Retzer Nature Center
Camera Club
August 2014 Newsletter
August Meeting – Wednesday August 6, 2014, 7:00 PM
Program: PSA Wisconsin Club Showcase Image – Each year PSA member clubs from Wisconsin participate in this friendly competition for bragging rights. Our club has consistently finished in the top five (of thirteen clubs). Last year we finished 2nd – see additional information below. At our August meeting we will select seven images from club members to compete in this year’s competition. Every member should submit one image to be considered for selection. Images may be of any subject - it is not limited to nature. Please email your image to Rick Vollbrecht at RVollb@wi.rr.com no later than August 5th. Pick your best image – we are shooting for first place this year. We will review the images at the meeting and select the best seven to represent our club. After the images are selected we will spend the remainder of the meeting critiquing member images, using the competition photos as a starting point.
Member Image Sharing:
Members are encouraged to submit several (up to five) images to share with the club for gentle critique. This is a great way to get suggestions for improving your images and developing your photographic skills. We would like to encourage members to submit images for sharing in advance by email to Rick Vollbrecht at Rvollb@wi.rr.com. This will help to streamline the process of viewing member images. We look forward to seeing your images. In order to give everyone a chance to share their images during the year, we will select several individuals who will be featured at each meeting. Other individuals may also provide images which will be shared as time permits
The following members will be featured this month:
Richard Knisbeck, John Lammers, Michelle Lee, Kathy Lilligren, Peter Lilligren
In addition, members who participated in our July 22nd Wildflower Outing at Retzer should submit five images from the outing. We would like to show the club some of the images we shot that day.
2014 Club Programs:
Our 2014 programs are listed below.
September 3, 2014 – Composition – What makes a great image? What can I do to improve my images? Gerry Emmerich, a well know Wisconsin photographer, will discuss the elements of composition that can help create those wonderful images.
October 1, 2014 – Internet Resources for Photographers – Tom Wright will discuss how to find the most helpful photographic resources on the internet and how to get them to feed automatically to your computer.
November 5, 2014 – Presenting your Images Part II – Rick Vollbrecht will demonstrate how to cut mats and frame your photos. There will also be a presentation on creating canvas prints.
December 3, 2014 – Holiday Party! – We will wrap up the year with a gathering including your spouse or guest. We will view the results of our scavenger hunt. A program will show our guests some of our best images from the year. More details will follow as we get closer to the end of the year.
Field Trips:
Photo field trips are a great way for us to share our common enjoyment of photography, learn some new techniques and share in camaraderie while getting to know our fellow club members. Frank Remfrey has agreed to again coordinate some field trips for the club.
The following field trips are being planned with specific dates and details to be announced later:
August 9th, 9:00 AM – Frame Park Gardens – Frank Remfrey will coordinate.
August – Downtown Milwaukee at night including the rooftop garden at the MSOE Museum, downtown building details and the Milwaukee skyline from Lakeshore State Park (Summerfest Island). Rick Vollbrecht will coordinate.
Summer – Chicago including Millennium Park (The “Bean”) and Navy Pier. Rick Vollbrecht will coordinate.
Summer – Chicago Botanical Park – Elizabeth Whitcomb will coordinate.
We could use some volunteers to coordinate future trips. If you are interested please let Frank know. If you have some additional ideas of where you would like to see us go, please let Frank know (FRemfrey@wi.rr.com). Better yet, why not offer to coordinate a field trip. It's not hard - find a place you would like to go, pick a date and we can announce it to the club.
PSA Wisconsin 2013 Showcase Results:
The results of the PSA Wisconsin 2013 Showcase are in and once again our club has done extremely well. We placed 2nd among the thirteen competing clubs! Well done club!! The images were judged by all participating clubs. Judging was done on a scale of 1-5, 5 being best. Here are the scores for our club members:
Name Title Average Score
Tom Wright Airmeal 4.086 - 2nd best overall
John Hasse Wood Duck 3.802 - 9th best overall
Jim Edlhuber Dinner Time 3.619 -17th best overall
Rick Vollbrecht Nautilus Shell 3.394
Carol Seals What’s Up Doc 3.230
Kevin Thomas Old Woman Chopping Wood 3.182
Elizabeth Whitcomb Old Truck 2.980
Congratulations to all of our participants.
