The President's Welcome Message
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As it turns out, our 2019-2020 season was very different from what we had expected. The social restrictions following the outbreak of Covid-19 put a big dent on our plans for programming, outings and even competitions. Nonetheless, last year we made it to the end with only a few planning casualties.
Our 2020-2021 season’s meeting will be online for the fall. We will re-evaluate the feasibility of meeting at the church sometime in November. Meanwhile, we have learned how to do online judging and comment sessions. We have also held weekly judging tutorials with very good results. Those of you who attended the online meetings know that we used the free version of WebEx. When the free version was no longer available, we met with officers of the Lakeshore Camera Club and decided to share a WebEx Enterprise account. Between us we have five meeting rooms with a huge number of maximum participants. During the fall, Lakeshore will hold its meeting on Monday evenings and MCC meetings will be held on Wednesdays. In the winter, assuming we are still online, we will switch evenings. In this way, all MCC members may attend the LCC meetings and vise versa. We will also be able to more easily share judges. Although LCC members may observe our competition evenings when the comments are given, they will not be eligible to participate. Similarly, we will not participate in their competitions but may attend their results evenings. We will also share tutorials and outings (although some of these events will have a maximum number of participants). The cost of some speakers will not be shared and those meetings will be closed to the other club. Those meetings will be clearly marked on our calendars. Your Executive continued to work throughout the summer, to ensure that our club meetings and activities would continue in one format or another, for our upcoming year. Here is a brief summary of some of the tasks completed by your Executive last year:
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Our Pictorial Chair, Bashar Dahabra, stepped down after a 3-year stint as Co-Chair and then Chair. Bashar took care of our largest competitions without the benefit of a Co-Chair – this was an amazing accomplishment, given the amount of work required by each competition. Although last year was very demanding on Bashar in his personal life, he was able to organize the judges every time, most of whom were external. Booking the judges is often mentioned as the task least liked by the Chairs. Bravo, Bashar! We hope to see some terrific aviation images from you as a regular member.
Charles Eklove also started the year with no Nature Co-Chair. Luckily, Jacques Stzuke offered his services. Charles also stepped down and Jacques was elected as Chair for this year. It was noted that the submissions to Nature have dropped by 15% compared to the previous year, but we do have 45 members competing in this division.
The Print Division was most affected by the pandemic since it was not possible to get three judges into one room to judge, not to mention the logistical difficulty of transporting and handling prints. The final competition, Print #5, was judged online using digital images, so that the trophies which require statistics from all 15 Club competitions could be calculated and awarded. Pam and
Margaret have been super-organized with their work and done a great job this year.
This year Print competitions will be suspended and in their place Pam and Margaret will run five Challenges. These will each have a theme and the judges will provide comments and select the best images but there will be no scores and no trophy.
Although the pandemic has curtailed our outings, Phillip and Lyne were still able to accompany between fifteen and thirty-five members on seven outings, as well as to host two workshops: water-drops and macro. These events have made a huge contribution to the camera club, encouraging members to try different types of subjects, to socialize with fellow photographers, and also attracting new members. Phillip and Lyne have shown an outstanding dedication to expanding the horizons of our members. Many outing for the 2020-2021 season have been planned, with social distancing practices in effect.
Creating a year’s worth of interesting speakers and educational events is a very challenging process, requiring lots of brain-storming and patience. Lorraine Deslauriers was able to work with Ann Pearson last year, but sadly we lost Ann in May. Ann’s experience and vast number of contacts is irreplaceable, but Lorraine’s program for the upcoming year shows that she is up to the task. The season’s program is quite varied and will have something to interest everyone. Thanks so much for your hard work, Lorraine.
Philippe Laporta has placed all of the images submitted by the MCC to SPPQ competitions on the MCC Google Drive, making it easier to ensure that there are no repeat submissions.
Our CAPA liaison, Carole Pelletier, has been a model of organization, keeping our members on track with all of the CAPA competitions, organizing the selection of images, and taking care of submission to each competition. We have had an exceptionally good year as a competing club, winning two golds, a bronze, and many HMs.
Charles Eklove also started the year with no Nature Co-Chair. Luckily, Jacques Stzuke offered his services. Charles also stepped down and Jacques was elected as Chair for this year. It was noted that the submissions to Nature have dropped by 15% compared to the previous year, but we do have 45 members competing in this division.
The Print Division was most affected by the pandemic since it was not possible to get three judges into one room to judge, not to mention the logistical difficulty of transporting and handling prints. The final competition, Print #5, was judged online using digital images, so that the trophies which require statistics from all 15 Club competitions could be calculated and awarded. Pam and
Margaret have been super-organized with their work and done a great job this year.
This year Print competitions will be suspended and in their place Pam and Margaret will run five Challenges. These will each have a theme and the judges will provide comments and select the best images but there will be no scores and no trophy.
Although the pandemic has curtailed our outings, Phillip and Lyne were still able to accompany between fifteen and thirty-five members on seven outings, as well as to host two workshops: water-drops and macro. These events have made a huge contribution to the camera club, encouraging members to try different types of subjects, to socialize with fellow photographers, and also attracting new members. Phillip and Lyne have shown an outstanding dedication to expanding the horizons of our members. Many outing for the 2020-2021 season have been planned, with social distancing practices in effect.
