Wichita Wildlight Photographic Society

Next Meeting Information: Thursday, October 8th , 2026 - 6:30 PM
Meetings and programs are free and open to the public without obligation.

LOCATION: Meetings are held at the Old Carnegie Library Building at 5th & B Ave, 425 SW B Ave, Lawton. Enter through the “tunnel” on the Southeast corner of the building at ground level, near the bus stop. The gate is locked, so press the doorbell button. Someone will buzz open the lock so you can get in. For a photo of the building and entrance, click here
For more information, email: [email protected]
PROGRAM:
David Strozdas: How to Build & Develop Backyard Bird Photo Opportunities
Join former state game warden and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service special agent David Strozdas for an immersive presentation on mastering backyard bird photography. A seasoned survivalist who has spent a year alone in both jungle and desert environments, Strozdas brings a wealth of global field experience—from capturing hummingbirds and tropical wildlife in the Sierra Madres and Andes Mountains to tracking big game in South Africa. His award-winning photography has been featured in premier national and state publications, including Outdoor Oklahoma and Birder’s World. In this practical session, he will demonstrate how to build the ultimate backyard setup, sharing proven insider tips to entice birds into perfect, meaningful angles. Attendees will learn actionable techniques using winter-ready tricks, fruits, and seeds to inject vibrant color and dynamic life into their images during the bleakest months of the year.
PHOTO SHOW AND TELL:
NO REGULAR SHOW AND TELL
If you’d like to participate in our 4th Challenge – Carnegie Library - please email 1 image (taken between 9/10 & 10/01) to [email protected] no later than one week prior to the meeting. Don’t forget to include the title! Send your photo as .jpg files, if possible, and be sure to include the word CHALLENGE in the subject line—otherwise, we might miss your email!

PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Carnegie Library
Built in 1922, this historic building served as the public library until 1973 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Today, it is home to Arts for All and our very own photography club. For this challenge, we invite you to explore and interpret this landmark through your lens. Show us the many ways our talented photographers see this space—through composition, lighting, architectural details, mood, color, and creative perspective. Celebrate the history, character, and spirit of this iconic building in your own unique way.

Before summer officially comes to an end, here’s a quick photography challenge you can try today.

I call it the End-of-Summer Sharpness Test.

Find a stationary subject with plenty of fine detail—a tree, building, sign, fence, or anything else that will make sharpness easy to judge.

Now photograph it handheld using the same focal length at:

1/30 sec
1/60 sec
1/125 sec
1/250 sec

Adjust your ISO as necessary to keep the exposure roughly the same.

The End-of-Summer Photo Sharpness Test - PictureCorrect Before summer officially comes to an end, here's a quick photography challenge you can try today. I call it the End-of-Summer Sharpness Test. Find a stationary subject with plenty of fine detail—a tree, building, sign, fence, or anything else that will make sharpness easy to judge. Now photograph ...

10 years ago, National Geographic Explorer and biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz was working in Bolivia when she got a call from a local wildlife sanctuary that had received “a weird cat.” Today, that “weird cat” has been officially identified as a new species, Leopardus tilcayo. This is the first time in over a century that scientists have formally named and described a new living cat species. As National Geographic reports, the “weird cat” that wound up at the Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary in the Bolivian Andes was dropped off by a local man who found it on a forest road when it was just a kitten. At first, the rescuer believed that it was a domestic cat. After it grew up, though, he realized it was wild and would have a better life at a wildlife sanctuary.

Nogales-Ascarrunz is the lead scientist and founder of the Programa de Investigación de Félidos Bolivia, or Bolivian Felids Research Program. She was instantly very interested in the unusual cat.

Adorable Photos of the First New Cat Species Discovered in Over a Century Cute, furry, and all-new.

Every photographer learns the rule of thirds early, then spends years collecting other guidelines that promise a more balanced frame. The question worth sitting with is which one actually deserves top billing, and whether the real answer is a technique at all.

Craig Roberts walks through the full lineup of composition tools while filming through a slipped disc pressing on a nerve, which he mentions upfront so the occasional slurred word makes sense. He runs down the rule of thirds first, calling it the king of composition and the one everyone has used, though he warns it can start to feel obvious if you lean on it too hard. From there he moves to diagonal lines, positioning himself so lines run corner to corner rather than flat across the frame for a more dynamic look. He covers the vanishing point next, the tunnel effect that drags the eye toward a single subject, and he frames it as a technique you find rather than force.

Every Composition Rule Ranked: Which to Skip | Fstoppers Craig Roberts ranks every major composition rule and reveals which one to skip entirely. Learn when rule of thirds works, how curves guide the eye, and why instinct only matters after mastering the basics.

Leslie Powell Gallery is hosting a wonderful local artist and teacher this month! Katherine Liontas-Warren

If you missed the reception this past weekend, no worries! There is still time to see her 42 year career retrospective!! Her work will be displayed until October 30th.

These days, when lenses come with lightning-fast autofocus, powerful image stabilization, aperture control from the camera body, transmission of aperture and focal-length information to the EXIF data, and a whole host of other clever features, using fully manual lenses might seem like pointless masochism. Modern cameras, however, offer a number of features that make fully-manual lenses worth considering as a perfectly sensible alternative. In this article, I’ll introduce you to some tips and tricks for shooting with these lenses while keeping your sanity intact.

Tips and Tricks for Shooting with Fully Manual Lenses PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

When I first visited the Galapagos, the Lava Gull (Leucophaeus fuliginosus) was one of my target bird species. And, as these things usually go, once you start looking for something, you can’t find it. When I returned to the Galápagos this year, I let the gulls slip a bit from my focus and concentrated more on Darwin’s finches.

The result was that I didn’t see a single Woodpecker Finch, even though the year before I had encountered one on practically every other bush. Obviously, I’m exaggerating a little. But looking for animals can sometimes be a bit like finding your way around in the dark. If you want to see something, you have to look just a little to the side. That’s exactly how it eventually worked out with the Lava Gull.

From the Galápagos: Photographing the Rarest Gull on Earth PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

When you visit a picturesque waterfall in the middle of the day, there’s a good chance that there will be a lot of light about, even sunshine. And that makes capturing a long exposure shot of a waterfall much trickier than doing it at dusk. However, don’t let that put you off, you just need strong enough neutral density filters and a circular polariser. And a tripod obviously, don’t forget that. So armed, I headed for my nearest babbling brook complete with tumbling waterfall.

You can't shoot long-exposure waterfalls in bright daylight, unless you do this... For milky, slo-mo images of waterfalls you need to use the right combination of filters

Every photographer hits it eventually. You pick up your camera, look around, and… nothing.

The light seems boring. Your neighborhood feels over-photographed. You’ve already photographed the flowers, sunsets, pets, streets, and local landmarks a hundred times.

It feels like you’ve run out of things to photograph. But you probably haven’t.

The problem may simply be that you’re looking for subjects instead of photographs.

The Surprisingly Simple Cure for Photographer’s Block - PictureCorrect Every photographer hits it eventually. You pick up your camera, look around, and… nothing. The light seems boring. Your neighborhood feels over-photographed. You’ve already photographed the flowers, sunsets, pets, streets, and local landmarks a hundred times. It feels like you’ve run out of th...