Minutes for February Club meeting

[anna mccolm]

Pierre opened the meeting at 7pm. 3 new members introduced themselves; JusteneTedder (who has been taking lots of photos in Africa ), Mahmoud Ray Abras (who is already posting on the website; check out his raindrop photo) and Ellen Vesterdal. Usha, not yet a member, was also present.

Exhibits:  Pierre has some canvas photos at Embe Bakery Sandwich shop and the Group of Six are still showing at Fernwood Cafe (new photos now) until the middle of March.

The Club's slideshow, shown at the Hospital and the Salt Spring Inn, has not had new photos for quite a while so Wendy and Judy are going to put some time and effort into adding fresh images. The photos will now not be restricted to Salt Spring (Africa, Justene?) or any particular season. Go eclectic Club! The slideshow could also incorporate advertising for Photofest. Wendy will send a dropbox invite to the club  so we can send our images (a limit of 10) in widescreen format. Include your name in the info as each photographer is credited on the screen with his/her image.

Judy is looking for projectionists to help at the SS Film Festival on Feb 28th, 29th and March 1st. It is mostly a case of putting a DVD into a DVD player. There are two 4 hour shifts daily (a morning and an afternoon shift) and each shift will involve showing two films. Paul McElroy expressed interest and if anyone else would like to help please contact Judy ASAP at: [e-mail]

Kahsia is in charge of Eclectic Visions this year. The dates are June 4th - 15th and the show, at Gallery 8, will be part of the PhotoFest which will run for the entire month of June. She had a schedule of job positions needing to be filled (many are already spoken for) and is looking for someone to take on the social media world; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Maggie will co-ordinate advertising (a separate job) for EV with the Photofest team. Kahsia is also looking for people to help her with the end-of-show cleanup.

Bernadette talked about the Guild Show at Mahon Hall which takes place during the May long weekend - May 15th - 17th. The 5 Guilds of Salt Spring are showing their work and the Photography Club (we are a Guild!) will have wall space. 3 feet by 3 feet per person, so - one big one or up to 4 small ones or a couple of average sized frames. Your choice. There is no theme attached to the Show. A form was passed around for people to sign up and many people are interested. The pieces will all be for sale and all participating photographers will be expected to sit the show at least once. Those shifts will be 2 hours and one person from each Guild will be present at all times. An anonymous benefactor has covered the costs of the Club's admission fee so there is no charge. Many thanks to the AB!

 Please submit the information about your photos two weeks  before the opening so Wendy has time to make the labels:  The name of the photo, the name of the photographer, a price and a contact address. Wendy will probably open a post on the website, nearer the time, for people to submit this information.

Judy will attend the first meeting of the year( at the end of February) for the 2020 Fall Fair and asked the Club if they would be willing to give $25 again as the prize for the People's Choice Award, a very popular part of last year's photo exhibit at the Fair. The answer was Yes.

The club got another cheque from Country Grocer from the save-a-tape programme which, so far, has accumulated $433.55. It's well worth putting your CG receipt in box #62!

Harbour House is unable to offer us the room we usually meet in next month (all rooms that day will be used for a conference) but they have offered us the room for the following week, March 18th. So - the Club will meet, next month, on the THIRD Wednesday of the month.

As part of Photofest Pat and Rosemary Keough have offered to put on weekend workshops (roughly $250) and/or evening lectures (approx $25) covering a variety of topics such as; composition, light, portraiture, travel photography etc. People expressed interest in attending both workshops and lectures so Pat and Rosemary will get the green light to proceed.

Avril introduced Club member Howard Fry to the room and he gave us gave us a presentation of his work to date. He came to Vancouver from England looking for work in the Graphic Design field but, as there was very little work there, tried his hand at taking photos for a fashion magazine and learned on the fly. Since that time he has become a master of portraiture. He eventually moved to Salt Spring and photographed naked women for a Salt Spring calendar, a fundraiser for the Save Salt Spring Island Fund - to buy and thus protect land from development. He also collaborated with Michael Levy on a visual book about Salt Spring - 'Salt Spring, the People, the Place'. Michael's photos covered the landscape and Howard's were portraits of the people, including many artisans.

Many of the portraits he showed were taken with his Canon 5D mark IV camera and he uses strobe lighting for effect.

Next month's photo challenge for the Club is Portrait.

[Avril Kirby]

Thanks Anna. Love your editorial asides!