December 6^th Meeting
The Season is Upon Us!

By Leonard Cichowski

Once again we come to the end of another successful year at HUPS.  And this time the end is bittersweet for me.  I’m stepping out of the limelight of being an officer for this great organization.  I’ve been a member of HUPS since 1984 or so, and have held the position of president and vice president many times over.  During this time I have made many great friends, most are alive, some have died.  I have many cherished memories from this group.  And the word cherished is not used lightly.  It is reserved for the most special things and people in my life.  I would like to thank you all for the love and friendship that you have bestowed upon me over the years.  I can only hope that my contribution to HUPS can equal what you have given to me.  Once again, thank you for the privilege of allowing me to serve you and HUPS.

Chuck Jensen will now move in to take my place as VP.  I know the programming will be in capable hands.  I anticipate that you will all cooperate and help Chuck make 2005-2006 another successful year.  He already has shared some very interesting ideas.  If you have any ideas for programming... please let him know.

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December Meeting from previous column

And believe it or not, the Holidays are fast approaching.  So that means that our December 6th meeting will be centered on our Holiday Dinner.  If you weren’t at the November meeting to sign the "food list," be sure to bring your favorite dish to share with all of your dive buddies.  You may contact Kathy or John Ringrose if you are unsure what to bring.  In addition to the feast our soon to be world famous Best of HUPS Photo Competitions are scheduled for the December meeting.  For more information on the Best of HUPS contest see the related article on page 3 of this newsletter.  What could be better... an evening of great food, great friends and great images.

And like I said, the Holidays are here: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s.  Take this time to spend time with your family and loved ones and to share the meaning of these special days.  Give them the time and love that they so richly deserve.  Life is too short and this isn’t a dress rehearsal.  We only get to do this once.

As usual the meeting will be at the Bayland Community Center starting at 7:00 PM.  A map and directions are at the end of this newsletter.

Happy Diving and Happy Holidays,
Leonard Cichowski

Holiday Dinner Sign Up

The super-duper party planning duo of Kathy and John Ringrose have again volunteered to coordinate the HUPS Holiday Dinner at the December meeting.  If you have not already signed up to bring an item please contact John and Kathy to let them know what you plan to bring.  The categories are appetizer, casserole/veggie dish, dessert, drinks, salad and breads.  HUPS will provide ham and turkey.  Also, anyone that can come early to help decorate will be appreciated.  The plan is to begin setting up about 6:00 pm.

President's Message
Looking Forward to 2005

Every year brings a new set of people to help run HUPS.  Next year we have a mix of veterans and rookies on the team.  The common thread is that everybody involved, officers, committee chairpersons, and board of directors, is committed to helping HUPS grow and get better.  To refresh your memory, I will continue for another year as President but Leonard Cichowski has stepped aside as Vice President.  Our new VP, Chuck Jensen, has agreed to take on the duties of organizing next year’s presentations and handling all of the other duties that are part of the office.  Judging from the great job he did as Membership Chairman, he will do a great job.  Leonard, in the meantime, isn’t disappearing from the scene.  He has agreed to serve on the Board of Directors and to be our trip coordinator for next year’s HUPS Shootout in Cozumel.  Based on how well the Bonaire Shootout turned out this year, I know that we can expect another great time.

Henry Ragland will continue as our Treasurer, a job that may not be glamorous but certainly requires attention to detail.  He has always done a great job and his contributions are totally appreciated.  Tammy Allyn will be serving another year as Secretary, for which I am personally very grateful.  She does a fine job taking notes at board meetings and getting out the minutes and she also goes out of her way to buy all of those beautiful trophies we give to winners of our Shootouts and for our annual photographer’s of the year and member of the year.

The Board of Directors has a changed considerably with only 2 returning members, Frank Burek and Ken Knezick, from 2004.  The other 7 directors for 2005 are Joe Nicklo, Yvonne Jensen, Jack Allyn, Terry Moore, Leonard Cichowski, Paul Levy, and Dennis Vernon.  I want to give my personal thanks to Jack Andrews, John Anderson, Gary Merritt, Anne Millioud, John Ringrose, Jan Roush, and James Wiseman for all of their contributions.  There will be plenty of challenges next year and we depend on the Board of Directors to guide HUPS smoothly and wisely.

Yvonne Jensen is doing double duty next year.  She has agreed to take over for Chuck as Membership Chairperson.  Paul Levy has once again offered step back in to run our Photo Contest, a job that is becoming more important and involved now that underwater digital photography has come of age.  Change is not always good, and not having to break in a new editor for Underwater Images is very good news.  Everyone knows how much effort David Lenderman puts into making it one of the best underwater newsletters going.

Pat Miller will continue to be our Web Master from his home in Austin.  There will be major additions to the web page in 2005.  He has just finished adding the first two sections of a new feature showing the winners from each month’s photo contest.  Log onto HUPS.ORG and see it for yourself.

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President's Message from previous column

James Wiseman has agreed to continue with the important job of coordinating our digital contests next year.  Look for major changes in how we run our digital contest for 2005.  Finally, we are still looking for a replacement for the Director of Education, a job that Joe Nicklo has handled for the first two years and made into a major new benefit for HUPS members.

