In Focus: September 2023
Lewis Bennett — Alaska Pond
This e-newsletter contains OPCC events, reminders, and news and will be published on the first Sunday of each month. Please send contributions to the newsletter to both opcc4news@gmail.com and allanb38@gmail.com. Contributions are due at noon on the Friday before publication, but if time permits, late contributions may be accomodated.
The operation of The Olympic Peaks Camera Club is totally reliant upon volunteers. Due to recent resignations, many of our current volunteers are performing multiple duties and are overworked. In order for us to continue to provide the services and events you have come to expect, WE NEED YOUR HELP. Any sort of assistance is most welcome.
Our most pressing current need is finding people to help with field trips. To help support field trips and planning, we need more volunteers and a permanent Field Trip Chair. Please consider helping us. To find out our most pressing current needs and to volunteer to help, check out the Volunteer Page on our website by clicking HERE.
Welcome to New OPCC Members
Please extend a warm welcome to our newest member, Richard Klawitter of Port Angeles. Welcome to OPCC!
NEWS
Club Members Shine at County Fair
The Clallam County Fair took place from August 17 to August 20, and OPCC once again ran the Photography Barn. Lewis Bennett deserves special thanks for assuming the role of Superintendent, putting in many long days to coordinate the club's activities and making sure that everything ran smoothly. He was assisted by Assistant Superintendent Bruce Fryxell and club members Suzanne Anaya, Marian and Michel Bodart, Sherrie Cerutti, Peg Hanson, Rebecca Hanson, Sally Harris, Judy Larimore, Dana Martell, Witta Priester, Stephen Shoff, Mary Swartz, Kevin Talbot, and Susan White. Many thanks to everyone who volunteered.
A very special thanks to Suzanne Anaya for getting Randy Tomaras to serve as a last-minute replacement for our judge.
A total of 80 adults (including 15 OPCC members) and 16 youths entered one or more photographs. There were 202 Adult entries and 44 Youth entries. Visitors to the Barn cast 324 votes for the People's Choice Award in the Adult Division, with the winner receiving 24 votes. The winner in the Youth Division received 23 votes of the 245 votes cast.
Club members did extremely well in the competition. Of the 20 categories in the Hobbyist/Professional Division, club members received 15 Blue Ribbons (1st place), 9 Red Ribbons (2nd Place), 9 White Ribbons (3rd place), and 7 Green Ribbons (Honorable Mention).
Individual winners were:
Blue Ribbons (1st place) - Suzanne Anaya (2), Marian Bodart, Sherrie Cerutti, Bruce Fryxell (2), Peg Hanson, Sally Harris (2), Witta Priester (2), Stephen Shoff, Mary Swartz, and Kevin Talbot (2)
Red Ribbons (2nd place) - Suzanne Anaya, Lewis Bennett (3), Sherrie Cerutti, Peg Hanson, Rebecca Hanson, Dan Martell, and Kevin Talbot
White Ribbons (3rd place) - Suzanne Anaya, Sherrie Cerutti, Bruce Fryxell, Rebecca Hanson, Judy Larimore, Witta Priester, Stephen Shoff (2), and Mary Swartz
Green Ribbons (HM) - Marian Bodart, Sherrie Cerutti, Rebecca Hanson, Sally Harris, Judy Larimore, Mary Swartz, Susan White
People's Choice Award - Bruce Fryxell
Lewis has agreed to serve as Superintendent again next year as long as club members continue to volunteer, so we can look forward to another wonderful Photography Barn at the 2024 fair.
PSA Interclub Submissions Due September 20
From Peggy McClure:
The club is competing in three divisions this year: Color, Monochrome and Nature. A description of each of the divisions can be found on the OPCC website by clicking HERE. You may enter all 3 divisions or only 1 division. Your choice, and all are welcome.
The Interclub Competition is conducted in three rounds. Participating clubs are allowed to enter 6 photos in each division in each round. Each photo submitted in a round must be created by a different photographer.
This first request for submissions is for Rounds 1 and 2. You may submit a total of 6 images for each division you enter. If you enter all three divisions, you may submit a total of 18 images. The original submission deadline is extended to September 20.
Once we have received the images, they will be grouped by division, and each division will be sent to two independent judges, who will score the images using the PSA Judging Guidelines. The judges will also be asked to select their top 20 images and, if appropriate, comment on how the images might be improved.
Before submitting the final images to PSA, the selected images will be returned to the photographers along with the judges' comments. The photographers then may make further edits based on the comments. Images along with a release will need to be returned via the PSA Upload on the website by October 20, 2023.
