Moon?” Of course, it's bright daylight sunlight. The second question is “What is the exposure for a bright sunny day?”

As a reminder to a basic photography rule, there is what is called the “Sunny 16 rule.” It is a simple method to determine your exposure on a sunny day without a light meter. That rule says in a manual camera setting, make the shutter speed the same as your ISO and shoot the photo at f-16. So, if you are shooting at 200 ISO, set your shutter speed at 1/200 sec. and set the lens at f-16.

So how does the Sunny 16 rule apply to this photo? I took two different photos to produce the shot I wanted of the Washington Monument . I first took the photo above to produce a photo with the detail I wanted in the dark monument. The photo at the left was shot at 1/15 sec/f-8 at 800 ISO.

I then took another photo without moving the camera at the sunny 16 setting. The photo on the right was photographed at 1/200 sec/f-16 at 200 ISO. Notice how you cannot see the monument at all but there is great detail in the moon.

Now that I had one good image of the monument, and another good exposure for the moon, it was a simple matter to composite the moon on to the image of the monument. If you want to learn this, take one of my Photoshop classes at DACC.

Photo of the Quarter

This past spring, I had to make three trips to Washington D.C. My son Dallas graduated from Georgetown University in May and we had a lot of events we had to go to. Luckily, one of those trips was during the peak blooming season of the cherry blossoms. I found out quickly that the window for opportunity was only about three days. With the unpredictable spring weather and the tremendous crowds that converge on DC for the cherry blossoms, I felt pretty lucky to get the shots I got.

Camera – Bronica SQ-a w/150mm lens

Film – Fuji Velvia 50 Transparency Film

Exposure – 1/8 sec., f/22

Transparency scanned using a Canon CanoScan 8800F at 6400dpi