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Meetings are free and open to everyone. Arrive 30 minutes early for the social time.
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June 11
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Dessert Menu listed on event page.
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Important Deadlines
Don't miss your chance to participate!
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- Upload Due: Sunday, June 7 at 9:00 PM, Monthly Competition Photos
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Flagpole Photographers Camera Club Posts
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Call for Entries: "Summer Newtown Exhibit"
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Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary Flagpole Photographers and community members are invited to participate in a special photo exhibit at the Newtown Municipal Center! To honor our town and celebrate our country's 250th Anniversary, we are highlighting the beauty, history, and spirit of Newtown. The format for this event is similar to our annual “Newtown and Beyond” exhibits, but without the …
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Rodeos, Reenactments & Festivals: June 2026 Photo Outings
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Read about many fun photo opportunities in our area.
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2026 May Competition Results, All Photos & Video
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1. Congratulations to our winners!
2. Results
3. Video of the Judges Discussing the Photos
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Flagpole Photographers Takes Second Place in International Monochrome Competition!
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Huge congratulations to all of our participating members! Flagpole Photographers Camera Club has officially secured Second Place in Group D of the PSA PID Monochrome Interclub Competition for 2025-2026. This is a fantastic international achievement that highlights the incredible talent within our club. A special thank you goes out to Sandy Schill for coordinating our Photographic Society of America Worldwide …
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"Light Painting" Program - Share Your Photos
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The recent Illuminating the Night: A Light Painting Program was a resounding success, bringing together over 20 attendees—including a few welcome new faces - for a highly interactive evening of photographic creativity. Please upload your best photos from the evening to the club gallery on the this page. We look forward to seeing your results from the three hands-on stations. …
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Photos from Flagpole Workshop Day 2026
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The 2026 Workshop Day was a success, with photographers of all skill levels coming together to learn and capture the character of Newtown and Sandy Hook. Despite the earlier forecasts, the rain held off and provided a nice day for everyone to practice their fundamentals and motion techniques outdoors. Lunch at Ralph’s Sandy Hook Cafe was one of the highlights …
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Monthly Assigned Subjects Ideas
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Note: The meaning of our assigned subjects is always open to your personal interpretation. Let these ideas spark your imagination, rather than hinder your creativity!
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Golden & Blue Hour
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The Challenge: Capturing the fleeting transition of natural light requires precise timing but offers a profound way to elevate your photos. The goal is to move beyond a simple snapshot of a sunset and deliberately use light's shifting color temperature and direction to create depth, drama, or mood. Golden hour is the brief period shortly after sunrise or before sunset when the low angle of the sun bathes the landscape in a warm, soft, and highly directional light with long, dramatic shadows. Blue hour occurs just before sunrise or after sunset when the sun drops below the horizon, casting the sky and surroundings in a deep, cool, and beautifully even blue tone.
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Subject Ideas
- Silhouettes and Rim Lighting: Position an interesting subject, whether it's wildlife, an interesting tree, or a person, directly between your lens and the low sun. You can expose for the bright sky to create a stark silhouette, or use the backlight to create a glowing rim around a close up photo of foliage.
- Architecture and Artificial Lights: This is arguably the most powerful use of blue hour. The deep, cool blue of the sky balances perfectly with the warm yellow and orange glow of streetlights, illuminated windows, and architectural up-lighting.
- Golden Water Reflections: Head to a local spot like Lake Lillinonah or a calm pond. The warm, fiery hues of the sky reflecting off the water effectively double the color in your photo, creating a striking, high-contrast composition.
Key Techniques
- Capitalizing on Extreme Sun Angles: The extremely low angle of the sun acts as a natural spotlight. Look for rolling hills, fences, or textured architectural facades where the long, sweeping shadows reveal the three-dimensional shape of the scene.
- Long Exposures for Motion Blur: Use a tripod and a slow shutter speed during blue hour to capture the red and white streaks of moving vehicle headlights or to give flowing water a smooth, ethereal, silky quality against the cool tones of the environment.
Weathered Textures & Landscapes
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The Challenge: Historical structures and aging materials carry a rich narrative, but capturing them without intention can result in flat, uninspiring photos. The goal is to use close-up details and wider historical context to highlight the physical passage of time and the beauty of decay.
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Subject Ideas
- Oxidation and Peeling Paint: Look for old farm equipment, neglected vehicles, or rusted locks. The rich oranges and browns of rust contrasting with original metal, or the curling edges of paint on an old door, make for a striking photo
- Antique Barns and Cemeteries: Capture a leaning structure with sun-bleached siding juxtaposed against a vibrant landscape, or explore graveyards from the 1700s and 1800s where eroded slate and marble headstones feature lettering barely visible from decades of weathering.
- Historical Stone Walls: Focus on the lichen, moss, and crumbling nature of old property lines running through the woods, showing exactly how nature reclaims human-made structures over centuries.
Key Techniques
- Textures as Abstracts: Zoom in exceptionally close on a split-rail fence, driftwood, or the side of an old barn. Use the deep grooves carved out by wind and rain as strong leading lines and shadows to turn a realistic material into a graphic pattern.
- Isolating History: When photographing weathered subjects, pay close attention to your backgrounds. Use a wider aperture to soften distracting modern elements, keeping the focus entirely on the texture, history, and character of the aging subject.
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Thanks for reading. See you soon!
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The Flagpole Photographers Team
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