The Dubuque Camera Club held a virtual meeting and holiday gathering via Zoom on December 7th, 2020. Nineteen people attended. Thanks to everyone who wore a holiday outfit or displayed a wintry virtual background.

N4C news. The N4C has opted to discontinue the print competition through the end of the current season. Due to the pandemic, judging clubs can’t gather to look at prints. Some clubs have also experienced winter weather-related mail issues.

Although our club does not participate in the monthly print competition, this decision will impact the points given out to N4C clubs. It will result in the digital competition — which we do compete in — being given more weight. As Ron said, “Everybody make sure that you submit your best stuff, and that will help with the total points of the club.”

The N4C has also cancelled the panorama print competition that usually takes place at the spring mini-con because that event is postponed. Plans are still underway to hold the 2021 fall convention in Duluth. See the meetings page on the N4C website to learn more.

Competition Results. During the meeting, the club looked at the results of the previous monthly N4C competition. Congratulations to the following photographers:

• Ronald Tigges, second place, digital pictorial
• Ronald Tigges, merit award, digital journalism
• Ronald Tigges, honorable mention, digital altered reality
• Ronald Tigges, merit award, digital nature
  
• Karen Durrant, merit award, digital travel
• Karen Durrant, merit award, digital pictorial
  
• Kevin McTague, merit award, digital pictorial
• Kevin McTague, merit award, digital nature
• Kevin McTague, honorable mention, digital black and white
  
• Stephonie Schmitz, honorable mention, digital nature
• Stephonie Schmitz, merit award, digital black and white

Holiday games. Jennifer and Stephonie came up with some virtual holiday games to play during the meeting. Ron served as emcee. Prize winners:

• Andreas Exner won a winter farmer’s market gift certificate for correctly answering photography trivia questions.
• Laurie Helling won a camera bag (donated by Stephonie) for correctly identifying the most holiday tunes.
• Jim Durrant also won a farmer’s market gift certificate for trivia answers.

Other factoids and virtual meeting stuff:

• Our club earned 78 total points for the 2019/20 N4C season.
• The E.B. Lyons center will be closed to the public until at least July 1st, 2021, so the club cannot use it as a meeting venue.
• ISO does not mean “Icy Santa Overture.”
• Stephonie’s husband is named after a famous photographer, Edward S. Curtis.
• Ellie was not at the meeting, but rumor is, she has been a club member longer than Santa.
• Santa was at the meeting.

Next club meeting

The next Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting will be held on Monday, January 4th, 2021 at 6:30 p.m.

Club members: Send in your N4C submissions before the next meeting. See the competition page for any questions. Watch your email for Zoom meeting details.

The virtual meeting of the Dubuque Camera Club on November 2, 2020 was attended by 16 people. Club president Ronald Tigges led discussion, and Bob Felderman served as Zoom host.

Member Directory. The club discussed the new Member Directory. Participating in this online directory is another benefit of club membership. Right now the page is password protected, but it will be made public after member information is added.

We need club members to send in their information. Think of it as an online brochure. This is your opportunity to showcase up to three of your photography-related websites or social media accounts.

Send the following to DubuqueCameraClub@gmail.com

• A short personal bio (50-100 words)
• Up to three website or social media links
• One image (150px square thumbnail).

Finding Beauty. Congratulations to four Dubuque Camera Club members whose work appears in Finding Beauty, the latest virtual exhibit from the Galena Center for the Arts: Laurie Helling, Karen Durrant, Jim Durrant, and Robert Felderman. Click here to view the flipbook.

Riding the Light. This is a 50-minute documentary about a landscape photography journey through the desert Southwest. It features the still camera work of Henry Matthiessen III, and was filmed and produced by Dean Wellman. The film is now available online for rent or purchase. Here is the link: https://gumroad.com/l/nmWIq

Submissions and Returns. At tonight’s meeting, the club went over returns from the October 2020 N4C contest, as well as submissions to the November contest. You can view submitted photos in the club’s online gallery.

