Blog Posts

A sortable collection of posts by category.

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update Week 43- Oct 17, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter Highlights Out on Vacation - I'm out on vacation till the 21st of October. I have limited access to communications during this time. Website Updates - Recent work on the website has focused on the Menu items for Quarterly Competitions and Monthly Critiques.Quarterly Competitions - Updates to the 2026 and 2025 Gallery pages are complete

Upcoming Events

3 days ago3 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update Week 42- Oct 10, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter Highlights Out on Vacation - I'm out on vacation till the 21st of October. I have limited access to communications during this time. Website Updates - Recent work on the website has focused on the Menu items for Quarterly Competitions and Monthly Critiques.Quarterly Competitions - Updates to the 2026 and 2025 Gallery pages are complete

6 days ago4 min read

COASTAL CALIFORNIA PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL - OCTOBER '26

Download the latest Coastal California Photographer's Newsletter/Journal. We have our latest report on the Community's status with the Prez's report, introduction of the instant messaging platform, WhatsApp as a new member benefit. Meet one of our most distinguished members in Member Spotlight, find out what's it's like to sit and talk cameras for a spell... and how better to end up with more wise words from Dan Holmes.

Oct 71 min read

Last Chance to Sign Up for MORRO BAY

Safari: Morro Bay Only three hours away from Ventura County, Morro Bay is a wonderful place for photography. We will shoot a couple sunrises and sunsets and in between enjoy the sights and sounds of San Luis Obispo County. Time & Location Oct 21, 2026, 11:00 AM PDT – Oct 23, 2026, 4:00 PM PDT Hampton Inn Morro Bay, 295 Atascadero Rd, Morro Bay, CA 93442, USA

Oct 61 min read

AI in Image Competitions ~ can we tell?

Artificial intelligence in photography is here, it is part of our ever changing environment, and can do amazing things. I've heard it will be able to mask so accurately that feather edges can show a transparent glow... So - in dealing with image competitions - how can we differentiate images created with a camera and adjusted with a computer from images created solely with AI? How do we maintain fairness in competitions? Well - AI can also be used to determine the amount of

Oct 12 min read

Coastal California Photographers Gets a Little More Social

Let’s face it. We photographers have a lot of things to keep track of. Cameras, lenses, batteries, memory cards, tripods, filters, Lightroom, Photoshop, and that mysterious setting we changed three weeks ago that we now cannot remember how to change back. And now, Coastal California Photographers is adding one more useful tool to the photographer’s toolbox: WhatsApp. We are setting up a Coastal California Photographers WhatsApp group to give our members another easy way to st

Sep 303 min read

Seminar - Distinguish Between Craft and Art

Hutch, a distinguished member of our CCP Community, as well as many other organization, which looks like includes the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia. Hutch is forwarding an invite to a seminar discussing the distinction between craft and art and why it matters to the photographer. As Hutch states, "The Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia (invites you) to attend their webinar with Freeman Patterson and further pass it on to clubs and individuals who might be likewise intere

Sep 251 min read

PSA Webinar - Still Life & Food Images

You’re invited! PSA is hosting a free webinar open to all club members, the public, and friends. If you’ve ever wondered what PSA is all about, this is the perfect chance to jump in and enjoy a live learning experience. Webinar Registration - Zoom

Sep 251 min read

Adjusting Your Focus - A Webinar by PPC

As CCP is affiliated with PPC, we often receive invites to attend special events. One of the benefits of membership is being exposed to many informational and educational resources that may be of interest to you. If you are a member of PPC this Webinar is free, otherwise there may be a small fee. Also remember to join us for this Sunday , Sept 27 for Camera, Coffee and Cars 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM PDT Honey Cup Coffeehouse & Creamery, 3500 Harbor Blvd Ste. 1-105 1-105, Oxnard, C

Sep 241 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 41- Oct 3, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter Highlights Website Updates - Recent work on the website has focused on the Menu items for Quarterly Competitions and Monthly Critiques. Quarterly Competitions - Updates to the 2026 and 2025 Gallery pages are complete. I'm still updating prior years. Monthly Critiques - A new page has been completed for 2026 Monthly Critiques. I'll update the page monthly after Critiques occur. Recorde

