The Dubuque Camera Club held a virtual meeting on April 19, 2021. Thanks to Jennifer Tigges for contributing the following meeting notes:

Club Picnic. The annual club picnic will be held outdoors on Monday, June 7th at 6 p.m. The club discussed food for the picnic that might be pandemic friendly. We’ll send out a survey to see what people might like. This can be paid for by Camera Club funds. The club will provide bottled water, and members may bring their own beverages. Restroom is nearby. Bring a lawn chair, or there are picnic tables available at the shelter.

DuMA exhibit. The club’s “Trees” exhibit at the Dubuque Museum of Art has a new opening date: Saturday, November 13th, 2021. The museum needs prints ready to hang by October 31. Ron suggested doing our prints on wood. A sample from Woodsnap will be shown at the picnic and pricing info then as well. Prints can be used afterward and are table top ready.

Smokestack exhibit. The club discussed the upcoming Smokestack exhibit, which will utilize large pieces if possible. We will create an online gallery and let Susan from Smokestack jury the exhibit. If you are a club member who wants to participate, you will need to order your own prints. Take photos of your existing artwork, and be prepared to state the size of the piece. We are looking to Bob Felderman for a specific date, and more information. The club will possibly host an opening party…?

N4C competition. In May, our club will judge the Digital Travel category of the N4C contest. Volunteer judges will be chosen at the next club meeting. This will be the final monthly contest of the 2020/21 season.

Meeting venue. The club heard an update on the potential reopening of E.B. Lyons Interpretive Center. We will continue to search for alternative meeting venues, in case the building does not open up until fall. The club also discussed the option of all future in-person meetings including virtual too. So if you cannot make it in person, for whatever reason, you can join from your armchair.

Photoshoot caravan. Henry Mattheissen III will lead a Jo Daviess county photo tour. The caravan will start around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., and will include sunset. We’ll take 6 cars maximum, to be able to park along the roadside without issues. We’ll come up with some alternative dates for May or June for this. Might need to carpool. If we have 2 people in a car, that would accommodate 12 people.

Photo-worthy locations in the Dubuque area. Jim Durrant asked about a list of places to take photos in the Tri-States. One photo opp is the new mural at 105 Locust Street (Artistic Cleaners, next to Hartig). Travel Dubuque and Voices Productions are collaborating on this space. Jennifer sent out a list of locations that was made for Blufftops & Visions, the 2018 N4C convention that our club hosted. Check your email for this list!

Photography convention in Duluth. Remember, there is an opportunity this fall to visit the harbor city of Duluth, Minnesota, located on Lake Superior. The Duluth-Superior Camera Club is hosting the 2021 N4C convention, and they have some great things going on, so save your spot now! Early bird discount ends on May 31st. Find more information at this link.

The Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on April 5, 2021 was attended by 15 people. Here are the meeting highlights:

Opening date for the “Trees” exhibit at the Dubuque Museum of Art has been pushed back a few weeks to Saturday, November 13, 2021. It will be on display concurrent with a Vietnam War exhibit. We hope to be clear of the pandemic by then, so the opening reception can be held in person. About 24 photos will be chosen. Participation is limited to active club members. The club will have photos printed and mounted as a group. Many people already submitted “Trees” images before the exhibit was postponed last year — with the new date, there is time to make changes. Here’s a link to the gallery.

► The annual club picnic is coming up. It will be held the first Monday in June. We are leaning toward having it in person at a shelter at the Mines of Spain. The club is planning to explore food options. More details to be discussed at upcoming meetings.

► Henry promised to lead a caravan into Illinois on a photo day trip on an unknown date in the future. Because of his art tours and landscape photography, he’s got an insider perspective of the tucked away places to photograph in Jo Daviess county. He calls them “places you can go and kind of get off the road so you don’t get killed.”

► General Bob has been out and about lining up future club exhibits. Some will be themed (like the “Trees” exhibit), while others will be eclectic. For the eclectic exhibits, you can choose your own subject and have them printed any which way. The Smokestack exhibit — this summer — is coming up rapidly. There’s lots of wall space, and items can be for sale (minus a commission). Get ready to dust off your hoarded prints, or order new!

► Don’t forget about the fall N4C convention in Duluth. Tickets are on sale now. Learn more.

► Pamela is desiring to step back somewhat from her communications role with the club, due to other time commitments. Speak up if you want to help!

► Casey’s husband has been in the hospital, so reach out to her!

The club also went over comments and returns from last month’s N4C contest. Our hearts go out to Cara, one of our club N4C reps. She gets the virtual consolation prize for receiving the least helpful comment from an N4C judge. (Say it in a deadpan voice): “I’m sorry, this did not appeal to me.”

