Speaker: Butch Mazzuca hails from Chicago Illinois and currently lives in Tucson Arizona. He bought his first camera in 2008 when his wife suggested they take a trip to Africa. The photography bug bit him when Africa Geographic published one of his images from that trip. Upon return he joined Mile Hi Wildlife Photography Club.

Since that time, he’s participated in numerous workshops & seminars, joined the Photographic Society of America (PSA) and taught basic digital photography at Colorado Mountain College in Vail Colorado. He describes himself as a generalist.

Butch has done several presentations for PSA clubs around the country and has judged at various photo clubs around the country including Mile Hi. His images have appeared on the Audubon Society website, in Sarasota and Shutter Bug magazines and his photo essays have been featured in Travel Africa magazine, Africa Geographic magazine, and the Sierra Club’s Focus Points magazine. Internationally he’s won the Leica, ZEDE and Elixir International photo competitions and believes Impact, Visual Interest, and Storytelling are the fundamental characteristics that most often succeed in competitions. His mantra is, “Compelling images separated from their backgrounds make strong photos.”

Program: "Beyond the Rule of Thirds, 33 hacks to improve your scores in club competitions" is a 45-minute zoom presentation that goes beyond the mundane. It’s a series of narrated visual illustrations of photographic techniques focusing on Impact, Visual Interest & Story because those are fundamental characteristics that most often succeed in competitions.  We’ve all read, seen or heard the “standard approaches” to taking better photographs using the Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines, Framing your subject, etc., etc. But what is different about the “33 Hacks” presentation is that its focus is about improving scores in club competitions.