January 13th Meeting Minutes...

[Margaret C. Benmore]

Photo Club Minutes

January 13, 2016

 

Opening: Another amazing turnout... there must have been 30-35 friendly folks... the room was a humming and lots of new faces... and young faces too... it was great...

 

New Members: Gary Blake, Bruce McPhee, Ann Holt, Halanna Bradley, Giz Blazeka, Lindsey Patterson...   Oh we are looking to getting to know you and your work... show us what you can do... and participate, participate, participate... the club is all about sharing experiences and information... let us know if there is anything we can do to help you with your photography... welcome... Come on out and play... and learn...

 

Announcements: 

        

         Festive Fernwood: Jennifer tells me that the Club Greeting to island was very well received and people were really looking at it up close and personal... Thank you to the 14 members who participated, if you haven’t picked up your things... I have them, call and we can arrange a pickup or let me know and I will try to remember to bring them to the next meeting in Feb....

 

         Monday Coffee it is at the long central table with all the really noisy friendly people, at the SaltSpring Inn... at 10’ish.... come on out and get to really “know” your fellow club members...

 

 

         ArtSpring Lobby Show:  Jan 4 – 30^th... If you haven’t already been to the show at ArtSpring make a point of dropping and take all of your friends... It is an amazing collection of work by the our Club members... It is varied in content and styles, size... It is vibrant and there is beautiful tranquility and quiet in other works... The personalities are peeking through... Well done all who submitted...

 

Bob Rogers managed the whole process... brave wonderful soul... thanks Bob... Wendy Rosier gave us the benefit of her unfailing eye and good taste in the placement of the work... and scads of members showed up to help with the hanging... Which was a very big job this year because there were so many pieces submitted... much to Wendy’s horror.... But they look wonderful and we certainly filled the space this year...  Thank you all who helped out and participated...

 

 

         Country Grocer Café: Judy McPhee is currently showing at the Country Grocer Café... she has such soft touch and sensitive eye... treat yourself to a viewing...

 

         Club Elections: will be held at the February meeting... see Educational section for description of the process and election discussion....

 

         News Flash!!!  The Photo Club Seasonal DVD which appears all over the island, including the hospital, a couple of coffee shops and the theatre.... Wendy has found someone who is interested in learning how to produce the Club Seasonal DVD... She is going to train them and when she described the process and the training she is going to be doing with this person... there were lots of members present who would like to learn the process too... they wanted to learn so that they could apply it to their own projects and even help out with the overall project... To use on their own work/productions and maybe assist with Club projects...

Wendy has volunteered to do a workshop sometime in the near’ish future... so do stay tuned for that one... That could be really fun... think of how you will be able to impress your relatives with endless DVD’s of your pictures... won’t they just love it... or DVD to market you work... the possibilities are endless....

 

On the serious side... I have several friends who are spending lots of time at Lady Minto these days... and the praise and accolades I get for the images... they are lovely, they remind them how beautiful their island is...   The other thing I hear is the appreciation from staff, patients, visitors, caregivers  who appreciate the installation in hospital... could we work towards getting another display unit for Extended Care... 

 

         The Website... the website comments have been buzzing these days... lots of lovely nice comments and some very constructive/instructive ones... I would like to encourage all members to participate in the conversations... it is a great way to learn to look at things... look at image construction and composition... You can learn a great deal by listening, looking and asking questions... If you are interested in particular image ask about it... make a comment...   This is the 21^st C “ ARTIST’s SALON” ... you know like... Paris, Hemmingway, Picasso, the 20’s/30’s...  Lets talk, pontificate and ponder about Photography; the structure, the message, the software or even the images... Participate...

 

         Eclectic Visions 2016  (EV)... Jana Zachariou has bravely stepped up to take on the job of  Coordinator for EV 2016...  Oh this is going to be fun... A new perspective... I am sure she will be looking for a team... but rest assured is lots of support in the Club... It is a great opportunity to learn about all of the aspects of mounting a show... thanks Jana nice to have you playing with us...