Congratulations to the following Dubuque Camera Club photographers who were recognized in the March 2021 N4C contest:

• Henry Matthiessen, second place, Digital Pictorial, Cloud Gods Rise
• Kevin McTague, honorable mention, Digital Black and White, Winter Fall
• Kevin McTague, honorable mention, Digital Pictorial, Winter Sunset
• Stephonie Schmitz, merit award, Digital Nature, Costa Rican Pygmy Owl
• Stephonie Schmitz, merit award, Digital Pictorial, Serenity at Red Rocks Ampitheater
• Stephonie Schmitz, merit award, Digital Black and White, Winter Light
• Jim Durrant, merit award, Digital Nature, Sharp Shinned Hawk
• Will Hoyer, honorable mention, Digital Pictorial, Morning Color at Negative 16 Degrees Fahrenheit

The Dubuque Camera Club held a virtual meeting on Monday, March 15, 2021. Thanks to club member Bob Felderman for taking meeting notes!

• Absences: Stephonie is becoming a new mom. Pamela had a death in the family and could not attend.

• Next meeting, on Monday April 5th, will be submissions and returns.  In May our club will judge the Digital Travel (DT) category of the N4C competition , so in April we will get to submit two travel images for competition.

• The E.B. Lyons interpretive center is expected to be open by summer, so we should plan an outdoor picnic on the first Monday (7th) of June. 

• Even though the N4C competition is closed for the summer, we will schedule a summer meeting to include an outdoor photo shoot. 

• Tonight’s agenda was “Roll your own magazine cover.” The goal was to practice preparing your original digital photos for a print publication. The club looked at the magazine covers that were submitted before the meeting. A template and instructions were provided.

• Discussed the types of images typically used for different magazines. Ron and Bob shared screens with samples. Photography-oriented magazines usually have a small amount of text with a focus on images.

• Future exhibitions were also discussed, and Bob will reach out to area gallery managers for potential dates and themes. Ron suggested an eclectic exhibit so people could display pre-existing prints. 

• Chuck suggested we consider a Camera Club magazine or newsletter of 16 pages, with everyone responsible for a page or parts of a page, like an image with a description of the location, lens, settings, lighting, etc.

• Ron concurred but reminded attendees that success of the project depends on club member participation.

• Other discussions were around Ron shooting with an automatic stick for his camera using a 50mm, which can take images that are blended into GB size. He showed some examples. The meeting ended around 7:45 p.m. 

Next meeting on Easter Monday

The next Dubuque Camera Club meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, April 5th at 6:30 p.m. N4C submissions are due before the meeting. Our club can submit double Digital Travel (DT). See you there!

Fifteen people attended the Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on March 1st, 2021.

The next couple years of N4C conventions were discussed. In fall 2021 the Duluth-Superior Camera Club will host, and registrations are open now [more info here]. Possibly, Dubuque could work in partnership with another club (Iowa City?) to host the 2022 convention. It’s a big challenge for one club to organize everything, as we know from past experience.

Our club has 31 active members, as of the date of this meeting. This puts us over the threshold as a “large” club, according to the N4C definition. Club member Jennifer Tigges is on the ballot for the N4c board of directors, as a candidate for director #2 (she’s moving up!). See the March issue of the N4C Bulletin for bios of everyone vying for a spot on the N4C board.

The photography club in Minnesota that contacted us out of the blue to judge their non-N4C competition has found other judges (whew!).

At long last we’ve heard that the nature center will re-open, under a new collaboration. Dubuque County Conservation (Swiss Valley) is receptive to groups like ours using E.B. Lyons as a meeting venue. Tentatively, we hope to meet in-person at the Mines of Spain during the 2021/22 season, which starts in September. “The good news is it will be open and available for us, and for school groups this summer,” said Ron.

More N4C stuff. The N4C is still discussing changes to the print competition, which our club doesn’t currently compete in, due to cost and hassle factor. The idea, which we’ve detailed here before, is to use “disposable” 8×10-inch prints. It will save each club $45 or more every month in mailing print entries back to originating clubs. Only the winning prints will be kept, for the end-of-year display.

Our club has discussed many times the skewed point-counting system that makes us ineligible to receive Club of the Year due to not participating with prints. However, the pandemic, along with some prints lost in a snowstorm, has shown others the benefits of digital competition. Change moves painfully slow, but it does come eventually!

February Winners

Congratulations to the following Dubuque Camera Club photographers who were recognized in the February 2021 N4C competition:

• Stephonie Schmitz, Digital Travel (DT), first place, “Garden of the Gods”
• Henry Matthiessen, Digital Black & White (DB), merit award
• Kevin McTague, Altered Reality (DA), merit award

A couple of N4C contest tips, based on observation:

• Journalism (DJ) does better with people in the picture. Also, the new DJ scoring system is goofy.
• Travel (DT) is supposed to be an “iconic” image, aka recognizable as symbolic of a place.
• Titles are important. Some judges are influenced by them.
• Longer comments are usually better comments.
• Altered Reality (DA) must be UNREAL looking. Composites, etc.
• Focus stacking (and tilt shift) is okay in any category.

Most importantly, don’t give up hope if your photo didn’t do well in competition. “If you know in your heart you’ve got a great image, submit it again. Different clubs look at things differently,” Jenn advised.