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.
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.
Join us on social media, too!
NEW! - Competition Results in Grid Display!
You can now see each year's (2015-2020) competition results on single pages by going to the menu "Competitions > Past Competition Winners" and selecting the year that you wish to see.
The 2020 page is separated into months. Starting with February, the images are also separated into levels. February was when we started using the Visual Pursuits judging tools.
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". Because of the limited number of participants allowed, only full NAPfS members can access the instruction page.
Thursday, July 16, 2020, 7:00 PM - Phil Sandlin
Phil was staff photographer for UPI and AP for over 50 years and has some amazing stories and photos to share. Some of his assignments were to go to Cuba to photograph Fidel Castro, covering the early civil rights movements, NASA, and major sporting events. Back when he started covering civil rights, the environment was much more hostile to photographers than today. Many of these photos were taken with high-speed infrared film. He has a story of being rescued by FBI agents. As staff photographer, his work was owned by UPI and AP so he doesn’t even have copies of much of his iconic work, but much of it can be found online.
For more very interesting information on Phil and to see what many people think about him, go to this link: http://aldiazphoto.blogspot.com/2016/02/photojournalist-phillip-k-sandlin.html.
For some examples of his work, go to the meeting announcement at "Organization > News and Information > Meeting Topics > Meeting Topics with Speakers > Phil Sandlin...".
Here is one example of his work: a photo of Jack Nicklaus: http://en.espn.co.uk/golf/sport/story/81624.html
Phil lives in Florida and will be joining our meeting from there.
This will be a virtual meeting. The instructions on joining the meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
Thursday, July 30, 2020, 7:00 PM - Social Meeting
The 5th Thursday meetings are normally social gatherings with potluck snacks, pizza, members' slide shows, etc. However, with the pandemic, the in-person social gathering will not happen.
We're going try to do a virtual social meeting and may try to break off into smaller groups.
The instructions on joining the meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
Thursday, August 6, 2020, 7:00 PM - Competition Meeting
This will be a virtual meeting. The instructions on joining the virtual meeting are at "Organization > Virtual Meeting Instructions".
- Competition theme is Open.
- Photos may be submitted at "Competitions > Submit Images to a Competition", then select the August competition.
- The deadline for submitting photos to the competition is Saturday, August 1, 2020, at 11:59 PM.
- Popular voting starts at the submission deadline. Scroll down this page to see the popular voting instructions, or click here.
- Popular voting ends on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 5:00 PM CDT.
- The competition meeting is Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 7:00 PM CDT.
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.
Virtual Edit Challenges
While we're all staying at home, Allen has prepared some "faulty" images in the monthly virtual edit challenges. Just for fun, see if you can edit the photos to make them better.
There will be a new challenge for July soon. For more information, go to the Meetup page.
Click the month below to see the results from that month:
May
June
Additional News and Information
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".
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.
YouTube
NAPfS has a YouTube Channel. Click on the icon above to see it.
It currently has the following videos:
West Pecan Coffee + Beer Art Show
On the evening of July 13, the advanced level photos which are currently on display will be removed and replaced with the basic and intermediate level photos.
Contact Patti Mitchell or Josh Baker for more information.
Click here to see the modified post with new dates
Popular Voting Instructions
To cast your popular votes go to "Competitions > Vote on Competition Images" and select the appropriate competition. When you first go to this page, the "Basic" images are shown. Be sure to vote in all three levels by selecting the levels with the pull-down menu.
Popular voting uses "Rank Voting", which is useful when you have a large number of items to rank or order using a large number of people indicating their preference. Rank Voting is an option on a competition that considers each voter's ordered preference for images.
When voting on images using Rank Voting, you can order thumbnail images using several methods:
- Drag and drop while viewing the thumbnails
- Type in the rank while viewing an image in "full screen" mode
The "rank" is shown at the bottom of each image or thumbnail. The top, left image is considered your first place selection. Your next preference is the next item in the same row. Remaining preferences continue in order within the row before starting a new row.
You cannot vote for your own images, so those images are always placed at the end of the list (in your level) while you are voting. All other images must be placed in your preferred ranking order.
The ranks for basic, intermediate, and advanced levels are independent, which means that voting with a level does not affect the votes in any other level. Everyone is encouraged to vote in all three levels.
IMPORTANT: If you rank any photo within a level, by dragging or typing in the rank, all the other photos in that level (except your own) are automatically ranked. So, if you're going to rank any photo, please rank all the photos within the levels in which you're participating.
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.
American-Statesman NAPfS Article
Read Ariana Garcia's article about NAPfS which appeared in the Pflugerville Pflag newspaper and the Austin American Statesman newspaper.
Past events for 2020 can be viewed by clicking here. This includes meeting announcements, recaps, competition results, judges and speakers.
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.