HCC NEWSLETTER, JANUARY 2026
HAPPY NEW YEAR !

President's Message by Dawn Dingee

Our camera club holiday party was a warm and festive celebration enjoyed by all. The club provided the main course (thanks to Heidi and Paul for picking it up) and members brought a wonderful variety of homemade dishes, creating a table full of delicious food and desserts to share. The evening was filled with fun and laughter as we played games, held an ugly sweater contest, and ran a 50/50 raffle. Pictures of the festivities are available on our website.
After the party wrapped up, we transitioned into our December meeting, where members shared their photos and talked about their work, making it a perfect close to a memorable night together. Thank you to all who participated and helped clean-up afterwards.
January is around the corner so don’t forget about the Noble Horizons salon show. The opening reception is January 16th. You should have received details in your email. If you plan on participating, please send a list of photo titles, prices and sizes by January 5th so I can gather the list together and send it to Danielle.
Also, don’t’ forget to submit your photos to Lazlo for the NECCC competition. We only have a handful of photos so far. Hoping you all have a fun, save Christmas Eve. Happy New Year and see you next year!

MORO ROCK by Dawn Dingee

Sequoia National Park is known for its giant Sequoia trees, but this park is also the home to a unique hike that leads to the top of a towering granite dome. Moro Rock is only a 0.5 mile hike consisting of 350 tiny concrete and stone steps built into the mountain. The steps were built in 1931 by the National Park Service. This hike is not for the faint of heart! But, if you can make it to the summit, the views from the top are well worth it.
The top offers a spectacular 360° views of the Great Western Divide and San Joaquin Valley from its 6,725-foot summit.

PSA Is More than Just Competitions by Andres Valdespino

As Club members we are all familiar with the PSA through their numerous competitions during the year. But I have discovered that PSA membership offers many additional resources for photographers. Despite the name, the PSA is an international organization with members in over 80 countries. It is divided into six Divisions – Pictorial Image, Nature, Photojournalism, Travel Photo, Photo Print, and 3D. Each of the first four, Pictorial Image, Nature, Travel Photo and Photojournalism have digital discussion groups. In each group, typically composed of no more than five or six people, members of the group submit a photograph each month for critique by the other members.
The Pictorial Image Division has the most groups, currently 99. Most of the groups are “General Photography” but there are also groups which focus on birds, landscapes, cityscapes, monochrome, creative and fine arts. Understandably, because of their more specific parameters, there are far fewer groups in the other divisions. Members can join any discussion group, in any Division, simply by making a request to the group administrator. I belong to a General Photography group. The comments and suggestions I receive each month have been extremely helpful. Learning to critique others has also been a valuable learning experience.
The PSA Education site is also helpful. The section has both recorded webinars and online courses. The subjects of the webinars encompass every aspect of photography, including software, techniques, and instruction on evaluation and judging. The online courses are fewer in number but entail actual personal instruction. I always felt intimidated and confused by the many features of Photoshop. So I took a course on Photoshop. I was assigned an instructor, who happened to be in Singapore. The class was broken down into six sessions. For each, he would e-mail me a packet of written instructions about certain features of Photoshop, sample photos, and an assignment, which was usually to produce photos using the techniques and tools covered in the session. In addition, I would have to provide a narrative of the workflow used to create the photo and a screenshot of the Photoshop Levels panel for the photo. If he felt I had successfully grasped the features, he would send me the next package. I am comfortable now with Photoshop and use it extensively in post-processing. Other courses offered in a similar format are Street Photography, Portrait Photography, and a course on creating competition worthy photos.
Membership in PSA is currently $45 a year. Any photographer looking for an outlet to improve their work will find many opportunities with a PSA membership.

Some winter pictures by Mary Jean Winkler

Infrared images from Kent, CT by Lazlo Gyorsok

San Miguel de Allende, by Lloyd Baroody

Zeina and I are living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico until the end of March. Hence, any new photos for the rest of the winter will be taken in central Mexico. Because airlines no longer allow one to travel with dogs that don't fit under the seat in front of you, we had to drive to accommodate Falafel, our 52-pound Australian Labradoodle. It required 8 days of travel to make the 2,800 mile trip, including extra day stops in each of Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Antonio, TX. It was quite an adventure, not something we would want to do again! Except that we need to drive back at the end! We were in San Miguel during Christmas, which has been a magical time here. We live in a 17th century casa in the middle of San Miguel (neighborhood called Centro). It is quite the opposite of the ultra-modern house in which we live in colonial Lakeville. Everything inside the casa is Spanish colonial . I wish I could say that Cortes was buried in our courtyard. I checked, and apparently, he is buried in Mexico City. Too bad.

Arcade in San Miguel

Lloyd inside our 17th century villa in San Miguel

San Miguel main square Christmas tree

San Miguel Parroquia bells ringing

San Miguel street scene A

San Miguel street scene B

San Miguel street scene C

San Miguel street scene D

San Miguel street scene E

San Miguel street scene F

San Miguel street scene G

San Miguel street scene H

Zeina inside our 17th century villa in San Miguel

HCC Christmas Party