From the Club President…
The holiday season is nearly upon us. I wish we could get some holiday weather to match the calendar. However, there might be a silver lining to these sunny days.
As I write this post, I am receiving news alerts about the CDC recommendations to limit Thanksgiving celebrations to only members of your own household and to cancel all holiday travel. This is coming closer to home for my wife and I as we have just learned that our former long-time neighbor and dear friend is positive for COVID-19. She is now living in a local assisted-living facility where all but one of the ten residents and half of the staff are positive. This is not a pretty picture except for the diligent caregivers who are continuing to serve.
As a consequence, we are reconsidering our Thanksgiving plans. Here is where the mostly sunny weather forecast for Thanksgiving Day comes in. We have decided to have a BYOE, physical distancing, and alfresco Thanksgiving dinner. BYOE means ‘bring your own everything’ and of course we will be wearing masks and staying apart at least 6 feet. With our long-time friends, we believe that we have mastered the art of maintaining our social connections while minimizing COVID-19 risk.
We are lucky to be able to do this with our warm weather and trusted friends. Others among us are not so fortunate. At our last meeting, the board discussed what we might be able to do for our community to help those in need. We decided it might be reasonable to make a donation commensurate with what we typically spend for refreshments each year to the Sedona Community Center’s Meals on Wheels program.
However, the money we propose to donate is not our money. It is yours. The responsible thing to do is to get your permission to donate $500 to the Meals on Wheels program. Please use the link below to record your vote YES or NO whether you approve this donation.
Mailchimp survey link
That’s all for now. Be sure to check out the information below because there are some significant updates on club activities including a new photo challenge, the SIG program survey, photo critique deadlines, and membership renewals.
Best wishes for good health and great photos,
Brad
president.sedonacameraclub@gmail.com
Next Club Meeting
At jour next club meeting, Photographic artist JR Schnelzer will present to the Sedona Camera Club starting at 6 p.m. on Monday, November 30th. As usual, JR’s presentation will be via a Sedona Camera Club webinar. However, you do not have to register. Our webmaster, Bob Kenney, has connected GoToWebinar to our members-only website so that everyone will be automatically registered. You should have received a confirmation of your registration. If not, please reply to this email.
Photographers are seeking new and more artistic ways to represent their photographic endeavors. During Part 1, “Plugins for Image Enhancement”, JR Schnelzer will introduce several plugins for use with Photoshop for techniques such as hair enhancement, painted images, and portrait enhancement.
In Part 2, “The Art of Travel Photography”, JR will utilize techniques presented in Part 1 for travel images. These techniques will turn snapshots of trips into images of a more interesting nature. Schnelzer will also discuss a new technique to draw the viewers’ attention to what you want them to see. JR will end with a multimedia show “The Many Faces of Travel Photography”.
A semi-professional photographer working in the areas of fine art, nature, stock, and commercial photography, JR has over 50 years of photographic experience. His passion for photography began in his father’s darkroom. He later earned an MFA in photography from Ohio State University and spent time with photographic masters such as Minor White, Ansel Adams, John Sexton, and Kim Weston. JR won his first national award from Scholastic Magazine and subsequently won numerous local, regional, and international awards including the Nature Conservancy Photo Contest.
JR is heavily involved with the Photographic Society of America (PSA), currently serving as Executive Vice President. He has written numerous articles for the PSA Journal and received the Elmore Chatham Editorial Award in 2018. He judges local, regional, and national photographic competitions for PSA.
Schnelzer has done work for Mannheim Steamroller and has been represented in many magazines and books. In 2014 he was invited to exhibit in the “Master of Photography Exhibition” in Hong Kong and the “Photo La Gacilly Exhibition” in France, along with invited exhibitions in China and Morocco.
JR reveals his photographic philosophy: “Photography is the process of creating future memories. My work is my language: I view the world in terms of its form and beautiful light. The hope of my art is to hold for you, in the subsiding of life’s rush, the beauty of visual moments.” Find out more at JR’s website.
