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Wow! I am pleased to say that we currently have over thirty people registered to attend the banquet this year! This will truly be one of the very best banquets the club has ever held. If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time, but not much! Let me take a minute to tell you a little more about our very special guest, Mr. William McIntosh.

As you know, master portrait artist William S. McIntosh will be our guest speaker at the awards banquet, January 24, 2009, at Bubba’s in the Farmers’ Market in Virginia Beach, 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Attending the banquet will provide a great opportunity for you to meet and perhaps talk to one of our area’s most famous portrait photographers. Mr. McIntosh will be happy to sign copies of his books or his photos. Many members of the club had their high school portraits taken by Mr. McIntosh. He has also had the opportunity to photograph several famous and well known people, and was even recognized as one of the Top Five Photographers in the world (Creative Image Magazine). I encourage you to read his impressive bio at his web site as well.

His books are available at his web site.

Check out his website at mcintoshportraits.com.

So, what are you waiting for? Hop on over to the banquet registration page and sign up now!

Yep, you read that right.  JPG Magazine is closing up shop, another victim of the recession.  Here is their official announcement, as I got in this morning's email: (Click here to read more)

Are you missing out on club activities or not hearing about members getting together for impromptu photo shoots? Activities like these are widely discussed in the Club’s website forums. But if you’re like me, trying to find what’s hot and what’s not is difficult if you simply go to the forum page and start searching through the broad topics. Doing it this way, you might well miss seeing the forest for the trees.

One way to isolate what everyone is currently discussing on the forum is to use the “View active topics” hyperlink located on the main page of the forums. A quicker way is to create either (1) a Desktop Icon if using Internet Explorer or (2) a Favorites Item in Internet Explorer (or a Bookmark in Firefox) . Here’s how to do it:

METHOD 1– DESKTOP ICON: This is my preference because a simple double-click on the desktop icon opens a browser window with the Active Topics page.

1) Double click on the following hyperlink to open the Active Topics page in a new window: http://vabeachphotoclub.org/phpbb3/search.php?search_id=active_topics.  

2) On the page that opens, point to any white background area and right click.

3) From the menu that appears, click on “Create Shortcut.”

4) A box will appear asking “Do you want to put a shortcut to this website on your desktop? Click the “Yes” button.

5) Go to your desktop and you will find an icon with the club logo and the title “Virginia Beach Pho…” If you single click this icon, the full title is revealed: “Virginia Beach Photography Club • View active topics” I recommend that you shorten this name to “VBPC Active Topics” by right clicking the icon, clicking “Rename” from the menu and modifying the name. The shortened name of “VBPC Active Topics” will now appear without the need to click the icon.

6) By double clicking this icon, a browser window will open with the Active Forums page.

I am not aware of how to do this in Firefox or Safari.

METHOD 2 – ADD ITEM TO FAVORITES: 

This is the first of a new series of announcement type newsletters that I will be publishing on a regular basis this year in an effort to keep club members more informed of upcoming events and happenings.  I chose the name "Compact Flash" because I want to keep it small (smaller than the regular "cable release" newsletter for sure), but it will hold a lot of data.  Get it?  With that being said, here we go...

1.  "Cable Release" to be late.  Speaking of the "Cable Release ", it will be a little late this month because Susan is on vacation with her new grandchildren.  The newsletter should be out around the middle of January.  Submit articles for inclusion to Susan at cleverinc@cox.net.

2.  Annual Banquet Jan 24th.  The club's annual banquet will be held on the 24th of January at Bubba's BBQ at the Farmer's Market at Dam Neck Road and Princess Anne Rd.  Festivities start at 6:00 PM and are planned to go until about 9:00.  We have entertainment, good food, and will be handing out the annual awards.  This is always a lot of fun, and we are expecting a huge turnout!  Tickets are only $3 for members and $7 for guests.  I'm not going to say too much about it here because you can see Belinda's blog for more details (and information about the guest speaker which I will leave for a surprise for her).  You will not want to miss this.  Register and pay online via PayPal at http://vabeachphotoclub.org/BanquetRegistration.

