Impact in Photography III
Kay Hale
August 26, 2025
Potter Stewart, a Supreme Court Judge, memorably said that he could not say what obscenity was, but he knew it when he saw it. A variation on the idea that “you knew it when you saw it” captures the idea about what impact is in photography. When you see a photograph with impact, you immediately have a reaction of “WOW.” There is a sense of surprise upon seeing it for the first time. It catches your eye, is striking in appearance, and it is typically creative, unique, and out of what is ordinarily seen. It invites the observer to “take a longer look.”
Many have said that the three elements of judging a photograph are technique, composition, and impact. Dennis Fritsche altered that idea and famously said that the three most important factors to judge a photograph were IMPACT, IMPACT, and IMPACT. Impact can take many forms. Color, composition, emotion, light, subject matter, uniqueness, creativity, and simplicity are just some of the elements that are involved in impact. How to make greater impact with your photographs is the goal of
this program.
A brief view of my life in photography is the following: My first camera was a gift for my 16th birthday. The focus of my photography for many years was taking photos of the people in my life and vacation pictures. I first attended the Dallas Camera Club in the spring of 1979 and went to two meetings at the Coca Cola Bottling Company but did not join. I had other priorities in my life then. Formal membership in the DCC occurred in 1989. My attendance at meetings was sporadic for many years, but starting in 2009, the year I purchased a digital camera, my attendance at meetings has been very high. Saying that, I did not start entering competitions until 2012. Had I entered monthly competitions earlier, I would have become a better photographer sooner.
I have a highly eclectic range of interests in photography: street photography, city scenes, architecture, night photography, photo/art, abstracts, and nature/landscapes. My travels for photography the last few years tells you much of where I am with my photography these days. Over the last few years, I have had six trips of a week or longer. Four of these trips were to large metropolitan areas (New York, London, San Francisco, and Chicago) and two were to areas classified as landscape photography (Denali National Park in Alaska and Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.) As you can imagine the trip to Alaska and Ghost Ranch for a week were all about landscape photography, whereas the trips to the metropolitan areas were all about street photography, architecture, night photography, and city scenes.
In Alaska and Ghost Ranch, I almost exclusively used a 70-200mm lens with assists from a 50mm lens. In NYC, London, and Chicago, I almost literally only used two lenses (mainly a 50mm along with a 24mm lens, and an occasional 35mm lens.)
If you wish to see my photography, go to the following: https://500px.com/p/khale45?view=photos
2025 Programs
January - Member Showcase
February - Janice Goetz: My Journey Inside and Around our Nation’s State Parks
March - Smiley Pool - Getting Ahead of Your Subject (Instead of Yourself)
April - Marilyn Henrion - Cross Pollination: Escape from the Dark Room
May - Houston Brown: Drone Photography
June - Ian McVea: Optics for the Thinking Photographer
July - Dennis Fritsche: Portals
August - Kay Hale: Impact in Photography III
September
October - No Program: Bird Competition
November - Rob Hull: The Quality of Light
December - No Program
2024 Programs
January - Members Show
February - Janet Cunningham Enhance Your Creativity With LENSBABY
March - Grahan Hobart - Visualization
April - Rebecca Flores - Making the Move to Moving Images
May - 90th Anniversary Celebration - cancelled due to storms
June - 90th Anniversary Celebration
July - Anita Oakley - Travel and Photographing the World
August - Tom Fox - Sports Photography Tips and Tricks
September - Richard Sharum: Spina Americana
October - Zach Warner
November - Clinton Kemp: My Eye for Color
December - No Program
2023 Programs
January 2023 - Members Showcase "The Elements"
February 2023 - Dennis Fritsche: Themes and Projects
March 2023 - Norm Diamond: Photography from the Heart and Soul
April 2023 - Jeremy Lock: Outside Your Front Door
May 2023 - Ximena Peryea
June 2023 - Ian McVea
July 2023
August 2023 - Russell Graves
September 2023 - Night Shoot at Reunion Tower
October 2023 - Bird
November - Susan Kindley - How Photography Changed My LIfe
December - No Program
2022 Programs
January - Member Show "My Favorite Photographs"
February - Sean Fitzgerald
March - Kaye Hargis
April - Jim Hamel: Night Photography: Big City Lights
May - Richard Sharum: Campesino Cuba
June - Steve Reeves: Contest Judging Confidential
July - Richard Klein: Finding Inspiration & Permission, The Contemporary Photographers’ Paradox
August - Jarrod Oram: Journey, Not Destination and Shooting with Intention
September - Chris Rusanowsky:
October - Michael McLean: Environmental Portraits and Building Visual Narratives
VIDEO
November - Frank Richards: (sometime in the last half of 2022)
December - No program
2022 Programs
January - Members Photos of the DFW Metroplex
February - Lisa Langell An artistic photographer lies in ALL of us
March - Smiley Pool DMN Photographer
April - Robert Moore - My Life on the Street
May - Jim Walsh
June - Carla Golden
July - Lisa Langell
August - Jeff Parker
September - Larry Petterborg
October - No Program - DCC Hosts the Bird
November - Steve Hawiszczak & Dalis Foglia
December - No Program
History of prior programs HERE