"Beresford" .........................Jim Mason
As another year rapidly draws to a close, we can refect on 2004 as being another successful year in many respects. Membership has remained stable throughout with a steady trickle of new members offsetting those who have moved on. Although the interests of our members are many and varied we continued to cater for their needs to the best of our ability with a diversity of photographic activities with an emphasis on the social aspect.
The outset of the new year saw the onerous task of my filling the shoes of ex-president Joe Cali, however, his continued efforts to beaver away in the background gave us much reason to give him hearty thanks. Included among these is the management of his finely honed system of e-mail communication which quickly disseminated information to the majority of members when last minute decisions or reminders became necessary. His efforts to provide courses in photographic skill to members, his convening of the Subcommittee for the proposed Society's 60th Anniversary Exhibition at CMAG in 2006 and general assistance with the Society's Annual Exhibition were all happening and very much appreciated by all concerned. Joe's maintenance of the current rses website was undertaken later in the year and his offer to design a new Society website has recently been given the go-ahead by the committee.
Always well-attended with a wealth of freshly prepared work from our talented members were the monthly Competition nights. These events remained the most popular way of showcasing our images on a regular basis as well as a means to having gauged our standard with our peers with the added bonus of a few handy tips from an invited judge. At nearly the conclusion of her second year as convenor of the Competitions Subcommittee, congratulations are bestowed upon Bronwyn Hendy as Director (assisted by Bill and Jim) who will later report on the outcome of the past competition year. Bronwyn will be seeking a successor for this portfolio in the coming year.
The Activity Nights program, headed by myself (with team members Marion and Bill), continued to receive positive feedback from most in attendance. Invited guest speakers included Tim Brook and Ruth Hingston who presented us with an account of their experiences as resident artists at "the summer residence at Haefleger's cottage, Hill End". Jeff Cutting, a noted local photographer renowned for his dramatic bushfire images, gave us a superb show of his work. Brad Ferguson presented us with a viewing of his fine art series of interpreted "cloud" images and Linda Groom, the Pictures Librarian from the National Library, treated us with a small cross-section of very interesting historic images from their extensive collection. Finally, on behalf of Nancy Smith from the Murray Bridge Camera Club, and in preparation for the then forthcoming "Freestyle" competition, there was a showing of a collection of Nancy's creative slides with text explanation of the methods she used to achieve her objectives.
Presentations given by society members also proved popular and included short talks from people on "Famous and Infamous Photographers". Bill Hall and I gave separate talks with slide accompaniment on "Hyperfocal Focussing" and "Painting the Desert" respectively and Bob Legge, our resident historian, presented us with a stimulating account of the "History of the Canberra Photographic Society".
Other activity nights included the Open Image Forum sessions or BYO as referred to by some members. As well as follow-up nights to showcase work from recent excursions, these "show and tell" presentations also served to demonstrate the use of photographic techniques or simply gave members the opportunity to show and invite discussion on completed projects or work in progress. There were five of these nights throughout the year. On the lighter side, two separate restaurant nights were well supported, namely the La Cappana Pizzeria at Kingston and the Ayutthaya Thai of Belconnen. Both proved to be totally enjoyable occasions, a perfect way to top off the social calendar, get to know one another better and catch up on the latest news in digital hardware.
Congratulations are also in order to the excursions Subcommittee headed by Bronwyn Hendy and assisted by Kathleen and Colin, all who successfully organised two major and well attended excursions throughout the year. The March event took a group of enthusiastic photographers to Cowra and environs to avail themselves of the richly abundant subjects of rural interest inherent to this area. As a follow-up to this event, a special competition featuring various aspects of predetermined subject matter was undertaken on the following Activity Night with substantial rewards for the successful entrants.
The other October excursion took a large group into the high country to photograph the outstanding alpine landscape and of course savour the culinary delights found in this area. Our hearty thanks again to the Excursion Subcommittee's organising prowess, Joe Cali's tour-guide expertise and Peter Dawson for supplying the superb accommodation at the Canberra Alpine Club in Jindabyne.
