Category Archives: Meeting Notes

Dec. 7, 2020 — Meeting notes

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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.

November 2, 2020 — Meeting notes

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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.

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.

N4C_Contest_Rules_2020-2021Download

October 19, 2020 — Meeting Notes

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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!

Next meeting on Nov. 2

The next virtual meeting of the Dubuque Camera Club will be held on Monday, November 2nd, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. N4C submissions are due before the meeting. See the competition page for more details about submitting to monthly N4C contests.

Oct. 5, 2020 virtual meeting

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Eighteen people attended the Dubuque Camera Club virtual meeting on October 5, 2020. The meeting was hosted via Zoom by Bob Felderman. It was led by club president Ronald Tigges.

  • The club finalized the details of an outdoor photo shoot the following Sunday at Eagle Point Park.
  • Club membership numbers were mentioned. As of this meeting, the club has 26 active members. If your membership is inactive, simply pay your club dues to reactivate your membership and become eligible to enter N4C contests and participate in all club activities and events.
  • Several photo contests were mentioned. See a list in another post.
  • Henry Matthiessen mentioned an upcoming in-person screening of his film with Dean Wellman, Riding the Light.
  • An announcement was made that N4C print competitions (which our club does NOT enter) are on hold. Apparently, few people are entering due to the challenges of mailing prints back and forth during a pandemic.
    The N4C print competition will need to see some updates in the future. Disposable 8×10″ prints are one suggestion that would reduce hassle and costly mailings. If the print contest is streamlined, our club may participate in the future. Right now, we only enter digital competition categories.

Submissions and Returns. During tonight’s meeting, we went over our club’s submissions to the October 2020 monthly N4C contest, as well as returns from the September contest.

Remember, submissions are always due by the first club meeting of each month (see the Competition page on this website to learn more). Past submissions by individual club members may be viewed in the club’s online gallery.

Congratulations to Dubuque Camera Club member Stephonie Schmitz for winning First Place in Digital Travel for her photo, “Horseshoe Bend, Arizona.”

In September 2020, the following Dubuque Camera Club members were recognized:

  • Stephonie Schmitz, 1st place in Digital Travel, and two honorable mention awards
  • Ron Tigges, two merit awards
  • Ken Kiss, two merit awards
  • Kevin McTague, two merit awards
  • Jim Durrant, merit award

Labor Day 2020 — Meeting notes

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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.

Pay your club dues

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.