Minutes of September 10, 2012

[Margaret C. Benmore]

SSI Photo Club

Sept. 12, 2012  - Minutes

 1.  Opening remarks:  Curt (El Prez) gave a wonderful big pat on the back to the membership (that’s us) - for all of the member’s activity over the summer --- we were showing everywhere and the images were commented on favourably by locals and visitor’s alike.  Our work even inspired many to pick up their camera’s again to play…. Mission accomplished all….. well done.

 

2.  New Members were introduced and welcomed:  Tracey Cornwall, Megan H., David Thomas jones (aka. Jonesi), Rod Browne, Tatiana, Gaianna Mahuna, Julie. Zapf.  Nice to have you join us… look forward to seeing you play with us in the shows and meetings..

Trish Hanna – one of our longtime members has experienced a bike accident and will be laid   up for a while…. Take care Trish and our thoughts are with you…. Photographs from the arm chair in the sun with a cup of tea--- sounds like a theme for the moment…. We also sadly learned she is moving to Nanaimo – we wish her well and will definitely miss her elegant stylish photography… remember the White Foxgloves of Eclectic Visions… lovely…

 

3.  Announcements and Opportunities:      

        

 Embe’s Bakery Café:  Doug McMillin and Avril Kirby are presently showing  “ Steel This Photo “ to the delight of the truckers, construction guys and other inhabitants of the café… a show for the guys.  

 

 Fernwood Cafe:  Margaret C. Benmore (me) is showing a participatory photo show here --- it is geared to kids and encourages them to look past the surface of a photo and into the detail… it is timely in that it is about “ Exploring the Farm “ .  Shameless marketing here….

If you are interested in showing in this great opportunity in a lovely location… Contact Jennifer Shaw [e-mail]  or drop by the Fernwood Café – and she does great coffee and treats.

 

Roasters Café:  (Country Grocers)  - again with the shameless marketing… Margaret C. Benmore is exhibiting during the month of October with a show entitled…. “ Hollywood in the Salish Sea “

If you are interested in showing in this venue contact Cliff Kelly  [e-mail] – he is probably interested in lining up participants for next years calendar  – it takes about 6 images and can be a solo or combined show….

 

Penny’s Pantry:   Doug McMillin is showing “Poster Kids”  here, capturing delightful faces of the young SSI.  – the show lasts until Sept. 30

Penny’s is the newest venue to offer space to our Club members.   Contact Penny for information on time and space.

 

Barb’s Buns:  Ramona Lam is presently showing at Barb’s – Ramona can make even grubby little toes appealing… a beautiful show… try and work it in with your coffee and snack agenda… well worth it… the show lasts until Sept. 30.

 

Gallery 8:  Cliff Kelly and his artist wife Jan Sharkey Thomas are presently showing (Two Wings) an interesting show of artist partners/spouses. Be sure to drop by to see these dynamic duos – the variety of work is amazing…

 

Gallery of Fine Arts: (on McPhillips)    The co-op gallery is celebrating it’s 3^rd Anniversary – well done all…  That takes lots of work and dedication and courage…. They exhibit a very high caliber of work in a wide variety of media.  Our Bob Roger’s is showing his own special style of photography – always intriguing.

 

Lady Minto, and Harbour House Slideshows:

Wendy Rosier reports our next project will be collecting Winter or Festive shots for a new slideshow/video for the Harbour House and Lady Minto monitors, we need horizontal (landscape) images.  Wendy will be sending out the call for images soon.  They should be 1920 px x 1080 px at least and saved in high quality (100%) Jpeg file format.  When you have something to send in, email Wendy at [e-mail]  

 

The club was presented with a $50 donation from the Lady Minto auxiliary for establishing the emergency waiting area TV for the slideshow  - so now it is showing there and in the General Admitting and Lab waiting area. We are also told that some of the staff bring Extended Care patients out to see the shows… Hopefully it helps the folks pass the time comfortably with beautiful and sometime fond familiar images.  

 

The Fall slide show should be up and running sometime around the 22-24 of September -  so drop by any of these venues and see our club members work… it is fun to think of it out there brightening up someone's moment, bringing up fond memories and feeling… well done all who contributed   - and anyone else who wants to contribute contact Wendy she is always looking for images… she does wonders with them…   Thanks Wendy for you wonderful work…

 

Harbour House Wall Space Opportunity: 

Avril Kirby has a show coming up here --- sorry I don’t know the dates…Nov. or Dec. I think.  Watch for the notice on the website… Avril always puts on a lovely show with delightful images and great titles…. Makes you think a little and even giggle… so watch for it  

There is an opportunity for anyone interested in exhibiting their work at Harbour House (Lobby and Restaurant) they should contact Nathan at Harbour House for details and information

 

Roasting Company:   If you are interested in securing the vast walls of this venue best talk directly to the powers that be there…. The management of Roasting Company – they are always supportive.  There have been some wonderful shows there over the summer…. Especially the big powerful floral one… sorry can’t remember the photographer --- but lovely powerful images and oh so colourful…  

If interested in developing your own slide show at Roasters talk to Doug McMillin at [e-mail]

 

ArtSpring Lobby Show --- we will again have the opportunity to show our work during the month of January… this is a chance for all of the members to try showing and discover the fun of sharing their work with the wider world.  Bob Roger’s will be hanging the show with help from several other members… he assures us there is lots and lots of room for hanging and there is no cost – other than getting your work ready… come on out… Information will be forth coming on this --- so just put it on the back burner for the moment, if you have questions contact Bob at  [e-mail]

 

Mahon Hall:  The Salt Spring Arts Council is currently accepting applications for Showcase Exhibitions 2013. (next Summer) Application deadline is 30 October 2012.   Sam Lightman had a wonderful contribution to this years show… well done Sam.  Applications are due at the end of October.      http://www.ssartscouncil.com/ 

 

Café Talia:   Amy Melious has a beautiful show on presently using some beautiful aging process.  The images are of course outstanding – especially the portrait of her Grandfather on horseback looking out over a herd of horse on the plains… very haunting and real…  you can almost feel the heat and smell the dusty grasses.

