Eastern Maine Camera Club

Frank H. Howd Scholarship $1,500 towards a week at Maine Media Workshops

NECCC Convention Sponsorship for a High School Student

NECCC Convention Sponsorship for a Club Member

We are very pleased to have three educational opportunities available for us to give away.

The first is the Frank H. Howd Scholarship which is money we raise through fund raisers to  help promote and educate budding young photographers. This scholarship program was started a few years ago in memory of a member that helped shape the club into the vibrant organization that it has become. It began with seed money that came to us in his memory from Frank's family and friends. We are working hard to preserve that memory by continuing to raise money and periodically give out this scholarship.

First the particulars, then some more background on the program. Application notices went out to area high school art teachers this week, we also issued press releases to the local newspapers.

One time award of $1,500 will be granted for a course at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport Maine.

Open to greater Bangor area high school students, recent high school graduates, and home schooled students who are in this age range.

Application required and must be postmarked by May 1, 2011. Here is the link to the application. http://easternmainecameraclub.org/frank-h-howd-scholarship.aspx

This amount doesn’t always go very far toward formal education programs even though it is a tough job for us to raise this much for our small group. In the hopes of supporting not only a Maine Student but also a small but world renowned school right here in Maine we specify the award is to be paid to the school on the students behalf. Most of the Maine Media Workshop’s classes are 1 week long and this scholarship would cover most of the expense for the week including the course fees, and on campus room and board for the week. Here is a link to the schools website and course listings. http://www.mainemedia.edu/workshops/

The second is the NECCC Convention Sponsorship for a High School Student. The NECCC convention is held every summer at UMASS – Amherst, Ma. This is the largest convention of its type in the United States, and this is its 65^thyear. This three day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) convention is a fantastic opportunity to learn, experiment, and immerse yourself in world of photography. Some of the top photographers, photo journalists, and photo educators of the world participate in over 100 workshop sessions throughout the weekend. Only 6 sponsorships are available. Sponsorship includes:

Resistration

Room and board

Chaperons

Does not include transportation to and from Amherst but arrangements can be made to ride with a club member that is going.

Contact Chuck Rohn through my cell phone 949-0757 or email president@easternmainecameraclub.org

Third, is a NECCC Convention Sponsorship for an existing club member that has never attended the convention before. This sponsorship only includes the registration fees and does not include transportation or room and board. Contact Chuck Rohn through my cell phone 949-0757 or email president@easternmainecameraclub.org if your are interested in being considered for this years convention sponsorship.

Thanks for listening. Chuck Rohn - President

Two posts ago I gave some examples of the Grunge Style. One of the feedback questions asked for confirmation that the next competition category was any Abstract, Grunge, or HDR. This is correct any of the heavy manipulation genre is acceptable for the next meeting. So see what you can produce. This will be difficult to judge because the images will likely be extremely varied. The impact of the image and the emotion that it brings to the viewer will likely produce the highest scores. After all this is an art form and just applying filters will not be enough. The image needs to grab our attention, make us laugh or cry, or catch us off guard. As always the basics must be there like high quality prints, good exposure, and great composition just to put your image in the running but then you will need that something extra that is hard to define.

Here is a link to John Paul Caponigro's website. John is a world renowned artist using imagery and imagination in his work, and he lives right here in Cushing Maine. One of his slide show galleries is located at this link:

http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/gallery/scroll.php

check it out, you may find some inspiration here.

 Good Luck and I hope to see you next Thursday

Chuck Rohn - President

Last Thursday night we had a fantastic presentation and demonstration by James Daigle. James is a veteran fashion photographer with years of experience and a list of credits too long to begin to cover here.

Several club members and James spent a couple of hours setting up three sets with different lighting and backgrounds. We also set up a couple of cameras with WiFi and Tethered connections to a projector so we could view the images as they were taken.

James began with a half hour slide show and commentary on his career, techniques, and hints on what works and what doesn't. A team of Hair and Makeup Artists from Deja'Vu Salon arrived right on que with several models and wardrobes for the demonstration. It was fascinating to see how professionals work together as a team from the models intuitive understanding of James' instructions, to the Hair and Makeup Artists constantly making adjustments, and James finding just the right light, angle and  composition as they made great images together.

As James worked he explained the relationship between the possible intent of each image and the techniques used to get the shot. At times the image was about the outfit (wedding dress, Jacket, Jeans) itself, or the emotion of the model, or the relation between the two models being photographed.

Although it was standing room only from 6 PM to 9 PM no one was anxious for the presentation to be over. Here is one of the images from the shoot.

We are hoping to set up a full day workshop with James some time in the near future. Look for more information here and we hope to see you there.

Thanks again to Deja'Vu Salon, the Models who volunteered to help us, and a special thanks to James Daigle for agreeing to come and do this presentation.

Chuck Rohn - President

I promised to get a few samples up. Now all I have to do is figure out the best way to do that so that all of our members can EASILY get to and view them. This is one attempt but I may change the method or duplicate the posts as I work with Kevin to better understand the hows and whys of this site.

I hope you enjoy these and that they help set the stage for our competition next week.

Make sure you also read the blog entry that Don Darling has posted http://easternmainecameraclub.org/the-vaguely-viewfinder-blog.aspx that is an excellent discussion of these techniques, software, and even a link to free software that aids in producing this look.

Don't be confused by the HDR references and think that this Grunge stuff is the same as HDR, It is not. Grunge is only a style that can be achieved with HDR software or processing where the process is somewhat over done. Grunge can also be achieved with other non HDR processes such as Topaz plug in routines that operate on only one image and does not merge multiple images taken with multiple exposure settings.

Please add comments so that we can begin to explore the new features of this website. 

Thanks - Chuck Rohn - President

Site Design 3 is the winner.  Here are all the results: