FotoClave 2010

Each year, at the end of October there is a large, regional 3 day photography symposium called FotoClave. Per the FotoClave website:

"FotoClave is the premier photography forum in Northern California, drawing the finest amateur film and digital photographers together for a weekend of learning and sharing. The program is packed with informative and entertaining programs covering a variety of photographic techniques and subjects. In addition, FotoClave includes a competition where members of participating camera club councils show their best work."

This symposium is sponsored by the three camera councils in Northern California. The three councils are Northern California Council of Camera Clubs (N4C), Central Coast Counties Camera Club Council (6C), and San Joaquin Valley Camera Club Council (SJVCCC). Each council is made up of individual camera clubs. N4C has 10 clubs, 6C has 6 and SJVCCC has 6 clubs for a total of 22 camera clubs.

The Photo Contest this year has 8 divisions, including:

• Pictorial, Journalism, Nature, and Travel Projected Images
• Color, Monochrome, Creative, and Nature Prints

Each council is allowed to submit 20 images for each of the 8 divisions. The competition to qualify for one of the 20 spots is fierce. To determine the 20 qualifiers in each division, N4C (the council to which Cathy and I belong) held a contest. The number of entries ranged from 300 to 500 images per division. The results have now been tallied and Cathy and I were pleased to see that 14 of our images have qualified for FotoClave. I have listed the images below and attached a short video showing the images.

I am also delighted to point out that several other members of the Diablo Valley Camera Club qualified. Nicole Marshall qualified with 5 images, Euclid Viegas with 2, and Lori Espinosa also had 2 images qualify. Congratulations.

Hopefully at least a few of our images will make the grade and place in the final competition in October.

Until next time,
Mark

Monochrome Prints
Mark - James
Mark - House at Arnarstapi
Cathy - Corn Lily

Color Prints
Mark - Namafjell Hverir, Iceland
Mark - Travis

Creative Prints
Cathy - Reticulated Fuschia
Cathy - Blue Flight
Mark - Reflections and Refractions – Red
Mark - Meditation

Nature Prints
Mark - Flock of Brown Pelicans displaying mating plummage
Mark - Polar Bear prowling the shore of Hudson Bay
Cathy - Solitary Polar Bear still hunting on frozen Hudson Bay
Cathy - Polar Bear roaming the Tundra

Creative Projected Images
Mark - Spirit

All good things eventually come to an end

And so it was on Tuesday, August 31st that I completed my final day as photographer for the Contra Costa Animal Services Department. This was an interesting and sometimes difficult job, but always rewarding. During the past 14 months I photographed over 4400 animals. I also met a lot of very dedicated staff that work very hard to take care of the animals that flow into the shelter.

However, it is time for me to move on. I am anxious to do more traveling and work on other areas of art and photography. And so I bid adieu to my friends, both two and four legged, at the Martinez shelter and wish them the greatest success. I especially want to thank Cindy Smith and Glenn Howell for their tremendous support. We will hopefully cross paths again in the future.

Mark