Message from the President

I am pleased and honored to have been given the opportunity to serve as president of the F3C.  My predecessors have brought this organization a long way in the last several years.  The council has hosted three very successful conferences, a new, and much more user friendly website has come online, and the process of submitting images to the digital & print competitions has been improved.  I look forward to continuing and expanding the advances made by those who have built this council.

My goal during my term is to make the council a more meaningful resource for the clubs that comprise the council and their memberships.  Over the next several months the executive board will be exploring ways in which the club can add value to membership.  A successful organization is driven by its members.  Some members have already shared their thoughts with me when I have met them during my speaking engagements at their camera clubs.   I urge camera clubs and their members to contact me with your thoughts on what new features you would like to see, as well as your thoughts on current services and how we can improve them.

This is an exciting time to be a photographer.  Digital imaging has made the hobby of photography more affordable, allowing more people to enjoy the pleasure of creating images.  Post processing software allows us to improve our images far easier than even the most skilled could accomplish in a wet darkroom.  No longer does processing mean taking over the family bathroom or basement laundry tub.  Today we can sit at our computers and accomplish in short order what took many test prints and the associated time and expense in pre-digital days.

Some complain that this has made photography too easy.  Yes, it is far easier with today’s technology to make a reasonably well exposed and focused print.  But the bar has been raised on what, from a technical standpoint, is a great image.  And technical perfection is only part of what makes an image memorable.  Composition, choice of subject matter, and lighting are what raise photography from a craft to an art form.  These have not changed.  Indeed, increased competition has made making a winning image even more difficult.  Photography is even more rewarding now because the improvement in technology allows us to achieve our vision far more often.

I’ve been writing too long and you’ve been reading too long.  It is time for us both to get out and make images.

Joe Fitzpatrick
President