 

Exchange visits with the Cowichan Photo Club:

      Cowichan Club coming to SaltSpring ---- On behalf of our Club, Bill Gardom is facilitating the visit of the Cowichan Valley Camera Club. They are arriving as foot passengers in Vesuvius.  Their field trip is scheduled for Saturday, September 22.  We need to now determine how many club members would like to be volunteer drivers and spend the day on this field trip.

Itinerary:

   - Meet the Crofton ferry at 10 AM on 9/22.

   - The Saturday Market

   -  Bill's studio in the Beaver Point area for no-host lunch

   -  Ruckle Park

   -  Return to Vesuvius Ferry no later than the 4:00 PM sailing.

If you want to be a host driver and participate in the day --- contact Curt Firestone [e-mail] --- our esteemed Prez…. All help appreciated and it promises to be a great day for all….. Bill Gardom’s Blog has more information and guidance materials  - blog: dragongate  gardheim.blogspot.com

 

      SSI Photo Club going to Cowichan --- October 6, 2012 …  15–20 people have signed up for this trip to Cowichan to play in their Club’s backyard..   As we would like to travel with a few cars a possible (carbon footprint, ferry costs and general comradeship, fun) we are in need of some drivers to take extra passengers…. If you want to participate in the bonding experience and have a car that can seat more that two… or even that … call Curt Firestone (our still esteemed Prez) and let him know…. It sounds like it will be a fun day of playtime with the camera and other camera folk… come on along…

 

 

4.  Next Meeting: Wed. October 10, 2012 – Portlock Portable – 7:00 p.m.

The theme  for October will be all things Agricultural : Fall Fair, Farm/Apple Tour (Sept 29^th), Cowichian Outings… great time of year for shooting this theme… have fun…  

Forward your 2 images to Doug McMilin  [e-mail] as soon as possible so he can work play with the captions and his jokes… he does take extras and will show them if we have time…

 

Educational event  - for October and November - jonesi (aka: David Thomas jones) one of our new members will be our facilitator for an evening on learning to use our camera as a “key” to unlocking surprises and unexpected moments to capture.  From carefully eavesdropping all evening on your behalf ( I sat in front of him) – he appears to be a congenial man, well trimmed beard, snappy dresser, very travelled and I suspect even very adventurous --- so this should be a lot of fun and give some us new perspectives on the camera aa means on interacting with the experiences we are documenting.  

 

5. Evening’s Educational Event:   Wow!!!!   – this was amazing – it took techno-photo to a whole new level and it is always fun to watch a Master Craftsman doing his thing, the passion always comes through… he makes it looks so easy.. oh yeah !!!!!  Terry Zlot from ArtBox in Victoria came for another visit, - I think he likes us.  Terry spent the night talking about Panorama’s, shooting them (tripod and handheld) and stitching them.  He talked and showed us some of the  software he uses for stitching them together…   Yup – there were a lot of techo jabber --- but it was understandable, sort of.  The process and the outcome of the work was amazing to watch… Terry is very good with answering questions and concerns, he presents a delightfully down to earth evening that even techno Peasants like your truly can enjoy and learn something from…. Thanks.  Terry….

 

 

 

6.  Evening’s Member’s Show ---  September’s theme was             “ Food “ and boy did that take us on a visual epicurean delight.  The show was colourful, tasteful, tantalizing and humorous – great work everyone… if you missed it or want to see it (again) look for it on our website… however you do miss the sparkling comments that arise through the meeting show.   There were local images, international taste treats, Doug even explored the culinary skill of Scanning an egg (takes a long long time to cook) and doing toast… both sides - again taking a long long time --- customer has long since gone -  left hungry…  There were lots of fruit and veggie portraits capturing textures and colours… It was a fun and lively show….   Now let’s see how top in with the wider field of Agriculture…

 

7.  As always --- these are a participatory sort of Minutes, if I have missed anything, misrepresented anyone/anything or just plain got it wrong…. Post it… and please let me know (politely of course – I am very sensitive).  Now out you go and play with the camera and the great outdoors…

 

Cheers all …  MCB

 

 

[Avril Kirby]

Thanks Marg!  Aren't we a busy bunch?  And, very politely, Nathan is no longer in charge of booking the shows at Harbour House, it's Tania Aguila, if anyone is interested (and my show, I hope, since we have a new person there and she may not like my stuff, is in December).

[Margaret C. Benmore]

Yes we do seem to be very busy -- funny alot of it is centered around food and coffee... interesting.

Thanks for the infor..... looking forward to your show.... how can she not like your stuff...  cheers... MCB 

[Curt Firestone]

One addition.

Eclectic Visions will be over Canada Day in 2013 and 2014.  The 2013 show is a change from  previously announced dates.  Now it is set for hanging on 27 June, reception on 28 June and up through 13 July.