Educating, Inspiring & Motivating Photographers of all Levels
The North Austin Pƒotographic Society is an inclusive, north Austin photo club dedicated to educating, inspiring and motivating its members through frequent face-to-face activities at regular club meetings. The club is open to photographers of all levels from true beginners (no camera required) to professionals. Through regular meetings, NAPƒS builds a community of active photographers, practicing their love for all types of photography. NAPƒS members share their passion and skills through presenting their work at meetings, participating in monthly competitions with live critiques, and exhibiting their work at our socials. We offer monthly hands-on workshops from area professionals, as well as national level celebrity photographers. Club activities are designed to help photographers of all levels grow through active shooting and feedback.
Our original website is https://napfs.club/. It is still active, but all new activities are handled on this site (napfs.org) as of January 15, 2020.
Join NAPfS for $24 yearly dues
Not Ready to join yet?
No problem. You can still stay in the loop with our very low volume email list. Find out about meetings, upcoming field trips and other club activities. Click below to send email asking to be put on the email list. Be sure to include your name and email address if it is different from the email address from which you are sending the message.
Member since 2021
IMPORTANT! - Change to March Competition Deadline
The deadline for the March competition has been changed to Tuesday, February 16 at 11:59 PM.
There will be other changes starting with the March Competition.
NAPfS recently joined the Photographic Society of America (PSA). As part of the club's membership, PSA will judge some photos each month, but not enough to have them judge all our entries. Thus, the judging, starting in March, will change to:
- The advanced level entries will be judged by PSA.
- The basic and intermediate level entries will be judged by NAPfS members who are in the advanced level.
Thus, no judge will critique photos in her/his own level.
Starting with the March competition, the deadline for submitting entries will be 16 days before the competition meeting. Since the competition meetings are usually on the first Thursday of a month, the deadline will be two weeks and two days beforehand on a Tuesday. The reason for the deadline change is that PSA requires two weeks to judge. To make the competition management easier, all levels will be required to meet this deadline.
Another change for the March competition is that NAPfS members will be allowed to anonymously critique the judges. A form will be made available after the March competition meeting. The judges will be able to see the results of the critiques.
If these changes are successful, they will be applied to all future competitions.
The February deadline remains the same (Saturday, January 30 @ 11:59 PM).
To learn more about our PSA membership, view Mark Laussade's excellent presentation.
Upcoming Meetings
NOTE: the meeting announcements can be accessed from the menu at "Organization > News and Information > Meeting Topics", then select the type of meeting and the meeting title. All meetings are on Thursday unless otherwise noted.
The first Thursday of each month (except December) is the competition meeting where image entries are judged and critiqued. The deadline for submitting images to the competitions is 11:59 PM on the Saturday before the competition meeting.
Instructions for joining online meetings are available from the menu at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instruction".
Thursday, February 4, 2021, 7:00 PM CST - Competition
This will be a virtual meeting held via Zoom. The instructions on joining the virtual meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
- Competition theme is "Open".
- Competition entries are now being accepted.
- Competition submission deadline is Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 11:59 PM.
- Popular voting opens at the submission deadline. Please read the popular voting instructions before voting.
- Popular voting ends on Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 5:00 PM CST.
- The competition meeting is Thursday, February 4, 2020 at 7:00 PM CST.
Thursday, February 18, 2021, 7:00 PM CST -Skylum's Luminar AI
This will be a virtual meeting held via Zoom. The instructions on joining the virtual meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
Join Florida-based portrait and sports photographer, longtime LinkedIn Learning educator, and Skylum's Director of Education Vanelli as he shares the innovative tech and secrets behind the new Luminar AI photo editing software. Vanelli will be joined by Skylum exec Kevin La Rue, and together they will introduce you to the genesis behind Skylum's newest RAW photo editor and how it can work to enhance your photo editing workflow.
We know your time is precious, so in this informative session, you’ll get three things:
- A complete demonstration of Luminar AI using a wide variety of photo types.
- An understanding of how artificial intelligence can help you achieve creative results quickly without taking away any creativity or control.
- How your Adobe workflow can be expanded when Luminar is used as a plug-in.
Thursday, March 4, 2021, 7:00 PM CST - Competition
This will be a virtual meeting held via Zoom. The instructions on joining the virtual meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
- Competition theme is "Curves".
- Competition entries will be accepted after the February competition
- Competition submission deadline is Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 11:59 PM. (Note the change to the normal submission deadline!)
- Popular voting opens at the submission deadline. Please read the popular voting instructions before voting.
- Popular voting ends on Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 5:00 PM CST.
- The competition meeting is Thursday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00 PM CST.
Thursday, March 18, 2021, 7:00 PM CDT - Don Simpson on Gesture
This will be a virtual meeting held via Zoom. The instructions on joining the virtual meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
Some of you may be familiar with Jay Maisel out of NYC who has spoken and written on this subject. Don will show lots of his own photography to demonstrate the key principles.
