Saturday, September 29, 2012

October 9, 2012 Meeting

The West Central Georgia Shutterbugs meet on the second Tuesday evening each month at 6:30 pm at the Thomaston-Upson Arts Council on the square in Thomaston. Our next meeting will be October 9, featuring Hoke Smith as guest speaker. Please plan to come join us. Following is a short introduction to our featured speaker.

I started out in photography in 1970 during high school contributing to the yearbook and developed an interest in photography that I carried through college at Georgia Tech where I contributed to the school newspaper (The Technique) and the yearbook (The Blueprint). I have been with UPS for over 38 years and in the early 80's I was the editor and photographer for the internal monthly magazine (called The Big Idea) for Georgia. I won company wide awards 3 times for my images competing against 70 plus other UPS editors around the US. Along the way I contributed images to several local newspapers since I usually captured images on black and white film.

I mostly took pictures of people but I always tried to get a different perspective that would make the image more interesting and people told me I should do photography on the side so I started shooting in color and doing weddings, senior portraits, parties, etc. I really enjoyed the challenges of working with people; trying to understand what they desired and I adapted to include their personal ideas along with the formal and prescribed pictures. During the 90's I concentrated more on my responsibilities at UPS and photography faded into the background with me only taking a few color film pictures here and there for our vacations and other special events.

When I turned 55 in 2009 I realized that I needed a passion and purpose in my life when door #3 (retirement) opened for me. After reading a few books on preparing for the non-financial aspects of retiring, I listed all the things I enjoyed doing in the past, ...that I currently enjoyed, ...what I wanted to do once I retired.   
Photography was on all three lists.  
I started shooting again and the candle has flamed into a fire (a consuming fire according to my wife Sandra). The biggest difference now is that I shoot entirely in digital and I find I enjoy the post-shot production which allows one to create images that are comparable in color and detail to film and to do some things one could never do with film.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

BetterPhoto.com Photo of the Day!

Jimmy Day received Photo of the Day #2926 on September 19, 2012 for “Tybee.”

Great work, Jimmy!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

2013 United Bank Calendar Winners

Three Shutterbugs were excited to be chosen as finalists for the 2013 United Bank Calendar. A reception for the winners was held at United Bank in Zebulon on Thursday September 13, combined with their Business After Hours. It was a nice time of networking with local businesses and connecting with fellow photographers from Georgia.


Anna Mary Ellerbee, Dianne Kelly and Marcia Fisher