What's New at USA Aloft?

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News from USA Aloft

Upcoming and Current Events:

When it blooms, come take pictures of our Night Blooming Cereus. Register to be notified: [PDF].

Fall 2010. Nature photography opportunities, many involving USA Aloft, at the Massabesic Audubon Center are described in this flyer: [PDF]

Friday, October 15, 2010, 6:00 - 10:00 PM. (Rain date Saturday, October 16.) Painting with Light, Nature Photography at Night at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Explore the use of light to illuminate and photograph night-time subjects. Creative use of illumination, coupled with long exposure times, can be employed both to take night time pictures of natural surroundings and to create stunning artistic views of the world. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Saturday, October 16, 30 and November 6, 2010, 12:00 - 4:00 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this fall. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Saturday, November 6, 2010, 10 AM - 5 PM, Digital Photography Printing Workshop at the Massabesic Audubon Center.  Learn how to prepare your digital images for printing. Take home with you a final image printed on a selection of papers and sizes (max size 12 x 18). Learn about a variety of tools including how to adjust tones and colors, retouch blemishes, crop to a given size or sharpen, all in a one-on-one session using your image. A course description is available as a PDF along with costs. This intermediate/advanced course expands on David Saxe's Nature Photography Workshop series.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.

Past Events:

For those who could not make the rain date in May, we are repeating our night photography workshop in June!

Friday, June 25, 2010, 6:00 - 10:00 PM. (Rain date Saturday, June 26.) Painting with Light, Nature Photography at Night at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Explore the use of light to illuminate and photograph night-time subjects. Creative use of illumination, coupled with long exposure times, can be employed both to take night time pictures of natural surroundings and to create stunning artistic views of the world. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Friday, May 14, 2010, 6:00 - 10:00 PM. (Rain date Saturday, May 15.) Painting with Light, Nature Photography at Night at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Explore the use of light to illuminate and photograph night-time subjects. Creative use of illumination, coupled with long exposure times, can be employed both to take night time pictures of natural surroundings and to create stunning artistic views of the world. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Spring 2010. Nature photography opportunities, many involving USA Aloft, at the Massabesic Audubon Center are described in this flyer: [PDF]

Spring 2010.  Read about School Programs by USA Aloft in association with the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH in our latest School Program Flyer or visit our updated pages dealing with school programs and programs for a general audience.  

Saturday, April 24, May 1 and May 8, 2010, 12:00 - 4:00 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this fall. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Sunday, November 21, 2009, 10 AM - 5 PM, Digital Photography Printing Workshop at the Massabesic Audubon Center.  Learn how to prepare your digital images for printing. Take home with you a final image printed on a selection of papers and sizes (max size 12 x 18). Learn about a variety of tools including how to adjust tones and colors, retouch blemishes, crop to a given size or sharpen, all in a one-on-one session using your image. A course description is available as a PDF along with costs. This intermediate/advanced course expands on David Saxe's Nature Photography Workshop series.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.

Sunday, October 4, 11 and 18, 2009, 12:00 - 4:00 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this fall. The course description is available as a PDF.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

September 24, 2009. We are changing our web hosting to a new provider. If you see burps, please bear with us as we make the transition. Our store will be inoperable for a while.

September 6, 2009.  Read about School Programs by USA Aloft in association with the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH in our latest School Program Flyer or visit our updated pages dealing with school programs and programs for a general audience.  Fall 2009. Nature photography opportunities, many involving USA Aloft, at the Massabesic Audubon Center are described in this flyer: [PDF]

Young Scientist Series.  Application of Object Oriented Programming to a Scientific Problem  at the Massabesic Audubon Center.  Targeted at a teen audience, this course will introduce object oriented programming (OOP) techniques, design and implement OOP tools and apply them to a body of scientific data.  Throughout, the application of the techniques to real world scientific problems will be stressed.  Prerequisites are knowledge of the Java programming language or a demonstrated ability with another programming language.  An interest in science is expected.  We will not be teaching the Java language, but some limited assistance will be available.  The instructor, David Saxe, has decades of experience using and teaching a wide variety of computer languages in scientific areas, including statistics, mathematics, psychometrics, astrophysics and computer science.  The course will meet twice per week for three hours in the evening.  An outside study commitment will be required. Watch this space for further details. Starts June 29 for 10 weeks Monday and Wednesday 6 PM – 9 PM  $550 Member/$700  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. 

Four Saturdays, July 11, 18, 25 and August 1, 2009, 9 AM – 5 PM.   Lewis and Clark Surveying Techniques at the Massabesic Audubon Center. We will study the techniques used by Lewis and Clark to survey their western route using replicas of period instruments.  This course demonstrates practical application of geometry and trigonometry to measure and record land surfaces.  Four day-long meetings will teach the techniques and use them to "survey" a field or other outdoor feature.  With that practical experience we will attempt, like Lewis and Clark, to map an unknown section of a river course.  Come prepared for rigorous outdoor activity that could get muddy.  Watch this space for further details.  Although targeted at teens, this course is open to all.  $325 Member/ $425 Non Member.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. 

Week of July 13 - 17, 2009, 9 AM - 12 Noon.  Nature Photography Workshop Series for Teens at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this summer in a week-long workshop for teens. The course description is available as a PDF.   Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Sunday, April 19, May 3 and May 17, 2009, 12:30 - 4:30 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this spring. The course description is available as a PDF.  Note that the course hours have been expanded to allow more time for field work. Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Saturday,  April 25, 2009, 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM, Controlling Depth of Field at the Massabesic Audubon Center.  This afternoon course expands on David Saxe's Nature Photography course to study focusing techniques. Using instruction and field experience, we will learn about what it means to be "in focus" and how to control which areas of a composition will be in focus.  Blur the background and leave the foreground sharp or vice versa.  You will learn more if your camera is capable of manual settings. Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.  Please have your camera make and model and preferred lens specifications available when you register.

February, 10, 2009.  School Programs are announced by USA Aloft in association with the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH. Download our School Program Flyer or visit our new pages dealing with school programs and programs for a general audience.

January 13 through March 24, 2009.  Art Exhibit: Discovering America’s Natural History, the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Massabesic Audubon Center, Auburn, NH.  In 1804, in one of the first big science efforts undertaken by this new nation, Lewis and Clark set out to explore the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. Traversing some of the most rugged and beautiful terrain in North America, the Expedition observed and recorded the natural history, surveyed the terrain, and made contact with the many Native American peoples along their route. In this exhibit, photographer David Saxe tells the Expedition’s story with aerial and ground based images from the present day Lewis and Clark Trail. Images sample the terrain, flora and fauna along the route from St Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon. Explanatory text provided with each image guides the visitor as the photographer retraces the Expedition’s three-year journey.  The Massabesic Audubon Center  has program and visitor information and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Sunday, March 15, 2009,  2 - 4 PM.  Artist Reception and Talk at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Join us for an afternoon with the photographer. Between 2001 and 2004 David Saxe drove more than 11,000 miles and flew for over 100 hours collecting nearly 60,000 photographs from which this exhibit is drawn. David will describe the Lewis and Clark Expedition, talk about the images in the exhibit and discuss his own adventures along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Download a flyer for this talk. Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.

David Saxe's photography October 13 through December 6, 2008 at Peabody Mill Environmental Center.  Six photographs from nature photographer, David Saxe, are on display in this brand new facility.  Contact Peabody Mill at  (603) 673-1141 for hours.

Sunday, November 16, 2008, 10 AM - 5 PM, Digital Photography Printing Workshop at the Massabesic Audubon Center.  Learn how to prepare your digital images for printing. Take home with you a final image printed on a selection of papers and sizes (max size 12 x 18). Learn about a variety of tools including how to adjust tones and colors, retouch blemishes, crop to a given size or sharpen, all in a one-on-one session using your image. A course description is available as a PDF along with costs. This intermediate/advanced course expands on David Saxe's Nature Photography Workshop series.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.

Saturday, September 20, October 4 and October 18, 2008, 12:30 - 4:30 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this fall. The course description is available as a PDF.  Note that the course hours have been expanded to allow more time for field work. Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Two week-long workshops, week of June 23 - 27, 2008 and July 13 - 17, 2008,  9 AM - Noon.  Nature Photography Workshop at Peabody Mill Environmental Center.  David Saxe presents his nature photography course to a teen summer camp audience.  See the course description below or click for a PDF version.  Contact Peabody Mill at  (603) 673-1141 for costs or to pre-register.

UPDATE: The Lewis and Clark Dinner and Talk, a fund raising event for Massabesic Audubon Center, originally scheduled for May 10, 2008, has been cancelled. USA Aloft has been working on this event since early December and was donating time and knowledge of the Expedition's foods in addition to the talk by David Saxe.  Planning was proceeding and had included a test dinner prepared by USA Aloft for Center staff.  However, as preparations entered a time critical period, USA Aloft was told that the event would need to be cancelled.  Apparently, budgetary and staffing concerns at the Center precluded the degree of dedication that such an event requires to be successful.  USA Aloft is committed to support of the Center and hopes that this event may be rescheduled at some future time.

UPDATE: Massabesic Audubon was closed Saturday March 1 due to snow. Spots remain in the Nature Photography Workshop which will now begin March 8.  The third meeting will be on March 22 or as arranged when we meet. 

Saturday, March 1, 8 and 15, 12:30 - 4:30 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop Series at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this spring. The course description is available as a PDF.  Note that the course hours have been expanded to allow more time for field work. Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register. Please have your camera make and model available when you register.

Mr. Squirrel Reflects, a Daily Panel

Mr. Squirrel has a contract with USA Aloft to reflect on his and the world's condition on a daily basis.  His contract specifically precludes his use of nasty topics, images or words. He is required to pass periodic, but random drug tests  Even so, some may find his content off-putting, obtuse or (heaven forbid) funny. If he gets any reaction at all, it means he has readers, and that keeps him in spruce-beer, so he will be happy.

Eventually, Mr. Squirrel hopes to entice several of his animal friends to join his effort to put the world straight.  Visit Mr. Squirrel and any of his friends who decide to join him at Critter Chatter.

Saturday, October 6, 13 and 27, 2007,  1 - 4 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop at the Massabesic Audubon Center. David Saxe's successful series of nature photography sessions will be repeated this fall. See the course description below or click for a PDF version.  Contact Audubon at 603-668-2045 for costs or to pre-register.  In the special topic session of the last workshop, students learned about printing their own work.  The class took prints from the workshop to E. W. Poore's frame shop for a demonstration of matting. Each student went home with a finely printed and matted photograph.

Thursday, October 4, 11, 18, 25 and November 1, 2007, 1 - 3 PM.  Nature Photography Workshop at Parkhurst Place, Amherst, NH. In collaboration with Peabody Mill Environmental Center, David Saxe presents his nature photography course to an adult audience.  See the course description below or click for a PDF version.  Contact Peabody Mill at  (603) 673-1141 for costs or to pre-register.

Saturday, November 3, 2007,  2 - 4 PM.  Discovering America’s Natural History, the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an afternoon talk by David Saxe at Peabody Mill Environmental Center.  Since 2001, photographer David Saxe has crossed the country three times documenting the Lewis and Clark Trail both from the air and from the ground. Driving more than 11,000 miles and flying for over 100 hours he collected nearly 60,000 photographs from which this presentation is drawn. For this talk, photographer David Saxe will present pictures and discuss his own adventures recording the trail. Birds, other wildlife, flowers and plants, interior shots of reconstructed winter quarters, a real Indian canoe, ground and aerial shots along the river - See these and more. Find out what got David interested in this compelling story of American history. What foods did the expedition eat? What is David’s Lewis and Clark menu? Where should you start to travel the Trail yourself? Come answer these questions, meet the photographer, and learn more about this great American story! $5 per person. 

Week of August 6 - 10,  2007, 9 AM - Noon.  Nature Photography Workshop at Peabody Mill Environmental Center.  David Saxe presents his nature photography course to a teen summer camp audience.  See the course description below or click for a PDF version.  Contact Peabody Mill at  (603) 673-1141 for costs or to pre-register.

