HCC NEWSLETTER, October 2026

Autumn

Where is the thin, crisp air that heralds fall?
Where is the whirling-dervish dance of leaves
— spinning, swirling in an amber glow?


Tweedy jackets on back hall racks await frost’s
first call, when they’ll snap or zip to meet the nip
of autumn’s first brisk breeze.


Mary Jean Winkler

President's Message by Jack Kearney

What a fantastic kick off to the season with the Member’s Showcase! I want to thank everyone who participated, presented, and engaged. I also want to thank Silloo, Andres, Dawn, and Heidi for presenting on their areas of responsibility. This type of meeting doesn’t happen without the support and participation of the community and you all made it a great talent-filled meeting. As we look ahead, there is a lot to be excited about. The Sharon Hospital Salon Show is sure to take the Housatonic Camera Club to new heights and our first NECCC competition is right around the corner. Please keep your eyes on your email for more specifics in the coming weeks. I will also be arranging an on-location group shoot in the Great Falls area in Falls Village where we ctake advantage of the falls, the power plant/Burral Bridge, and beautiful farms up Housatonic River Road all dressed in fall foliage. We can also look forward to our October meeting which will be at Noble Horizons on October 20th at 7pm. Club Member and professional photographer, Sergio Villaschi, will lead us through an exciting discussion around the topic of still life photography. If you’d like to see some of Sergio’s gorgeous and dramatic still lifes and landscapes, visit him on Instagram or Facebook @sergiofinearts. If anyone is interested in taking their participation in club activities further, there are a number of committee positions still open. Please reach out to express interest. Thank you all and have a great month shooting.

Jack

At the South Seaport by Lazlo Gyorsok

Foxes by Sarah Blodgett

This summer past we had the good fortune of a family of foxes taking up residence in our woods as well as under our barns, gazebo, brush pile, and stone cave, they move about you see.
Mama fox appeared in the early Spring while the snow was on the ground, guarding her den that lay beneath a huge boulder at the back of our land. I lost track of them for a while, with Spring being busy and rainy, but heard them calling in the woods at night and sometimes in the daylight hours. Three kits emerged, Papa took on his role. The neighbors all watched him travel up and down the road, hoping one of the trucks or cars doing 70mph in a 40 zone wouldn’t take him out, but so far so good. Occasionally, he even sits down in the road. He would procure a chicken sometimes, mostly likely from, funny enough, a guy down the road named Charlie Fox. