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Seven Hills Camera Club

For Photography In Central Massachusetts
Last Updated: July 31, 2008

* * * Club News... * * *

Our next meeting...

About 7HCC - originally called the Photo-Color Club of Worcester, the founding members formed a non-profit organization dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of color slide photography. The first meeting was held on April 20, 1946. Check out the "About 7HCC" section of Club Clicks on the left-side navigation panel for more.

This Month's Camera Club Photo Exchanges

Here, we celebrating the sister camera clubs of Worcester, England and Worcester, MA with a periodic photo exchange. Click either image to see more.

Zeff Autumn Seminar Series

Recently received seminar list from Zeff's is in our This Just In archive. Click here to view it.

West Boylston Invites Artist To Exhibit

West Boylston is seeking artists that would like to reserve sales booth spaces for the West Boylston Bicentennial Arts Festival on September 20, 2008.

The West Boylston Arts Foundation (WBAF) was established last year as a result of budget cuts to the School Department which eliminated the arts programs in our schools...the main goal West Boylston Bicentennial Arts Festival will be to raise funds to continue to assist the arts program in the schools. All our Festival proceeds will be dedicated to the school arts programs. The Festival will include artwork sales, music, and cultural performances throughout the day and into the evening.

The Bicentennial is a major event for West Boylston with happenings ongoing throughout the year. The West Boylston Bicentennial Arts Festival will be a part of a weekend celebration culminating with a parade and fireworks the following day.

Photographers of the Seven Hills Camera Club are invited to participate. Click here for the Festival's Artist Registration Form and Call for Artists.

Our Club Needs A Better Image!

...well, maybe not better, but at least a new one...

...as you can see in our info panel on the right, our friends in England have been doing their work keeping photo exchange images fresh and interesting. They have presented us with a pair of images from a July Jazz Festival in Upton-upon-Severn. (What a neat name for a town.) On the other hand, we are showing ourselves to be a rather stale presence on the Internet despite Mary Freddie's very nice image. Her's has been up since May 13! The goal was to have a new image at least once a month. So, what's holding you back, 7HCC-ers?

Next Time...

August and September

Note to newcomers - our meeting are always held on the third Wednesday of the month, from September to May, at , 7:00 PM, Merriman Hall, United Congregational Church, 6 Institute Road, Worcester.

It'll be up to our new club officers to pull together an interesting and wonderful year for the 08-09 season. Wonder who the new officers are?

Michelle Fontaine - President
Casey Danek - Vice-President
Steve Morse - Treasurer
Lou Swinand - Secretary

We often have a planning meeting in August. This is entirely up to the discretion of our officers. The first, regular meeting is in September. Traditionally, we've had a pot-luck imaging presentation where members bring in their images from the Summer's production. Maybe our officers will have something different for us this time...who knows.

Last Time...

May

Our banquet started at 6:00 PM (with a setup time of 5:30). About 20 members and guests were on hand. We ended the meal with JoAnn Audette, or exiting VP, going over some some business for the evening. We normally try to get this out of the way quickly at our last meeting because, well, it's our last meeting and folks are eager to get on their way after the main event. In this case, our "event" was Gary Stanley.

Here are some notes from Gary’s website...

"As a professional nature, landscape and wildlife photographer, Gary has been leading photo tours, and lecturing on photography since 1990. He has photographed seriously for over twenty-five years, and has spent over five years as a general manager of a large camera shop working with everything from camera repair to Photoshop and camera sales. What that means to you is that Gary has the skills and understanding of both photographic technique and the mechanics of photography."

Gary put on an interactive program where he demonsted his techniques in image manipulation using Photoshop Elements, CS3 and Lightroom. He skimmed over items in his book addressing the needs of photographers at all levels. His show ended with a slide presentation set to music of beautiful scenic images.

One of our walk-in guests, Sandy Taylor from Westminster, had this to say about Gary...

"It was a good opportunity to get to see a nature photographers work and talk to him. He had good advice and was very open to questions."

Going Digital...

Our Digital Meetings

Next Digital Meeting: 7:00 PM, Thursday, August 25th, 2008 at the Banx Room of the Worcester Public

Note: If you go to the Worcester Public Library website (just do a Google search on "Worcester Public Library"), and click on Meeting Rooms, you'll see what night we have reserved. For convenience, we've added a link in the navigation panel on the left.

We covered a number of topics starting with Blurb’s Booksmart software for creating a self published book.
Some of the features are:

Free Software which runs on you pc or mac.
A spell checker. Yea!
Many layouts, fonts, photo edges, etc. plus use your own.
On photo layouts pop-ups suggesting the optimum pixel size.
When photos don’t meet optimum pixel size, a warning indicator.
Local printing a proof of your book.
Easy preview of book during creation.
Fast book upload to Blurb’s site.
They will sell your book for you, at your price, with a 15 page preview on their site, and give you statistics on views and sales.
Check it out by down loading their free software at www.blurb.com.