July 9 - August 31, 2007.  Art Exhibit: Discovering America’s Natural History, the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Prescott Farm Audubon Center, Laconia, NH.  Press Release.

Thursday, July 26, 2007, 6 - 8 PM.  Artist Reception at the Prescott Farm Audubon Center. Join us for an evening with the photographer. Between 2001 and 2004 David Saxe drove more than 11,000 miles and flew for over 100 hours collecting nearly 60,000 photographs from which this exhibit is drawn. David will describe the Lewis and Clark Expedition, talk about the images in the exhibit and discuss his own adventures along the Lewis and Clark Trail.

May 5 - June 23, 2007.  Art Exhibit: Discovering America’s Natural History, the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Massabesic Audubon Center, Auburn, NH. Press Release.

Saturday, June 2, 2007,  2 - 4 PM.  Artist Reception at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Join us for an afternoon with the photographer. Between 2001 and 2004 David Saxe drove more than 11,000 miles and flew for over 100 hours collecting nearly 60,000 photographs from which this exhibit is drawn. David will describe the Lewis and Clark Expedition, talk about the images in the exhibit and discuss his own adventures along the Lewis and Clark Trail.

May 12, 26 and June 9, 2007, 1 - 4 PM. Nature Photography workshop at the Massabesic Audubon Center. Nature photography encompasses a wide range of venues, subjects and purposes. This workshop mixes instruction with practical field experience, introducing aspects of nature photography including composition, exposure, lighting, camera operation and field techniques. Students should bring a camera (digital preferred) and be able to operate it in point and shoot mode. Students may bring their own laptops for downloading and viewing their photographs. Examples of topics covered include: nature photography venues and examples, composition techniques, tools for composition, natural and modified lighting, controlling exposure, focusing methods, depth of field, camera equipment and operation, field equipment, practical tips for the field, and projects for the beginner. Throughout, application of these techniques to nature photography is highlighted. Field exercises augment the classroom instruction and permit the students to practice the techniques they have learned. In the first session, students will explore composition using automated camera settings. Employing intermediate techniques in the second session, students learn to control exposure and focus to fine-tune their photography. The course concludes with discussion of field techniques, suggested future projects and resources for further learning. Based on the interests of the group, an advanced topic will be introduced. Possibilities include post processing and printing, computer controlled camera operation, stereo photography and time-lapse techniques. Cost for the entire series: $60 for Audubon members, $75 for non-members. Pre-register by contacting Audubon at 603-668-2045.

 

April 15, 2007. First Place in Mixed Media.  David Saxe's digital art piece, Black and Red, wins first place in the adult mixed media category at the 2007 Peabody Mill Environmental Center  art show. The original Oregon coast image was taken by David on a very gray day. The digitally manipulated image replaces the gray day to represent the feelings of the artist on reaching the west coast for photographing the Lewis and Clark Trail.

April 7, 2007. Nature Photography workshop offered by USA Aloft at Peabody Mill Environmental Center.

January 10, 2006.  The USA Aloft Online Store opens for business offering a selection of fine art photographic prints and cards from the works of several artists.

January 26, 2005.  USA Aloft offers a Wood Spirit License for sale.

December 8, 2004 - February 26, 2005.  David Saxe is showing works from his portfolios, "Observations of Nature" and "Wood Spirits" at various venues in New England. 

June 26, 2004 - August 17, 2004. USA Aloft travels from Auburn, New Hampshire to Portland, Oregon to attend the National Stereo Association convention, photographing the Lewis and Clark Trail between Astoria, Oregon and St. Louis, Missouri on the return trip.

June 9, 2004. USA Aloft announces its next cross country photo collection trip for the Lewis and Clark Project.  Starting in mid July from Portland, Oregon, USA Aloft plans to take ground based pictures while traveling eastward.

  Contact USA Aloft for details.

June 8, 2004. USA Aloft announces its web site, dedicated to Martha L. Saxe.

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