Creating a year’s worth of interesting speakers and educational events is a very challenging process, requiring lots of brain-storming and patience. Lorraine Deslauriers was able to work with Ann Pearson last year, but sadly we lost Ann in May. Ann’s experience and vast number of contacts is irreplaceable, but Lorraine’s program for the upcoming year shows that she is up to the task. The season’s program is quite varied and will have something to interest everyone. Thanks so much for your hard work, Lorraine.
Philippe Laporta has placed all of the images submitted by the MCC to SPPQ competitions on the MCC Google Drive, making it easier to ensure that there are no repeat submissions.
Our CAPA liaison, Carole Pelletier, has been a model of organization, keeping our members on track with all of the CAPA competitions, organizing the selection of images, and taking care of submission to each competition. We have had an exceptionally good year as a competing club, winning two golds, a bronze, and many HMs.
Florence Jean and Afric Eustace once again provided the focal point for the social part of our meetings at the church. Besides showing up well ahead of the start of every meeting, these two had to make sure that all of the cookies, the coffee, the tea, and the juice are well stocked, which meant several trips per year to the places with the best prices (or the best cookies!). This year,
acting on a proposal by Florence, it was decided to become eco-friendly by ending the sale of water in plastic bottles and encouraging everyone to bring their own cups and water bottles. Excellent initiative!
Florence and Ann Pearson were instrumental in setting up judging tutorial sessions for our members. These were very well received. Since the Club suspended meeting at the church, the tutorial sessions have resumed with Florence as the coordinator. Thanks go to Florence for the many hours she has put into organizing these evenings, and thank-you to Guy Larin who has
stepped up to co-moderate the sessions with me.
Every member who has visited the Club website owes a huge thank-you to Rachel Bilodeau, our Webmaster. Rachel has spent countless hours at her computer, updating competition results, posting notices, making code changes, and a myriad of other tasks. She does this while holding down a full-time job *and* taking marvelous ornithology shots. And working on Creative shots.
And… well, it’s a long list. A huge thank-you to Rachel!
All of us have been on the receiving end of Club reminder emails, Tip of the Hat email, and notices of events. We have all paid our membership dues. Many of us have asked to have some piece of information posted on the website. The Executive communicates through MCC domain email addresses and shares or selects images on the MCC Google Drives. For free. (More on that in a bit.) This is due to the tireless work of Frances Cable, our Communications Chair, who inherited her mantle from Sylvia Rourke. Frances’ work touches on every aspect of the Club, and she works in an efficient and friendly manner with everyone who calls or writes, asking her to solve their current problem. Another huge thank-you to Frances!
Carole Duhaime had the great initiative to set up the Summer Challenge. Thanks, Carole! These unscored competitions were well attended, receiving approximately ninety-five submissions per challenge. An unexpected benefit of running these challenges online was the experience gained in the area of online judging and commenting, which has prepared us for our new online year.
As Michael Folinsbee was working on C4 for the competitions, he realized that he could probably write some code that would perform the calculations required to figure out the trophy and certificate winners. And he has done it. Amazing! Anyone who has looked at the dog’s breakfast of trophy requirements would know how challenging this project was. Michael had a great deal of
help from our Wizard of Statistics, John Surridge. They spent days comparing the results of calculations and locating where the mismatches occurred. Jacques Stuzke also gets an Assist Thank-You for his dogged tracking down of anomalies in the Nature numbers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Then, Michael took on the task of creating a new method of presenting the images, with their titles, to the judges in a way that allowed them to record their comments. This proved to be tremendously successful and truly appreciated over the summer. The C4 software then had to be updated to include scoring for the upcoming competitions. This is a terrific achievement which has taken a superhuman effort - bravo, Michael!
Finally, Margaret White, with an assist from Frances Cable, has taken over the production of the Cameragram layout for which I am very grateful!
I am looking forward to a very interesting season. Let’s meet the challenge!
Cindy Canavan, President (president@montrealcameraclub.com)
acting on a proposal by Florence, it was decided to become eco-friendly by ending the sale of water in plastic bottles and encouraging everyone to bring their own cups and water bottles. Excellent initiative!
Florence and Ann Pearson were instrumental in setting up judging tutorial sessions for our members. These were very well received. Since the Club suspended meeting at the church, the tutorial sessions have resumed with Florence as the coordinator. Thanks go to Florence for the many hours she has put into organizing these evenings, and thank-you to Guy Larin who has
stepped up to co-moderate the sessions with me.
Every member who has visited the Club website owes a huge thank-you to Rachel Bilodeau, our Webmaster. Rachel has spent countless hours at her computer, updating competition results, posting notices, making code changes, and a myriad of other tasks. She does this while holding down a full-time job *and* taking marvelous ornithology shots. And working on Creative shots.
And… well, it’s a long list. A huge thank-you to Rachel!