 

Shows:

 

         Fernwood Café: Photo Club’s Greetings to the Island... about 14 members contributed work to this show... sending beauty, colour, humour, spirituality, multi-cultural... it was lively, fun and very interesting... thanks all who participated... we are already booked for 2017...

Milan Stevulak will be showing at the Fernwood Cafe until March 12... If you are going to drop by check for the opening... Jen and Dave are going to be taking a 3 week holiday during this period...

         Pemberton Holmes:  Jana Zachariou and Margaret C. Benmore are presently showing at PH...  Island images to promote SaltSpring  to the visitor looking to move here...

There is an opportunity for anyone to hang their work at PH... the space takes ten 16X20 images...  or smaller of course... or larger but fewer... The theme is SaltSpring Images is very loosely defined... if you are interested in showing here just email me... [e-mail] and I will add you to the rotating team...

         Harbour House Lobby:  Anna McColm and Avril Kirby presently have a show of their work showing in the Lobby... a wonderful collection of WestCoast birds and one boat...

         Bank of Montreal:  Doug Wahlsten is showing here... it is a new venue and he will find out the protocol for booking time on their walls... if you are interested in showing here contact Doug... Douglas Wahlsten [e-mail]

 

Educational Bit: Tonight we learned about our Club...  What the Club goals and functions are... Wendy gave an overview of all of the things that this Club is doing in the Community and for its membership... We discussed what is entailed in running a Club like ours... we discussed the various roles on the Executive...

The present Executive have all put in many years to get the Club to where it is today (It has been 7 years and we have reached 107 members...)... we would really like to see some new people step up and take it to the next level...

We outlined our roles and duties... and all of us talked about the fun and learning opportunities that we have experienced in working for the Club...  The opportunity to do things we have never done before... We also committed to working with the new folks to help them get oriented and spread the workload...  All of us found that the workload and time commitments are quite manageable... if you are only doing one job... We have several who are doing several and it gets to be onerous and no fun... so help is needed...

If you are interested in any particular position or job type please feel free to contact the people presently doing it... they would love to explain the job, answer questions... provide support... you will find the names for each position on our website Main page...

We decided to postpone the election itself until the February meeting in order to allow everyone to think about it and hopefully put theirs or someone else’s name forward for positions on Executive...  

Please contact any of the Executive if you have suggestions, ideas or career aspirations in Club Management.... we would love to hear from you...

[e-mail]

 

 Evening Show/Challenge:  “ NEW to RENEW “  It never ceases to amaze me at how creative people are with a concept... NEW, RENEW one would think it is pretty straightforward...   Not to this crowd... we had new blossoms, new angles, new perspectives... even new photographic technology (the old one too)... We had babies every so new and a house being built/born (nice job Peter)... We had the first Vietnamese monkey of the year...  and eggs, there was a wonderful SaltSpring detailed discussion of chickens and eggs... We learned about Oka ( a Peruvian tuber, thanks Pat)... and Bernadett’s light bulbs/heads were many levels of NEW - they were disturbing/lovely and provocative...  

It was a great show... go to website to do a rerun...

Well done all...  Now let’s see what you can do with OLD...

 

Next Meeting:  

Wednesday, February 10^th, 2016

Harbour House… 7:00 pm 

The challenge: Since last month's challenge was NEW we thought giving OLD equal time would only be fair

Since the Island offers many things/people/places etc...  things that have been around long enough to develop character...   The slideshow this month should be Chock-a-Block full with really interesting shots...    Happy Shooting... Play with it!  What can you do with OLD...

 

Editorial aside: If you have any comments, corrections or additions please feel free --- all help is welcome…

I would like to encourage all club members to take part in the conversations on the website --- they are interesting and endlessly informative…  Share your pictures with the club on the site – you know we all love to look at images and it would give us a chance to get to know a little bit about you …  let’s participate…

 

Thanks for your patience...

Cheers… MCB 

[Patricia Page]

Thanks, Marg, for making minutes fun and interesting as always!

[Avril Kirby]

Thanks Marg!