Congratulations to the following photographers who earned recognition in the October 2020 N4C photography competition:

• Stephonie Schmitz, Digital Travel, First place, “Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon”
• Kevin McTague, Digital Travel, honorable mention, “Back of the Barn”
• Kevin McTague, Digital Black and White, honorable mention
• Kevin McTague, Digital Nature, Merit award, “Minnesota Black Bear”
• Kevin McTague, Digital Nature, Merit award, “Grasshopper”
• Casey Klein, Digital Journalism, honorable mention, “Golden Knights Jump Dubuque Skies with a Patriotic Flair”
• Kenneth Kiss, Digital Nature, honorable mention, “Wood Thrush Singing”
• Kenneth Kiss, Digital Nature, honorable mention, “Yep, All Feathers Accounted For” (Great Horned Owl)
• Will Hoyer, Digital Nature, honorable mention, “Ice Ripple at Dream Lake”

“I hope Will knows that he got a winning photo already.”

— Club President Ron Tigges, about a beautiful winning landscape photo from new Dubuque Camera Club member Will Hoyer.

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Treasures of the Tri-states. Photography by Casey Klein and several other local photographers appears in the KAT-FM/KDTH “Treasures of the Tri-states” calendar. The calendar is available for free at radio station headquarters.

Groovy presentation postponed. Ron’s groovy presentation on an unknown subject was postponed because sometimes that happens when your wife volunteers you to do something! That’s okay, because we like short meetings. In the future, he may demonstrate the nifty features in the recent Adobe updates to Photoshop and Lightroom.

Updated N4C rules. The 2020/2021 N4C contest rules are now online. The updated rules include both video and photo essay contests. The rules for the communication competitions are written down and included for the first time. See the links below or visit their cutting edge website.

The virtual meeting of the Dubuque Camera Club on October 19, 2020 was attended by 16 people. The meeting was led by club president Ronald Tigges and hosted on Zoom by Bob Felderman. Although we didn’t have an agenda, we got together for virtual companionship and sharing of photography-related news. Thanks to everyone who shares news and information during club meetings!!

The club is currently up to 30 active members who have paid their dues for the 2020/21 season. Active club members are eligible to enter N4C contests and participate in all club activities and events. The new online dues payment system is making record keeping much simpler. If you need to pay your dues, here is a link.

Member Directory. We will soon add another benefit to club membership: a listing in a member directory on this website. This member directory will allow you to browse the online photography, websites, or social media accounts of other club photographers.

If you are a club member and you would like to be listed in the club directory, send the following to dubuquecameraclub@gmail.com

• One image (150px square thumbnail).
• Up to three website or social media links
• A short personal bio (50-100 words)

Hint: Look at the Reflections brochure for ideas on how to write your Bio.

Virtual Exhibit. In the near future we also plan to create a virtual exhibit. We really like the nice job that Galena CFA is doing on their virtual exhibits. Our club’s virtual exhibit may be online as a PDF, in flipbook format, or as a video slideshow. We haven’t decided on a format yet. Specific information will be shared at future meetings.

Photo Essays. At tonight’s virtual meeting, there was some discussion of photo essays. This is a special N4C contest category that happens only once a year. Our club was supposed to judge this year’s entries, but then Covid happened. This season’s winning photo essays were played during the “Best of N4C” virtual awards ceremony on October 14.

Photo essays can have LOTS of photos in them. The N4C rules state: The minimum number of images shall be twenty (20). There is not a limit on the maximum number of images, but the program time shall not exceed six (6) minutes.

If you decide to create a photo essay, you need to be conscientious about who owns the rights to any music in the soundtrack. Our club could potentially enter up to 8 photo essays. Entries will be due on March 31, 2021. Find complete rules here.

Other Misc. Ron Tigges did a quick demonstration of how to make video in Photoshop. You start by selecting multiple images in Lightroom. Edit them in Layers in Photoshop. Then choose the Timeline panel and create a timeline, dragging start/end boundaries as needed.

Also at tonight’s meeting, Henry gave the group an update on the upcoming screening of his film, Riding the Light. General Bob — who does a great job navigating webpages using screenshare in Zoom — treated the group to some of his drone photography.

Are you a club member who hesitates to join a virtual meeting after spending long workdays at the computer? Tonight’s virtual meeting ended at 7:37 p.m. — a new record for a short meeting!