This coming Wednesday, May 16 PCLFC holds it’s Annual Business Meeting and Slide Show Essay Night

 

I.  Annual Year End Business Meeting

Our meeting will begin with the Business Meeting.  Our agenda for the meeting is as follows:

• Welcome
• Recap of the Season
• Financial Report
• Changes and Action Items
• Executive Committee Elections
• Operating Committee Assignments (See below)
• Open Forum
• Adjournment

As we begin to wrap up the PCLFC 2011-2012 Season, it’s time to start planning for next season.  As a volunteer organization, the success of the club relies solely on the efforts of the members.  We have a great club because so many people volunteer their time to help the club run smoothly.  There are several roles we’ve identified that are instrumental in keeping the meetings efficient and informative.  Please take a look at the roles and let Sandy Gennrich (sgennrich@gmail.com)
know if you are interested in volunteering to lead or participate in any of them for the next season.  We will discuss these roles and other club business at our meeting on May 16.
 

Club Liaison

·        Responsible for bringing to the attention of the membership all available opportunities for outside competition activities

·        Coordinates the NECCC (New England Council of Camera Clubs), CAP (Connecticut Association of Photographers), and PSA (Photographic Society of America) entries in competitions sponsored by these organizations, including timely delivery and return of entries and awards in cooperation with the Competition and Awards Chairperson and the Slide and

 

Print Chairpersons.

·        Responsible for representing the interest of the Club in activities of the NECCC and PSA; assuring that the benefits of membership are made known to the members of the Club.

·        Act as a clearing house can communicate local shows and contests to club members.

 

Competition Moderators

·        Log in the prints as they are submitted by the members each competition night.

·        Moderate the competitions by announcing the title and makers of each image and recording the judges scores.  The moderators set the pace for the competitions, so it is important they keep the meetings moving smoothly and briskly.

 

Digital Projection Organizer

·        Receives images for digital competition

·        Creates slideshows for each digital competition class. Responsible for set up and break down of the computer, projector, and screen (may solicit additional help as needed). Responsible for presentation of digital images during competition night

·        Creates scoring sheets for each competition class to be used by the competition moderator

 

Field Trip Coordinator

·        Organizes (and leads if necessary) at least two field trips each year.  Where feasible, the membership should have at least two weeks notice of any pending field trip or recommended event. 

·        Acts as the clearing house for interesting events and locations.  They will post this information to the web site and make announcements at club meetings. 

 

Hospitality

·        Informs two or three members for each competition night to act as hosts to the judges and to “meet & greet” new or prospective members

·        Coordinates food for the club meetings. This involves soliciting members to contribute food and drinks for each bi-monthly meeting (1. drinks, 2. a healthy snack, 3. chips or crackers or 4. something sweet).  Reminds contributors a few days in advance via email or phone that they are responsible for refreshments at the next meeting.

·        As a practical matter, members asked to be "hosts" may also be asked to provide snacks for the evening

·        Comes early to the meeting to plug in the hot water, set up the food, ice, if necessary, and brings instant coffee and herbal teas for consumption.

·        Ensures the refreshment area is cleaned up at the end of the meeting.

 

Judge Recruiter

·        Seeks out local artists and other qualified individuals and invites them to serve as volunteer judges.

·        Adds new artists to the Judge Roster each year to ensure we have one new judge at each of our competitions.

 

Judge Scheduler

·        Schedules three judges for each monthly competition night (nine evenings per season)

·        Maintains a roster of judges with their contact details and bios

·        Prepares Judge Guidelines for scoring and comments.  Provide copies to these guidelines to judges in advance of meeting and reviews with them in person prior to the meeting.

·        Sends out judges’ bios to members no later than the weekend before the upcoming competition night.

·        Greets judges prior to the meeting.  Introduces the judges to the designated Hosts, who will make sure they are cared for before the meeting and during the break.

Mid-month Program Coordinator(s) 

·        Responsible for securing presenters for non-competition meetings.

·        Coordinates and organizes the event.  Acts as host and introduces the event at the meeting

·        Shares information with PR/Membership Chair who shall communicate the event to the club and externally

 

PR/Membership

·        Responsible for any publication, advertising, and public relations of the club, club events, etc.  The PR/Membership Chair shall arrange with local papers, publications and publicity sources to publicize club meetings and special events.

·        Attracts new members through advertising and PR as stated above.

·        Greets and welcomes new members and guests at regular meetings.  Announces new members and guests at the beginning of each meeting.

 

Timekeeper

On competition nights, the Timekeeper will:

·        Monitor the 7:15 rule for submitting prints.  Give warnings to anyone submitting late the first time (and keep a record) and advise second offenders that their submissions will not be accepted that month.  Advise the President of the compliance that month

·        A few minutes before 7:30 signal to the group that the meeting is about to begin.  The President shall begin the meeting promptly.  Similarly, the Timekeeper shall signal the group to be seated at the end of the 15 minute break.

·        Keep records of the time that the meetings begins and ends, including the time of the break.  Record the time and number of images in each category in the competition.  Report these results to the Secretary on a monthly basis.