I then previewed a Travel show I have created about Bhutan. The show was created using ProShow Gold and ran a little over 35 minutes. It was the 1st run before an audience so it gave me some feel that commentary is required during the show with the music muted. Thanks to all who allowed me to show it to them and sit for the 35 minutes.

Casey talked for a few minutes on a technique he uses to organize programs under the start button in Windows. He showed how he created generic folders like “Edit Tools” and then moved all his editors inside the folder thus reducing the number of programs you initially see. It is a good technique and deserves another review in the future.

Thanks again to all who attended and I hope to see you August 21st.

-- Don Roberts

* * * Across The Pond * * *

About Our Image Exchanges With Worcestershire Camera Club

Monthly Exchange

If you read the piece at the top of this web page, you know we've started a new monthly photo exchange to better share information about our locales. Thumbnails in the feature column (right side) will get you to the pages. The two clubs will have slightly different presentations of the images, but each site will show both. It's a nice way to learn a bit more about one another.

Anytime, All-the-time, Photo Exchange

We also are starting a more ad hoc image sharing/critiquing site using wiki technology. Wiki is probably best known because of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia-like site whose information is generated by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. The idea is to make a site freely updateable (is that a real word?) by anyone with the hope that, the massess will collectively keep the information honest and accurate. In our case, we are using Wetpaint.com to host us. It's free and it looks like it may be fun. The first two images are up and we're looking for folks to give it a shot. You don't have to be a registered Wetpaint user to view the site, but you do if you want to upload or make comments.

Give it a try. Here's the link: http://worcester-shire.wetpaint.com/

There's even a discussion forum. The website page is busy because it's advertising based, but you should be able to find what you need.

* * * Art & Photo Exhibits * * *

* * * Club To Club * * *

NECCC Report

Multiscreen

Multiscreen Images Are Up!

Finally, we have the winning Multiscreen images up and available for viewing. Usually, we do this right away, the day after the competition. Sorry for the delay, everyone.

By the way...congratulations to all clubs but especially to PSRI for their first place. We were only three points behind. So, we did a good job. PSRI did better!

We are hosts for next year, by the way.

You can alwasy click the Multiscreen link in the sidebar to find the images throughout the years.

At our year-end meeting, the first place ribbons were distributed to Laurie Church for City Lights, Carol Morocco for Hat, Don Roberts for Peaceful, Mary Colburn for Relaxing, Michelle Fontaine for Skimpy and Wildlife, and finally Steve Morse for Stormy.

New Subjects For Multi-Screen 2007-2008

Images must be made after May 1, 2008.

Abandoned	Gooey	Shell(s)	Bell (s)
Hand(s)	Silhouette(s)	Butterfly(ies)	Lighthouse(s)
Spiral	Chair(s)	Moss	Sweet(s)
Curve(s)	Patriotic	Tree(s)	Feather(s)
Reflection(s)	Upside Down	Framed	Rock(s)
Waterfall(s)	Glass	Seascape	Wave(s)

* * * Things You Might Want To Know * * *

These are some emails and tidbits we've received recently...

Note: You can look up other such items in our This Just In section. Not everything we receive appears on our top level page. It's a good idea to check this just in every once in a while.

** * 7HCC Merchandise * * *

7HCC Merchandise Available Online

Newproducts have been added along with corrections to the web page addressin our graphics.

Checkout the 7HCC Merchandise Website (http://www.cafeshops.com/7HCC)for neat products with our logo on them. They make great gifts forfriends and family. (No, we make no money on these items.)

*** Submitting Content To This Website * * *

If you have images that are relevant to the content of this website, (and you are a member or have a compelling reason why your images should be included here anyway), send them along to the Contact information below. Images should be no larger than 800 pixels in their largest dimension. We will select an appropriate thumbnail size. We will not provide a separate copyright notice for your image. (It's really not necessary because US Copyright law already affords you exclusive rights and protections to your images.)

Club Members!!! ...please consider submitting images you make during club events. They help make this page more interesting and, afterall, you are all photographers.

** * Welcome To The Seven Hills Camera Club Home Page * * *

We are one of the few camera clubs in central Massachusetts open to the general public and the only such club in the city of Worcester. We meet from September to May and, through this home page, make ourselves accessible throughout the year. Our goal is to encourage people to enjoy all aspects of photography. We don't mind if you don't join our club - you can visit us any time for free. But, we'd certainly be pleased if you did join and, as an incentive, when you do, you'll have access to certain club sponsored events and activities which aren't available to everyone. Just click our links to find out more about us.

Can you name the seven hills of Worcester? (Answer)