Sep 224 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 40- Sept 26, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter Highlights Website Updates - Recent work on the website has focused on the Menu items for Quarterly Competitions and Monthly Critiques. Quarterly Competitions - Updates to the 2026 and 2025 Gallery pages are complete. I'm still updating prior years. Monthly Critiques - A new page has been completed for 2026 Monthly Critiques. I'll update the page monthly after Critiques occur. Recor

Sep 224 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 39- Sept 20, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter Highlights PPC State Competition - Images are in, and judges' review will begin tomorrow, 9/19/2026. For anyone interested in watching the judging on Saturday and the Critiques on Sunday, Gary Parsons has put together notes on the process and how to connect. Thanks Gary! Website Updates - Recent work on the website has focused on the Menu items for Quarterly Competitions and Monthly

Sep 184 min read

Compositional Elements - More than just Rules!

“Break the Rules”? Nope – in almost every case, a compelling photograph or image contains compositional elements that draw our eye into the image, hold our attention, and create an emotional response or connection. A simple take on the rules of composition: “yup – they are there because they work”. Yet, something about us makes us rebel against “rules”, so let’s just call them “elements” – and there are a lot of them! Here, I’ll break down this photograph into 4 elements that

Sep 171 min read

October Monthly Critique: Clocks, Time Is on Our Side

There are few things in life more dependable than a clock. It may run fast, run slow, or stop altogether, but sooner or later somebody will notice and complain. For our October Monthly Critique, however, we are asking you to do something considerably more creative than simply photographing a clock and telling us what time it is. Our October challenge is Clocks, and our guest judge is Paul Speaker, APSA, PPSA, GPSA, M.Photog., M.Artist, Cr. Paul has given us a wonderfully open

Sep 165 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 38- Sept 13, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter New Members Highlights PPC Annual Competition - Time Sensitive, today is the last day for image submissions by midnight tonight! - The Professional Photographers of California (PPC) is hosting its annual image competition on September 19 and 20, with submissions due September 12. We seek at least ten Coastal California Photographers (CCP) to submit up to six images. CCP aims to win

Sep 124 min read

CCP Newsletter - September

Sep 100 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 37- Sept 7, 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter New Members Highlights PPC Annual Competition - Time Sensitive - The Professional Photographers of California (PPC) is hosting its annual image competition on September 19 and 20, with submissions due September 12. We seek at least ten Coastal California Photographers (CCP) to submit up to six images. CCP aims to win the "Affiliate Trophy" and be the top-scoring camera organization i

Sep 73 min read

Coastal California Photographers Weekly Update

Week 36- Aug 30 2026 Mike Mercadante Highlights How-to Tips Event Reminders CCP Newsletter New Members Highlights PPC Annual Competition - Time Sensitive - The Professional Photographers of California (PPC) is hosting its annual image competition on September 19 and 20, with submissions due September 12. We seek at least ten Coastal California Photographers (CCP) to submit up to six images. CCP aims to win the "Affiliate Trophy" and be the top-scoring camera organization in

Aug 304 min read

2026 State Image Competition

Time Sensitive The Professional Photographers of California (PPC) is hosting its annual image review on September 19 and 20, with an image submission deadline of Saturday, September 12. We are seeking at least ten Coastal California Photographers (CCP photographers) to submit up to six images to this year’s competition. The state camera organizations are in friendly competition, and CCP hopes to take home the coveted “Affiliate Trophy” and earn the title of top-scoring camera

Aug 292 min read

Cool Lightroom Trick for Local Sharpening!!

I just found this in an email from PictureCorrect - these folks are worth a follow and subscription! https://www.picturecorrect.com/ When Sharpening in Lightroom, global sharpening can over sharpen parts of the image that you'd like to keep soft. So I normally don't sharpen in LR and do local sharpening in Photoshop. Global sharpening in Lightroom hard bakes the sharpening into the file when opening in Photoshop. But, this cool trick gives you local sharpening in LR - i.e.

Aug 231 min read