May 2001
President's
Message
Portrait of Helen Sophrin
President's Message
Karl Leck
Where will we meet next
year?
That was the question on April 17 at the Executive Committee meeting.
I must compliment everyone who attended for a good fact based discussion
comparing the A.I. Dupont Middle School where we now meet, the Calvary
Assembly of God Church on Shipley Road, and a yet undiscovered venue.
Each possibility had a lot of good points and some perceived difficulties.
We decided to keep looking, but only for a short time. A search committee
headed by Bob Coffey will report back by e-mail by May 15. They will survey
the area for a room available on Monday nights that suits slide and print
presentations while meeting our budget. No one likes to move because it
takes both physical and mental effort. We are looking for a suitable venue
for the next few years. If you know of any great meeting places, please
give Bob a call or e-mail at bobcoffey@aol.com.
Tom Oathout made an impassioned
plea for a Club photo archive, perhaps in both digital and print form
so everyone can have some of their successful images in it. But the key
is not just to collect images, but also all of the details that went into
creating that image. The resulting archive can be the source for print
shows, instruction classes, or the often discussed but never really started
BOOK. We all have good ideas, a few good images or both. Let Tom know
your thoughts at print meetings.
Going along with the archive
idea is the possibility of a print exchange exhibition with the Buenos
Aires Camera Club. Heather Siple has been electronically corresponding
with Francisco Pace who will be a WIEP judge next year. Heather is looking
for a good venue and will work with Tom to collect our prints to ship
to Argentina.
Herb Sargeant is coordinating
awards plaque engraving. If you have an award plaque for which you had
to pay for a nameplate or do not have a nameplate, contact Herb.
Assigned subjects for next
year will be announced very soon. The slide and print chairpersons will
present a diverse collection of topics for challenge and fun.
The latest PSA Camera Club
Bulletin says that images captured or processed by chemistry methods and
those done by electronic methods should compete on the same basis. The
final image is all that matters.
The April print meeting was
another fun night with terrific prints and good exchanges of artistic
viewpoints. Our club now makes wonderful chemistry based prints and Epson
digital prints. Sometimes it’s really tough to tell the difference
between them. I saw many prints that made me whisper to myself, “Wow,
I wish I could have done that.” Both judges looked for more than
just high quality. The prints that did the best had extra zing in light,
mood, composition, or concept.
Speaking of competitions, I
have never felt that the entire idea is to win. In the club we like to
show each other what we can do and also show our troubles in search of
an answer. Ray Firmani never runs out of things to say about anyone’s
pictures and we can all benefit from that. Now I don’t always agree
with Ray, but I respect him highly for the knowledge he willingly gives.
I urge all club members to use the people resources we have to improve
our photographic efforts and have fun along the way.
-Karl