Minutes of January 8th meeting

[Avril Kirby]

There were over 30 members attending the January meeting, with several new faces in the crowd (none of whose names I got. Welcome anyway!)

Chris Dixon ably chaired the meeting in his new post as Vice President, in Curt's absence.

Avril Kirby shared the results of the first meeting of the Eclectic Visions 2014 committee.  Some points she covered:

1.  This annual club show in the Artspring Galleries will run from Thurs. June 26 to Monday July 7, over 2 weekends, including the long Canada day weekend.

2.  Cost will be $60 per entrant, the rest of the expenses will be covered by the club.

3.  There will be a sign-up on the website, just as an intention to participate. All members will be notified of this. When the sign-up is closed and we know how many entrants we have, participants will be sent guidelines as to how many images of what size they can enter and a submission form.

4.  $30 will be due at the April meeting, the other $30 at the May meeting. But Pat Page will gladly take the whole $60 up front in April. Please make your payments to her.

5.  Five shrink wraps, of any images you like, not necessarily those you are showing, and 20 cards are allowed, for selling at the show, per participant.  As they sell, they may be replaced.

6.  All cards will be the same price.  This will be discussed at a later meeting with participants of the show.

7.  A numbering system on the backs of cards and shrink wraps will be used to ease accounting and sales records.

8.  Our student participant this year, who shows for free, will likely come out of the new mentoring program with GISS.

9.  In order to promote audience participation we will have a People's Choice Award. All entry tags will be numbered and an independent auditor will count votes.  No prize, only glory.

There followed a discussion on To Theme or not to Theme.  Different scenarios were presented eg. one themed room, the rest eclectic or 3 rooms, 3 themes and one all-encompassing theme for the entire show.  Avril presented the thoughts of the committee, there was a good discussion and a vote and overwhelmingly, we are remaining completely eclectic and having NO Theme.

Anna McColm talked about a project presented to her by Pat Preston, at the library, consisting of a show of photos of some of the older, impactful women of Salt Spring, to be taken by women photographers. All photos will be printed and framed for us, only the images are needed.  Any woman interested in participating should contact Anna at  [e-mail].  It was an interesting idea and one which got a lot of enthusiastic response.  The show will be hung at the library in March.

Current shows around town:  Bob Rogers, Country Grocer

                                           Doug McMillin and Avril Kirby,  Embe Bakery cafe

                                           Avril Kirby,  Roasting Company

             Starting mid-Jan.--  Timmy Gibbon, Fernwood Cafe. Reception on Sunday 19th, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Our slide shows are now up and running at RoCo, as well as at Harbour House restaurant, Lady Minto and the Fritz Cinema.

2014 dues are due now--still a bargain at $15--and payable to Pat Page.

The photography workshop "Doors of Perception", put on by Simon Henson, Greg Klassen and Bill Gardam, all excellent photographers, will start on Sunday, January 12th, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the library, first come, first serve, spaces available for 50 participants, from the club and from the community. This is a year-long series of workshops consisting of a seminar one month and a look at and discussion of the images that participants have worked on using the ideas of the seminar the following month.  This is a free workshop. 

Our web-master, Ernie Westlund is retiring.  Ernie has concerns about being the name on the site, should any litigation ever come out of photos posted to the website. And he has faithfully worked on it behind the scenes for a number of years. Our heartfelt thanks, Ernie, for all your hard work and dedication. 

Bob Rogers has kindly volunteered to take over the job. Thank you, Bob.  

Our guest speaker for the evening was John Denniston. His subject was Street Photography. His title for his own is "Peripheral Vision". 

John comes at the subject from the point of view of a newspaper photographer, which he worked at for many years. For a full and interesting bio and philosophy of photography, take a look at his website at http://www.johndenniston.ca/index.html.

His first rule:   Have a camera around your neck at all times.

There are different approaches to street photography. You can conceal a camera and "steal" an image. You can ask permission.  You can take a photo deliberately when the subject knows he is being photographed.  Each style has a different outcome.

John takes photos without permission.  They have impact because they're real and candid.

John's second rule:  Don't lurk after you have your shot. Snap and leave.

He walks down a street, shooting all the time, rarely standing still. He goes where he pleases, not where he's told, gets in close and takes photos without looking directly at people. He prefers to use a wide-angle lens at close range rather than a telephoto from a distance. In a crowd scene it's easy to take pictures.

Street photography is like a fashion show, full of variety and life.  He takes photos all the time, of anything and everything, from people holding things to people running or crossing roads in the snow.

In other instances where he wants to get candid shots, of family, sports, interactions between people, social occasions, the people peripheral to the action, he tries to disappear. He steps back until he is forgotten by the subjects.

For John, photography is a record, telling others how we lived, and far more important than art.

He says he doesn't "make" pictures, he finds them. 

When asked about privacy issues, John says he is reluctant to put his street photos into shows or on websites. "It's tricky."  One gallery owner he talked to would not show street photos that were taken recently in Vancouver.

He says you have to know why you're taking pictures. It is an invasion of privacy and if someone wants to know what you're doing, you have to be able to explain. Nowadays we're all more aware of and can be more sensitive to being photographed.

But he still wouldn't ask permission in case they say "No".

Thank you, John, for that interesting look into your world.

And after that great presentation we had our slide show on the subject of "Texture".  It was a fairly quiet show with more silent appreciation than chatter, but nonetheless, a great mix of photographs.

Timmy presented an interesting idea for a group project of a patchwork quilt-like collage of members' photos that are predominantly one colour.  She will elaborate on her idea at a later meeting.

Next month's challenge will, of course, be Street Photography. For some ideas and a discussion of what this could look like to you, see Doug's blog post: http://ssphotog.ca/profiles/blogs/theme-challenge-street-photography.

And feel free to correct me below if I've got anything wrong or left anything out.

[Curt Firestone]

Thank you very clear and complete minutes.

[Margaret C. Benmore]

Thanks Av… great minutes… you did a good job kiddo… cheers… MCB