Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Holiday Party: January 4th




Retzer Nature Center
Camera Club
January 2017 Newsletter

January Meeting – Wednesday, January 4th, 2017, 7:00 PM

Annual Holiday Party – Please read carefully!

Our January meeting will be our annual Holiday Party. Your spouse / guest is invited and encouraged to attend.  This will be an opportunity for them to see what we do at our meetings and to meet other club members.  Make sure to extend an invitation to your spouse / guest so they can get the date on their calendar.

We will be sharing our Scavenger Hunt images.  Now is the time to get any of those last minute shots you need to complete the scavenger hunt list.  Please email your ten images as jpeg attachments to Rick Vollbrecht as soon as possible (Rvollb@wi.rr.com).  It would be helpful if you would rename the images to correspond to the category – i.e. 01-Music, 02-Happiness, etc.  We are looking forward to seeing your creativity!  For further information on the Scavenger Hunt, please see the next section of the Newsletter.

As in past years we will also be sharing your “Best of 2016” images.  This is a great way to show our guests and fellow club members some of the interesting images you captured this year.  Please email  five of your best images taken in 2016 to Rick Vollbrecht. 

We would also like to have some light refreshments to share at the party.  If you can provide something, please let me know by email what you will provide.  Please keep it simple.

Photo Scavenger Hunt:

Our Photo Scavenger Hunt has become a popular annual event which we will be doing again this year.  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 in 2016. 
The topics for our 2016 Scavenger Hunt are:
  1. Music
  2. Happiness
  3. Flavor
  4. Wind
  5. America
  6. Backlit
  7. Geometric
  8. Contrast
  9. Sparkle
  10. Texture




2017 Club Programs:

Our 2017 programs and meeting dates are listed below.  We are still working to firm up some of the speakers, so the schedule is subject to change.
           
February 1, 2017 – Judging PSA Wisconsin Club Showcase.
March 1, 2017 – Image editing - correction and enhancement presented by Tom Wright.  Members will receive images in advance and given an opportunity to show how they would improve them.
April 5, 2017 – Landscape Photography
May 3, 2017 – Marketing Photographs
June 7, 2017 – Architecture Photography (inside and outside)
July 5, 2017 – What makes a good image?  How to evaluate and judge photographs.
August 2, 2017 – Selection of images for PSA Wisconsin Showcase.
September 6, 2017 – Street Photography
October 4, 2017 – Daytime long exposure photography
November 1, 2017 – Portrait Photography
December 6, 2017 – Annual Holiday Party

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.  Our Outings Chairperson, Randy Scherkenbach, will be organizing more outing for 2017.  If you have some ideas of where you would like to see us go, please let Randy know.  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.



Future Events of Interest:
 
If you are aware of any events of general interest, please let us know so we can share them with the club.


Photo Contests and Exhibits:

If you are aware of any 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/ 

Club Organization:

Annual dues will be due starting the first of the year.
Club dues for the 2016 club year are:
            Individual - $15.00
            Couple / Family - $25.00
            Student (16-25) - $10.00
Please see our Treasurer, Jim Edlhuber, to pay your dues.


Our club officers are:
            President                      Rick Vollbrecht
            Vice President              Tom Wright
            Treasurer                     Jim Edlhuber
            Program Chair              Elizabeth Whitcomb
            Outings Chair              Randy Scherkenbach

Members should feel free to contact the officers with any questions and suggestions they may have for the club.


Saturday, November 26, 2016

December Newsletter


Greetings to all Retzer Nature Center Camera Club Members:

Attached is the December Newsletter.  The Newsletter is coming to you a little earlier this month, so don’t get confused – we don’t meet until December 7th.

Please note that we will be judging the Wisconsin Print Circuit.  Please bring a pen / pencil to the meeting.

Photo sharing this month will look at your images from our tabletop workshop at the November meeting.  If you have some images you would like to share (up to five) send them to me by Tuesday< December 6th.

Looking ahead, our January 4th meeting will be our annual Holiday Party.  Spouses and guest are invited and encouraged to attend, so make sure your spouse / guest is aware and gets it on their calandar.  At the party we will share our Scavenger Hunt images, so start getting yours ready.  We will also show our guest our best images from 2016.  Begin to pick out your five best images from 2016.  I will soon be sending an “official” request for these images, but I wanted to give you a little more time to get your images selected.


