By Gregg Heid
Special to The PREVIEW
The Pagosa Springs Photography Club will hold its May meeting on Wednesday, May 8, at the Community United Methodist Church, 434 Lewis St.
Join us for socializing at 6 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Longtime photographers and those just starting out are welcome to attend.
The Photography Club normally meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. in the fellowship room of the Methodist Church.
The speaker at the May meeting will be Bill Johnson, a retired nuclear scientist who lives part-time in Pagosa Springs and part-time in Los Alamos, N.M. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and spent most of his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory in arms control, nuclear nonproliferation and counterterrorism. His fundamental research interests were diverse and ranged from cosmic-ray physics to the geosciences to computer chess.
Since his retirement, his volunteer activities include serving as “shopkeeper” for the Geyser Observation and Study Association (www.geyserstudy.org), an organization “devoted to the collection and dissemination of information about geysers and other geothermal phenomena in Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere.”
Johnson’s talk will cover topics in geyser and hot spring photography, emphasizing the geysers of Yellowstone and how best to go about photographing them, but extending to geyser fields worldwide.
Geyser photography at Yellowstone is a timely topic, not just because the national park is opening for the year, but also because several rarely seen but spectacular geysers are in an active state at this time. Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest, which after decades of near-dormancy, has been exceptionally active for the last year.
Club members may bring up to 10 photos on a thumb drive to share with the group after the presentation.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact our president, Andy Butler, at (512) 581-1470 or visit pagosaspringsphotoclub.org.