All of us have been on the receiving end of Club reminder emails, Tip of the Hat email, and notices of events. We have all paid our membership dues. Many of us have asked to have some piece of information posted on the website. The Executive communicates through MCC domain email addresses and shares or selects images on the MCC Google Drives. For free. (More on that in a bit.) This is due to the tireless work of Frances Cable, our Communications Chair, who inherited her mantle from Sylvia Rourke. Frances’ work touches on every aspect of the Club, and she works in an efficient and friendly manner with everyone who calls or writes, asking her to solve their current problem. Another huge thank-you to Frances!
Carole Duhaime had the great initiative to set up the Summer Challenge. Thanks, Carole! These unscored competitions were well attended, receiving approximately ninety-five submissions per challenge. An unexpected benefit of running these challenges online was the experience gained in the area of online judging and commenting, which has prepared us for our new online year.
As Michael Folinsbee was working on C4 for the competitions, he realized that he could probably write some code that would perform the calculations required to figure out the trophy and certificate winners. And he has done it. Amazing! Anyone who has looked at the dog’s breakfast of trophy requirements would know how challenging this project was. Michael had a great deal of
help from our Wizard of Statistics, John Surridge. They spent days comparing the results of calculations and locating where the mismatches occurred. Jacques Stuzke also gets an Assist Thank-You for his dogged tracking down of anomalies in the Nature numbers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Then, Michael took on the task of creating a new method of presenting the images, with their titles, to the judges in a way that allowed them to record their comments. This proved to be tremendously successful and truly appreciated over the summer. The C4 software then had to be updated to include scoring for the upcoming competitions. This is a terrific achievement which has taken a superhuman effort - bravo, Michael!
Finally, Margaret White, with an assist from Frances Cable, has taken over the production of the Cameragram layout for which I am very grateful!
I am looking forward to a very interesting season. Let’s meet the challenge!
Cindy Canavan, President (president@montrealcameraclub.com)
The Editor's Word
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Welcome to a new season of the Montreal Camera Club. Especially since the pandemic became virulent in early March, this has been a challenging time for us all. Adjustments have been made effecting virtually every aspect of our respective lives. Our aim is to keep you active and involved with photography and find ways to keep learning and trying new things.
The Executive spent the spring and summer looking for opportunities to engage you with online meetings, tutorials, challenges and the return of our summer outings, albeit suitably distanced and masked. We have formed a partnership with the Lakeshore Camera Club in the hope that we are able to create new and challenging opportunities to stay engaged with fellow photographers. Last year was my first year as Editor-in-Chief and we produced a booklet designed to provide essential information for competitions, outings and Program. I have been on the Executive of the Montreal Camera Club since 2010 and still am the Secretary of the Executive Committee. As a consequence, I have had extensive contact with many of you over a number of years. I wish to express appreciation to Cindy Canavan, Assistant Editor – InDesign Layout (among many hats) for the hard work and dedication she has given over the years to the Cameragram. This year we are fortunate to have Margaret White, who has taken over the role of Assistant Editor – Layout, for this latest version of the annual Cameragram. Margaret has worked tirelessly over the summer to create, format and populate this booklet in a software called Affinity. Margaret, who in a previous life worked alongside engineers, had mastered AutoCAD and has comfortably learned this software. Because of the lack of in-person meetings, only a few hard copies of this booklet will be available, primarily for archival purposes. Instead, the digital version of this handbook will be available to the membership at large on our website, to read and/or download as a pdf. The goal is to provide a summary of everything new in the coming year, the presentations, outings, competitions and various challenges. However, for the latest and most up to date information please check the website periodically. In addition, Carole Duhaime and I do our best to provide active and timely updates on MailChimp so it would be appreciated if you checked your email on a routine basis. Frances Cable, Cameragram Editor (communications@montrealcameraclub.com) |
Membership Chairs Welcome Message
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We are all experiencing the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on our personal lives, our families and our society. Like many other clubs and organizations, the Montreal Camera Club has adapted in multiple ways. Our meetings, competitions and outings have all been significantly reconfigured.
The MCC Webex subscription is now being used for member meetings, training, competition judging and event planning. As a trial, closed captioning will soon be available. Excellent progress has been made over the summer by Cindy Canavan, Guy Larin and Florence Jean to foster consistent, quality judging. Competition image coding requirements have been simplified and the titles are now displayed with the images. We aim to keep our online meetings concise and enjoyable for all. During our online meetings we encourage members, if possible, to turn on their video feed and to interact with other members via the chat. We have had the pleasure of welcoming several new members over the past few weeks. All paid-up members as of September 30 will be receiving their personalized MCC membership card as a PDF document. If you haven’t already renewed, you now have the convenience of completing the process via the MCC website. Like all clubs, MCC is grounded on a collective volunteer effort. Please let us know if you would like to get involved. We look forward to sharing our collective photographic journey together. Stay Safe Michael Folinsbee & Frances Cable, Membership Co-chairs (membership@montrealcameraclub.com) |
Message from the Program Chairs
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Your program Chairs have put together another inspiring list of guest and member presenters, covering a wide range of subject matter.
Guest speakers:
Click the following link for more information about the Program Schedule and updates: https://www.montrealcameraclub.com/calendar.html Lorraine Deslauriers & Diana Bruno, Program Co-chairs (program@montrealcameraclub.com) |