·        Report an annual summary of the competition submissions to the Secretary at the end of each year; this report will show, by month, the number of images in each category.  (These numbers can also be obtained from the Competition Scores section of the website.)  The Secretary will submit these records to the Treasurer to keep in the permanent binder. These records are useful in tracking the trends in the number of images submitted and the time of the meetings, information that is helpful for making policies for number of submissions per member, number of categories, meeting beginning and ending times, etc.

 

Web Master (Primary and Secondary)

·        Responsible for set-up and maintenance of club web site

·        Responsible for posting competition scores by Sunday after each competition

·        Solicits and posts winning images from each monthly competition. Responsible for sending out a reminder email to winners.  Posts images to the website by Sunday following the competition (pending receipt by winners by Friday).  Updates website with winner images that were submitted after the deadline prior to the next month’s competition.

·        Maintains Member Galleries on the website.  Updates the website with member images in the member gallery within two weeks of submission

·        Posts any information submitted within five days (this information includes, but is not limited to, field trips, outside competitions, member exhibits, photographic opportunities, workshops, etc.)

·        Responsible for soliciting and training at least one other person on how to maintain and post information to the website

·        If the web master is unable to meet the posting timelines above, he/she is responsible for soliciting help from another member to post in a timely manner.

II. Photo Essay Night

Members are invited to submit a digital essay to show the members.  Here are the particulars:

From Wikipedia:  A photo essay (or "photographic essay") is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer.

The Digital Photo Essay is limited to 5 minutes in length per entry.  Sound may include your own commentary, taped music, or sound effects.

If you are creating a digital slide show, you must provide a means to play the slide show.  The Club will provide a digital projector and can provide a laptop with Powerpoint and Open Office as a slide show applications.  You can save your slide show to a thumb drive and that can upload your show to the Club provided laptop.  Slide shows created in other applications must be brought in by the submitter on their own laptops.

*** Open Office is a free application that can be used to create slide shows.  It looks a great deal like PowerPoint.  You can add music, timing, and effects to your slide show using this application.  You can download Open Office by visiting http://www.openoffice.org

For any questions or comments you may have on our slide essay event, please contact David Henkel, information shown in paragraph 9 above.. 

On May 2, 2012 PCLFC held it’s annual Photograph of the Year competition.  Members were asked to submit 2 images in Black & White Print, Color Print and Digital Image categories for a chance to be crowned our 2011-2012 photograph of the year.  Member’s selected images were shown throughout this competition season, and could be from the open subject or assigned subject categories.  Our judges were tasked with selecting one image per category to represent the Photography Club of Lower Fairfield County as the 2011-2012 Photograph of the Year.

Our judges for this evening were Jeremy Frost, Ron Landis and Lee Paine.

Presenting our 2011-2012 Photographs of the Year and a note from the winning photographer

Black & White Print of the Year

Habit by Sandy Gennrich 

While traveling through Rajasthan, India, I was making a point to get up early and shoot the cities before they were too crowded with the chaos of daily Indian life.  I enjoyed each morning, watching the cities wake up.  I’d arrive when the streets were empty, then a few people would start sweeping in front of their shops, and then some street vendors would arrive and start filling carts with colorful vegetables and other edibles.  Just as the sun began to warm the streets, I’d realize the cities were abuzz with activity.  I came across this gentleman as he was sitting out in front of his store — in the midst of his morning smoke.  I loved the texture in his mustache and face, so I asked if I could take his picture.  He obliged, and I was able to take 
several pictures. -Sandy

Color Print of the Year

 

Solitude by Dallas Molerin

Early one September morning in 2011 I was walking along the southern portion of Greenwich Point near a foggy coastline.  The area has a series of small ponds and pathways and on that day there seemed to be an unusual number of egrets.  I walked into an area that had heavy shrub and there was a lone egret seemingly enjoying it’s solitude. -Dallas 

Digital Projected Image of the Year

 

The Ladies’ Game by Mike Harris

Sally and I spent a fall afternoon at Coney Island.  The crowds had disappeared for the season, but there was still a lot to see.  We noticed the handball courts were busy.  At first I tried shooting through the chain link screen, and then simply walked on and sat at the back of a court.  The sun was shining on the front wall but some large trees left the women in the shade.  They played on and never even noticed my presence. -Mike 

We have two events scheduled for this Wednesday’s meeting:

I. Make-Up Session

Digital submissions for this make-up are due by 4:00pm Wednesday, April 18, 2012. You can submit your entries to DHFore@hotmail.com

You can expect a confirmation of receipt of images from me. If you do not see any confirmation email, please reach out to me so we can fix the issue.

You may enter an open subject digital image this month to be used as a make up for March or April’s missed competitions. No assigned subject make-ups are available this season. Make-up submissions receive a score, but there will be no critiques for these submissions.

When you submit an image for make-up, please use the following naming convention:

Year_Current Month_OS_Class_MU_Title_Maker.jpg

For instance. If I were to submit a make up image with the title of "New York," my file would be named 11_02_OS_S_MU_New York_DHenkel.jpg

You can view your current competition submissions by visiting the 2011-2012 Cumulative Scores section on our website.

