LCC This Month
January 2010

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! Hope you had some rest and relaxation over the holiday break and some time to photograph as well as some new goodies under the tree!  Thanks to Detlef who continues to organize outings for us. This weekend, a group of hardy photographers braved the cold and drizzle to photograph in Steveston. Their efforts will soon be posted on the forums page of our newsletter. Check it out. And don’t forget to watch the forum for news of the next outing. It’s a great way to learn from each other and make new friends.

Our holiday celebrations were dampened heavily with the news of Judy’s passing on December 20. This is a tremendous loss for all of us who had the privilege of knowing her and for the photographic community across Canada. Her friendship and photographic abilities were unmatched and are greatly missed. We will spend a few moments on Wednesday to remember her. As well, a celebration of her life will take place in her home on January 16 from 1 – 4 pm.

• January Calendar

(all meetings at 7:30 pm)

Wednesday, January 13 – Evaluation Night

Our theme this month is The Elements. As always, you have until the Monday night prior to evaluation night, to submit your images.

Instructions for uploading your images are on the club website at http://www.langleycameraclub.com/submissionInstructions.html .

Wednesday, January 20 – Member’s Showcase

This is your opportunity to share your work with the club. Please contact Paul Lengyell (plengyell@yahoo.ca) if you have an idea – he’s eager to hear from you. Also, Brian Martin will continue his series of Show and Learn. Using photos taken by our members, various aspects of composition will be illustrated. Please submit photos to Paul for this.

Wednesday, January 27 – Program Night
 
Michael Bednar, our guest presenter this month, is able to capture in his photos the essence of travel whether in a far off place or close to home. His colorful images are quiet and powerful and express an intimate connection with his subjects. Whether on a vast plain, in a grizzly bear sanctuary or a nomadic camp, his ability to connect helps him bring back authentic imagery that is emotional and vivid. Michael’s documentary style has profound impact and can work to tell the story for editorial pages or for corporate advertisements. (from his website, bednarphoto.com).

Michael contributed an article about the Sea to Sky Corridor recently in British Columbia magazine. His website is definitely worth a visit. Be sure to check his portfolio as well as his stories of the Downtown Eastside (real people, real lives).

2. Club Info

Gateway of Hope - Update

Progress is a little slow but we are still working on the project to supply photography to the Gateway of Hope, the homeless shelter that recently opened in Langley. A group of us will be meeting with them near the end of the month to try and determine the most suitable type of photographs for the building.

Please consider your pictures that may include a message of hope. 

 

Club Info: Competition Results

In the Fall, our club entered a CAPA print competition and we received an honor award for coming in fourth in Canada with 135 points. Not bad when the winning club is 138 points! Some of our six entries are below. Unfortunately, I did not receive copies of all of them.  Congratulations to our excellent print makers!

In the Spirit of the Season
by Joy Gerow

 

Paris at Dusk
by Jim Hatch

This picture scored third overall with a 25 and a Certificate of Merit

Congratulations Jim!

Train on Track
by Bill Kellett

Unknown Pioneers
by Rob Hopkins

Thanks also to Anita O'Connor, Mary Wood, & Paul Baker

Club Info: Next Competition

Your images for the following three events are due to comps@langleycameraclub.com no later than January 17.

1. North Shore Challenge.  This is a regular for us, we put an entry in every year.  It’s an open competition, their entry form states that there are “no restrictions on subject matter”. 
2. CAPA theme competition.  “Three of a kind”.  We just did this in evaluation, so this one should be fresh with all of us.  If your image did well in this evaluation, we definitely want it!
3. CAPA “altered reality”.  Here’s the text straight from CAPA of what this means to them: The image must always begin with an original photograph captured by the photographer. A variety of subject matter is accepted. Images must be heavily manipulated and obviously creatively enhanced including, but not limited to composites, creative filters etc. These images are not meant to look like a regular photograph and cannot be entered into a Digital Theme competition nor an Open competition.  So go for it and let’s see some great stuff!

Art in Found Places
The Langley Arts Council, of which we are members, is seeking submissions from us on two themes.

• "Olympic Spirit" - struggle to succeed, over coming odds: this is open to interpretation and can be literal or metaphoric
• "Just Red" - this is for the Paint the Town Red display and includes anything where the main content is red.

Please contact Tracey Cameron <jayne99@telus.net> for more info.

Special Thanks
The club has just completed an instructional series of four lectures on Basic Photography by Brian Martin. This attracted a large number of new and experienced members and either reviewed or taught for the first time important fundamentals of photography. We do a lot of learning together as a club from our various activities each month but this is the first time in my experience that direct instruction has taken place. I know these lessons were extremely well received and beneficial for all who attended. THANK YOU to Brian for recognizing the need for this and volunteering so generously his time and expertise. Also, a huge THANK YOU goes to our unsung heroes, Russ and Andy, for setting up each month and putting away chairs, tables and equipment. Your commitment to the club, guys, is inspirational. Please be sure to thank them yourselves if you haven’t already.
3.  Coming Events

February 2010
3          Executive and FVI planning meeting. All members welcome. 7:00 pm at the Hall.
10        Evaluation Night. Theme: Graffiti
17        Members’ Showcase
24        Program Night: Our speaker Allen Bargen. Allen is the president of CAPA and an accomplished photographer. He will share some of his recent travel adventures.
             

• Inspiration

 

OK, I got a photo goody for Christmas. It is a brand new book called Visual Poetry: A Creative Guide for Making Engaging Digital Photographs by Chris Orwig, an instructor at Brooks Institute of Photography. The approach of this book is workshop style, meaning that Chris will give you tips and tricks in the chapter, then follow it up with an assignment and plenty of references to check on the web for further study. He also profiles and interviews many influential photographers.

The interesting part of the book is when Chris relates literature (especially poetry) to photography. He argues that photography could be a great medium to express or convey a message or story. In addition, this book discusses many kinds of photography from portrait, wedding, sports, and travel. The discussion often goes to a deeper level than equipment and exposure information. For me, the most valuable part is the workshop section at the end of most chapters, where suggestions and exercises for many different areas of photography are provided, as well as websites to see more examples.

You can learn more about this thoughtful book by listening to an interview with him at www.peachpit.com/podcasts/ (click on author talk).

 

Keep Shooting,
Dennis