May 14 Club Minutes

[Margaret C. Benmore]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    SaltSpring Photography Club Minutes

May 14, 2014

 

 

Opening Remarks: Curt opened the meeting of about 20 eager and chatty photographers --- what a friendly group… a great deal of laughter and chatter... a good sign... 

We would also like to welcome Jana Zacharious … come on out and play with us…  

 

Club Business:

 

         Tom Gilligan:   several members of the Club made the voyage up to Gabriola to visit Tom and check out his new work and new home… it was a wonderful day of beautiful photo ops, and good company… Hi to all from Tom ---- by the way his work is also beautiful --- though I am told he has taken off in a new direction entirely…

 

         Education Co-ordintor Position still open:  Nag Nag Nag --- Surely out of almost 100 members there must be someone who would like to pick up this role for the Club…  maybe even a pair or small group… It’s a fun opportunity to help the Club… Still awaiting some help in this area…. PLEASE Someone or someones ????

 

         Mentorship Program with GISS/Agricultural Alliance: Club members and their students are running all over the island taking Farm pictures… it is a very busy time down on the Farm these days… there have been some amazing results and the Show at Harbour House will definitely be something to see… as will the product/s produced to raise funds for Agricultural Alliance work…

[e-mail]

 

         CRD's Economic Development Commission is developing strategic plans for the economic future of Salt Spring Island.  One of the economic drivers of the island is tourism.  Among ideas being discussed is an Arts Festival.  Or maybe an Arts & Music Festival.  As one of the largest and most active arts organizations of SSI, we have been asked for our input.  

 

How would you visualize an Arts Festival?  Use you imagination.  Any ideas sent to me will be forwarded without comment.  Just let me know if I should or should not include your name as author.

 

One other question:  As the Southern Gulf Islands are all part of the CRD, if the arts and/or music festival were held on another southern gulf island, would you likely participate and/or attend?

 

Your comments are appreciated and requested over the next ten days. Thank you, Curt   [e-mail]

 

 

Upcoming Events: Avril gave an update of the EV activitiy… all is going along as planned…

 

There was much discussion about the idea for “People’s Choice “ --- it is seen by some to be too Competitive for a Club that takes pride in being non-Competitive…  The goal of the exercise was not so much to be a competition, but as to be a way to get the viewers involved and thinking about what they are seeing… The discussion went back and forth and was very lively… ending in true SSI manner with EV committee tasked to go away a think about it again and come back with some other options… and that they will do… happily…

    UPDATE:      

         Eclectic Visions 2014: June 26 – July 9^th, 2014 –

• It will be a 14 day run in the ArtSpring Gallery.   
• 30 members have paid 
• Forms are to be completed and sent in before June 17^th
• See Website for details about EV, image restrictions, rules, etc… by the way no images over 36” please…  
• Fee payment $60 is due at the end of May – please give your money to Pat Page,
• Bring your images on Wednesday, 25^{th between} 4 & 5pm...   You will soon be given detailed instructions on what is required for Check In --- See EV Blog on our site…
• The show will be hung by Bob and Wendy and helpers on Thursday the 26^th …
• Friday June 27^th will be our Opening Reception… and you will receive details and instructions for that event shortly… Volunteers needed to assist Fifi with the reception, please, give her a call she is making a list… She will be sending out a e-plea for help, come on out you won’t want to miss it…
• The Theme of Eclectic Visions 2014 as chosen by those who participated in the vote will be:  NO THEME  --- let’s see your best most creative stuff… have at it…
• EV runs until Wednesday July 9^th… you will be able to pick up your work between 3:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon…
• Avril circulated show sitting schedule – we need volunteers to sit the show through the run… we find that opening night and the weekends are easier with two people sitting… again the detail will be forth coming, but let Avril know when you can sit – it is fun and you get to talk to some very interesting people and watch their reactions to various images… Give Avril a call/email… 

Avril Kirby is managing/cordinating and generally doing a wonderful job for Eclectic Visions and would love to hear from you if you wish to participate… [e-mail]    

 

 

Now Showing: 

 

         Roasting Company: I think they are playing old ones… there are some wonderful shots, and the names of friends keep flashing up there… well done all who are appearing

 

         Country Grocer Café: Rachel Page is showing some new work in the busiest café in town… a very opinionated and appreciative audience… but also very supportive…  [e-mail]

 

         Harbour House: Gwen MacDonald and Curt Firestone have a show coming up at Harbour House starting May 1^st – it will be a selection from their adventures in Africa, Mexico and Italy – It will be fun to see the life of the Jet Set… A beautiful show Curt and Gwen --- you both have a wonderful eye and a cute sense of humour… I loved it…. Thanks for sharing such lovely adventures and keep travelling…

 

         Trail & Nature Club: Gwen McDonald presents a photo journal of her visit 2012 visit
to East Africa. She will also touch issues around poaching and environmental impacts on the
animals. The photos will highlight some of the differences within species and between different
national parks in Kenya and Tanzania, the two countries visited. And the photos of the ethnic
groups will hopefully add a human dimension. Some artifacts will be on display as well.