You will find detailed information on the Sponsored Competitions page on the OPCC website. Carefully follow the naming and sizing of your photos and remove any watermarks. If you don't meet the requirements, we won't have time to notify you for corrections. If you are not sure about something, contact Peggy McClure at pmmcclure@outlook.com
WOW Competition
From Peggy McClure:
WOW Competition entries are in November so you have lots of time to get your photo(s) ready. This year we will be accepting up to three images from each member. We will be using a ranking system where you pick your three favorite images and rank them as first, second and third choices. The winners will be announced at the December 7 meeting and will be featured on the website. Good luck to everyone and can’t wait to see your entries. More details can be found on the website by clicking HERE. For questions, contact OPCC competition chair Peggy McClure at opcc.competiton@gmail.com.
NWCCC Annual Conference - Saturday November 11
Conference Salon Competitions are Open
From Stephen Shoff:
Save the date! The Northwest Council of Camera Clubs (NWCCC) annual conference will be a 5-day event starting on Veteran's Day, November 11, 2023 with in-person print exhibitions and key-note addresses by Jack Graham. The conference will continue with 5 (est) Zoom-based webinars held on the following Sunday-Wednesday. Webinar specifics have not yet been announced.
The Annual Conference includes three competitions held during the convention.
Open Print Salon
Open Digital Salon
Digital Slideshow
The entry submission deadline is October 1, 2023.
The rules, guidelines, submission instructions, and entry forms for the 2023 competitions have been published at https://nwcameraclubs.org/competitions/. Highlights and links to the Rules and Guidelines for each of the competitions are posted on the OPCC Sponsored Competitions page HERE. Please refer to the NWCCC website for the full Rules and Submissions instructions.
Stephen Shoff and Dan McKenna will work to collect and deliver Open Print Salon entries to NWCCC by the October 1 submission deadline.
All told, an ambitious individual could submit as many as 14-16 entries to these competitions. There certainly is a lot of opportunity for us to showcase our work.
SPEAKER SERIES
Arik Gorban - Looking at Fine Art Photography - Sept 21, 2023 7:00 PM
Fine Art Photography - what is it? To learn all about what makes an image a Fine Art Photograph, join the club September education night speaker, Arik Gorban as he discusses the characteristics that are common to all Fine Art Photographs, and those characteristics that vary. He will discuss what the photography masters say about Fine Art. To illustrate, we will look at images that tell a story and are meaningful, thought-provoking and expressive.
Arik will present photos not usually seen in camera clubs, but are displayed in high-end fine art galleries. We will learn to look beyond the obvious and see what the image represents.
MEMBER SHARING / EXTERNAL EVALUATION NIGHTS
From Peggy McClure:
Thursday September 7 at 7pm is our last External Evaluation Night of the year. Join and share what our external judge thinks about our photos.
The next share night will be October 5. For this month, you may submit up to two photos by midnight, October 1. The Special Theme for this month is “Patterns”. To upload photos, use the Member Share Night upload button on the website, located HERE. For questions, contact OPCC competition chair Peggy McClure at opcc.competiton@gmail.com.
FIELD TRIPS, WORKSHOPS, & MEET-UPS
Fort Worden, Port Townsend
Our next field trip will be to Fort Worden in Port Townsend on September 16 from 10:00 AM to approximately 2:00 PM. This will be an extended version of our previous field trips to Fort Worden that will include a hike around Artillery Hill (weather permitting), in addition to photographing the Kinzie Battery and Lighthouse.
Plan to meet at the entrance to the Kinzie Battery at 10:00. We will spend about an hour to an hour and a half photographing the battery and the lighthouse and then drive to the parking lot near Artillery Hill Gate, carpooling due to the limited parking availability. The hike will be about 1.5 miles with an elevation gain of around 150 feet along easy to moderately difficult trails. It should take about 2 hours including photo stops. Highlights of the hike include a view over Fort Worden, the memorial and sculpture garden called Memory's Vault, Gunline Road (which connects several bunker installments), and Battery Tolles.
A map of Fort Worden can be found by clicking HERE. An interactive map can be found at https://www.fwfriends.org/trailmaps. The field trip will be led by Bruce Fryxell and Mary Swartz. For questions, contact them at opccpres@gmail.com or opcc4info@gmail.com. Please note that a Discover Pass or day use permit is required for parking at Fort Worden.
Gallery Exhibitions
NWCCC Lakeshore Exhibit end September 30
From Stephen Shoff:
Several club members have been showcasing their work in an NWCCC-sponsored exhibit at the Lakeshore ERA Retirement community in Seattle since early June. This exhibit will close at the end of September. If you haven't visited it yet, you still have time. The exhibit is being held at The Lakeshore, 11448 Ranier Ave S. Seattle, WA, 98178.
Stephen Shoff will be picking the prints up on Sunday, October 1 and returning them to our participating members the following week.
COMPETITION/IMAGE EVALUATION
NWCCC Travelling Image Salon
This month, we will be evaluating images from the Rainier Hills Photo Club. Please vote for you favorite images before the deadline of September 25 by clicking HERE.