In Focus: May 17 - 23

May 16

An Old Favorite - by Thom Hightower — *An Old Favorite -* by Thom Hightower

This weekly list of OPCC events, reminders, and news is compiled by Lori Moilanen. Please send information on upcoming events, news items, and corrections to mail@olympicpeakscameraclub.org. This newsletter is currently published weekly on Sunday evenings. The deadline for new submissions for the following week is Friday at midnight.

MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER

The cover photo this week is An Old Favorite by Thom Hightower.

Thom and his wife moved to the Olympic Peninsula in 2015 after he retired from his career as a critical care nurse and hospital administrator. They currently live in Crescent Bay, a short distance from Salt Creek Recreation Area.

Thom’s interest in photography began in his late teenage years, as a way to document his travels and backpacking trips after joining the military for a 3 1/2 year stint.. Over the years he’s used Rollei and Canon camera bodies for film photography. He once owned a prized Arca Swiss camera; sadly, it was stolen in Italy before he had a chance to take a single image.

Thom currently shoots with a Fujifilm X-Pro 1 mirrorless camera that he’s had for a while. He’s considering upgrading soon to a newer Fujifilm camera.

Thom and his wife love to travel, especially to Europe. So it’s not surprising that Thom’s primary interests are travel and landscape photography. He enjoys creating images in “empty” urban spaces when he gets an opportunity. He also likes creating infrared images, particularly of landscapes and architecture. Taking photos (and in the past doing darkroom work) is almost a form of meditation for him - he likes the feeling of being “in the zone” when focused on creating an image. He strives to fully capture an image in camera, so that minimal post processing is required. In a way, photography is more about the journey than the destination for him, he says. Photographers who’ve influenced his learning and work include Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Wynn Bullock, and Michael Kenna.

Thom joined OPCC around 2019 after visiting the club exhibit at the new Sequim Museum and talking to OPCC member Lewis Bennett about club activities.He appreciates the opportunity to view the work of other photographers, share his own work, and get feedback that will inspire and improve his photography. Thom is participating in the NWCCC 2021 Traveling Digital Salon and recently volunteered a photo for our Member Share Night “Your Photo My Way” editing challenge. Like most of us, he looks forward to having in-person conversations with fellow photographers in the not-to-distant future.

Crescent Bay/Tongue Point - Infrared Exposure — *Crescent Bay/Tongue Point - Infrared Exposur*e

NEWS

Quote of the Week

“People are under the illusion that it's easy...Technically, it is complex. You have a million options with equipment to distract you. I tell my students to simplify their equipment.” – Brett Weston

New OPCC Email Address - IMPORTANT Please Update Your Address Book

Like many other organizations and businesses right now, OPCC has suddenly been seeing some of our recent emails intercepted by the spam filters used by email service providers. Colleen Bittner and Lori Moilanen have been working behind the scenes to track and troubleshoot this situation, to determine whether there are additional steps we can take to ensure that our emails to members are not intercepted.

As part of the effort by Colleen, our club email address has been changed to mail@olympicpeakscameraclub.org. We need you to put this new email address into your address book in your email system. To do this, go in and create a new "person" called first name Olympic, last name Peaks with the above email address.

This will allow our Mailchimp-sent emails to get to you and hopefully not go into junk folder or bounce back all together. Many email services updated recently and are blocking group emails from getting to you. This new address, put into your address book, should help eliminate that.

Be on the Lookout for an OPCC Field Trip Survey

Watch for a Field Trip Survey in your email inbox this week. Field Trip Chair Sandy Woods would like OPCC member feedback on the current level of comfort with resuming in-person field trips.

Help STILL Wanted - Please Volunteer to Support the Activities and Goals of OPCC

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, there are currently three open positions in the Executive Committee as a result of changing roles necessitated by Jonas’s passing. The job descriptions for the open positions are listed below. Please consider joining the great group of dedicated members already onboard., to help the club maintain its activities and make plans for the future. Several of our board members are doing double duty - serving in more than one position - so it would be great to have some new faces. For more information on the members and responsibilities of the Executive Committee, visit the OPCC “Meet Your Board” webpage by clicking HERE. Please contact OPCC President Bruce Fryxell (opcc4info@gmail.com) if you’d like to join the OPCC team.

Vice President

Performs the duties of the president in the absence of the president or during a vacancy in that office. Works with the president on management of the club and advises the president on all club-related matters.

Membership Chair

Maintains the membership list and posts updates to the list on the club website. Maintains the calendar e-mail list. Acts as the official club greeter. Provides name badges for all members at in-person meetings.

Print Chair

The Print Chair is responsible for displaying prints for OPCC competitions as well as other programs presented at, or by the club.

You Be The Judge - NWCCC 2021 Traveling Digital Salon OPCC Round 2 Voting Results

In Round 2 of of the Northwest Council of Camera Clubs (NWCCC) Traveling Digital Salon back in April, OPCC members voted for their five favorite images in the submission from the Bellingham Photography Club. The top 7 images based on OPCC voting are shown below. Are your favorites there? Please note that some images are cropped in this view. To view all images submitted by the Bellingham Photography Club in their full glory, click HERE.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

OPCC Executive Committee Meeting - Tuesday May 18 at 6:30 PM via Zoom

OPCC members are welcome to attend as observers. For a copy of the agenda, email OPCC President Bruce Fryxell at opcc4info@gmail.com. To access the meeting, use the Zoom code provided on the OPCC Website Zoom Codes webpage by clicking HERE.

OPCC Education Night: Post Processing Tips & Tricks From Our Members - Thursday May 20 at 6:00 PM via Zoom

From OPCC Program Chair Ardythe Wendt: Our May Education Night will be a bit different. We will have various OPCC members sharing tips and tricks that can help during post processing or just be a bit of fun to play with. If anyone has any tricks or tips that are more relevant to the photo process or camera please let me know (opcc4education@gmail.com), so we can possibly add that to our presentation. Join us, there will be time for questions that will no doubt provide even more in the way of suggestions as to how to solve a variety of issues.

To access the meeting, use the Zoom code provided on the OPCC Website Zoom Codes webpage by clicking HERE.

ONGOING ACTIVITIES

Member Share Night - Monthly Themes and More

CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR THEME TITLE BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. For questions, contact Share Night/Projection Chair Susan White at opccphotos@gmail.com.

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