The Cranbury digital Camera Club had its second competition at the meeting on March 22^nd.  The theme was “Wild Birds” and there were many beautiful images shared. This was the last competition that we opened to non-members so please, if you plan to enter next month, remember to give us your completed application form and dues.

Our judge was Victor Richie, an accomplished photographer who is also a research scientist for Bristol-Myers Squibb. For the last three years Victor has concentrated on photographing wild birds and animals and attributes a lot of his success to preparation before the shoot. He researches the bird or animal he is going to photograph to understand its habits and habitat. He is able to anticipate the next move so his camera is ready for the shot. His tips for successful images are to focus on the eyes for close up images of birds and animals aiming to get the “catch light” reflection. Also to move extremely slowly making no noise, wearing camouflage clothing and no human scents. Victor was impressed with the quality of the images entered and had a hard time choosing which to award ribbons. 

For this competition there were enough entries for us to have 2 categories, a joint A/B level for more accomplished photographers and level C as an entry level. As we grow our membership we will have 3 categories for entries allowing everyone to compete with others at the same level of experience. We also welcome entries from our youth members and they will always have their own category. If you are a paid up member you may enter prints even if you are not able to be at the meeting, although the whole point of the competition is to hear the unbiased opinion of an impartial judge!

Our next meeting will be on April 12^th at 7:30pm as usual in the Gourgaud Gallery.  This meeting will be a very important Organizational Meeting that it is necessary for us to have if we want to become as a 501(c)3 or a 501(c)7 non profit organization. We will discuss the options open to us. If you have any experience with forming this type of organization and would like to help us please let Janet or Greg know. We plan to vote on adopting the updated By-Laws. We ask that all members that have copies of the original draft of the By-Laws read them through and let us know of any issues they have with them. We have already made some changes to the original draft of the By- Laws, adjusting to the needs of our membership and refining the details. If you have misplaced your copy please let Janet know and she will get a copy to you. We will be asking for volunteers to help with the running of the club. If there are any members that wish to volunteer themselves to help us with various tasks associated with running this club, i.e. Competition, Refreshments, Programs, Publicity, Workshops and Field Trips, please let it be known at the meeting. If you are unable to be at the meeting and wish to participate with comments, suggestions or to volunteer, please email Janet and she will put you on the agenda.

 The four founding members, Janet, Greg, Tony & Linda, will continue to lead the club for the rest of this year. Elections for the Executive Board will be held in January 2007.

 Hopefully the business part of the meeting will not take all evening as we have plans to help those with new digital cameras by answering questions as well as learning about PSA. (Photographic Society of America) and the Federation of New Jersey Camera Clubs. Of course we will have the usual camera and Photoshop tips.

Lastly, we would like to welcome our five new members that joined at the last meeting. We now have 35 members including our family members.

We look forward to seeing you on April12th, 7:30 pm in the Gourgaud Gallery, Cranbury Town Hall, bring a friend and have some fun.