Upcoming Meetup Events
Meetup.com is a site that coordinates events in which its members might be interested. The NAPfS group will have many events, such as photowalks, photo outings, photo trips, etc. Some events are free; others are not. If you're interested in this type of thing, please join our meetup group at https://www.meetup.com/napfs-outings. It's free to join. Go to the website to see all upcoming and past events. You can post photos and see photos of the events. Virtual events are included whereby participants can participate from home.
If you'd like to host a Meetup event, please contact Allen Irby or Ed Peet and they will make you an organizer.
Photos from past Meetup events can be seen at https://www.meetup.com/napfs-outings/photos/
There are currently no Meetup events scheduled.
Additional News and Information
Volunteers Needed for Officer Positions!
Seven of the nine 2021 officer positions were filled with the recent NAPfS officer elections, but the positions of Program Coordinator and Art Show Coordinator had no volunteers.
If you're interested in serving as one of these officers, please contact Josh Baker or Patti Mitchell or send email to the club's email address.
The requirements for these officer positions are described at "Organization > About NAPfS > Leadership Roles and Responsibilities".
The current and past officers are listed at "Organization > About NAPfS > Leadership Team".
YouTube 
NAPfS has a YouTube Channel. Click on the icon above to see it.
In the January 21st meeting, Mark Laussade gave an excellent presentation on the benefits of joining the Photographic Society of America (PSA). NAPfS recently joined PSA as a club, and we intend to make use of PSA's judges for some of our competitions. See the video to see how this might happen.
The January 21, 2021 meeting video is now available at "Organization > News and Information > Meeting Topics > Meeting Recaps > Recap - Mark Laussade on PSA Benefits, January 21, 2021". This page also contains the chat window from the meeting.
Go to the YouTube channel by clicking on the icon above to see all the NAPfS videos available.
Instagram
Every month, starting on the day after the competition meeting, the winning images are posted to Instagram at the rate of one winner per day. The first image will be from the basic group and the final image will be from the advanced group. If you'd like to see how your winning photos are received by the "general public", please visit our Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/napfs.club. If you're an Instagram member, you can start following napfs.club; Besides the winning photos, notices about upcoming competitions and meetings and other important notices are posted.
Popular Voting Instructions
All full NAPfS members can vote on the competition entries starting at the competition deadline and ending two hours before the competition meeting.
To read the instructions for popular voting, go to "Organization > News and Information", click on the triangle to the left of "Information", then click on "View" next to "Popular Voting Instructions".
Or just click here.
Instructions for Viewing All Competition Critiques
For instructions on viewing the competition entry critiques, go to "Organization > News and Information", click on the triangle to the left of "Information", then click on "View" next to "Instructions on Viewing Competition Critiques".
Or just click here.
These pages include links to meeting announcements, recaps (including videos), competition results, judges and speakers.
The past events pages are at "Organization > About NAPfS > Past Speakers and Judges".
Past events for 2021 can be viewed by clicking here.
Past events for 2015-2020 can be viewed by clicking here and selecting the desired year.
Explanation of Competition Awards
First, Second, Third Place, and Honorable Mention awards come from the judges. These awards count toward the December “Photographer of the Year” awards. See “ Competition > Competition Rules” for the explanation of how the points are calculated. The images which win these awards are posted to Instagram at the rate of one-per-day starting the day after the competition.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze metals come from the Popular Vote. These awards do not count toward the December awards. Gold, silver, and bronze metals are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively in the popular voting.
Comments, Questions, Concerns?
Do you have questions for the NAPfS members or officers? Do you have comments or concerns that you'd like to share with the other members?
There is a forum topic that is used for this purpose.
Go to "Organization > Discussion Forums" and select "View Topics" under "NAPfS General Comments, Questions, Concerns". You can add a new topic or add a post to an existing topic in this forum.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, even if you don't have anything to post, subscribe to the forum by clicking on the "Subscriptions" button on the right side of the "NAPfS General Comments, Questions, Concerns".
Pfotographic?
Why do we use "Pfotographic" instead of "Photographic"? Because the club was founded in Pflugerville, Texas, which is just north of Austin. The club history is available from the menu at "Organization > About NAPfS > Club History".
Austin Studio Tour Video Available
Carol Schiraldi participated in the 2020 Austin Studio Tour (formerly East Austin Studio Tour; i.e. EAST). As part of her participation, she held a Zoom session om November 22 whereby NAPfS members' photos were critiqued. All members were asked to participate. Eight members submitted photos and five of those members participated in the video.
All of the photographers who were present talked about their photos and everyone was free to critique all the photos.
The video (and more information) is available at "Organization > News and Information > Special Events > Austin Studio Tour with NAPfS Photographs (View)".
Contact Us
General email address: web@napfs.club
A better way to send email is at "Organization > Send E-mail to Members" where you can direct email to specific people or specific groups of people; e.g. officers, competition managers, website administrators, etc.