January 2019 Minutes

[Avril Kirby]

January 2019 minutes

Newish member, Shauna Ringquist, joined us for the second time, having come to the Christmas party. She has jumped in with both feet, having two photos up in the Artspring lobby show.

Maggie Argiro, who is in India, has sent us a note about Photoshelter, which has a directory of photo competitions worldwide with international judges. The website is photoshelter.com.

Doug is showing pictures this month at Country Grocer. He will put a sign up list on the website for other members who'd like to show there in alternate months.

Pierre gave us an update on Photofest. As well as the two big photo shows, our own Eclectic Visions and Photosynthesis, which will run concurrently this year between June 13th and 26th, there will be galleries and studios who will be featuring photography during those two weeks, and venues such as Fernwood cafe, who will pay a small fee to be included on the Photofest map and directory, and the website. If you'd like to feature your studio or other venue in the Photofest tour you will need to sign up for it as soon as possible. The deadline of January 31st will likely be extended for sign ups by a few weeks but early sign up is encouraged.

It was suggested to Dave, the owner of Fritz Cinema, that he could show feature length films on photography or photographers during the two weeks of Photofest. He was interested in participating. Judy, who is involved in the Salt Spring film festival in March, will look into any possibilities for suitable films that make come up through that. We could also approach Dave about showing our cds of seasonal photographs prior to the films.

The need for a publicist who is conversant with social media was discussed and Shauna volunteered for the job. She will be helped by Paul who is a journalist and will advise her on the writing side of things. Thank you both!

Shauna's first job will be to publicize the lobby show.

Pierre would like to know if everyone received two messages re this meeting. One was sent via Ning and the other using a private membership list of email addresses. Some did, some received the Ning email in their spam folders. The ideal would be for the Ning list to work for everyone so that constant updating isn't needed to the private list.

Pierre has suggested that when we know a month ahead who our guest speaker will be and the topic, that we use that same subject as our monthly photo challenge. Next month our speakers will be Danielle Acken and Aurelia Louvet, a food photographer and a food stylist, so the monthly challenge will be FOOD.

Pat reminded us that January is the month to pay our annual dues of $30. There is an envelope in Apple Photo where you can leave a cheque. If you're having difficulties, email Pat at [e-mail].

Michael Wall will be showing at Faultline gallery in Grace Pt. Square, opening on Friday Jan. 11th.

Jana will not be organizing Eclectic Visions this year. We thank her very much for all her hard work over the past three years. Fifi, Jean and Pat have volunteered to form a committee to run it. Fifi will do food, Pat, money, and Jean coordination. (Since the meeting Jean has found she has travel plans that will interfere with coordination so someone else is needed to do that job. Any takers?) We will find out if Jana has a list of tasks to be done to help the new coordinator. Someone will need to approach Jason at Uptown Liquor re supplying the wine, servers, glasses and tables again this year. They have been more than generous in the past.

Pierre has set up a box at Country Grocer, #62 (I think), mid left side of the bank of boxes, in which to put our Country Grocer tapes for a 1% cash back from our purchases. Anna has taken on the task of adding them up and taking them in. Thanks Anna! Country Grocer contributes $130,000. annually to community organizations and we are very appreciative of their help in the past.

Pierre will meet with Country Grocer again in February to find out what our contribution from them will be this year for Eclectic Visions. The system has changed and they suggest using the money they give us to create our own trays of food, instead of having them prepare the trays at a far greater cost. Ross pointed out that tray preparation is a lot of work and that perhaps Food Safe certificates would be required but since members have traditionally brought their own contributions prepared in their own kitchens, that may not be an issue.

Fees of $20 for inclusion in the lobby show have not all been paid. They can be paid to Pat or Wendy.

Pierre will arrange for the club to do bagging at Country Grocer, hopefully in the spring, for which we will be paid.

Our speaker this month was Roger Brooks. He joined the club in December and Pierre grabbed him right away to speak on architectural photography, which he did for a living in Vancouver. He came from the UK in 1976 as a civil engineer, arrived in Vancouver in 1980 and by 1984 had given up engineering to turn professional photographer. Since he is an introvert, photographing buildings with not many people involved suited him perfectly. He showed us a wonderful selection of photos of both interior and exterior architecture in which lighting was a key element. It was truly inspiring. Thank you very much Roger!

The monthly slide show was an interesting array of our own takes on architecture.

(Any errors made, let me know below and I will adjust.)

[Curt Firestone]

Lots of news.  Thank you

[anna mccolm]

Wonderful minutes Avril! Many Thanks.