One thing that we can all count on is that HUPS will continue to be a quality organization next year and for the foreseeable future.  I promised that HUPS would give you the Best Bang for Your Buck and I think that we delivered on that promise.  We will move into 2005 on the shoulders of our dedicated membership.  We rely on the efforts and talents of the people in our great organization.  I personally want to thank everyone for making it a fun, educational, interesting year.

See you at the December meeting.  Bring your appetite.  Kathy Ringrose has once again volunteered to coordinate details of getting the banquet set up.  Don’t forget to bring your slides and digital files for the Best of HUPS contest.

Dennis

Quick Tip

To get really good images, an underwater photographer often needs to spend a long time with a single subject.  This is usually difficult to do when you have to keep up with a group of divers.  So the tip this month is to beach dive.  Just you and a buddy on your own.  No divemaster gesturing for you to stay with the group, no newbie divers kicking up sand into your shot, no other photographers hovering above waiting to get in on the action.  A nice slow beach dive is a great way for you to create those winning images.

Advanced 2nd Place – Sue Watson ©2004

It’s time to bring out the best of the best.  Every year at the December meeting we have our Best of HUPS Photo Competition.  We will have both digital and slide competitions.  For the Best of HUPS contests, past HUPS monthly winners are eligible and encouraged.  Images that have placed in previous Best of HUPS contests are not eligible.  Images that have placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in a major competition are not eligible.

For the slide competitions we will have images divided on where the image was created.  Members can enter three images in the Gulf/ Caribbean/ Atlantic Ocean category AND three images in the Pacific Ocean/ Indian Ocean/ other category.  With sufficient number of entries, the slide contest will be divided into Advanced and Novice.  Images must have been captured underwater.

The digital contests will also include two categories.  The first digital contest is for "standard" digital images created with a digital camera.  Only minimal digital manipulation is allowed on images in this contest.  Only manipulation of color balance, intensity, contrast and cropping are allowed.  The images can be of any subject anywhere in the world.  Images must have been captured underwater.

The second digital contest is an "anything goes" digital contest.  These images can be scanned film images or from digital cameras.  There are no limits on manipulation in this contest.  The main limitation is all components of image must be original works of entrant.

The digital entries need to be emailed to our NEW photo contest mailbox at photocontest@hups.org at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.  See related article on page 4 of this newsletter.  Slide entries should be given to contest coordinator at the beginning of the meeting.  For a complete listing of all Contest rules check out the web site.

 

Monthly Contest Winners on HUPS.ORG

Pat Miller has done it again.  He has added a major new section to www.HUPS.ORG.  From now on we will be able to revisit the winning slide and digital images from our monthly contests, the Best of HUPS year-end contest, and winners from our Shootouts.

It already has winning images posted from the last couple of contests.  Check it out... I think you’ll like it.  From the HUPS home page, www.HUPS.ORG, click on "NEW! Photo Contest Winners" at the top of the menu.

Start looking through your images to get ready for the 2005 monthly contests.  In 2005 we will have a Zodiac spin to the topics.  The topics are as follows:

UpComing Meetings & Events

FOR SALE Two Ikelite SubStrobe 200 (orange) with batteries, quick charger and 2 diffusers -- $750. All work great and one just serviced by Ikelite. Photos of these items are viewable at http://www.seabelow.com/uwphoto4sale.  All prices OR BEST OFFER.  Contact Dave Van Rooy at dvanrooy@seabelow.com.

News from the DEA
By Joe Nicklo - Director of Educational Activities

Well, it was no surprise to me, Mary Lou and Jackie's COMPOSITION workshop was a success.  For four hours, Mary Lou and Jackie mesmerized twenty-eight attendees with a Powerpoint show, equipment display, and a critique session of a number of slides and digital images submitted by those in attendance.  I heard many compliments from those who all said they felt they were leaving this workshop a better photographer then when they arrived.  We had people attend from as far away as Fort Worth, Corpus Christi and Brenham.

This was our last workshop for this year, and if attendance is any indicator, the entire workshop program was a huge success.  We owe a show of gratitude to those members who conducted the workshops and in so doing devoted their time, energy and knowledge in an attempt to make us all better photographers.  Next time you bump into James Wiseman, Dennis Davenport, Ken Knezick, David Lenderman, Mary Lou and Jackie Reid, be sure to express your appreciation.

With that said, I feel a need to express my opinion regarding the continuation of the workshop program.  I am a firm believer in education!  The workshops that were done throughout this past year were all designed to be educational.  I think I can state unequivocally that our members are hungry for knowledge and our workshop program was successful because of this fact.  The response to the workshop program is behooving and therefore the newly elected officers and directors should not only agree to continue the workshops, but should also figure out how to expand and improve them.

Discovery... It is a joy to me to see the expression on the faces of our members when they realize just how good they have become.  I see it almost every month during the monthly photo contest.