Rick


Retzer Nature Center Camera Club December 2016 Newsletter
December Meeting Wednesday, December 7th, 2016, 7:00 PM
Part of our December meeting will be dedicated to judging the Wisconsin Print Circuit images. There will be over 150 print to review, representing photographers from around the state of Wisconsin.
The second part of the meeting will be a program on shooting fireworks by Linnea Matthiesen. You will learn some tips and techniques for getting high quality fireworks images. While you may think of summer when you hear fireworks, there are opportunities in winter. There will be fireworks during the Waukesha JanBoree on the weekend of January 20-22. Don
t let a little cold weather stop you from trying out your new fireworks shooting skills.
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. This month we are asking members to submit images that were taken at our November meeting featuring various tabletop set-ups. If you have some tabletop images to share, please send them in.
Please email your images to Rick Vollbrecht (Rvollb@wi.rr.com) by Tuesday, December 6th. This will help to streamline the process of viewing member images. We look forward to seeing your images.
2017 Club Programs:
Our 2017 programs and meeting dates are listed below. We are still working to firm up some of the speakers, so the schedule is subject to change.
January 4, 2017 Holiday Party with spouses invited. Review of Scavenger Hunt images. Member “Best of 2016” show.
February 1, 2017 Judging PSA Wisconsin Club Showcase.
March 1, 2017 Image editing - correction and enhancement presented by Tom Wright. Members will receive images in advance and given an opportunity to show how they would improve them. April 5, 2017 Landscape Photography
May 3, 2017 Marketing Photographs
June 7, 2017 Architecture Photography (inside and outside)
July 5, 2017 What makes a good image? How to evaluate and judge photographs. August 2, 2017 Selection of images for PSA Wisconsin Showcase.
September 6, 2017 Street Photography
October 4, 2017 Daytime long exposure photography
November 1, 2017 Portrait Photography
December 6, 2017 Annual Holiday Party 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

November Meeting Agenda Tops the Tables


Retzer Nature Center Camera Club November 2016 Newsletter
November Meeting Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016, 7:00 PM
This month we give you an opportunity to practice shooting some tabletop set-ups. We will have multiple tables set up with different objects to challenge your creativity. Among the set-ups we will include shooting through glass with water drops, flowers, soda bubbles on fruit, foreign currency & coins, model cars, and others. Or, bring your own objects to shoot. There will be plenty of opportunities to be creative! Bring your cameras and tripods for a fun evening. A cable release or remote trigger will also be helpful to avoid camera shake.
Member Image Sharing:
Because the program this month will take up most of our meeting time, we will not have any image
sharing. Save your images for next month.
2016 Club Programs:
Our 2016-17 programs and meeting dates are listed below. We have started to add some 2017 programs to the schedule. More will be added as we firm up the speakers.
December 7, 2016 Wisconsin Print Circuit judging. How to shoot fireworks.
January 4, 2017 Holiday Party with spouses invited. Review of Scavenger Hunt images. Member “Best of 2016” show.
February 1, 2017 Judging PSA Wisconsin Club Showcase.
March 1, 2017 Image editing - correction and enhancement presented by Tom Wright. Members will receive images in advance and given an opportunity to show how they would improve them. April 5, 2017 Landscape Photography
May 3, 2017 Marketing Photographs
June 7, 2017 Architecture Photography (inside and outside)
July 5, 2017
August 2, 2017
September 6, 2017
October 4, 2017
November 1, 2017
December 6, 2017 -
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. Our Outings Chairperson, Randy Scherkenbach, has scheduled a number of outings for this year. Please consider attending as many outings as possible. The more people attending, the more fun and the more you will learn! If you have some ideas of where you would like to see us go, please let Randy know. 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.
We currently have no outings schedule 

Sunday, September 25, 2016

October Meeting: Selection of Club Entries for Annual Competition


Retzer Nature Center
Camera Club
October 2016 Newsletter

October Meeting  Wednesday, October 5th, 2016, 7:00 PM  

At this month’s meeting we will be selecting images to represent our club in the annual Wisconsin PSA Club Showcase. This is an annual competition between seventeen clubs in Wisconsin.  Each club submits seven images which are then judged by all participating clubs to determine the winning clubs and top individual images.  We will be selecting seven images to represent our club.  Note: We had originally scheduled to do this at our August meeting but needed to postpone it due to problems with our meeting room.  All interested members have already submitted their images so there is no need for you to submit any images at this time.  

