Shots
a rondeau
I feel the buzz; I crave the gleam
Of stratus cloud and citrus beam.
My camera simply can’t deny
The rush in spark of firefly,
And cirrus trips in tangerine.
I’m lifted by lush leas of green,
The bird, the bud, the beetle’s sheen,
Is in each fix that hits my eye—
I feel the buzz.
I’m up for kicks—I’m ever keen
To hit the phlox and foxglove scene
Neath summer’s glow in sun-drunk sky;
My click addiction makes me high.
With every shot that fills my screen—
I feel the buzz.
-Susan Jarvis Bryant
We just finished off a fantastic season celebrating 80 years as a club, and
what a celebration it was.
Our “Day in the Life of Victoria” photo shoot was covered in the Times-
Colonist. We had a fantastic print show at the Bay Centre that was covered
by CHEK News.
We had a solid year in External Competitions again. We won Honourable
Mention in 5 out of 7 competitions, and in the other two we ranked 14 th out
of 39 clubs and 26th out of 50. We won Gold in both Lions Gate and
Eastwood (for the first time in 7 years) and came 6th out of 25 clubs in the
PSA Inter-club Travel Competition, 2nd level, in our first year of competing
in PSA Travel.
Dennis and his team ran the Saanich Fall Fair Photo Competition for the
second time, and as usual it was a great success. It is popular with the Fall
Fair crowd, and we had a lot of fun. This year’s Fall Fair theme was
“Needle Arts” (Knitting and sewing) but next year the Fall Fair theme will be
“Photography.” We will be front and centre with that theme! We expect that
Fall Fair to be the next big thing for our club and we hope everyone gets
involved.
In honour of our 80 th anniversary, we established the Camosun College
Student Photography Award. This year we awarded it to a young woman at
the college starting her career in the photographic arts.
All the above events created great external exposure and promotion for the
club. This drives membership, gets our name into the community, and
enhances our reputation.
I cannot name everybody who contributed to these events as so many of
you worked so hard last year in all these activities and in all the
committees. I know the long hours and hard work everyone put in to
making last year a success in so many ways. Many thanks to ALL the
committees and SIGS. I know the hours you put in to make them a
success.
I am so proud that so many members of our club came forward to make
last year one that will be remembered by the club for many years to come.
Thank you and kudos to everyone for your dedication to making our club
one of the best.
What I love about this club is the willingness of our more experienced
members to help new members learn how to be better. If you are new to
the club, just go up and ask a longer-term member for help. They will gladly
share their knowledge.
I am also very impressed as some of our members who recently joined are
turning out to be shining stars by helping others who have recently joined
also. Kudos to you. That is what makes our club so great.
As we start the 2024/2025 season, I am excited as to what the new year
will bring. It will be hard to top this last year, but I know we will have another
enjoyable and fun year for everyone. I did notice that a lot more of the club
members are stepping forward to get more involved with the club.
This year’s theme is Learning, Exploring, and Sharing.
Our mission as a camera club, as always, is to advance and promote the
photographic arts. We will continue to educate our members through
Workshops, Competitions, Presenter’s Nights, Field Trips, and Seminars.
Looking over the agenda of some of the committees, I notice it is going to
be jam packed with lots of exiting new things to learn. We encourage our
photographers to realize their true artistic potential by going to these
events.
The exploring part is up to you. The definition of exploring is traveling
through an unfamiliar area to discover it. If you have only shot landscapes,
try shooting interiors, or people. If all you have ever shot is in the daytime,
learn how to shoot at night. Trust me, it’s not easy shooting at night. I’ve
tried. If you have never done abstract, go to one of the workshops and give
it a try, or learn how to do ICM if you’ve never done it before. Try shooting
Street Photography, maybe in Black and White?
Sharing what you’ve learned is a big part of this club. Try something new
and do a presentation on it during Members’ Night or write a blog article
about it. The most effective way to learn something new is to teach it. We
are also a social club and sharing helps build friendships. One of the best
ways to learn is to share with our friends.
For the last year and a half or so my focus has been outside the club. My
goal was to make connections with various media outlets and the two
biggest clubs in Canada, and other organizations. This was a big win for us
for the 80 th anniversary as it got our name out to the larger world and
showcased the talent in our club. Connections with other big camera clubs
has allowed us to share ideas and build bonds.
We succeeded in those goals and now I want to focus inward into the club.
We need to build our social bonds and friendships within the club. I’ve
noticed as we get newer members a lot of them are only staying for a year
or two. We need to fix that and make sure no one feels left out. My contacts
with the other big clubs have given the board some ideas on some things to
try. That will be an agenda item for the rest of this photography season.
Thanks again to so many members who worked so hard this year to make
our 80 th the success it was. This celebration will go down in club lore as one
of the best years of our club.
James Dies – President – Victoria Camera Club
