,Hello Everyone,
“Life is like Photography. You need the negatives to develop.” Ziad K. Abdelnour
“photography is an itch that won’t go away. No matter how much you scratch it.” T.A
“ Whosoever possesses a camera should never know boredom.” Wayne Gerard Trotman
I trust you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. What a year this has been. I’m sure we are all ready for a change and hopefully that will be coming in 2021. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in person again and getting away from zoom. Meeting via zoom has had its challenges, however I believe it went better than could have been expected. This is, of course, due to the hard work of our resident technology guru Steve Muench and his sidekick in this endeavor, Bill Stacy. We owe them a great deal of gratitude.
Unfortunately, this year we also lost two of our members, Jim Radford and Rick White. My thoughts go out to their families and I have missed their participation in the club. They each brought something unique to our organization. With Rick’s passing we had to adapt quickly in order to keep up with the responsibilities of the Competition Chair. Fortunately, we had a group of members who stepped up to the plate to fill in and help streamline our competitions and end of year events. Their work will enable us to quickly adapt if someone leaves the club for any reason.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly missed being able to head out with other members on various field trips. We really missed out on so much during the year. Thanks to our Field Trip Committee we did have the opportunity to do some innovative photography in our homes and yards. Thanks to Trisha, Joel and Elizabeth for keeping us busy during this stay at home period. We were also fortunate to have many great programs put on by our Master Candidates. If you didn’t learn anything from them, you weren’t paying attention. We have a very talented group of potential Masters.
We began a Portfolio competition for the first time, and if you were at our last meeting you got to see the wonderful, creative and substantial work a small group of our members put into this competition. I wish them well at the N4C level. This year we will be doing our first Zoom exhibition. Not exactly as good as being able to display our work at a local venue, but hopefully we will reach out to a wide audience and perhaps even make some money for the club. I am looking forward to seeing all the amazing work our club members have submitted.
With the new year we will have new leadership, Joel Brown will be taking the helm as President and I am thrilled he has accepted the position. Also, a big thanks to Elizabeth Springs who will be our new secretary. I am looking forward to working with Joel and the other members of the Board and the various committees. The club does not run itself; this year was a stark reminder of that.
I hope to see you at our zoom exhibition on December 10th. Please stay healthy and safe.
Mike
“Taking a picture is like giving a piece of your soul away. You allow other people to see the world through your eyes.” Katja Michael
“Regarding the creative: never assume you’re the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you’re masterful.” Don Roff