Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia

Due to the pandemic, our usual meeting place, the Museum of Natural History became unavailable in late March 2020. We cancelled all our meetings and activities for the remainder of the 2019-2020 season and our Executive held several online meetings throughout the summer to test online solutions and decide about the upcoming year. We knew that the Museum would not be available (if at all) until later in the 2020-2021 season, so we have decided to keep our regular schedule and move to online meetings using the WebEx platform to protect our membership, many of whom are seniors. By adopting Public Health Guidelines, wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing, we have also been able to safely have outdoor field trips.

The Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia (PGNS) is a member of CAPA and PSA (Photographic Society of America) and we participate in interclub competitions in both organizations. To keep active in these competitions, we developed an in-house solution for online judging, as the available options did not fully meet our requirements. With this, we think that the Guild is ready for the challenging new season.

Our PSA Representative, Viki Gaul, brought to the Executive’s attention that Lisa Langell, a renowned photographer from Arizona was offering free webinars to PSA clubs. Lisa was happy to hear from us and we set up a date and time for the webinar, titled “The Power of Contrast”. Lisa mentioned that we were free to invite other clubs in the region.

In the spirit of the Atlantic Bubble, we invited the CAPA members and clubs in Atlantic Region as well as other non-CAPA clubs in Nova Scotia to join us for the talk. When Lisa started her presentation, we enjoyed a little over 100 photographers on the webinar.

Lisa’s webinar focused on how contrast leads our eyes around the image. She used great examples and interactive audience participation during the presentation to prove this for the attendees. Although many of us knew how the contrast can be used to enhance the images, we learned a bit more about the of psychology of this process and how to use it effectively.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank Lisa Langell (https://www.langellphotography.com) for her presentation and all the photographers in the Atlantic Region who joined us to participate in this excellent webinar.

The PGNS will have many more webinars during the coming months as we remain online until the end of this pandemic.

Laszlo Podor (President of PGNS) and Joyce S.K. Chew (Halifax District CAPA Rep)

September Club Tidbits

Crescent Beach Photography Club – have had a couple of Executive meetings, one via Zoom and the other in person, physically distanced in a park.  We have had one outing and another is planned soon. They do not have Zoom meetings. They are recruiting a new President.

Surrey Photography Club – have had an outdoor Executive Meeting and AGM at a park.  There have been several summer outings, the annual Scavenger Hunt, Take 35, and sunset outings. The last outing of the year is on Sept 28 to Granville Island for some night photography.  They have reluctantly embraced Zoom and the meetings are fairly well attended. SPC has speakers and a judge lined up for the remainder of the year.

Abbotsford Photographic Arts Club – is doing well.  Our new 2020/21 season is underway.  We have installed the Visual Pursuits software and have been developing our new website over the summer.  We are meeting via Zoom like most clubs these days and everyone is happy with our progress given these trying times. APAC has made Phil Dyer a lifetime member for being a member of the club for 30 years. Phil is currently the acting president and treasurer of the club.

Doreen Jung recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Abbotsford Arts Council.  She has been covering the art scene here for many years for the online version of the Abbotsford News as well as volunteering her time at the Kariton Art Gallery. She is also a valued member of APAC and has been arranging for our club to participate in various art gallery shows in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission for several years as well as the local Wine and Art Walks twice a year.

On Saturday Sep 26 we had a club meeting outdoors at Ellwood Park to present our own awards to the winners for the 2019/20 season followed by a short walk-about with our cameras.  There were 20 club members in attendance all socially distanced of course.

Langley Camera Club – continues to thrive despite the obstacles of COVID19.  We have had an article in the local paper and take full advantage of social media for advertising.  This has given us a healthy rate of members renewing and new members joining. We’re full steam a head with our program successfully utilizing Zoom.