Following the selection of our club’s seven images, we will spend some time using the member images to discuss what makes a good image.  Look forward to a night of viewing some of our member’s best images.

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. 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: Pam Gruettner, John Hasse, Rick Heinze, Kurt Heubner

Please email your images to Rick Vollbrecht (Rvollb@wi.rr.com) by Tuesday, October 4th. This will help to streamline the process of viewing member images. We look forward to seeing your images.

2016 Club Programs:

Our 2016-17 programs and meeting dates are listed below.  We have started to add some 2017 programs to the schedule.  More will be added as we firm up the speakers.  
 
November 2, 2016 – Table-top hands on shooting opportunity
December 7, 2016 – Wisconsin Print Circuit judging.  How to shoot fireworks.
January 4, 2017 – Holiday Party with spouses invited.  Review of Scavenger Hunt images.  Member “Best of 2016” show.
February 1, 2017 – Judging PSA Wisconsin Club Showcase.
March 1, 2017 – Image editing - correction and enhancement presented by Tom Wright.  Members will receive images in advance and given an opportunity to show how they would improve them.
April 5, 2017 – Landscape Photography
May 3, 2017 – Marketing Photographs
June 7, 2017 – Architecture Photography (inside and outside)
July 5, 2017 – 
August 2, 2017 – 
September 6, 2017 – 
October 4, 2017 – 
November 1, 2017 – 
December 6, 2017 - 

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.  Our Outings Chairperson, Randy Scherkenbach, has scheduled a number of outings for this year.  Please consider attending as many outings as possible.  The more people attending, the more fun and the more you will learn!  If you have some ideas of where you would like to see us go, please let Randy know.  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.

We have the following outing scheduled for the remainder of the year:

October 15-16 - Open House Chicago
Photographing Retzer Nature Center:

Caryl Sedushak has organized a group of club members who meet periodically to shoot at Retzer.  In addition to getting some great images, we will be putting up a display of some of the images as well as providing them to Retzer to use in their educational programs.  If you are interested in joining the group, please see Caryl, or call her at 262-349-4592.


Photo Scavenger Hunt:

Our Photo Scavenger Hunt has become a popular annual event which we will be doing again this year.  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 Jill Arth for providing us with these topics for our 2016 Scavenger Hunt:
1. Music
2. Happiness
3. Flavor
4. Wind
5. America
6. Backlit
7. Geometric
8. Contrast
9. Sparkle
10. Texture

Future Events of Interest:

If you are aware of any events of general interest, please let us know so we can share them with the club.







Photo Contests and Exhibits:

Wisconsin Print Circuit:  Deadline: October 5th.  This is an individual competition.  If you are a member of more than one club, you may only enter through one club.  Of course, we hope you do it through Retzer!  Prints should be given to Elizabeth Whitcomb by October 5th.  For more information please go to www.wicameraclubs.org/wisconsin-print-circuit/.   

Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office – Deadline: October 7th.  The contest is looking for photos of historic Wisconsin places including buildings, barns, historic sites, mounds, parks, etc.  For more information go to www.wisconsinhistory.org/photocontest  

WACCO Fall Competition – Deadline: October 15th.   This a competition for individual members.  There are several categories in both digital and prints.  Many of our members enter this competition on a regular basis.  If you have not entered before, please give it a try!  For more information on the categories, registration and uploading instructions, go to www.wicameraclubs.org/competition-2/  .   

Friends of Retzer Annual Photo Contest:  Deadline: November 2nd .  This contest has several categories including People, Activities & Events, Plants, Flowers & Trees, Scenery and Wildlife Outdoors.  All images must be taken at Retzer.  Our club has always supported this contest and many of our members have placed well.  Please give strong consideration to entering your images in this contest.

If you are aware of any 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/  



Club Organization:

Our club officers are:
PresidentRick Vollbrecht
Vice PresidentTom Wright
TreasurerJim Edlhuber
Program ChairElizabeth Whitcomb
Outings ChairRandy Scherkenbach

Members should feel free to contact the officers with any questions and suggestions they may have for the club.