Although scantily attended, other local smaller excursions were organised, one to the Lennox Gardens lake side for a sunset shoot followed by the Australian Museum at night and the other to the National Botanic Gardens for some native flower macro photography.
A job well done by the Exhibitions Subcommittee headed by Ron Travers (with Kathleen, Ray and Ross) who, after much preparation and "twisting of arms" for framed work from members, hung the Society's Annual Exhibition entitled "Pictures on Walls" at the Strathnairn Homestead Gallery in Holt. Special thanks go to Kathleen for the preparation of an excellent catalogue and to all volunteers who supplied and assisted in the many tasks. The official opening festivities were well attended and included a sausage sizzle, food platters and appropriate liquid refreshment.
Other exhibitions by individual members included one in February by Marie Lund with three other local photographers and another by Joe Cali both at the Criterion Café at Braidwood. A solo exhibition in May by Kathleen Fisher at the Arte Café in Bungendore entitled "Moments of Wine". A group exhibition at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre featuring Marie Lund and others and an exhibition of theatre photography at the ANU by Ross Gould both current in November.
Following the convening of the Society's 60th Anniversary Exhibition Subcommittee by Joe Cali earlier in the year, preparations in readiness for the submission in May next year were rather scant to date. In order to assist in the preparation of portfolios from less experienced members, Joe prepared a special short course on basic photographic technique. It was however, unfortunate that insufficient numbers dictated the abandonment of the course for the time being. Despite this set back, serious preparation of the CMAG submission will need be stepped up in the new year.
Following the print cataloguing and selection preparations for the Weidemann Retrospective Exhibition undertaken in the previous year, Joe Cali recently held discussions with Denise Ferris of the ANU School of Art and currently awaits confirmation of details of their offer to exhibit the work perhaps on a shared basis.
Due to pressures from outside the Society, Ron Travers has announced that after this year he will be reluctantly stepping down from his duties as Secretary as well as the exhibition portfolio that was under his control. In addition to these duties he successfully negotiated a more economical policy of Public Liability earlier this year to which we now contribute. It is with regret that we lose his valuable services; thanks Ron and well done for your efforts over the previous few years.
As Public Officer as well as Publicity Officer, Ray Osmotherly again excelled in his duty by utilising the services of local newspaper advertisements and local photographic outlets for all event publicity. Despite a few initial teething issues, Society accounts and financial records have been well maintained by Peter Dawson as Treasurer. Other duties by members of the committee included the maintenance of the library (Ray), collections (Jim), equipment (Colin), raffles (Ron, Ray and Marion), catering (Jim) and newsletter distribution (Peter).
Apart from verbal and e-mail announcements, all of the above news and proposed events can only be successfully disseminated to members by means of an informative, attractive and timely monthly newsletter. For many years our "Humble scribe" Colin Rickard has meticulously prepared the pages of The Cassette with thorough reportage, quality images and his clever brand of wit. However, he intends to scale down these efforts for the coming year leaving huge boots to fill so, on behalf of us all, congratulations Colin for a job well done.
No group such as our Society is immune from "change" in some way or another. The arrival of the age of digital imaging in recent years has meant that we must finetune our yearly programs in order to remain relevant and satisfy the needs of our members who follow this path. By the same token we must continue to provide assistance for those who prefer to enjoy the traditional methods of image making. In the later half of this year and convened by Marion Milliken, your committee met on several occasions and resolved to invite suggestions from the membership in order to take a closer look at future directions and devise suitable program objectives for the coming year that reflected those needs. Particularly mindful of expected learning needs of some new members, other issues relating to all our activities were considered and put into place where necessary and where possible. Many thanks to Marion who put quality time and effort into this process.
Again, this has been a good year for the Society. Successful events, good planning and well organised activities are only going to succeed with an enthusiastic committee working together. We continue to move forward, well done and thankyou to everyone for assisting and participating.
Jim Mason
President, Canberra Photographic Society Inc
16 November 2004