In Focus: January 31 - February 13
Photo Credit: Judy Larimore, Monterey Jellies
This twice monthly list of OPCC events, reminders, and news is compiled by Lori Moilanen. Please send information on upcoming events, news items, and corrections to opcc4mail@gmail.com. This newsletter is currently published twice monthly on Sunday evenings in advance of our first and third Thursday meetings. The deadline for new submissions for the next newsletter is Friday February 11.
MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Our cover photo this week is Monterey Jellies by new member Judy Larimore. Judy was previously a member of OPCC for a few years just after moving to Sequim. She rejoined this year after encountering Bruce Fryxell and Ellen Bogenschutz during the OPCC Holiday Lights Field Trip at Railroad Bridge Park and learning about current club activities.
Judy moved to Sequim in 2002 from the Monterey Peninsula. She grew up on a Kansas wheat farm but always had an equal love for mountains and oceans. She started her interest in photography at the age of 12 with a Brownie Camera that she used to photograph her dog Sparky and later her horse.
Her next photography chapter involved marriage and taking hundreds of reels of 8mm movie footage, 40,000 slides and prints of three children and travel over the years. For twenty years she carried a heavy, metal 1960 Nikkormat film camera with a 200 zoom lens to Europe several times documenting travel trips. Those who know how heavy that combination was can understand how much she loved photography to have carried it around all those years.
Judy enjoys many photographic subjects and has been an avid travel photographer for many years. She took up underwater photography when she became a certified scuba diver in 1983 and has a special fondness for coastal and ocean landscapes.
Over the years Judy used other Nikon cameras including a Nikon DX with a 70-300 mm lens. She currently shoots with a Samsung Ultra 21 5G mobile phone.
Judy has been in over 30 one-woman photography exhibits and her work has been published in several books. Her work is in many private collections such as, the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Hewlett Packard, Monterey Beach Hotel, the Federal Aviation Agency, and the Santa Cruz Farm Bureau. In 2017 her photograph taken on Hurricane Ridge was chosen to hang permanently in the new clinic next to the Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. In 2018 her photograph of a barn was chosen to hang permanently in the Council Chamber of Sequim City Hall. In 2019-2020, two of her photographs were chosen to hang in a National Park ocean exhibit shown at the Sequim and Port Angeles Libraries.
Her work has been influenced by seminars in photography led by National Geographic photographer James Katz, wildlife photographer Art Wolfe, and Ansel Adams Workshop photographer Charles Crammer while living in California.
Besides photography, Judy’s hobbies are travel, writing, painting, enjoying her horse Sierra, and most of all, kayaking with her dog Tucker. She sees everything as a picture and takes photographs everywhere, every day. To sum up her 70 years of photography experience, Judy says “I started out taking pictures on Kansas acreage with a shaggy dog and a horse. I'm ending up taking pictures on Washington acreage with a shaggy dog and a horse.”
Judy Larimore and Tucker
Judy Larimore: Blackberry Lavender Farm
Judy Larimore: Old Barn on E. Runnion
Judy Larimore: Hurricane Ridge
Judy Larimore: Loggerhead Turtle, Belize
Judy Larimore: Hurricane Ridge Business Card
Judy and Her Image on Display at OMC
Judy, Tucker and Jellyfish at Freshwater Bay
NEWS
WOW - There’s a Lot Going on in February!
In addition to our regularly scheduled first Thursday Member Share Night, we’ve got three excellent speakers (all professional photographers) and two field trips on the calendar this month. Plus a new workshop has been announced for March. Read on for more information and also visit the OPCC Events webpage for an overview and links to more information by clicking HERE.
OPCC Board Member Updates
Dan McKenna is our new Member Share Night Chair. Many thanks to Dan for stepping up to fill this position. Dan also serves as our Print Chair.
Past President and Northwest Council of Camera Club (NWCCC) Delegate Rebecca Hanson has been appointed to the Board of Directors of NWCCC. She will also be serving on the 2022 NWCCC Annual Conference Committee.
It’s Time to Renew Your OPCC Membership
Many thanks to everyone who’s already renewed their membership for 2022. If you haven’t renewed yet, please click HERE to access the webpage for joining or renewing online or via U.S. mail. Be sure to read the instructions carefully!
The deadline for membership renewal is January 31 for uninterrupted access to the members-only pages of the OPCC website.
IMPORTANT - The OPCC Member Password Changes February 1
The member password used to access member-only content on the OPCC website will change on February 1. This password is included in the Welcome letter provided to new or renewing members (as a download link for memberships renewed online, emailed to those who renewed by U.S. mail). In addition, an email with the new password will be sent out on February 1 to all members who have joined or renewed for 2022. Please save this password for future reference.
You will need the new password to access the Zoom Codes for our February Member Share Night and guest speakers. If you do not received the password via the welcome letter or the new password email on February 1 (be sure to check your email spam folder), please contact OPCC Membership Chair Mary Swartz (opcc4info@gmail.com).
New Month - New Monthly Theme
The February Monthly Theme for education and photography is “Unique Use of Light in Your Favorite Genre”. Now’s your chance to capture our ever-changing winter light in some unique ways to share at a future OPCC Member Share Night or competition.
Reminder - Deadline for Submitting Images for the OPCC Winter Competition is February 14
The OPCC Winter Competition was announced at the January Member Share Night and is now open for submissions. The deadline for submissions is February 14. See the website for more information and instructions on naming and submitting your images. Click HERE to visit the Competition webpage, then scroll down to the “Essential Information” section for links to instructions and a link for uploading your photo files to Dropbox.