PSA - Nature Division Competition:
PSA offers member clubs a variety of opportunities to compete with other PSA member clubs around the country and the world. Our club has decided to participate in the PSA – Nature Division. What this involves is submitting six images, three times a year. Images are submitted in October, January and April. Images from approximately 60 clubs will be judged and results returned to the clubs, with regular club standings being reports so we can see how we compare. Elizabeth Whitcomb has agreed to coordinate this for us. We would like to have a small group (3-4) of members who will review the images and select our submissions. Please consider helping the club in this endeavor. You will only need to meet three times a year for a brief time. Let Elizabeth or me know if you can help. Also, start looking at your Nature images and select one to submit for the October entry. This is a big step for our club to begin competing at a new level. We have a great group of photographers so this should be fun for everyone.
Scavenger Hunt:
Following on the success of last year’s scavenger hunt, we are announcing the 2014 scavenger hunt topics. Photo scavenger hunts are a fun and challenging way to get your imagination and creative juices flowing! The rules are simple:
1. Capture one image of each topic.
2. Be creative - think of a unique way to express the topic.
3. Images should be taken between now and December 1st. We will review them at our December meeting
4. Have fun.
Thanks to Elizabeth Whitcomb for coming up with the following topics:
1. On the waterfront
2. Repetition
3. Unique
4. Celebrate
5. Time
6. Reckless
7. LOCAL (day trip) landscape
8. Challenges
9. Framed
10. Next to something
Start shooting and be creative!
Future Events of Interest:
September 27th – October 3rd, 2014 – PSA 76th Annual Conference of Photography
The annual conference in Albuquerque NM provides a full schedule of programs, photo tours and workshops. It is also the week before the annual Albuquerque Balloon Festival, so why not extend your trip! For more details, go to the PSA web site: www.PSA-photo.org
Photo Contests and Exhibits:
Shalom Wildlife Zoo Photo Contest – Deadline August 3rd, 2014
Sponsored by the Shalom Wildlife Zoo in West Bend. The contest is for photos taken at the Shalom Wildlife Zoo during the months of May, June and July 2014. For more information go to the Special Events section at: www.Shalomwildlife.com
WACCO 3rd Annual Exhibit – Deadline August 31st, 2014
WACCO exhibits 75-90 images in the Reuss Federal Building in downtown Milwaukee. Images will be on display October 4th – December 6th, 2014. See the attached PDF for additional information on submission. This is a great opportunity to see your images on display with other wonderful photographs from area photographers.
Monona Terrace Photography Contest – Deadline September 1st, 2014
Sponsored by the Monona Terrace in Madison. The contest includes photos taken on the grounds of the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison. Please see the attached information flyer.
Old World Wisconsin Photo Contest – Deadline October 17th, 2014
This contest is for photos taken on the grounds of Old World Wisconsin between August 31, 2013 and October 12, 2014. Categories include Pioneer Life, People, Agriculture, Nature and Historic Structures. For more information go to: www.friendsoww.org/photo_contest.
If you are aware of other photo contests, please forward the information to Rick Vollbrecht at Rvollb@wi.rr.com
Photo Ops:
As a club, our members have a wide variety of subjects that we enjoy photographing. This newsletter can serve as an excellent way to share various photo opportunities with club members. If you know of interesting subjects or events that may interest other club members, please forward those to Rick Vollbrecht so they can be included in future newsletters. If you are interested in having others join you, that information can also be included. It is fun to shoot with a group.
Photography Classes:
A variety of non-credit, reasonably priced classes on photography and Photoshop are available at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) and UW Waukesha. Check their web sites for more information.
WCTC: www.wctc.edu
UW Waukesha: www.waukesha.uwc.edu
Art’s Cameras Plus has an extensive list of classes covering everything from camera basics to photographing in a variety of situations and use of Photoshop Elements. Check out their web site: www.Artscameras.com . If you are aware of other photography classes or seminars, please forward the information to Rick Vollbrecht
Websites of Interest:
Retzer Camera Club blog: www.RetzerCameraClub.blogspot.com
WACCO (Wisconsin Area Camera Clubs Organization): www.wicameraclubs.org
PSA (Photographic Association of America): www.PSA-photo.org PSA Wisconsin: www.PSA.wisconsin.org
Friends of Retzer Nature Center: www.FriendsofRetzer.org
Jim Edlhuber’s blog: http://www.windowtowildlife.com/
