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By Richard Nichols
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Monday, 16 January 2012 11:43 |
Good Morning, Sweetwater Camera Club members, renewing members, visitors and friends,
Happy New Year! We hope your 2012 resolutions include improving your photographic and visual arts skills! One way to do that is to join or rejoin the Sweetwater Camera Club. This year promises to be the best ever. It is very difficult to decide which SCC initiative to feature first. We will be having some tremendous field trips, interesting contests-- including some upcoming on-line digital photo contests, several photographic workshops “on-location” and many wonderful lectures and critiques! If you would like to join or re-join, you can pay online at www.sweetwatercameraclub.com/membership or pay the SCC Secretary Jeannie McDonald during our meeting this Thursday, January 12th at 7 p.m. at the Hunter Park Community Center, room 208.
Since our December holiday party, many people have worked together to plan the Sweetwater Camera Club objectives and events for 2012. We’ve held meetings of the officers, chairpeople, outgoing officers and outgoing chairpeople, and several others who want to be involved in the success of our group. Please read this email in its entirety because there is a lot of important material covered here that will provide a blueprint for fulfilling our visual arts mission this year. First, and most immediate is our meeting this week on Thursday evening.
 1. YOU ARE INVITED: January Sweetwater Camera Club meeting: This Thursday evening, January 12th is the Sweetwater Camera Club’s first meeting of 2012 at our new meeting location, the Hunter Park Community Center. The address is 8830 Gurley Road, Douglasville GA 30134.
Our speaker this month is John Mariana, a lifelong artist, well-known photographer, trainer and workshop leader. From his bio on his website:
In 1980 John started using photography in connection to his art background to create color images. By 1984 black and white prints became his specialty. Today, John uses photography to create fine art black and white and color prints expressing his thoughts and artistic vision.
You can read all about John and view many of his beautiful photographs at www.marianaphotography.com . Norma and I met John at the North Georgia Camera Club Council meetings over the past year. He is active with the Booth Photography Guild in Cartersville and gives a number of excellent lectures at photo clubs and other venues. Here is the description John has provided for us:
“I will be giving a presentation entitled “Expressive Black & White”
(see attached for details  ).
I will present my techniques for creating a Fine Art expressive black & white print and I will demonstrate the Fine Art Techniques I use in Photoshop (PS) and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to create my expressive black and white prints.”
John has authored several books and will be displaying his materials at the meeting. Some of his books include Fine Art Techniques, Volumes I, II, and III, Visions of Italy and Visions of Scotland.
Our agenda for January’s meeting is as follows:
A. 6:30 to 7 p.m. – monthly contest entries taken and payment of yearly membership fees
B. 7 p.m. - Brief announcements and Introduction of visitors
C. Swearing in of officers for 2012
D. Gene Spicer will speak for 5 minutes or less about Gallery Wraps, a product which he creates and sells
E. Introduction of our speaker, John Mariana.
F. “Expressive Black and White” presentation – duration to be determined by John and the audience
G. Social break with refreshments – 10 to 15 minutes
H. Brief business meeting with any announcements not made at the beginning of the meeting.
I. Photo Contest Critique: The contest is “Through a window.” I’m attaching our contest topics and descriptions for 2012. These also appear on the SCC website at http://www.sweetwatercameraclub.com/contests/contest-topics-a-descriptions/2012 . This includes a color print category, a monochrome print category and a field trip category. The field trip this month was December 14th to Alexander High School for an all-Douglas-County high school wrestling match. Go to http://www.sweetwatercameraclub.com/contests/contest-rules to see the THOROUGHLY REVISED contest rules. Please note the changes in the fees charged for entering the contests and for the points awarded. Specifically, Field Trip winning entries will be awarded DOUBLE POINTS. This is retroactive to include the December Field Trip since it is critiqued and judged after January 1st, 2012.
J. Judging of Contest Entries: A 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be awarded for each category. As many as 2 honorable mentions might be given for each category but those will not be awarded points towards the 2012 Photographer of the Year declaration. Several honorable mention photos do get published on Chapel Hill News & Views contest pages from time to time.
2. Officers and Committee Chairpersons To Attend a Camera Club Workshop at the Booth Museum on Saturday, January 28th: As part of our determination to continuously improve the services and events of the Sweetwater Camera Club, the officers and chairpersons are invited to attend a seminar at the Booth Museum in Cartersville, slated for Saturday, January 28th from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. If you would like to go, even if you aren’t a chair person or an officer, please reply to this email no later than this Saturday, January 14th. Lunch will be provided free of charge. This service is provided by the North Georgia Camera Club Council of which the Sweetwater Camera Club is a member. Topics covered will include all elements of managing a photography club and the variety of roles and skills needed to administer this club, attract and hold new members and increase volunteerism and creative ideas beneficial to the group. There will be as many as 14 different clubs represented at the meeting, so a wide variety of ideas will be discussed. See attached flyer. Thus far those who have indicated an intention to attend are Rob Hainer, Erik Peterson, David Stephens, Gene Spicer, Norma and Richard Nichols. This might be your opportunity to get a better look at what it takes to make a success of a photo group.
3. Contests for 2012: Over the holidays, Jan Peterson has put together and refined this year’s contest list and descriptions that you find here. She worked hard to make the subjects challenging but also open-ended enough to allow for amazing and creative solutions. Please let Jan and Erik know how much you appreciate their contributions here. They are our SCC Contest Chairpersons for the second year in a row and their guidance in these matters comes as a result of quite a lot of thought, research and work.
