Rowlett, Texas Photography Club Meetup

Let's make our annual trek to the Autumn at the Arboretum event! This year's theme is a totally new one, I believe - Mundo Mexico. There are several really cool looking Oaxacan sculptures on display for this year's theme so I hope this will be a bit different and new from previous (tired) themes. The pumpkins may be getting a little long in the tooth by this date, but, hopefully, still enough for photographic interest or just being out in nature on a nice day.
If you want to carpool from Rowlett, please meet in the parking area near the corner of Martin and Industrial at 9:30 am. If you want to meet at the Arboretum, plan to meet at 10:00 - 10:15 am timeframe at the Gate 1/Whittier Ave. entrance. We will shoot for a couple of hours, then have lunch at the Terrace Cafe near the entrance. After lunch, we can stay and shoot some more if we want, head over to the spillway, explore the White Rock Lake area, or head home.
Please comment if you have a membership and how many people you can get in on your membership so we can try and accommodate everyone. Also, please comment if you are willing and able to offer a ride in your vehicle and where you would be leaving from - see below!
WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! PLEASE READ!!!
The days of getting away with free parking at the Arboretum are over. They have implemented a new parking system effective September 1, whereby members must register their vehicles in order to get the free parking included in their membership. A license plate reader will scan all vehicles entering the parking lots. Therefore, if you are not a member and choose not to hitch an available ride with a member, you will be required to pay the $15.00 parking fee. Therefore, riding with a member or carpooling and sharing the parking fee will be your best bet. I know this will be an inconvenient expense for some, but I'm honestly surprised the parking hasn't been enforced before this as I'm sure they've lost a lot of money over the past few years.
Anyway, hope the parking change doesn't discourage participation, and hope this sounds like a nice fall excursion!

Let's go as a group and shoot some skateboarders at Jon Comer Park at 1010 W. Miller Road (just east of Glenbrook Ave.) Garland. Was told Friday night is a good time to see some of the better skaters so let's check it out!
Meet at the park at about 6:30 pm; sunset is at 6:50 pm and the facility is supposed to be well-lit at night so we'll have a bit of golden hour shooting and nighttime shooting. Let's plan to shoot for about an hour or until we've had enough, then head to downtown Garland for dinner.
We'll go to Fortunate Son at 500 Main Street (corner of Main and Fifth); they have pizza, salads, wings, pasta, sandwiches, drinks, desserts, etc. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and we can sit on the large patio. I know they can get crowded, especially on a Friday night so if it is too crowded, there are several other restaurants around the square we can pick from, but let's try this one first.
We can also shoot around the square for a bit before or after dinner if we want to get more photography in for the evening.
Hope this sounds fun and something a bit different. As always, weather can be a factor, but October evenings are usually super nice!

Join me on the 4th Thursday of each month for our social at Bankhead Brewery.
Location
3840 Main St, Rowlett, Tx
Time 6:30
This is a fun social we get together eat, drink and chat.
Please RSVP so I will know how many tables I need to reserve. If the weather is nice, we will sit outside. On cold days we can move it too inside to a private room.
I will be there 10-15 minutes early.

You know you've been waiting for this - here's the official announcement!

I'm starting a Fourth Friday Low Light event. You'll learn how to do amazing things like:

• Beat your camera's internal light meter into submission
• How to get vivid colors at night
• Stopping motion (for fast things, like water drops and bullets)
• Blurring motion (a/k/a dragging the shutter)
• Feel confident using all of those "little used buttons" that you've been dying to master

What you'll need to succeed:

• KNOW YOUR CAMERA AND MANUAL. Learn where all of the modes are selected and what the buttons do and where they are, even if you don't understand what they do. I'm a Nikon guy - don't ask me for Canon / Sony / Leica advice. :-)
• A stable tripod. We want stability here, not wishy-washy-wobbles.
• Neutral Density Filters for the lenses you will be using. It's like Bogart once said: “You'll need them. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

I will send out details to the attendees as we get closer to the event date - this allows me to pick out a fun spot to play. And when it gets too hot to go out, we can possibly reserve a classroom somewhere and do indoor things, like the famous water droplets and the like. So for now, I've selected the Rowlett DART station, but that's not where we're going to be going!