President: Dawn
Dingee
Vice-President:
Heidi Hoeller
Treasurer: Dawn
Dingee
Membership/Dues: Dawn
Dingee
d1295@aol.com
Publicity: Jeff
Breitman
Special Events Coordinator:
Jeff Breitman
Program Director: Jeff
Breitman
sylvan4570©comcast.net
Webmaster: Lazlo
Gyorsok
lazlo1@optonline.net
Newsletter: Lazlo
Gyorsok
lazlo1@optonline.net
Hospitality:Karen
Consolago
consolago8@aol.com
Secretary:We are still looking for one
Competitions:Bert
Schmitz
bschmitz@att.net
Salon Committee:
Brian Wilcox
ctphoto@comcast.net
Lazlo Gyorsok
lazlo1@optonline.net
Bill Devoti
abundancehill8@gmail.com
Projector Coordinator:
Brian Wilcox
ctphoto@comcast.net
Liaison Representatives:
PSA - Jane Rossman
jrossman222@gmail.com -NECCC
Bert Schmitz
bschmitz@att.net
Proud member of:
“Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” Elliott Erwitt
We went through some hard times in 2020 and 2021 but hope that the new season will be much kinder to us. Support you club and your newsletter with active participation because we cannot survive without that.
There are several committee positions open such as Salon Committee. If interested in any of these positions, please let Dawn or Lazlo know
the videos of our previous meetings
Get in touch with Pat Vanicky
in case you plan to stop by.
is finished. Thank you Jeff Breitman for your hard work on the project, selecting the pictures, putting it altogether, arranging the printing, etc.
Get in touch with Jeff if you want a copy of the book.
Photo by Jeff Breitman
The Housatonic Camera Club lost a very good friend recently. Steve Balkin was a long-time member of HCC. He was an active member who participated in our meetings, salon shows and competitions. He frequently sent photos to Lazlo for the newsletter. He was also a lively participant at the Tuesday gatherings at Giffords. His presence will be missed there for sure!
Steve was an interesting character and I say that in a good way 😊 He had many talents and interests….he was a former model, an artist, painter, photographer, a collector of old photographs, an authority on antique toy soldiers, and the father of “Lyrical Expressionism”. Back in the day, he ‘rubbed elbows’ with Andy Warhol, Robin Williams among others.
Steve was a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He owned the Burlington Antique Toy Shop on Madison Avenue in NYC. He retired from that after 33 years. The NY Times featured several articles on him. His store was very unique and was frequented by many famous people who shared his same love of history and antique toy soldiers.
Photo by Julie Glassberg from a NY Times article
Photograph by Allison Michael Orenstein
In addition to his interest in photography, Steve was also an accomplished painter. He’s had several solo shows of his paintings. Several of us attended his 2019 show in Torrington, CT.
Photo taken by Lazlo Gyorsok
Paintings by Steve Balkin
Photos by Steve Balkin
A few pictures from the "Spring Flowers" assignment. Click on any one
of the pictures to see them in full size.
A few pictures from our unofficial outing at the Sharon Audubon on April 26, 2022 . Click on any one
of the pictures to see them in full size.
W ith spring showers comes May flowers! We have certainly had our fair share of rain over the past month. If the saying holds true, we should have a lot of flowers! Bushes and trees are beginning to bud and birds are beginning to nest. Now if only the temperatures would begin to rise, we’d be able to enjoy these happenings. Let's hope for sunnier days soon.
In April, we had our first face-to-face meeting in 2 years! The meeting was our first regular meeting at St. Thomas Church in Amenia, NY. We had a good turn-out and even signed up some new members. The meeting was recorded so an email with a link to the meeting should be arriving in your email shortly. For May, we have a Zoom presentation scheduled and then in June we will have an outside picnic to wrap up our season. More details to follow.
As many of you know, we lost a longtime member Steve Balkin. A tribute to him can be found in this month’s newsletter. Thank you to Jeff Breitman for making arrangements for a memorial service last week. The club will be making a donation to the Amenia Food Pantry in Steve’s name.
Now is the time to begin planning for next season. Hopefully things can get back to normal and we can go back to more frequent face-to-face meetings, scheduled outings / field trips and other activities to keep us engaged in Photography. With this, we will need to recruit members to take on Committee positions that are open such as Secretary, Program Coordinator, Secretary and Salon Show Coordinators. If you are interested in hearing more about any of these positions, please let me know. Currently, the club is being held together by the work of a small few…we could really use your help! THIS IS YOUR CLUB! We would love to hear from your on regarding what you want us to bring to members and would appreciate your help on this.
Lastly, I encourage anyone who hasn’t done so to follow our group in Facebook. Lazlo runs the page and is a frequent contributor but we could really use more posts from members. It’s a great way to share photos, information on upcoming photo opportunities, etc. It’s a good source for reminders and notices about what’s going on in the club.