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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
New photo club taking shape
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published September 24, 2009 Here's an announcement for any and all photography aficionados out there. The Art League of Baytown is facilitating the formation of a new club, this one devoted to photography.
Here's how it has come about:
The Art League held its first ever photo exhibit with a display that went up on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ike at the League's Art Center of Baytown, located on Texas Avenue. The display features photos from before, during and after the storm and the public was encouraged to submit photos and be a part of the display.
We got in some wonderful photos and heard a lot of comments from people who were excited to have their photos displayed.
(That exhibit will be up through the end of the month so go check it out if you haven't already.)
Knowing a lot of photography enthusiasts, when I heard some of those comments, I got to thinking, why not start a photography club as an offshoot of the Art League?
I talked it over with The Sun's photographer, Nicki Evans, and with a former Sun reporter (now working free-lance) Stacy Parent. They both thought my ideas were good and had some suggestions of their own. Last Friday I went to the Art Center and talked about it with the Art League members who were there that day. That happened to include the current League president, Bobby Sutphin, the president from last year, Barbara Green, and another former president, Priscilla Hopkins. They liked the idea as well and asked me to present it at the League's regular monthly meeting which was on Sunday.
So with the help of Stacy Parent to get me past my fear of public speaking, I did just that. The members liked the idea and voted their approval. We put out a sign-up sheet for the club and quite a few people signed up.
So, the first meeting of the new photography club will be at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday in October at the Art Center.
Here is the basic information.
The club will be open to any photography enthusiast - amateurs and pros and anyone in between.
We will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of each month at the Art Center. Everyone who comes to the meetings will be asked to contribute a dollar. Those dollars will be given to the Art League for a purpose you will soon learn. At each meeting a photo subject will be assigned. It could be anything ... birds, children, joy, Baytown, flowers, red (anything of that color) multiples or just whatever comes to mind. We'll take suggestions and figure out how to decide on that each month. For this first month, I get to decide so I pick .... FLOWERS. That should be easy. We can all find flowers.
At the next meeting, everyone should bring the favorite of their photos that they took on the assigned subject and yes, if they already had a favorite photo that fits the subject, they can turn over that one. Those photos (let’s make them 8x10s) will then be displayed over the next month at the Art Center with the contributed dollars used to pay for the display space. The contribution will stay at a single dollar as long as enough people participate - we have to pay our way with the Art League, just as the members of the League have to pay their way when they rent a space to display their work at the Art Center.
That's it. No dues for now. No pressure. No strings.
The photos will stay up for a month, then the photographers can get them back when the next display goes up.
I figure this will benefit both the photo enthusiasts and the Art League.
What we end up with is a new club for photographers and a permanent revolving photo display for the Art Center.
The Art League will make some money for rental of the display space. They should also benefit just from having new people coming into the Art Center and Gallery. I figure the photographers in the club will come not only for the meetings, but also to see the photo display. Hopefully some of their friends and family members will come as well so we'll have more people looking at the art on display and for sale there - the paintings, the photographs, the jewelry, pottery and other creations from the Art League members. Probably some of the photographers in the photo club will end up joining the Art League and that will be a good thing too.
The photographers will have the opportunity to have their work displayed in a gallery. They will also get to know other people who share their interest in photography and have a new social network, new opportunities for activities revolving around photography and maybe some more benefits that I haven't figured out yet.
We will be working out the details as we go but in talking with some other people who are planning to be a part of this, I've heard a lot of good ideas. They want to organize group shoots, probably on weekends, where anyone who is interested will meet at a pre-planned site and everybody takes photos. It is interesting, they say, to compare what photos people come back with from such events. At some point we want to bring some people in to speak and educate at our meetings, perhaps sharing information on things like printing, how best to matte and frame a photo, digital photography techniques, photo software and other topics.
Like I said, details will need to be worked out. We'll talk about that at the first meeting and no doubt some things will evolve as we figure out how best to handle things.
We are very lucky to see this new club born into the nurturing hands of the Art League of Baytown and I thank my fellow League members for that.
One important note: this is not my club. It was just my connections with the Art League and some photographers that led me to be able to try to get it started. In the near future the members will figure out how the club should run. I just want to be a participant for a while.
We do need to come up with a name ... Baytown Photo Club is really too boring. I've gathered a few suggestions: Hot Shots, Photomaniacs and The Third Eye (thank you Priscilla for that one). More suggestions are welcomed and we'll pick one at the first meeting.
So if you have an interest in photography and want to get together with like-minded others, please join us and be a part of getting this thing off the ground.
Anyone who is interested should come to that first meeting to learn more - 6:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5 at the Art Center of Baytown, 110 West Texas Avenue. You can also e-mail me at bubba.lee(at)hotmail.com. Please put photo club in the subject line.
Remember, the first shooting subject is FLOWERS.
Why not?
