First Meeting coming up - it's a Showcase

Hi, all DPCA members and those who would like to enjoy the benefits of a good photography club. We're starting our season on Sept 21 at Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD in Room 308 at 7 pm.

The evening will start with a very short business meeting for the presentation and approval of the coming year's budget. Then we'll get into photography by showing members' photos in a "Showcase." This title means the photos could have been taken at any time and there's no theme. You may want to show recent photos from summer events in your life, but if not there's no time limit for them.

There will be no formal review but we all like to talk about our pictures, so we'll have an open floor comment on all of them. We'll follow that with some other interesting topics. We'll be closing the meeting at 9 pm but you can stay and chat for a little while. In fact, we hope you can come a little early as well.

The images need to get to me before the meeting so I can make up the show. Deadline for that is Wednesday, Sep 16 at midnight. This may be short notice for some, but after all, you've taken photos all summer, haven't you? Let's see the best.

How Showcases Work

The goal of the Showcase is to have members choose three pictures of any subject or subjects and have them projected in a slide show at a meeting. The pictures can have been taken at anytime. Each member's three images will be displayed in your order (1, 2, 3) and the photographer will be asked by the moderator if they would like to comment on their pictures. Each contributor will have up to one minute total to discuss their images. There is no requirement to speak, but we'd all like to hear the pictures' background, why you selected them and what you might have learned in taking the pictures. Ordinarily we post all the pictures on our web page soon after the meeting. Again, your choice.

Please follow the simple procedures here - they haven't changed from last year.

Submission Procedures:

* Up to three JPEG image files (any size or resize to 1024pixels maximum on a side to keep the file size reasonably small) - must be jpegs.
* Rename the files with your name and a sequence number (i.e., john-smith-1, john-smith-2, john-smith-3)
* Email files to showcase@digitalphotoclub.net by Wednesday, Sep 16 (don't be late)
- If you don't want your pictures in the club website gallery put the phrase "Don't publish my pictures on the club website" in your submission email.

A Note About Web Galleries

Images posted on web galleries are subject to being copied and used inappropriately by others and without the photographer's permission. We've taken some steps to ameliorate this problem by using an Adobe Flash gallery and downsizing the pictures to 800 pixels max on a side before posting. These measures are only an inconvenience to pirates. The fact is anyone with the will can digitally copy an image from a screen. I've personally decided to post my images in the club gallery. To me it is worth the benefits from sharing. Everyone should make their own decision about the risk versus the reward and decide whether to post or not.

Double Check

We want to make sure that everyone's pictures make it into the show. Check the following when you email your pics.

* You should receive an automatic email reply something like:

“Your email was received. If you attached images to the email they were also received. Glad you're participating! This is an automatically created response. Please don't reply to this message. We will contact you if there is any issue with your submission. Thanks.”

* You should receive a second short personal email during the week before the showcase or challenge when the pictures are added to the slide show.

* Unless you requested to not post your pictures in a club website gallery your pictures will be included on the club website right after the meeting. If you have second thoughts about the web gallery or have other questions please email me at president@digitalphotoclub.net

That's it. Hope you'll submit up to three images, and come see everyone's on the screen. Enjoy the evening. www.stjohnscollege.edu/events/AN/art/exhibits.shtml


Don Dement - President