 

Membership Renewal Time
By Chuck Jensen

2005 dues are now due. Please bring them to the December meeting.  Dues are $30.00 for an individual membership and $35.00 for a family membership.  Please make checks payable to HUPS.  It seems that year after year we are collecting dues for months into the New Year.  Please, let’s try to get them paid before the New Year as it makes things easier on everyone.  You all should have been emailed an updated info sheet.  Please update your info and staple your dues check to it.  I will be collecting them at the December meeting.

The e-mail address to send your digital entries for the HUPS Digital Photo Contest is finally ready for action!  Use it starting with the December Best of HUPS Digital contest.  We had to set up a special e-mail account on the HUPS web server, because receiving a lot of image files can fill up a regular e-mail Inbox very quickly.  To make sure the photo contest coordinator gets your picture okay, please observe the following:

1. You can enter up to three images in the contest.  The image files need to be JPEG/JPGs, and the size of each file should be less than 500 KB.  The resolution of the projector is 1,024 pixels horizontally by 768 pixels vertically, so images must be no larger than that.  Horizontal images with a 4:3 aspect ratio fit can be sized to 1,024 by 768 pixels exactly.  Vertical images with a 3:4 aspect ratio can be no larger than 576 by 768 pixels -- a vertical format image can be wider than 576 pixels, but no taller than 768 pixels.  I.e., your image must be no wider than 1,024 pixels, and no taller than 768 pixels.  See the complete rules for the digital contest on the web site.

One thing about digital is you don't have to stick to regular aspect ratios.  For example, a horizontal format image with a 5:4 aspect ratio could be 960 pixels wide by 768 pixels tall, and a 5:3 aspect could be 1,024 by 614 pixels.  A vertical format image with a 4:5 aspect ratio could be 614 pixels wide by 768 pixels tall, and a 3:5 aspect could be 461 by 768 pixels.  Or you can have any oddball aspect ratio; for example, you could have a horizontal image that's 1,024 pixels wide by 700 pixels tall, and a vertical image could be 700 pixels wide by 768 pixels tall.  The point is that the width of your image must be no more than 1,024 pixels, and the height must be no more than 768 pixels, whether it's vertical, horizontal or even square.

2. Open a new e-mail message, and address it to photocontest@hups.org.  Attach your image file(s).  Check documentation for your e-mail application on how to attach files to messages.

3. Please note, if you are using Microsoft Outlook as your e-mail application, you must Format the message as Plain Text.  Click "Format" on the menu bar, and then select "Plain Text".  If the message isn't sent as Plain Text, Outlook could send a file called Winmail.dat that Microsoft designed to hold the message's format and fonts, and it also contains attached image file(s).  Our mail application can't read Microsoft's Winmail.dat file.  So send your message as Plain Text.  This is the only "gotcha" I know about and I hope there aren't any others, but it's not possible to test every e-mail application that anybody might have.

4. Send the message to photocontest@hups.org, and good luck with the contest!

HUPS Shootout 2005

Once again it is time to think about setting your sights for our annual shootout.  This coming year, the event will take place in Cozumel.  So, here are the details:

DATES of TRAVEL:  Saturday, July 16 through Saturday, July 23, 2005

LODGING:  Scuba Club Cozumel.  $840.00 per person, based on double occupancy.  This pricing represents $750 + 12% tax = $840.  Package includes 7 nights lodging, 6 days of 2-tank boat diving, one boat night dive, unlimited shore diving, all meals and hotel taxes.

TRANSFERS:  Round-trip meet and greet and taxi transfer is $18 per person

PACKAGE COST:  $429.75 + $840.00 + $18.00 = $1,287.75

I will be checking on costs for non-divers.  I will be taking deposits for $100/person.  At present, there are 24 slots.  Since this should be a sellout, I will take deposits only by mail.  Order on the list and waiting list will be determined by two things: 1) active membership and 2) postmark on the envelope.  Make checks payable to HUPS.  Contact Leonard Cichowski.

Ken Knezick and Island Dreams have worked hard to put together this wonderful package.  Updates will be forthcoming.

Novice 1st Place – Jack Allyn ©2004

Irian Jaya on the Kararu
April 25 – May 11, 2005

HUPS is sponsoring this dive expedition for 14 members next spring.  The trip, worked up in conjunction with Island Dreams, Kararu Dive Voyages, and Burt Jones & Maurine Shimlock will be to the remote islands off the western coast of Irian Jaya, considered by many to be the most awesome, pristine diving in the world.  The trip will be guided by professional photographers Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock.  Not only will participants be able to tap into their expertise regarding the unique critters that are certain to be encountered but they will provide helpful guidance on underwater photographic techniques and how to best utilize your equipment.

Price: $4875 per person
Contact Dennis Deavenport

Check it out on the Web

For an interesting perspective on the digital vs. film debate, check out this article by Ken Rockwell.  In addition to that article there is lots of other interesting stuff to be found from the home page http://www.kenrockwell.com.

Thanks to Jesse Cancelmo for submitting this link.

Monthly Contest Winners
November 2004 - Stars

The Houston Underwater Photographic Society (HUPS) meets the first Monday of every month at 7:00PM at the Bayland Community Center, 6400 Bissonet, near Hillcroft.

Social time begins at 7:00PM for members and visitors to get acquainted. Visitors are always welcome to join us. So, stop by and see what we are all about!