Welcome Dallas-Ft Worth Photographers!

Photo above by member - Irwin
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Hello everyone, and welcome to the 'adopted' meetup group for photographers in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. The co-organizers and I will be primarily coordinating events in the Tarrant county area, but if you're willing to travel from Dallas to attend and participate, then we'll be glad to have you as part of the group. Some isolated events may be scheduled outside the metroplex on occasion.

Membership
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If at any time our events become too crowded or our popularity exceeds our ability to host and coordinate events, we may put a freeze to new members. On the same token, if a member does not attend/participate any events for a certain period of time, the Organizers may remove that member from the list to allow others to join. This policy is NOT in effect at this time, and we will formally notify everyone here if it does become an issue and subsequently implemented.

Monthly Social
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We will be scheduling one night each month as our social get together, separate from our photographic opportunity, probably rotating amongst the chain restaurants, nothing too expensive, in a centralized area – Bedford/Euless/N Richland Hills area most likely, and give everyone a chance to talk on a more personal basis about our love for photography, gear, techniques and anything else that comes up.

Monthly Photography Meetup
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For the event, we will have at least one opportunity for our members to practice their skills and test their creative eye. On those months where we don’t, or can’t, for one reason or another due to weather, schedule, etc, I would like to assign a homework task to our participating members that will be rather easy to accomplish on your own time and not location specific.

After the event is completed (or assignment), at least two weeks after the photographic outing, we will be holding a comments and critique (C&C) session at a residence, where we will display up to 3 of your best images and collectively discuss the composition, lighting, post-processing techniques and hopefully give each photographer or member some technical and artistic tips to help us all become better photographers. The review session will be done in total anonymity, so nobody will know which photos are yours, if you choose to do so. I will be giving details of how this will be accomplished if it is your first C&C meetup.

Equipment
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Most of our members will have a digital SLR to use, but this meetup group will not be limited to owning a high end SLR; a point and shoot will be acceptable for most of the events we will be shooting. Obviously, any studio tutorial or strobist session will not be applicable due to equipment limitations. However, I would recommend if you shoot with a point and shoot camera, at least purchase or borrow a tripod to take advantage of those longer shutter speeds needed for a lot of the sessions you will be practicing. These point and shoot cameras will also be limited to the maximum aperture potential, so you may not be able to produce extremely shallow depth of fields to isolate your subjects nor will they have the longer focal lengths necessary to capture objects at distances, but again, as long as you know your limits, you are still welcome to come to all events. As your experience improves, and you see other member’s images, you may find yourself desiring to upgrade camera systems, lenses, or adding a flash or two into your equipment bag. This meetup group will be the perfect opportunity to see the results of these different camera/lens combination that you wish to achieve yourself.

Some of the events and location venues may require us to limit the number of participants, so I recommend if you want to attend, you sign up early. The meetup announcement details will show any maximum attendees set for the event.

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Also, please read and review the policies that apply to this group in the About section of the meetup home page. By requesting an invitation to join, you agree to comply with all current policies at the time of your membership. Thanks!

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I am currently in the process of securing sponsorship from the following companies:

- Arlington Camera
- Fort Worth Camera

Each of these organizations have outstanding service staff, are extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and I have personally done business with them for many years. One of the most important selling points to visiting one of these local photography stores is the ability to test a lens or flash before purchase. In addition, these retailers stock almost every item you could want, and each has an extensive selection of rental equipment to choose from -> camera bodies, lenses, teleconverters, battery packs, lights, umbrellas and flashes.