4. Field Trips for 2012: Saturday, January 21st, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield: see attached brochure parts 1 and 2 (click number to view).This field trip has no parking or entrance fee but they do charge a small fee for shuttle rides in the park. Visitor Center building: 8:30AM - 5:00PM, seven days a week.
Our field trip chairman, David Stephens has been engaged in the advanced planning of as many of our monthly field trips as possible. We will plan at least one field trip per month which is announced well in advance. In addition, there will be spontaneous additional events as they become apparent. Some months could include as many as 3 events and they won’t all be on Saturday or weekends or during the daytime. We expect all field trips to be photography friendly and challenging. Each one is designed to help you become better in some specific aspect of photographic image making.
One exciting field trip that is in the planning stages for February will require security clearance at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. We will be invited inside the commercial flight simulator training area controlled by FlightSafety International. The flight simulation instructor will show us where they have simulators for all currently known commercial aircraft—this is a multi-million dollar operation with very high security, so those who want to go will be asked to submit their names in advance. You will be screened by TSA so wear clean underwear and leave your shampoo gel and guns at home. We will be allowed to make photographs throughout the area and the rumor is that some of us may be allowed to sit in a few cockpits and try things out. When pilots have finished their training in these simulators, they are certified as ready to fly the real planes without further practice. You must be a paid-up member of the Sweetwater Camera Club to attend this field trip. More details to come.
I personally believe that providing interesting Field Trips and Instructional Workshops are our most important function at the SCC in preparing and motivating photographers of all levels. Photography is a way of life begging for adoption, a lifestyle, a way of being more than a spectator or a participant in life. It is a way of investing meaning into every situation where an image is created. Whether you are documenting an event, enhancing a memory, learning and applying a special effect, sharing your perceptions or creating beauty heretofore unknown, there is nothing else quite like it. Image making can help you to appreciate all the days of your life and share your joy and your talents with your friends and family.
5. Lectures for 2012: Rob Hainer, our newly elected vice president, is in charge of obtaining speakers and handling our programs during this year. For starters, he will be preparing a program for our February meeting about using Flickr and social media to empower our members to upload their own photos to galleries and engage in on-line digital photo contests. This will hopefully become a permanent part of our club’s methodology and provide members and outsiders a firm look at our club’s progress over time.
6. Secretarial Duties: Over the holidays, outgoing secretary Stella Spyrou visited with incoming secretary Jeannie McKnight, assistant secretary Carri Layhue and me to hand over all secretarial duties to the new team. Stella has done an exceptional job for the past two years, and has helped in transferring her ongoing activities to the new team. Jeannie is a highly skilled secretary for a law firm in Atlanta. She will be the go-to person for new and renewing memberships, payment of fees, the keeping of meeting minutes and many other important tasks. Carri Layhue has volunteered to assist in any way that Jeannie needs. All money coming into the Sweetwater Camera Club comes to the Secretary for deposit into the SCC bank account.
7. Treasurer Duties: In mid December, Gene Spicer, our outgoing (in more ways than one) treasurer met with Kent Owings (our newly elected treasurer) and his assistant Helyn Mayhew and me. Helyn’s husband just happens to be the president of the Douglas County Bank where the Sweetwater Camera Club keeps its meager funds. The transfer of the SCC checkbook, QuickBooks files and other important records was made. The treasurer and his assistant are the only people empowered to write checks to pay our club’s bills.
8. Constitution Paperwork: Rewriting the SCC mission statement and Bylaws: SCC Assistant Secretary Carri Layhue is in the process of updating and revising the constitution and bylaws by which the SCC will be governed in the future. She has a background in writing employee manuals and helping with other administrative tasks that she has been in charge of during her healthcare career. This will help us greatly! Once we have these documents vetted and polished, they will be presented for review by the officers, then by the members. Eventually a final version will be voted upon, ratified and adopted to position our organization to qualify legally with the federal and state governments as a 501 ©3 non-profit organization.
9. Workshops: In a way, I’ve saved one of the very BEST things for last. Are you still with me? Contest Chairman (and now Workshop Chairman) Erik Peterson has taken the initiative of planning and executing quarterly workshops for the SCC. He says that he hopes to take our workshops “out on location” where possible, not just have us hang out in a classroom. The first workshop will take place at the Douglas County Library. The subject will be: “USING YOUR DSLR.” Here is his description. I’m attaching his potential agenda in PDF format as well.
Sunday, January 29th: Douglas County Public Library (6810 Selman Drive, Douglasville) from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm: Sweetwater Camera Club Workshop. Join us for our first workshop on Using Your DSLR. This first workshop will discuss lens selection, getting the proper exposure by better understanding ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed, Aperture selection for creative control, Aperture Priority Mode, Shutter Priority Mode, and Manual Mode. There will be a discussion on topics with practice time for indoor and outdoor practice. Multiple instructors will be present. Email
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for more information and suggestions for future workshops.
As you can see, we are starting the New Year off with a BANG! I hope you will all make it to our meetings, and enjoy learning as much as you can through the world of creative photography, image making and image editing. If you know someone who would enjoy becoming a member of our highly motivated group, please pass this email along. We are open to people of all skill levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. I hope to see you all there, and thank you for reading such a long email. All of this information will make its way onto the Sweetwater Camera Club website. Remember, you can join on-line, through the mail at the address listed below, or in person at our meetings! If you have questions, please call me at the number listed below.
Let’s GO!
Richard |
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