SALTSPRING PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB

                   MARCH 11, 2026 NEWSLETTER

Membership:

Last year at this time the Club had 73 members (including 2 honorary). This year it has only 44 (including 2 honorary).

31 members have not yet paid their dues. Curt offered to send a reminder to those people, giving them a deadline of March 31^st to pay. 

Eclectic Visions:

Bernadette signed the contract with Razali booking the gallery for the EV show; May 15 - 28.

$75 secures a place in the show. Only 22 people have signed up so far. It takes 24 people to cover the cost of the gallery rental. Fees from 3 or 4 more people would help cover the costs of printing, advertising etc.  Margaret Benmore, has kindly offered to pay the entry fee for the winner of the Best Youth Photo category at the 2025 Fall Fair.

Two people have secured 2 spots. 2 more people could share the cost of an additional spot (each having room for one 18 x 24” frames.  Let Bernadette know if you are interested: bearmmc@gmail.com. Deadline is March 31st.

A productive planning meeting at the Salt Spring Inn resulted in (new member) Terri Wylie offering to ask for donations from Country Grocer and Thrifty Foods for food, wine and flowers as well as finding a prize for the winner of the People's Choice Award.

Noel Collins (another new member) has offered to cover the press release writing.

Wendy will take care of the printing needs (posters, small flyers)

Anna will help Fifi collect the food etc. for the Friday opening and help with set up at the Gallery.

Pat Page suggested keeping the Library room reservation for April 15^th so that participants in EV could use that time to discuss logistics for the show. It was decided that this was likely unnecessary, since most contributors have entered images in EV many times before. Pat will therefore cancel the reservation, saving the rental fee for use next season.

BC Yukon photo showcase:

Pierre will find out of there is still space for the club to submit an 8 minute presentation of our best photography, as several people indicated an interest in participating. This invite has gone out to 27 Photography Clubs. He will get back to us and if there is still space then people can send 2 or 3 of their best photos to him.

Fall Fair planning:

Judy attended the first Fall Fair meeting. The club will continue to donate $25 to the winner of  the Best Youth Photo category and invite the photographer to be part of next year's Eclectic Visions show.

Slide show at Lady Minto and the Visitor's Information Centre:

Judy met with Gitte at The Visitor Information Center,  and also with administrative staff at Lady Minto Hospital and has confirmed that our slide shows at both sites are appreciated. One of our USB sticks mysteriously disappeared from Lady Minto however, and the 2 monitors in the older part of the hospital need to be replaced. These new monitors need to be no bigger than 27" and be able to support a USB stick.

Judy will check with the Lady Minto Auxiliary to see if they will cover the costs of replacing the old ones. Claudia suggested reaching out on the Exchange, asking if there are any monitors out there that could be donated to 'our' hospital. Julianna is reaching out to people she knows who could install them.

Card rack:

A large, bulky but useful card rack has been living at Elehna's house for a few years and is looking for a new home. It is used to display cards at the  Eclectic Visions show. 

Avril offered a space in her barn and Pierre offered to transport and deliver it.

Film Fest and Butterfly Gardens follow up:

John De Bruyn and Terri Wylie both did excellent jobs talking respectively about the film 'Our Mr. Matsura', and the Photography Club at the recent Film festival.

Four people went on the outing to the Butterfly Gardens. More than just butterflies, there are also lizards, bugs, turtles, parrots, flamingos and a chance to witness butterflies emerging from their cocoons. Another field trip to the Butterfly Gardens may be planned for later in the season.

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Venue for April Club meeting:

A room in the Baptist Church has been booked for the April 8^th club meeting. It is on the main road north of Ganges, after the Hydro buildings and before the Veterinary clinic at the corner of Sharp road. There is ample parking. 

The speakers for this meeting will be club members Pierre Mineau and John de Bruyn showing their travel photography. Pierre - Australia. John - Japan.

Pierre reports that insurance, often required for rental space, can be found for as little as $14.06 through an insurance company called DUUO

Upcoming Events:

Avril has organized a trip for Wednesday March 18^th to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Show at the Royal BC museum in Victoria.  This show will be on until April 19th

Julianna Slomka is showing her photography at the Hub Roaster's Cafe at Country Grocer for the month of March.

A 'Documentary Photography' talk by Larry Louie on March 27^th is available to us via the BC Yukon series.

Future speakers:

Judy offered to approach Terri Currell, a local photographer, to ask if he'll give a presentation of his work. One of his photos is currently at the Blain Road clinic.

Ron Watts has also agreed to speak at one of our future meetings. As a professional photographer, he has a lot to share about his work.

Let Judy, our Education Coordinator, know if you'd like to put together a presentation of your work or know of someone else (outside the club) who's photos would be interesting to see. (jhmcphee@shaw.ca)

Featured presentation of the evening

Larry Citra showed us a beautiful 10 minute slideshow of his photography of the Palouse region in Eastern Washington State, an agricultural landscape of rolling hills, wheat fields, old farm buildings, vehicles and machinery. If you missed it you can see it on you-tube.

Slide show theme: Love, Emotions and Butterflies

 Next month’s slide show theme:  Travel