Judging of the competition photos will be done by a PSA judge through the PSA Club Judging Services. Awards will be designated by the judge and the number awards and honorable mentions will be based on the number of entries we receive.
Welcome to Our Newest Members
OPCC would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members - Michael Medler and Mark Baumann. We look forward to meeting you virtually in one of our meetings or in person on an OPCC field trip.
OPCC January Hurricane Ridge Field Trip Report
OPCC Field Trip Chair Ellen Bogenschutz shared that the first field trip of 2022 was a great success. Here’s her report:
Peg and Jim Hanson, Peggy McClure, Pat Warner, and Ellen Bogenschutz had a wonderful time on Hurricane Ridge on Saturday January 29. Multi-tasking by learning snowshoeing and taking epic photographs of the Olympic Mountains made for a full day of fun.
Transportation, snowshoes, and guiding were provided by the Olympic Hiking Company. Tommy was a wonderful field guide and shared his vast knowledge of the park and named off all the peaks we were seeing and photographing. I highly recommend their company for guided tours all around the Olympic Peninsula.
I declare complete success for our first field trip of the year and fully look forward to all the field trips planned for 2022! I encourage your participation, because you will be missing out on adventure and camaraderie if you skip any of the trips planned. A full listing of future field trips can be found in the Field Trips List on the OPCC website (Click HERE to access). You can also view scheduled field trips for the current month on the OPCC Events webpage and for the coming year in the OPCC Interactive Calendar (also on the Events webpage - scroll down to view). Monthly field trips have been planned to coincide with OPCC Education Nights, so skills and inspiration shared by our presenters can be applied to your photography.
Please visit the Field Trip Gallery on the OPCC website (click HERE to visit) for photos of this trip and past field trips.
If you have ideas or suggestions for future field trips, or are willing to lead an outing, please shoot Ellen an email (fieldtrips4opcc@gmail.com).
OPCC February Field Trip Information Posted
Information on the OPCC February Still Life Field Trip has been posted to the OPCC website. Click HERE to visit the The Still Life Field Trip webpage for full details.
Here’s an overview from OPCC Field Trip Chair Ellen Bogenschutz:
Rinzi Ruiz, our second speaker in the month of February, will be discussing using light in Street Photography. With his inspiration, go out, seek, and use light in your favorite genre. This field trip will give you an opportunity to experiment with light in Still Life Photography. We’ll be meeting at a local barn to capture rustic still life images both on the interior and the exterior of the building. The barn was built in 1920 on a homestead of 10 acres. You’ll see many of the poles used to erect the building have been left raw, with bark and parts of the branches still on the trunk. It was used as a dairy and to raise turkeys. A special bonus is that the owner of the barn, Millie Harrell, who grew up on the farm when it was run as a dairy, is a local stained-glass artist with her studio adjacent to the barn. We will have the opportunity to capture some “artist at work” photos and her “tools of the trade”. Also she has some really lovely and friendly hens that are quite photogenic.
Join the group on Saturday February 19, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to capture direct light, indirect light, diffused light, spot light…If you have a flash, this could be a good place to practice on set-up vignettes and corners of interest you may just find.
Please contact Ellen (fieldtrips4opcc@gmail.com) and let her know if you will be attending, as it would be nice to get an idea of how many people will be there.
New OPCC Long-Exposure Photography Workshop Announced
Member Share Night/Print Chair Dan McKenna has announced a new OPCC workshop that will explore long-exposure photography. The workshop will feature a local field trip near Sequim (March 18), a Seattle field trip (March 26) and a post-processing webinar via Zoom (March 30). Details will be provided in the next In Focus newsletter and on the OPCC website.
COMING UP THIS WEEK AND NEXT
Extended: Deadline for Submitting Images for February Member Share Night - Monday January 31, 11:00 PM
Submit up to three (3) images total per member for sharing. For formatting instructions and the Dropbox Upload link, visit the OPCC Member Share Night webpage. Click HERE to access the Member Share Night webpage and then scroll down to the “Essential Information” section for links.
OPCC Member Share Night - Thursday, February 3 at 6:00 PM via Zoom
Special Topic for February: Winter/Snow
Join other OPCC members at the monthly Member Share Night meeting to to catch up on the latest news, greet new members, and view member-submitted photos.
Use the OPCC Member Share Night Zoom Code to access this meeting.
Contact OPCC Member Share Night Chair Dan McKenna (opccphotos@gmail.com) if you have questions.
Special Presentation: Guest Speaker Viktoria Haack - Thursday February 10 at 6:00 PM
Viktoria Haack - People, Places, and Dogs
Viktoria Haack is a Nikon Canada Ambassador and Lowepro Global Ambassador who shoots across several different photographic genres. During her presentation, Viktoria will walk you through some of her influences, thought processes, and techniques for creating her images.
Use the OPCC Education Night Zoom Code to access this meeting.
Olympia Camera Club Field Trip: Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge - Saturday February 12. Meet at the refuge between 10:00 - 10:30 AM.
The Olympia Camera club has invited OPCC members to join them for a field trip at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Winter is the best time to view large numbers of ducks, geese, swans and other migratory birds that use the area as a resting place.
Drive time to Ridgefield NWR from Sequim is approximately 3.5 - 4 hours. For full field trip details visit the Ridgefield NWR Field Trip Page on the OPCC website by clicking HERE.
Deadline for Submitting Images for the OPCC Winter Competition - Monday February 14, 11:00 PM.
Click HERE to visit the Competition webpage, then scroll down to the “Essential Information” section for links to rules, formatting instructions, and a link for uploading your photo files to Dropbox.
Contact OPCC Competition Chair Peggy McClure (opcc.competition@gmail.com) if you have questions.