A Photographer
Colors of life all around
bustling in the vividness
of its possibilities,
though fades through
to meet its end,
it seems so endless and abound
in the realms of our sensibilities,
I wonder if that’s what celestials
intended it to be,
for it to be limited,
to be incomplete,
but it doesn’t matter
I intend to complete
which the heavens have left incomplete,
the hues of life
needs to become eternal
and will,
through the lens I see.
A Poem by Prasanna Kumar
The Annual State of our Club
Welcome back, everyone. As we start our first club meetings at Norway House this year, we kick off our new photography season. Many have been away for the summer, hopefully with their cameras in hand, to explore favorite sites and destinations. I’m sure they will have great stories to tell and will have great presentations to share with us on Members’ Nights.
Our board and I have been busy all summer and have put in a lot of work for the club. Dennis Crabtree, our VP, put in a lot of time and effort to get the Saanich Fall Fair Photography Exhibition off to a great start, for the first time for us. This event was late coming to us, but Dennis and all those who supported him got it running and it was a great success. Thank-you to everybody who showed up for the 3-day event to help Dennis. We managed to sign up many new members and many new subscribers and are now at 314 subscribers for our blog! A lot of them came from the show. Going forward, our club will run this event every year. We can expect even better results next year. Great work by everybody.
We are now at 262 members, thanks to the show and other factors. I think this is a new record for membership. It puts us well in the running to become the largest camera club in Canada. We are only being beaten by the London (Ontario) Camera Club which is at 268 members. Our growth has happened because of a push to build the membership and because of our reputation as a club. Someone recently contacted me about coming to our club and this is what he told me:
“Of course, your club is famous; you have many strong members and I believe your club came out on top in last year’s BC interclub challenge . . . . most impressive!”
You, the members have made our club what it is. I am constantly amazed at what our members can do—not just in photography but in their hard work and dedication and the professional way they organize their committees. It’s no wonder it’s so easy to grow this club.
I want to thank Sharon Moysey and Judy Plummer for taking over the leadership of Internal Comps after many years of great leadership by Lorna Zaback. After meeting Sharon and Judy, I know that Sharon and her team are going to do an amazing job this year. They are off to a good start.
Jim Fowler, Cindy Stephenson, Lori Moilanen, Richard Letourneau, and Bill Cubitt of External Comps always do a fantastic job and this year they have really taken on a lot of competitions. The team, led by Jim, is one of the more important committees we have as they show us to the world. They are the window the world sees us through. The committee members are very much involved in other areas of the club also and it is very much appreciated.
Jim and his team need everyone in the club to submit at least one photo this year. Don’t worry if you think it’s not good enough, that’s not the point. You are competing against yourself to become better and better and by competing you are learning. That is what External Comps is all about. And it is a lot of fun, too!
The External Comps group is going to be very busy, especially since Bill is moving back to Calgary. Bill will be missed as he contributed a great deal to this club with his ideas and hard work in other parts of the club. We will keep in touch with Bill even when he’s gone to Calgary.
Workshops, lead by Alec Lee, is also very busy with over 30 workshops scheduled between now and May. That is a lot of work! They cover just about every subject imaginable from composition to iPhone photography. It is really a job well done by Alec and his team to organize all those workshops.
Field trips are led by Rilla Ballantine who is still doing a great job. What I find amazing after all these years is that Rilla and her team still find places nobody has been to before! Everyone loves going on field trips with Rilla. Everyone has a lot of fun and we see new places and meet new members all the time. It’s the first place new members go when they join the club.
Of course, I must mention the close-up digital team of Roger Botting (Editor), Christine Hutchins Gallagher (Assistant Editor), and Margaret McNay (Copy Editor). They have done a remarkable job in getting those blogs out every week and I know that’s not easy. Then to keep the quality of the writing and photos to such a high level is remarkable. The blog is over 300 subscribers and growing and this is a great thing for our club. And it is only going to get better and better, and we want to get regular contributing authors from beyond our club and get it out to other clubs in Canada and maybe beyond.
None of this would be possible without our Web Administrator, Greg Blaney, and his team of Lori Moilanen (Website Manager) and Richard Letourneau (Website Assistant) and Douglas Layden (close-up digital Technical Support). They keep our systems up and running without which the Victoria Camera Club would not be able to function.
My intention is not to leave anyone out, and I could go on and on about all the fantastic work the other committees and SIGs do, but it would take pages and pages and there are almost 50 of you. So, in the name of brevity, I assure you I know who you are, and you are recognized for all your hard work and contributions to our club. Some of you I consider personal friends as well.
Our Board of Directors, Bob, Dennis, Ian, Jason, Margaret, Rilla, and I have been working very hard behind the scenes. You may not hear much from us, but we are busy keeping our club running smoothy and efficiently. We are always planning for the future, and we are working on some great ideas to help our club members.
We have developed a sense of camaraderie and levity as a group. We have some great ideas, and we get things done. We have really come together as a team and that is a great benefit to the club.
Bob, our Treasurer is pleased with our budget. The influx of new members has really helped our bank account. That means we can spend more on things the club needs for educating and entertaining our members.
Finally, I want to mention Christine Hutchins Gallagher, our new Assistant Editor, and Interclub Liaison. The latter is a new position we created to promote contacts with other clubs in Canada and maybe eventually the USA. The two positions are a perfect fit for Christine. When she approaches clubs, mostly in Ontario and Alberta, with invitations for members from those clubs to visit our Norway House meetings and field trips, she can promote our blog and invite potential authors from those clubs to contribute to our blog. It’s a reciprocal agreement. It’s win/win for both clubs.
Christine’s initiatives have already produced results and I am getting requests from members of other clubs telling me they are coming to our city and asking if they may come to our meetings. Also, there have been requests from them about sharing the cost of some of their presenters whose presentations they would then also share with us. This is an awesome opportunity for our club as we will get new ideas and different views of photography from the other side of the country, and places we can visit and be welcomed as guests. I am confident Christine will grow this position into an important position in the club and she has 100% of my support. I hope everyone will support her.
One last note. I telephone all our new members. They are thrilled the President takes the time to do this. I welcome them to our club and ask them why they joined. The responses I get are “You are a fantastic club,” “I heard great things about your club,” “I can’t believe you have so much going on all the time!” and so on. This is only possible because of you, our members. You are just a great bunch of talented, intelligent, and hard-working people and you make my job as President so much easier, And fun!
Thank you all again.
Remember, my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns.
James Dies – President – Victoria Camera Club.