Monday, September 15, 2025 @ 7 pm
Zoom Meeting – Butch Mazzuca
Beyond the Rule of Thirds – 33 Hacks to Improve Your Scores in Club Competitions is a vibrant, narrated visual presentation that transcends the usual advice of composition basics. Instead of reiterating commonly touted principles like Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines, or Frame-In techniques, this session delivers 33 distinct, creative “hacks” designed to elevate images from ordinary to competition-worthy. Each tip zeroes in on enhancing impact, visual interest, and overall storytelling—key elements that judges look for in club-level photography competitions
Visitors are always welcome.
Both our In-person and Zoom meetings open at 6:30 pm for a social time before the presentation.
Presented by Butch Mazzuca
Butch hails from Chicago Illinois, is a former Naval Aviator who spent his working years in the risk management and commercial insurance industry and currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. He bought his first camera in 2008 when his wife suggested they take a trip to Africa, and the photography bug bit him when Africa Geographic published one of his images. Upon return from that trip, he joined Mile Hi Wildlife Photography Club in Denver, Colorado.
Since then, he’s participated in several photo clubs, attended numerous workshops & seminars & joined the Photographic Society of America. He taught basic digital photography at Colorado Mountain College in Vail, Colorado for seven years and at the Alpine Arts Center in Edwards, Co., for three. Butch has also been a photo judge at various camera clubs around the country.
He describes himself as a generalist and his images have appeared on the Audubon Society Website, in Sarasota and Shutter Bug Magazines, while 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 photo competitions, and his mantra is, “Photographing compelling subjects separated from their backgrounds is the first step in award-winning photography.”