Oceanside Photographers Club reveal a wide variety of passions and skills.
Shelley and Jack Harynuk are both members of the club and both have distinctly different interests when it comes to the art.
“If you gave us both the same equipment, the same scene, and we each took a picture, someone would say [to me] ‘nice picture’, and [to] Shelley, they would say ‘work of art.’”
Jack says that partly because Shelley is enamoured with post-processing. She loves capturing an image but more than that she enjoys using different software to add something to the shot, she said.
“It’s just the artistic side of it, the fact that you can take something and make it more than it was,” she said.
For instance, Shelley used high-dynamic-range imaging (HDR) technology on a picture she took of some boats in the harbour. The technique creates a more dramatic effect by using multiple exposures and merging them. She then added an overlay to give it an “antique” and “haunting” feel.
Jack, on the other hand, doesn’t use post-processing software. He likes to take pictures of wildlife, such as birds taking flight, and he enjoys the challenge of capturing his image perfectly in focus. One shot he’s particularly proud of is a mother egret with its baby in a nest. He said it was technically challenging as he had to do everything manually, with about 14 pounds of camera and lens.
Shelley, Jack and a number of other photographers in the Oceanside Photographers Club will be displaying and selling their images at the Gallery @ Qualicum Art Supply for the month of October in Qualicum Beach. There will also be photo cards and matted prints for sale.
Donna Wickstrom is in the club and will be displaying her work at the exhibition.
She remembers becoming interested in photography when she was 10 while taking a photograph of her pregnant mother in front of a tree in their yard. She was using an old boxy camera, she said, that she had to look down into.
“I was so happy with the results,” she recalled.
After upgrading to many new camera models, she joined a photography club in Coquitlam in her twenties and ended up winning first place in a Canada-wide inter-club contest. Although she resisted post processing techniques when she joined the Oceanside Photographers at first, she said, now she’s hooked. A piece she has up at the exhibition features a cedar tree shot at the McLean Sawmill in Port Alberni, the day the mill shut down. Those who look closely at her photograph may be able to see the artistic touch she added to the moss.
Penny Marshall has been with the Oceanside Photographers Club since its inception and she’s been into photography since her father bought her a $5 Baby Brownie as a child. After purchasing a camera in Port Alberni a number of years ago, she fastened a binocular lens to it and created her own close-up lens. Marshall doesn’t use post-processing techniques but instead makes her own filters and adds her own creative touch to her work with pen and ink. One photograph she produced during the B.C. Summer Games showed Mt. Arrowsmith, but with a bare patch of recently logged trees. She spent three hours beautifying the photo, which was requested by the premiere, and presented it to Mike Harcourt.
“I reforested Mt. Arrowmsith to give to the premiere,” she said.
The Oceanside Photographers Club now has over 100 members and welcomes people with a wide range of photography skills. The groups meets once a month, takes field trips, has optional assignments and brings speakers in to educate club members.
For more information on the club visit www.oceansidephotographers.ca, phone 250-752-2163 or email president.opc@gmail.com.
The Gallery @ Qualicum Art Supply is located at 206 West First Avenue.