Fifteen people attended the Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on March 1st, 2021.
The next couple years of N4C conventions were discussed. In fall 2021 the Duluth-Superior Camera Club will host, and registrations are open now [more info here]. Possibly, Dubuque could work in partnership with another club (Iowa City?) to host the 2022 convention. It’s a big challenge for one club to organize everything, as we know from past experience.
Our club has 31 active members, as of the date of this meeting. This puts us over the threshold as a “large” club, according to the N4C definition. Club member Jennifer Tigges is on the ballot for the N4c board of directors, as a candidate for director #2 (she’s moving up!). See the March issue of the N4C Bulletin for bios of everyone vying for a spot on the N4C board.
The photography club in Minnesota that contacted us out of the blue to judge their non-N4C competition has found other judges (whew!).
At long last we’ve heard that the nature center will re-open, under a new collaboration. Dubuque County Conservation (Swiss Valley) is receptive to groups like ours using E.B. Lyons as a meeting venue. Tentatively, we hope to meet in-person at the Mines of Spain during the 2021/22 season, which starts in September. “The good news is it will be open and available for us, and for school groups this summer,” said Ron.
More N4C stuff. The N4C is still discussing changes to the print competition, which our club doesn’t currently compete in, due to cost and hassle factor. The idea, which we’ve detailed here before, is to use “disposable” 8×10-inch prints. It will save each club $45 or more every month in mailing print entries back to originating clubs. Only the winning prints will be kept, for the end-of-year display.
Our club has discussed many times the skewed point-counting system that makes us ineligible to receive Club of the Year due to not participating with prints. However, the pandemic, along with some prints lost in a snowstorm, has shown others the benefits of digital competition. Change moves painfully slow, but it does come eventually!
February Winners
Congratulations to the following Dubuque Camera Club photographers who were recognized in the February 2021 N4C competition:
- Stephonie Schmitz, Digital Travel (DT), first place, “Garden of the Gods”
- Henry Matthiessen, Digital Black & White (DB), merit award
- Kevin McTague, Altered Reality (DA), merit award
A couple of N4C contest tips, based on observation:
- Journalism (DJ) does better with people in the picture. Also, the new DJ scoring system is goofy.
- Travel (DT) is supposed to be an “iconic” image, aka recognizable as symbolic of a place.
- Titles are important. Some judges are influenced by them.
- Longer comments are usually better comments.
- Altered Reality (DA) must be UNREAL looking. Composites, etc.
- Focus stacking (and tilt shift) is okay in any category.
Most importantly, don’t give up hope if your photo didn’t do well in competition. “If you know in your heart you’ve got a great image, submit it again. Different clubs look at things differently,” Jenn advised.