Print submissions are accepted until 7:15 pm. The meeting will begin promptly at 7:30pm.

II.  Interactive Portrait Learning Session - Beauty Lighting

Member Darina Boycheva is going to hold an interactive portrait session for the group.

She is going to talk about three slightly different beauty looks using a model for this instructional shoot. Paricipants will be able to photograph the model using Darina’s camera connected to the lighting equipment brought by her to practice and get a feel for the lighting and the photography of the model.

Members are asked to bring a CF card to use in Darina’s camera. This way you can take your images home with you to study more in your editing software.

Please join us for this fun learning event.

Our final regular competition of the season is this Wednesday, April 4.

Submissions into the Digital Image Projection Open and Assigned Subjects must be sent to the slide collector David Henkel at DHFore(the"at" sign)hotmail.com by the end of the day Monday, April 2nd.

For digital image submission guidelines please reference our website’s Rules and Guidelines page, under sections V - DIGITAL IMAGES and VI - DIGITAL FILE SPECIFICATIONS.

The assigned subject for February is New York City.

Print submissions are accepted until 7:15 pm the evening of the competition.  The meeting will begin promptly at 7:30 pm.

Our judges for this evening’s competition are:

Roger Lourie

Roger Lourie has been a collector of photography for over thirty years and many of his prints have been loaned to museums for special exhibitions.  For many years he has been involved with the Time Inc. photo archives.  He is also a consultant to Phillips & Company auctioneers regarding their photographs and is also a special consultant to the Museum of Paris for their 19th century black and white photography.

Please welcome Roger as a returning judge for us.

Carol Dixon

Carol has a BA from Vassar College, a masters from Columbia University, and additional art training at the Pratt Institute and Booklyn Museum.  She retired from Greenwich Academy, where she taught for almost thirty years.  Among her courses were advanced placement art history, architecture, and studio art.  She currently teaches studio art courses for the Greenwich Arts Society Studio School and through the Stamford Adult Education Program.  For twenty-five summers she was on the art faculty of the Stamford Museum.  Her works have won prizes locally and nationally, and are in many corporate and private collections.  Most recently, her photographs have been juried into exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, the Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sacred Heart University, and the Silvermine Guild’s Art of the Northeast.

Please welcome Carol as a returning judge with us.

Alison Nicholls

Alison Nicholls is a professional wildlife artist who lives in Port Chester.  She is English and has traveled extensively her entire life, but it was southern Africa which captured her imagination and is where she began to paint in earnest.  She lived in Botswana and Zimbabwe for nine years and returns to Africa annually to sketch in the bush.

Alison works closely with a number of African conservation projects, using exhibits and lectures to raise awareness and funds.  She is a Signature Member of Artists for Conservation and the Society of Animal Artists, and a member of the Explorers Club and the Salmagundi Club.

You can visit Alison’s website at http://www.nichollswildlifeart.com

Please welcome Alison as a first time judge with us.

"Blue Wildebeast" by Alison Nicholls

 

The Photography Club of Lower Fairfield County invites you to a presentation by Renowned International Photographer

Peter Turnley

Moments of the Human Condition, 1972 - Present

Wednesday, March 21st, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830 (off I-95 exit 3)

LIMITED SEATING FOR THIS EVENT

Peter’s presentation will weave in and out of images depicting life worldwide, in moments of conflict, hardship, and political change, as well as images of major world figures that influenced the direction of history during the last three decades.  Turnley’s visual exploration of the world, in which he captures the "decisive moments" from each country he traveled to, offers compelling moments of beauty and esthetic power that characterize the daily life of different regions.

About he Presenter 

Peter Turnley is renown for his compassionate documentation of the realities of the human condition worldwide. His photographs have been on the cover of Newsweek 43 times and are published frequently in the world’s most prestigious publications. He has worked in over 90 countries and has documented most major stories of international geo-political and historic significance these past thirty years. His photographs draw poignant attention to the plight of people that deserve greater attention for their suffering of hardship or injustice. He also affirms with his vision the many aspects of the life that are beautiful, poetic, 
just, and inspirational.

Often featured in Newsweek, Harper’s, Stern, Paris Match, Geo, LIFE, National Geographic, The London Sunday Times, VSD, Le Figaro, Le Monde, The New Yorker, and DoubleTake, Turnley is a master of the photographic essay. Peter Turnley worked as a contract photographer for Newsweek Magazine from 1984-2001 and as a contributing editor/photographer with Harper’s Magazine from 2003-2007. His work is frequently published in photo essay form in magazines, on major television networks such as CNN, ABC’s "Nightline", and online publications, such as The Online Photographer. Turnley’s photos have been published the world over and have won many international awards including the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, numerous awards and citations from World Press Photo, and the University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year competition.

To learn more about Peter please visit his website at www.peterturnley.com

Kosovo-Albanian Refugees, The War in Kosovo, Macedonia, 1999

Nelson Mandela, Soccer City Stadium, Soweto South Africa

Fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany, 1989

Le Marais, Paris