The Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on Monday, August 17, 2020 was attended remotely by a lucky 13 people. Bob Felderman hosted the meeting via Zoom. Ron and Jennifer couldn’t attend, so Bob and Pamela facilitated discussion.

Club members were asked to share photography-related news and information. Almost everyone in attendance had something to share. Thanks to everyone who contributed to make this virtual meeting a success! A few highlights are below. The video of the entire meeting is available for a limited time in the club’s private Facebook group.

Henry Matthiesson started out the evening by sharing his photos of the Neowise comet. He sold a triptych print, yay! He also gave the club an update on his video project with filmmaker Dean Wellman. Their film is now titled, “Riding the Light: One Artist’s Journey.” In addition to video footage, the film contains 140+ of Henry’s photos from the duo’s trip to the desert Southwest.

You can watch a movie trailer on Youtube. A pay-per-view streaming video release is planned for Oct. 1. Their long-term goal is to enter 2021 film festivals. Stephonie Schmitz is handling marketing, and a little birdie told me that Ron Tigges was involved in filming a recent interview. To stay current, follow Thoughts from the Road on Facebook.

Also at tonight’s virtual meeting: Iowa State Rep. Chuck Isenhart took a short breather from his “Campaign for the Common Good” to talk about butterflies, birds, and owls, and to share a few photos. A Dubuquer and a club member, his priorities include conservation, climate, energy, clean water, and local foods — these are ideals that many of us share… and we like his butterfly pictures, too!

Lori Burrows said a few words about sunflowers. This year, a sunflower field was located in rural Asbury. The blooms have faded now, but while the glory lasted, the field was incredibly popular with photographers. Learning about this local opportunity was exciting — especially since severe storms have sadly destroyed other sunflower fields in the region. The farm has used several of Lori’s photos in their marketing materials.

Jigsaw puzzles were the topic for club member Stephonie Schmitz. She shared her experience ordering custom puzzles from her original photos. She’s tried a bunch of different online puzzle printers, trying to find the best quality for the best price. Thirteen of her puzzles have sold already, with part of the proceeds toward Give Back to Nature Million Tree Project. Just think — trees are being planted due to people enjoying photography and doing jigsaw puzzles!

Kevin McTague shared a kudo he received recently as a volunteer. He’s been putting his energy into monitoring bluebird houses at Swiss Valley. The Friends of the Dubuque County Conservation Board has recognized him with the 2020 “Friend of the Year” award. Great job, Kevin!!!

Pamela mentioned her newest moonlighting adventure, writing for a magazine published by photographer Mark Hirsch. Sadly, the recent severe storms totally destroyed the Bur Oak tree that was the subject of That Tree. He’s now putting his creative energy into a monthly print magazine called Neighbors of South Dubuque. If you are a Dubuquer living south of Dodge St and see an issue in your mailbox, you are eligible to contribute! We’ll be looking for photos and recipes in the future. Submission information is inside the magazine.

Instagram was another topic during the meeting. A number of our club photographers post to that social media site. It was suggested that a directory of club members with website or social media accounts be added to the club website. Stay tuned to see if something like that happens.

Thanks to everyone else at the virtual meeting who shared their photography-related news and information! We appreciate your creativity and all the good information!

Next virtual club meeting on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020 at 6:30 p.m.

MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY. In a departure from previous years, the club WILL be meeting on the Monday that is Labor Day, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. This is the first meeting of the official N4C season, so everyone’s dues will be due! Note that this meeting will be virtual. N4C contest submissions will also be due before the meeting. Watch your email for more information.

The virtual meeting of the Dubuque Camera Club on May 18, 2020 was attended by 17 people.

Congratulations to club member Jesse Green, who recently earned his law degree from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Great job! His next step is to take the bar exam; then he plans to go into corporate or business law.

The host for tonight’s virtual club meeting was Bob Felderman, who even gave us a virtual home tour. His latest gadget, a Matterport camera, allows him to create 360-degree home tours for real estate listings. Pretty groovy!

The club recently learned that our Trees exhibit has been postponed until 2021. Potentially, we could still do some sort of virtual exhibit. One idea is to make a promotional video with participating club members. Everybody would read a script, then short clips would be edited together to make a composite video. More details TBD.

This month the club did virtual judging of the Digital Travel category for the N4C monthly competition. Ken Kiss, Stephonie Schmitz, and Jim Durrant served as judges. Virtual judging was facilitated by our club’s N4C rep, Cara Pusateri. Tie-breaker decisions were made during the meeting, and we also looked at and discussed a bunch of awesome images from other clubs.

Sadly, the pandemic is still making future in-person meetings uncertain. For that reason, the club will not be doing a potluck picnic as in previous years. Instead, we will hold another virtual club meeting on Monday, June 1st, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. We will probably delay voting on (re-)election of officers until this fall, when the 2020/2021 N4C season starts.

The club will try to get together sometime this summer (in July?) for a photoshoot. Daytrip/photoshoot ideas will be discussed at our next virtual meeting.

Next (virtual) meeting:

The next virtual meeting of the Dubuque Camera Club will be on Monday, June 1st, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. Specific information will be emailed to club members before the meeting.

In the meantime, if you have photography-related news to share, please post it to the club’s private Facebook group.

The second-ever Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on April 20, 2020, was attended via Zoom by 19 people. Several people shared images or photography-related news. If you missed this virtual meeting, a recording will be available to watch in the club’s private Facebook group for a limited time.

The club’s TREES submissions are looking great! Club members who wish to participate in this exhibit can send up to 5 images to Ron or Ken. You can also simply “reply” to any club email with your images attached. Include your member number in the filename. Prints will probably be 12×18-inch (either portrait or landscape is fine). 

The TREES exhibit is scheduled to be on display at the Dubuque Museum of Art beginning September 26, 2020. As spring hits and you get outside, be aware of this theme and take more TREE PHOTOS!

Club winners

Congratulations to the following Dubuque Camera Club photographers for earning recognition in the April 2020 N4C competition:

• Robert Felderman, honorable mention, Digital Black and White, “Fireworks Bouquet over the Mississippi River”

• Ron Tigges, honorable mention, Digital Nature, “Columbine in Bloom”
• Ron Tigges, honorable mention, Digital Journalism, “Good Night”

• Stephonie Schmitz, honorable mention, Digital Journalism, “The Masai Edler and Warrior Africa”
• Stephonie Schmitz, honorable mention, Digital Travel, “Monument Valley, Arizona, USA”
• Stephonie Schmitz, First place, Digital Altered Reality, “Journey Into the Lens”

Other N4C stuff

Club communications contest. The N4C has invited our club to enter the N4C website/bulletin/newsletter contests. (Those categories all blend together for me because I am a digital girl.) Unhappily, the last time this N4C competition was updated, woolly mammoths walked the earth. (Jennifer is going to have a lot of work to do!)

Last year, when I asked for the rules, I got the noise of a closed library during a pandemic. This year, when I asked for the rules, I received last year’s rules. Yes, you read that right. For that reason, I assume that last year’s judging was based on gut instinct; this year, it will be based on last year’s rules. Here they are. Read them and find out the secrets to the N4C’s magical ability to stay fashionably ahead of digital trends.

Next meeting

The next virtual Dubuque Camera Club meeting will be held on Monday, May 4th at 6:30 p.m. Specific details will be sent out by email before the meeting. Read your club emails for the link!

Club members: N4C competition submissions are due before the meeting. No Digital Travel submissions, because we will do virtual judging of that category at the following meeting. For more information, see the Competition page.