3.  January 6th Membership Meeting.  The Jan 6th meeting should be a good one.  Joe Bullinger will be giving a presentation on infrared photography and David Grochmal will be giving a presentation on the upcoming "Images of Faith" exhibit.  The competition category is "Open".

4.  Online Competition Status.  The Online competition is currently accepting uploads until January 12.  This month's theme is also "Open".  Then starting on the 13th, everyone will be able to vote on the uploaded pictures for five days.  You can access the online competition from the club website.  Look for a link in the upper right corner.  Or click here http://vabeachphotoclub.org/OnlineCompetition.  Any club member may participate in the online competition and we look forward to seeing your pictures.  Upload your pictures today!

5.  PayPal is now live!  We now have a PayPal account set up for you to make your membership payment.  You do not have to have a PayPal account to use it--you just have to have a credit card.  As a reminder, all membership renewals are due in January, even if you just joined during the year last year.  In that case we pro-rate your fee and you just pay for the months needed to cover you for the entire 2009 year.  See http://vabeachphotoclub.org/paypal for more information or to make a membership payment.  Contact Belinda if you have any questions about your membership dues.  Bottom line is you either need to pay online by January 30th or in person at the January meeting to stay current on your membership.

6.  Picture Pals.  There has been some incredible activity among club members getting together for photo shoots around town.  By far, the best way to coordinate these events is on our forums.  And you should see some of the pictures that have come out of those meetups.  Take a look at some of these:
http://vabeachphotoclub.org/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=942
http://vabeachphotoclub.org/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=899&start=10

7.  Photoshop Focus Group.  The Photoshop Focus Group meets on the same day as the membership meeting, in the church library at 6:00 PM.  So, if you want to hone your PhotoShop skills, just come to the membership meeting a little early and stop by.  You can even bring your laptop or digital images if you would like to see Joe or Skip work their magic on them.  This coming meeting we will go over some of the things that everyone does in post processing images: sharpening, noise reduction, cropping, straightening, saving for printing and saving for web.

That's it for this issue of the Compact Flash.  Please contact me or any board member if you have any questions or comments.

Best Regards and Happy New Year,

Skip Morrow
VBPC President

It’s that time again! You guessed it, the annual Awards Banquet. Reserve the evening of January 24, 2009, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, and you’re in for a treat this year. We’re going to have singing and dancing…okay, no dancing. But we will have singing. Singers from the Barber Shop Chorus will be entertaining us during the dinner hour. We will have a verrrry special guest joining us for the evening; Bill McIntosh of McIntosh Portraits will be speaking and showing a presentation of his work. Did I mention where we will be having this soiree? Bubba’s BBQ in the Farmer’s Market off Dam Neck. Be prepared for some of the best bbq and brisquet you’ve ever tasted. Our number 1 photos of the year will be on display to show off the accomplishments of our fellow photographers, we’ll have awards, and door prizes. At the end of the banquet, if anyone has been swept away with the excitement, they can try their hand at karaoke (we promise not to laugh…too much.). So everyone mark your calendars, make your reservations, pay the nominal banquet fee ($3.00 for members and $7.00 for guests), and we’ll see you Saturday night, January 24^th. And to make things extra easy for you, we have set up a registration and PayPal page where you can use your credit card to pay online. You do not need to have a PayPal account to use it--just a credit card.  If you want to pay with cash, you may pay in person at the Jan 6th Membership meeting.  Go to the registration page here (must be logged into the website).   UPDATE:  Registration is CLOSED.  There are no more seats.

November 3, 2008

My fellow members:

You often hear me joking around about the upcoming elections.  However, this really is something serious, as we will be living history tomorrow.  Regardless of the outcome, or who you vote for, one of two things will happen tomorrow; we will either have the first woman vice-president, or we will have the first black president.

I urge all of you to get to the polls early.  And, once you have voted, grab that camera.  Record the polling places..the people...whatever you feel will make a great photograph.  Like I said, this is history in the making.  And as photographers, it is not only our right BUT OUR DUTY to record history.

I look forward to seeing some great photographs tomorrow!  And remember the most important thing....TO VOTE!

-- Tom