The Dubuque Camera Club held the first meeting of the season on Labor Day, September 7th, 2020. Fifteen people attended the virtual meeting.
See below for a summary of some of the things that were discussed. Remember, attending club meetings is the best way to share and receive club information.
Dues are due. Annual club dues of $20 are past due now. Remember, you can pay online. As of the date these notes were written, only fifteen people had paid their dues. The club currently has about 28 active members.
Here are some ways the club uses annual dues:
- Club N4C dues ($1 per member)
- Venue fee (temporarily on hold, since we’re meeting virtually)
- Smugmug subscription (for the club’s online photo gallery)
- Website domain
- Food (for picnic/holiday party)
- Any exhibit subsidies. (The past two exhibits at DuMA, the club paid 1/2 the cost of one print per participant.)
- Photography gear or accessories. (Recently, the club purchased light painting stuff. In the past, the club bought a monitor for judging nights.)
Welcome to our new club members!
Will Hoyer
Jacob Fiscus
Member numbers. Our club has added two new members recently. Cara reported that the numbering started with 10 and is currently up to 123. You keep your member number for life. If a member is inactive for a while, they will have the same number when they come back to the club.
Submitting to N4C competition. Being able to submit to N4C contests is one of the perks of Dubuque Camera Club membership. During the meeting, we reviewed some of the basics. Learn more on the Competition page of this website.
Filename details. Ken reminded the group that file naming is very important in monthly contests. You MUST use a comma between parts of the filename, and there canNOT be spaces on either side of the comma. This is important because every club uses a CSV file (Comma Separated Values) to turn in submissions.
Also, if your member number is two digits, you must use a leading zero. For example, if your member number is 22, add a zero before it and use 022 in the filename. “If you don’t use a zero,” explained Cara, “your name comes up as an ‘invalid member number’ in the judging software.”
N4C stuff. It is likely there will be some minor, mid-season updates to the N4C contest rules. Everybody who is on the active roster for our club should be receiving the N4C Bulletin by email. If you don’t see it, you can find it on the N4C website or on their Facebook page.
Jennifer, who sits on the N4C board of directors, reported that they’ve had discussion about how to recognize the Best of N4C awards since this year’s convention was cancelled. It sounds like there will be an online virtual presentation on Wednesday, October 14th. More information here.
Best of N4C winners are selected from 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, and honorable mention recipients in monthly contests. If you received one of these awards during a monthly contest in the 2019/2020 season, consider attending the virtual award ceremony. To view Best of N4C winners for prior seasons, go to the N4C Winner Galleries and scroll down to the listings at the bottom of the page.
Judging of Digital Nature. Our club needs to judge the N4C Digital Nature category this month. We’ll use the same procedure as our last virtual judging. Each judge will score every image, but will write comments on only every third image. The following individuals were selected to do virtual DN judging: Bob Felderman, Stephonie Schmitz, Ken Kiss. At the next meeting we’ll take care of any tie-breakers.
Software. During tonight’s meeting, there was some discussion of software. Today, most serious photographers rely on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for organization and editing of digital photos. Adobe offers a photography plan for a total of $10.69 per month (including tax). It is strongly suggested that club members who are just getting started consider this option. It’s true that Adobe products tend to have a learning curve, but there are plenty of tutorials on the Adobe website and on Youtube to help you learn the software.
NEW: Links for Learning and Inspiration. Ron put together a page of links for people who want to dig deep into technique and creativity.
Next club meeting on Monday, September 21 at 6:30 p.m.
The next Dubuque Camera Club meeting will be on Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. This meeting will be VIRTUAL. The agenda will be “Easily Digestible Tech Tips” for photographers. We will also finish up any loose ends in judging the N4C Digital Nature category. More details about the meeting will be sent by email to club members.
If you have not yet paid your 2020/2021 dues, you may pay them online.