1 Jan 2017
FOCUS
Newsletter of the Mayslake Nature Study and Photography Club
Hosted by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County www.naturecameraclub.com
Up Coming Programs
January 2 - No Meeting - New Year’s
Holiday
January 16 – Competition
February 6 - Nature Photography and
Image Optimization by Alan Cox
February 6th
Nature Photography and Image Optimization
by Alan Cox
Alan will discuss his thoughts on the most important
issues in capturing images and ways to optimize
those using current tools and workflow options. He
will then show some examples of the final prints. It
will be a casual interactive evening, so bring lots of
questions.
Alan has been both an amateur photographer and a
software engineer for close to 50 years. He is a
former large format film photographer and military
camera image processing software developer. He
still makes his living developing software, but
spends much of the rest of his time readily sharing
his knowledge and passion for photography.
Alan is the current competition chair and past
president of the Schaumburg Area Photographic
Society. He a member of the Photographic Society
of American and is the current Vice Chair of the
local chapter.
Water Lily by Alan Cox
Bald Eagle on the Hunt by Alan Cox
2 Jan 2017
Competition Reminder—January 16
The next competition night is January 16, 2017. The deadline for submitting digital images is Sunday, January 8. Please check the website for instructions and forms. Remember that forms must be presented the night of competition; they may not be emailed in ahead of time. Also, submitting make-up images is only allowed for those members who serve as judges. By submitting prints and/or digital images in our competitions, you can receive individual honors, have images submitted to the CACCA inter-club competitions and be eligible for Image of the Year! Even if you don’t submit images for competition, consider attending competition night to see the scoring of some outstanding images and hear critiques. Both are great learning opportunities to help improve your photography.
Peabody Estate “Wonders of Winter”
February 4, 2017
The DuPage County Forest Preserve will be
hosting the “Wonders of Winter” festival on
Saturday, February 4th, from 10 am to 2 pm. Our
club will have a table set up for the festival, which
has a variety of winter activities for adults and
children. It is a good opportunity to generate
interest in the club, and the participants voting for
their favorite photos in our current gallery display.
If you would like to volunteer to be at the club’s
table for an hour or two, please email Barbara
Dunn at [email protected]
Coming in March
We’ve been invited to hang a show at the Westchester Library. The
show will run from roughly March 1 until the end of April. Look for
more information ahead.
A Word from our CACCA Delegate
I would like to encourage Mayslake members to participate in the club Color Print Competition on January 16, 2017. We take eight of these print entries to
the February CACCA competition and another eight to the March CACCA competition. So far, during this club year, we've been getting barely enough
club prints to fill our allowance of CACCA entries. If you want to increase your chances of getting your photo entered in a CACCA competition,
consider submitting it as a print. Thanks. Karl Knapp
3 Jan 2017
Board Vacancies for the 2017-18 Club Year
Although it may seem early to be anticipating the 2017-18 Club year, we will have the following board vacancies effective May 1, 2017. Please consider contributing to your club. There are a lot of opportunities, one of them is right for you. Talk to any of the board members to learn more or express your interest. Thanks for helping out!
Conservation – An easy way to contribute to the club on your own time. Occasionally present brief conservation topics of your choosing at meetings and write small topical article for the Focus. Help the club, help the planet.
Competition Committee Co-Chair – Just four times per year join other members who help run the club competition nights. This isn’t a big time commitment, but is essential for our club and helps us all grow in our photography.
Outings Coordinator – Talk to your friends, find out where they like to shoot and ask if they’d like some company. Hosting an outing is easy, just send out a couple of emails and show up. The Outings Coordinator will coordinate the schedule, give others a nudge to host an outing and help make it easy for members to show up, shoot and eat.
Membership – Socialize at all the meetings, welcome visitors, collect dues and generally promote all the great things about our club to anyone who is interested. If you’re coming to meetings regularly, you’re doing most of this already.
President – No expensive campaigning, no boring fundraisers, no airing of dirty laundry…just show up! Barbara makes it look easy, because it is. She has served as president for two terms, it’s time for someone else to take the reins. Ask her about it.
Secretary – An easy way to support the club while having dinner with friends. The secretary takes minutes at the quarterly board meetings at Jason’s Deli (home of free ice cream!) and types them up afterwards. That’s the whole role. It is such a great way to support the club that Fran has done it for 10 years!
The board members who are leaving these positions have worked in these roles and others for many years to make sure that the club runs smoothly. They have contributed many hours to make the club a better organization. Our “retiring” secretary, Fran Piepenbrink, has served as the club’s secretary for 10 years! Thank you to Fran Piepenbrink, Sandy Karasek, Mike Lake, and Barbara Dunn for all of their contributions to the club.
The Outings position is being changed to “Outings Coordinator.” This person will coordinate an outings schedule. The outings will be run by individual members who would like to show us a favorite photo site or explore a new site. During this past year, we have had several members participate in running an outing.
Please consider stepping up for one of these board vacancies. Email Barbara Dunn at [email protected] if you are interested.
4 Jan 2017
The 2016/2017 MNSPC Photo Hunt
I need your images for the newsletter! A photography club should have photographs in its
newsletter. I know you can help me out! Send me something that you’ve recently taken in any
of the following categories: [email protected]
1) Frost: The main subject of your picture is covered with frost.
2) Wildlife: A mosquito or an elephant or anything in between. 3) Water: A lake, a river, a stream, a puddle, or a drop....
4) Three: Find a trio - three leaves, three petals, three trees.....
5) Frozen: Something that has been changed by the coldest weather.
6) The Season: Fall, Winter, Spring. How do you see the season? Do one, two or all three.
7) Fall Color: Yellow, Orange, Red, Burgundy. Landscape or Macro.
8) Sunrise / Sunset: First Morning or Last Evening light. 9) Fungus / Mushrooms / Moss: This category is self-explanatory.
10) Signs of Spring: The first flowers, budding trees, migrating birds.
11) Abstract: Concentrate on the lines, curves, color, texture of a subject without revealing
your subject.
12) Outside the Box: Try a new lens, a new technique, shoot from up high or down low, put
your subject smack dab in the middle. Photograph differently than you normally do.
The Season – Lingering Fall, Nov 2016
Sheila Newenham
5 Jan 2017
Two Photo Clinics in One Day!
On Saturday, February 18th, there will be two opportunities for all-day photo workshops.
The Calumet Region Photo Club will host their annual Photo Clinic in Munster, Indiana. The form
is attached to this copy of the Focus. More information may be found at
www.calregionphoto.org.
The Out of Chicago Winter Conference will also be held on this date in Grayslake, Illinois. The
link to the website and registration is http://outofchicago.com/winter/.
Glennie Nature Salon We have received the following email from Larry Warfield, the former George W. Glennie Chairman: After 36 straight years the Glennie Nature Salon is going to take some time off. The Merrimack Valley Camera Club hopes to resume the Glennie tradition in the future, possibly in a slightly different format. They would like to thank clubs for your loyal participation in the past. Unfortunately, I had to step down as chairman due to personal time constraints and other factors. The Glennie's size and success has made finding a replacement challenging. Personally, this was a very difficult decision to make. I will miss all your great nature images! I expect this decision will be disappointing for many clubs who have used the Glennie to draw your club's nature photographers together and who have used its slides shows for some of your programming. This email is overdue, for that I apologize. It was delayed both due to hopes that someone would step forward and those personal time constraints I mentioned.
6 Jan 2017
Exhibits Fred Drury
The theme of our next Exhibit is ‘Winter to Spring’. This show will go up around
February 25 and run to about May 20. The theme will give exhibitors lots of scope: cool winter colors to the warmer promise of spring. I’m hoping for an increase in the number
of images, so start thinking about your options NOW. There have been at least 3 sales from previous exhibits.
If you have an image from the print competition that you would like to exhibit, we
currently have two frames that you can use to display your image in the exhibit. Please note in your email that you would like to use one of the club frames. Hand of man
doesn't apply to exhibits so you can have fences, bridges, etc in your images. The ‘Winter to Spring’ Exhibit will be followed by a ‘Fur, Fin or Feather’ Exhibit which
will run from May 20 to August 26.
If you have any questions, give me a call at 630-665-6598 or contact me at [email protected].
I look forward to hearing from you.
Reminder
No meeting January 2
due to New Year's Holiday