I like flowers.
Contributor Published September 24, 2009 Here's an announcement for any and all photography aficionados out there. The Art League of Baytown is facilitating the formation of a new club, this one devoted to photography.
Here's how it has come about:
The Art League held its first ever photo exhibit with a display that went up on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ike at the League's Art Center of Baytown, located on Texas Avenue. The display features photos from before, during and after the storm and the public was encouraged to submit photos and be a part of the display.
We got in some wonderful photos and heard a lot of comments from people who were excited to have their photos displayed.
(That exhibit will be up through the end of the month so go check it out if you haven't already.)
Knowing a lot of photography enthusiasts, when I heard some of those comments, I got to thinking, why not start a photography club as an offshoot of the Art League?
I talked it over with The Sun's photographer, Nicki Evans, and with a former Sun reporter (now working free-lance) Stacy Parent. They both thought my ideas were good and had some suggestions of their own. Last Friday I went to the Art Center and talked about it with the Art League members who were there that day. That happened to include the current League president, Bobby Sutphin, the president from last year, Barbara Green, and another former president, Priscilla Hopkins. They liked the idea as well and asked me to present it at the League's regular monthly meeting which was on Sunday.
So with the help of Stacy Parent to get me past my fear of public speaking, I did just that. The members liked the idea and voted their approval. We put out a sign-up sheet for the club and quite a few people signed up.
So, the first meeting of the new photography club will be at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday in October at the Art Center.
Here is the basic information.
The club will be open to any photography enthusiast - amateurs and pros and anyone in between.
We will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of each month at the Art Center. Everyone who comes to the meetings will be asked to contribute a dollar. Those dollars will be given to the Art League for a purpose you will soon learn. At each meeting a photo subject will be assigned. It could be anything ... birds, children, joy, Baytown, flowers, red (anything of that color) multiples or just whatever comes to mind. We'll take suggestions and figure out how to decide on that each month. For this first month, I get to decide so I pick .... FLOWERS. That should be easy. We can all find flowers.
At the next meeting, everyone should bring the favorite of their photos that they took on the assigned subject and yes, if they already had a favorite photo that fits the subject, they can turn over that one. Those photos (let’s make them 8x10s) will then be displayed over the next month at the Art Center with the contributed dollars used to pay for the display space. The contribution will stay at a single dollar as long as enough people participate - we have to pay our way with the Art League, just as the members of the League have to pay their way when they rent a space to display their work at the Art Center.
That's it. No dues for now. No pressure. No strings.
The photos will stay up for a month, then the photographers can get them back when the next display goes up.
I figure this will benefit both the photo enthusiasts and the Art League.
What we end up with is a new club for photographers and a permanent revolving photo display for the Art Center.
The Art League will make some money for rental of the display space. They should also benefit just from having new people coming into the Art Center and Gallery. I figure the photographers in the club will come not only for the meetings, but also to see the photo display. Hopefully some of their friends and family members will come as well so we'll have more people looking at the art on display and for sale there - the paintings, the photographs, the jewelry, pottery and other creations from the Art League members. Probably some of the photographers in the photo club will end up joining the Art League and that will be a good thing too.
The photographers will have the opportunity to have their work displayed in a gallery. They will also get to know other people who share their interest in photography and have a new social network, new opportunities for activities revolving around photography and maybe some more benefits that I haven't figured out yet.
We will be working out the details as we go but in talking with some other people who are planning to be a part of this, I've heard a lot of good ideas. They want to organize group shoots, probably on weekends, where anyone who is interested will meet at a pre-planned site and everybody takes photos. It is interesting, they say, to compare what photos people come back with from such events. At some point we want to bring some people in to speak and educate at our meetings, perhaps sharing information on things like printing, how best to matte and frame a photo, digital photography techniques, photo software and other topics.
Like I said, details will need to be worked out. We'll talk about that at the first meeting and no doubt some things will evolve as we figure out how best to handle things.
We are very lucky to see this new club born into the nurturing hands of the Art League of Baytown and I thank my fellow League members for that.
One important note: this is not my club. It was just my connections with the Art League and some photographers that led me to be able to try to get it started. In the near future the members will figure out how the club should run. I just want to be a participant for a while.
We do need to come up with a name ... Baytown Photo Club is really too boring. I've gathered a few suggestions: Hot Shots, Photomaniacs and The Third Eye (thank you Priscilla for that one). More suggestions are welcomed and we'll pick one at the first meeting.
So if you have an interest in photography and want to get together with like-minded others, please join us and be a part of getting this thing off the ground.
Anyone who is interested should come to that first meeting to learn more - 6:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5 at the Art Center of Baytown, 110 West Texas Avenue. You can also e-mail me at bubba.lee(at)hotmail.com. Please put photo club in the subject line.
Remember, the first shooting subject is FLOWERS.
Why not?
I like flowers.