Phoenix Camera Club

What a great turnout for the May field trip to White Sands National Monument, and what a great weekend of photography!

Nearly two dozen members, spouses and friends participated in the long weekend photo trip, which once again brought PCC members unusual weather conditions for photography. An out of season low pressure system over the southwest brought monsoon-like weather conditions over the Memorial Weekend expedition. Rain the night before the first day of the trip left the sand moist, with a coarse texture formed by the impact of large raindrops.

In late afternoon lighting, the weather created a strong texture on the surface of the dunes. The primroses were at the end of their bloom cycle, but the soap tree yucca were in bloom, making for a nice foreground element for landscape shots.

On Saturday night, trip members were treated to a strong localized storm cell that included a lightning induced 90 minute power outage at the Hampton Inn. The hotel managed to recover their information systems and send 4am wake up calls to everyone except Jim Warthman, who got a special club wake up call at4:30am as the group was about to leave for sunrise shooting.

Sunday evening came with an excellent sunset, and most of the group opted for an early rise on Monday for a second morning shooting session.

(Publisher’s Note: On Monday morning, it was Bryan and Leslie’s turn to miss their alarm. According to Jim, they beat his time for getting out the door and down the road after being woken up from deep sleep.)

Look for sand, yuccas, and flowers to dominate the competition categories at the June club meeting. Here is a sample from our members:

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