Category: Resources

As we are all trying to keep a safe social distance of 6 feet or more this agenda is something you can get “up close and personal” with. We had an excellent meeting planned with a full agenda and a wonderful speaker. I received many more Shares and Steven Hansen did four “Behind the Lens” for our Learn section. On a personal level, I’m in Utah with the family that is keeping me away from any casual shopping, just need to brace for that flight back home.

As we normally open our meetings with a prayer I’d like to ask that we all pray for those who are affected with this virus, for the gift of patience for those on self-isolation and particularly for our members who are currently suffering from an acute illness. I’d ask we be gifted with the strength to endure and the ability to see and share the beauty of the world through our cameras. I ask this in His Name, Amen

Our treasurer, Jim Evrard prepared several financial slides for our Annual Financial Report. The club is financial in good health. Last year we added the ability to pay online and ended the year with 87 members, 32 of which used PayPal. This year membership is tracking similar to last year with 66 members. Our 2020 budget estimated income of $1,475 with estimated expenses of $1,585. This will result in a projected loss of $110. Cash balance as of 3/10/2020 $3,877.

Activities chair Anne Mullins is backing away from organizing any additional day trips for now. The club did have several trips before Covid-19 and Bill Beard created an excellent video that you can see here:

Chuck has begun his Sunrise Sunset photo walks at East End Park. He has been posting on Facebook with reminders. Our SIGS are also going online. Chuck has added a video of the first Post Processing SIG, organizing Lightroom. Portrait SIG will also have some online information we are just not as organized or as fast as Chuck.

Stuck at home should be an excellent time to organize your camera equipment. We’ll be optimistic that we’ll have the May Program Camera Sell Swap or Giveaway so look for a sign-up sheet in April.

Kathy Adams Clark has given us several programs in the past and we are confident that she will be available for another meeting in the future.

The Learn slides from Steve Hansen are an insightful look at his thoughts and equipment for his shots. Steve has shared some of his performance photos in past months and these new photos are excellent. As he states in his Learn ” I love taking shots of individual band members while they are in the midst of a performance, especially those that are facially expressive”.  Impressive.

The Share assignment was “Framing” and you’ll find many great examples of ways to frame a photo that might be an inspiration for your next photo walk. You might be wondering where I am getting these assignments topics. In November 2018 Ken Fredrick gave a presentation and in it, he listed several “Composition Guidelines”. Rather than pick a subject, I thought concentrating on one of these guidelines would be more helpful in learning our craft. Your April assignment is “Leading Lines”. I’ll follow up with a separate News Post with helpful links for you.

Finally, I want to wish you all a Happy St. Pats day! Keep safe, wash your hands well, practice save social distance and remember your friends at the club. Reach out if you need something or just want to chat. We will endure and the saying goes “May you live in interesting times”!

Be well my friends, until we meet again! Kathy

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February is a new beginning for the club as we had our first meeting in the Fellowship Hall of the church. I had several members come up to me and voice their approval of the new room location. It is larger, lighter, a very large screen and an excellent projector. Hospitality liked the kitchen location off to the side and we had tables to sit at. Jim Schepens has reserved the room for us for all the months that are available so hoping we’ll see many more meetings here.

I mentioned the wonderful photos that were shared this month and it made choosing the header extremely difficult. Featured members this month are Connie and David Emerson with their owl photos, Chuck Dugand from the Humble Rodeo, Jim Tellijohann’s running cheetah taken in South Africa, Scott Meyer’s “Morning Flyaway” and finally two new members, John O’Brien and Ron Tribolet. Check out the post with our Gallery to see all the photos.

Last year I began a “Learn” section of our Share and Learn. This month I approached Chuck Dugand for his experiences with the Humble Rodeo. He has fast action in the ring and slow moments around the ring. Beautiful work as always from Chuck and it is a part of this agenda so take a look. The purpose of the “Behind the Lens” is to give other photographers a sense of what it took to get the shot or shots. From equipment to time of day to post-processing. It’s all there in a summarized form for you. I’m always looking for volunteers for a “Behind the Lens” so let me know if you’d like to feature one of your photos.

