Meeting notes contributed by Dubuque Camera Club member Sam Fenstermacher.
Sixteen people attended the Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on Tuesday, September 7th, 2021 (It was on Tuesday due to Labor Day). The meeting was held via Zoom and began at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting began with a photo opp discussion. The “American” riverboat was to arrive in the Port of Dubuque the next day. (If you know of any local photo opps, please share them at meetings or to the club’s Facebook group!)
We have gained two new club members:
• Destiny Goetzinger
• Suzanne Wright
Welcome to the club, Des and Suzie!!!
• Submit your info to the club’s Member Directory! We’ll use this biographical information in the brochure for the upcoming “Trees” exhibit at the Dubuque Museum of Art (DuMA). The member directory is password protected, and the password was given out during the meeting.
Return to in-person meetings? Club president Ronald Tigges explained that the first two club meetings this season will be virtual. The internet/wifi is not presently working at our usual meeting venue. Also, at the next meeting, the club will review judging results, and that is well suited to a virtual meeting.
The current hope is that the first meeting of October will be held in-person at the E.B. Lyons Interpretative Center, in the Mines of Spain. Please note that with the Covid numbers increasing, we may need to be flexible with virtual meetings. Plans are in the works to continue to have a virtual option even after meetings return to in-person.
About the club. Ron gave some basic information about the club, and also introduced the club officers. The Dubuque Camera Club has a long history, which dates back to the 19th century. We are affiliated with the North Central Camera Club Council (N4C), which is made up of 37 midwestern clubs. Our club currently competes in six categories of digital photography.
A question was asked about PSA affiliation. The N4C is an affiliate of the Photographic Society of America (PSA). At the end of the N4C season, the N4C’s PSA chairperson selects and submits from winning images and enters them in a PSA contest. However, as far as we know, we do not have access to educational materials on the PSA website. Note that the annual PSA Photo Festival is coming up in Rapid City in October.
N4C convention for 2021 was cancelled. The N4C convention in Duluth was cancelled due to Covid and forest fires. A couple of our club members are still heading up north to Duluth or the Apostle Islands, so we look forward to seeing their awesome autumn travel images!
Annual Dues are Due! Participating in club exhibits is one of the perks of Dubuque Camera Club membership. If you have not paid your dues for the 2021-22 season, please do so now. Annual dues are only $20 and may be easily paid online. (Click here to pay your dues online.)
TREES exhibit. The Dubuque Camera Club photography exhibit, “Trees,” is scheduled to open on November 13, 2021 at the Dubuque Museum of Art. It will be on display concurrently with a military and veterans related photography exhibit: “Vietnam: The Real War – Photographs from the Associated Press.” Both shows will run for about three months, through February 6th, 2022.
The DuMA curator is currently choosing images. We’d like to include at least one image from each participating club member. New club members, please be aware that the “Trees” exhibit was an event that was postponed from 2020. If you have not had a chance to submit, send up to 5 images to Ron ASAP. He also has one mystery photo to identify from prior submissions.
If you didn’t send in a high-res or final version, you’ll need to do that after you get notification that your image was chosen. We’ll be printing images as a group, with the final cost and details to be determined. (We’ll probably print at 12×18″ at a total cost of around $60 per print). No watermarks on the final images. We’ll be signing prints by hand.
Ron Tigges, Bob Felderman, and Stephonie Schmitz have volunteered to do an informative photography presentation at the art museum during the “Trees” exhibit. The tentative topic will be changes to military photography and photo-journalism techniques over the years. More details will be shared when we know more.
Competing in N4C Print competition. Due to changes in the N4C monthly print competition, which hopefully will lead to a reduction in both hassle and cost, our club may start to compete in prints (in addition to digital).
“Because we don’t do print competition currently,” said Jennifer, “there’s not a good chance we can be Large Club of the Year.” Digital is limited to 8 submissions per category per club (unless we judge, when it’s 16). For prints, up to 16 prints could be submitted in each category, which will ratchet up our club’s points, if people participate.
Stephonie has volunteered to organize the mailings, and to serve as contact person for prints. Jennifer will check with the N4C to see if we can still get onboard this season. Typically, we would have to judge prints, too (that happens in person!). However, the N4C prints judging calendar is already made up for the season.
More details about print competition will be sent out when we know more. If you foresee participating, 8×10 prints are a safe bet! No matting or frames are needed. See the rules on the N4C website.
Upcoming club meeting workshops. Several ideas were suggested for hands-on activities during upcoming club meetings:
- Macro/closeup workshop, including focus stacking
- Still life, with various lighting or subject options
- Copyright/CASE act presentation
- Critique of member images
Bob Felderman showed off a “Learning Light” with a variety of lighting modes for trying new lighting styles. (Kudos: Bob was mentioned in a recent issue of Photoshop User magazine. Good job!!)
Digital Journalism judging. This month, our club will do virtual judging of the N4C Digital Journalism category. Club N4C rep Cara Pusateri will organize the judging. Volunteer judges: (1) Ron Tigges, (2) Bob Felderman, (3) Kenneth Kiss. Judging will happen from Sept. 16-19. We’ll go over results at the next meeting.
Submissions to the monthly Digital contest. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to viewing the club’s submissions to the September N4C Digital contest. The submission process was reviewed for the benefit of the new club members. Some categories did not have enough entries. “If a category is not full,” said N4C rep Cara, then it’s first come, first serve, after the meeting.”
Thanks to everyone who submitted photos this month! Remember, submissions are always due before the first meeting of each month, so your next chance to submit will be before the October 4th meeting (double DJ).
Meeting adjourned at 8:27 p.m.
Next meeting on Monday, Sept. 20th at 6:30 p.m.
The next Dubuque Camera Club will be VIRTUAL. It will be held on Monday, September 20th at 6:30 p.m. We will review the results of Digital Journalism judging. This meeting will be held via Zoom. If you are a tri-state resident interested in attending, please send your contact information to dubuquecameraclub@gmail.com
Don’t forget to renew your club membership! Annual dues are only $20 for the 2021-22 season. Your dues must be current to participate in upcoming club exhibits, or to submit to monthly N4C contests. Learn more about the club on the FAQ on this website.