Hosted by SS Trail and Nature Club.  Open to public.  Free

United Church Lower Hall, Ganges.  7:30PM Thursday May 22.  All welcome and a wonderful opportunity to see some great pictures and hear some great stories… good going Gwen…

 

         Embe’s Fresh Baked (Embe’s café) this is another collection of the work of Doug and Avril and as always they are worth a side trip for goodies and coffee…  These guys have and endless supply of great images --- but they would welcome anyone who would like to join their circuit --- (Team Embe) it is great exposure with another kind of islander as an audience --- Have you ever noticed that each of the coffee shops has it’s own following, it's own special culture with their own shared characteristics... --- a very interesting study, try tailoring your images to your audience…  

 

         Pemberton Homes Real Estate… June 1 to August 1 will be the work of Avril Kirby and Anna McColm  showing all those potential SaltSpring homeowners the beauty of Saltspring…  Thanks team…  

Team PH welcomes new members, the Boardrooms are a fun place to share some of your Island images, if you are interested in participating please contact Avril [e-mail] or Margaret C. Benmore [e-mail]

 

         Fernwood Café: Peter Luckham is showing us what it looks like right there off our shores… there is magic of these shores --- take your camera out and play in the tidal flats… it is a wonderful way to spend a hour or two… just do it…

Jen is booked for 2014 but is looking for people for 2015 – this is wonderful place to show your work the light is terrific and the goodies and coffee are pretty darn good too…  

 

         Penny’s Pantry:  Willow Sky MacDonald will be hanging a showing there in July so stay tuned for more details and drop by for a peek…

 

If you know of other shows in town… add them on to this blog or better yet post it on the event section of our website… Let us all know what you have found and enjoyed…. 

 

 

Evening Educational session… Well did we get a presentation on Lightroom --- thank you Don Romanchuck… my heavens there is a lot to learn about these Applications… They are so wonderful and the things they can do is amazing…   Don focused mainly on the file management capability of Lightroom… how to set up systems that will allow you to systematically work with your images and find them again…  However he also showed us many of the other things that can be done… form editing, special effects, book publishing, webpage design --- it is overwhelming but it looks like a whole lot of fun once you get a little know how…  

Don also recommended Lynda.com   as a source for good training programs for most applications including Photoshop, Lightroom and other photography and non photography courses… check it out…  

 

Evening Slide Show:  It is amazing to see what our group can do with a challenge --- “TIME “the subject this month and boy did we score on that front… the various of approaches to such a huge topic as Time was wonderful we had:  artful Clocks. Broken clocks, sawdust hour glass and sundials.   We had vintage Fulford Inn 3 min. Parking sign, a church window, Tammi’s skull & feathers…  Cliff gave us a beautiful portrait of himself as a child, young man and proud senior Soldier in dress uniform (talk about the passage of time… beautiful Cliff… Thanks.. )… There were flowers budding, dying, the image of “How Long is Now”, old cars swallowed by Blackberrys on SSI (ever think about how many house, cars and who knows what are eaten island blackberries – scary isn’t it)…

It was a beautiful show and you can enjoy it again on our website Doug has posted it in a Blog…  By the way if you do not want your image shown on the website – just let Doug know and he will gladly take it out for you…

 

 

Slideshow Challenge:  The challenge for the month was “ ALMOST MADE THE CUT “  this is your opportunity to show case the image that you couldn’t put in EV because of limited # of submissions… if you had to pick another this would be it…

Or if you haven’t had to make that particular difficult decision and you didn’t enter EV… what would you have submitted to if you had chosen to participate… strut your best stuff…

Send you submissions to Doug ( Master of the Show) McMillan by June 8th...  at [e-mail]  Thank you Doug --- you do come up with wonderful intro/title shots… you are wonderful… 

 

Next Months Meeting: Wednesday, June 11, 2014.  Portlock Portable... 7-9 pm…  see you there…  It’s going to be interesting and it is always entertaining…

 

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…

 

Cheers… MCB

 

 

 

 

[Curt Firestone]

What is so wonderful so these are not so much minutes of the meeting as they are THE place to learn what is happening in the world of SS photography.  Thank you Margaret.

[Avril Kirby]

Thanks Marg! One correction to be made--drop off of pics, etc. for Eclectic Visions will be on Wednesday June 25 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Artspring galleries.