You’ll find a summary of all the club happenings in the agenda so if you could not make the meeting or want to refresh your memory take a look at it. The next library Workshop on March 7th is “Know your Camera, Photography Basics”, a new Pop-up Workshop on March 4th, “Building Websites” and we have two Special Interest Groups (SIG) workshops for”Portrait Photography” and “Post-Processing”.

For club activities too come, we have a day trip to Houston on February 27th “Houston Skyline Night Shoot” and an overnight trip to Fredericksburg from March 31 to April 2. If interested in Fredericksburg Jim Schepens suggested you get your hotel reservations done as soon as possible. More information is available for all these events on our website for members only. Ellen Taylor had a comment for all members that the activities are a great way to gain experience with your camera and on these trips, she has always found a more advanced photographer that will help. I encouraged members to join, reach out and meet a few people and enjoy time with other photographers.

Last months club activities saw our members taking photos at the Humble Rodeo. Margaret Molloy spoke very highly of the Rodeo Art Contest and as a teacher, she was in her element. There is a possibility that either she or another member could do additional photography in the future. Jim Evrard photographed the Humble Vocal Contest and he was amazed at the young talent that is in our area. Last year after viewing Steve Hansen’s rodeo photos I talked to him and asked if he could get our club involved, which he successfully did. So thank you, Steve, it was well worth the effort of all the members who participated.

Connie Emerson arranged our speaker, Michael Marvins and we viewed some exceptional examples of his photography from Central and West Texas. After the meeting, Pam Walton asked him about conducting a workshop and Mike was very open to working with the club sometime in the fall. Hopefully, more information to come. I’ll write a separate post about Mike’s presentation along with his Powerpoints.

A big thank you to our Membership team, Pam Walton and Theresa Crutchfield for the great job they are doing. On Tuesday they collected dues from an additional 10 members. If current members have not renewed by the end of March they will be taken off our member list for 2020 so please pay your dues by then.

Also, the refreshments provided by Ron Fovargue, Anne Mullins and David Emerson were greatly appreciated along with the Hospitality team of Maggie Halleck and Arlane Sponaugle. The Hospitality sign-up sheet still has many open months so please consider signing up next month as you treat yourself to a snack or drink.

Finally, I brought my big girl camera (as opposed to the big boy camera) to get some photos of our meeting. We really did have an excellent time. Look for my post on next month’s assignment “Framing”! Keep your camera at the ready!

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“Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”
— Imogen Cunningham

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I’ve uploaded the meeting agenda as a reference to our club events calendar and to give absent members a review of our club’s activities.

We are quickly coming to the end of the year. At our next meeting on November 19, the club will elect two new board members. Current nominations for our Board of Directors:

Anne Mullins – Our Activities Coordinator and currently serving on the board

Pam Walton – Our Membership Coordinator

The nominations are open to any club member. If you would like to run for the board please contact me at president@kwphotoclub.com to add your name to the ballot.

I’d like to also thank Connie Emerson who is leaving the board for all her years of service for the club. Connie has worn several hats over the years as Membership Coordinator and Program Coordinator. As Program Coordinator, she has provided us with month after month of outstanding programs. She and David will continue as members but taking a back seat and letting others get involved with our club. Thanks to Connie and David for adding your talents and time to make our club what it is today.

Our final workshop for 2019 is scheduled for November 9th. This is an open panel discussion on photographic equipment. Chuck calls this “The Photographers Wishlist”. Chuck will moderate with the remaining panel to talk about the specific photographic equipment and apps they use for different types of photography. This will include portraits, macro, wildlife, landscape. It should be an interesting discussion and we hope participants will get ideas for that special Christmas gift or stocking stuffer to make any photographer jump for joy.

