Need Ideas for Your Valentine? Come to the Feb. Meeting!

Retzer Nature Center

Camera Club

February 2016 Newsletter

February Meeting – Wednesday, February 3, 2016, 7:00 PM 

Every year brings new cameras, lenses and other photo equipment.  For our February meeting a representative from Art’s Camera Plus will bring us up to date of what’s new in photography.  Join us for this opportunity to see what is happening in the photographic world.

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: John Marrari, Terry Molter, Edna Pfeiffer, Frank Remfrey, and John Seals

Please email your images to Rick Vollbrecht    ( Rvollb@wi.rr.com ) by Tuesday, February 3rd. This will help to streamline the process of viewing member images. We look forward to seeing your images.

Club Organization:

Our club has experienced a steady growth in membership over the years.  We have now reached the point where it is necessary to have a more organized structure so that we can continue to grow and provide quality meetings, programs and other photo opportunity to our members.  Last year we asked for members who would volunteer to fill the positions of club officers and serve as a board to direct our club.  Members have stepped forward to fill the club officer positions as follows:

            President                      Rick Vollbrecht

            Vice President              Tom Wright

            Treasurer                     Jim Edlhuber

            Program Chair              Elizabeth Whitcomb

            Outings Chair              Randy Scherkenbach

At our February meeting we will introduce these officers, explain their duties, and discuss some other changes we will be implementing.  This is an exciting time for our club.  Please join us at the February meeting to hear more it.

           

2016 Club Programs:

Our Program Chairperson, Elizabeth Whitcomb, met recently with a number of members to review program topic suggestions.  A tentative program schedule has been developed and will be announced as soon as some dates and speakers are confirmed.  Thanks to the members who offered suggestions and to the members who met and helped develop our programs for 2016.  If you have any topics you would like to see presented at future meetings, please let Elizabeth know.

Our 2016 programs and meeting dates are listed below: 

           

February 3, 2016

March 2, 2016

April 6, 2016

May 4, 2016

June 1, 2016

July 6, 2016

August 3, 2016

September 7, 2016

October 5, 2016

November 2, 2016

December 7, 2016

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, is working on some outings for this year.  Sure to return are our popular wildflower shoot at Retzer and the downtown Milwaukee at night shoot.  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.

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:

  

Creating Art with Macro Seminar and Workshop with Mike Moat – March 5, 2016   Sponsored by WACCO, this event brings Mike Moats, a well known macro photographer, for an all day event.  The seminar is scheduled for 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM.  The hands on workshop will run from 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM.  The event will be at the Midway Hotel and Suites in Brookfield.  For more information, go to www.wicameraclubs.org 

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:

5^th Annual WACCO Exhibit – January 16 – March 12, 2016 at the Reuss Federal Building in Milwaukee.  This exhibit features photos from members of camera clubs in the Milwaukee area, including several of our members.

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/