Club Events, Workshops, Trips, and Board Updates
January Photo Critiques
You can submit images for the January Digital Critiques until December 16 at 9pm by going to the Submit Critique Images page under the Members tab on our website. This page has links to all the information that you need to submit images. At our upcoming meeting, photos from our November Digital Critiques of 2020-21 will be presented by Digital Chair Tim See, and detailed scores and comments will be available online.
Photo Challenge for December 14 Meeting
We are announcing another photo challenge! The theme of this challenge will be “Uniquely Sedona.” A slideshow of this Challenge will be shown between presentations by Karen Hutton and Lauri Novak on December 14.
- Image content is central, not photography expertise. There will be no critiques or scoring.
- All submissions will be featured in a special December 14 slideshow.
- The only content requirements are that submissions must relate reasonably to our “Uniquely Sedona” theme.
- If your photos aren’t works of art, no worries. That is not the intent. Are you a beginner, intermediate, or advanced? It doesn’t matter. The goal is to build a slideshow that will be interesting and entertaining. The slideshow will be accessible indefinitely in our website Gallery.
- This special challenge begins NOW and extends until the deadline on December 10 at 9 pm.
Rules and Guidelines
- This challenge is open only to club members.
- All images must be photographs that you have taken this year.
- You may submit up to five (5) photographs. If we get too many images, we will choose at least two (2) from those you submit for the slideshow.
- There are no resolution sizing rules. But for best display in the slide show, please don’t submit very low-resolution images.
- You must use the following filename convention to enable us to record your name and the photos’ titles with your images: Your Name – Title of the Photo. In other words, save your photo on your computer like this example: Your Name – Your Title.jpg
- There are no resolution sizing rules. But for best clarity in the slide show, please don’t submit very low-resolution images.
- Upload the file with that saved filename in jpg format (only) to the following URL: https://sedonacameraclub.smugmug.com/upload/ZDtLMx/UploadPhotoChallenge
- Submissions will be included in a slideshow during the December meeting.
SIG Survey
If you have not already responded to the survey, please do so as soon as possible. We are introducing the concept of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to help members get better acquainted and share more photography experiences with each other. There is so much talent in our club, from beginner to professional, that it can be difficult to reach out, particularly as long as we are dealing with COVID-19 precautions.
The idea is that each SIG will be a community within our club, with a shared interest in specific kinds of photography including various subjects or genres of photography. Any member can join one or more SIGs. Our SIG communities will provide organized ways for members to connect with each other. Initially, we will focus on connecting SIGs in social-distancing appropriate meetings but eventually, we will use all possible opportunities to connect our members.
Below is a link to a short survey to gauge your interest in SIGs. Your answers are needed, whether you are a new member or a long-time member. Please take a minute or two to respond. We must request your name and email address, so we can contact you regarding your interest in SIGs.
If you have problems with the survey or questions about SIGS, please contact Sally Nelson, Co-Chair Membership Committee at scox010@centurylink.net. Thank you!
Dues for 2020-21
There is a link to renew your membership on the homepage of our website. The due date for dues was September 1. Any member who has not renewed their membership, will lose access to SCC members-only website. After November, nonpaying members will lose access to our GoToWebinar and other club meetings. We hope that you value the work that the club does for you. When the COVID-19 situation permits, the club will return to face-to-face meetings. But in the meantime, we have a great set of speakers including JR Schnelzer, Karen Hutton, Lauri Novak, Sean Bagshaw, Adam Schallau, and Dawn Kish. Please take a moment to renew your membership as soon as possible.
Sedona Photography Symposium
As you should already know, our Sedona Photography Symposium has been postponed until 2021. This decision was not made lightly, as the symposium is one of our most significant educational activities. Unfortunately, the interactions that make the symposium so successful are the very activities that are prohibited under the COVID-19 pandemic. As an attendee last year, I am certainly looking forward to next year. If you are at all interested in the symposium, please consider signing up as soon as possible. In the coming months, we may have to increase the prices to recover our costs of extending the symposium date. Signing up now could save you some money. Please see the Sedona Photography Symposium website (https://sedonaphotosym.org) to register or for more information.