A few more activities for 2019. November 2 a revisit to Glenwood Cemetery and Houston Murals. The first visit was during the heat of summer and humidity. Sunrise will be at 7:30 so we are hoping to get to Houston by 7 AM to catch the sunrise over Houston. Afterward, we’ll find a few more murals to photograph and possibly the Astro’s murals that are currently being created. If interested please sign up under events/activities > field trips.

December we will have our 3rd Annual Santa Shoot! This has been well received by our community and is great fun to participate in. Chuck is waiting to hear what date and will be sending out information soon. Finally, with 2020 just around the corner, Anne Mullins will be holding a 2020 Activities Planning meeting. If you would like to join her group, have a great idea for a field trip, please contact her at events@kwphotoclub.com.

The next meeting is on November 19th! One of our own, Chris Summers, will be presenting “Food Photography”. Share and Learn assignment “What is in your Backyard”! More on that in the next post. Our holiday social will be held on December 17. As in the past, the club will provide the meat and members attending bring the extras (salad, rolls, drinks, side dishes, desserts). And, for your entertainment, we will have a video of select share and learn photos and events and activities. It should be fun and hope you can arrange to come and possibly have a photo taken.

A final thanks to all our members who helped with this month’s meeting. Refreshments by Dale Barrack, Bill Staney, David Emerson and Margaret Malloy. And thanks to our door greeter Mike Dunderdale.

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The August meeting was very well attended, the signup sheet had over 45 names on it which was awesome. I do think our speaker, Ruth Hoyt, attracted several members, new and old and a few guests. Excellent talk and her PowerPoint slide show will be uploaded to our Members Only Resource section for your review.

Door Greeters needed! We have one member, Mike Dunderdale, who has volunteered to be a Door Greeter, however as he cannot come to every meeting we need a few more volunteers. Please e-mail me to add your name as a Door Greeter. Due to church policy, the door cannot be unlocked at any time. So a member must be on hand to open the door. This is also why you need to arrive between 6PM and 6:30PM. Once the meeting starts there is no one manning the door to let you in.

Our “Behind the Lens” presentation this month was presented by Emily Murphy. She presented “Miracle in a Tiny World”.

Check out the slides in the attached agenda to read about her settings and click on her video below to see the transformation from a tiny egg to an emerging butterfly.

Would you like to do a “Behind the Lens” presentation at the September meeting? If so e-mail me at president@kwphotoclub.com and I will send you the form.

The agenda is a summary of events, past, and future, that our members have enjoyed and opportunities for learning or socialization in the future. Use the agenda along with the calendar for signups and to make notes on your calendars so you don’t miss out on any field trips or presentations. We are a growing club with many new members so come early to a meeting, socialize and think about what you can do to help make our club even better. Thanks for everyones support and help!

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I was flying to NY on our meeting night so Jim Schepens, vice president conducted it. The attached agenda is a supplement to our web page giving you a summary of our events and workshops since the last meeting and those coming up. So use it as a review of the meeting and to find out what is going on if you could not be there

Some slides that might interest you:

Online payment of membership dues has been very well received. Jim Evrard will give a quarterly treasurers report next month so stats and figures will be discussed then.

A Directory of our members has been mentioned by several people. What do you think? I hope to put together a survey by our June meeting and to post it on the web site to facilitate your responses and questions.

Finally, as mentioned in a previous News post I am changing our Share and Learn to a Learn and Share. This will give you an opportunity to share your work with a “Behind the Lens” summary and more time on the floor of the meeting to talk about it and answer questions. This is strictly voluntary so no pressure but I have hopes that some of our more experienced members would participate at least once. Experience level is not a criteria so anyone can participate. Check out the “Learn” slide from Chuck Dugand.

Next months program by Paul Gregg, “Guadalupe Mountains National Park — A Visit and a Vision” and your Learn and Share for June 18 – “Sunset to Sunrise and Everything in Between”. Hope to see you in June and until then something to think on:

“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”
— Ralph Hattersley

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