This month starts the new year and I’ve already got a lot of  things in mind for this month. I’ll be attending my first meetings at Houston Photographic Study Group and the Houston Photographic Society. One group is a small, limited group focused on improving photography with assignments and critiques and the other is a much larger social group with some photography related programs and activities.

• The activity at Houston Photographic Society is The Narrow View. I hope to find out a little more at this week’s meeting.
• The focus of the January meeting of the Houston Photographic Study Group is the first in a three part series focusing on Artificial Light/Strobe Photography. I’ve been wanting to get more use out of my Canon Speedlite so hopefully, I get some of the foundations behind artificial light photography.
• The assignment for January at Assignment Houston is Main Street USA. I have several convenient vantage points for the assignment (Downtown, Museum District, and Texas Medical Center) so I should be able to get some interesting images for the Flickr group pool. I plan on getting out there for some night shots to tie in with one of the books I’m reading right now.
• I’ll definitely be out at Brazos Bend at least once this month – so much changes each month in terms of landscapes and wildlife that you really can miss a lot if you miss a month. I also plan on getting to another favorite place near Downtown for a early morning walk this month.

The books I plan on focusing on this month are:

• Night Photography: Finding your way in the dark ~ Lance Keimig
• Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography ~ NK Guy 

For the digital darkroom study, I plan on sitting through the whole 16+ hours of the three Lightroom 3 training classes at Kelby Training online. I rushed through them a couple of months ago, but after using LR3 for a few months now, I’m ready to spend a little more focused time learning the product.

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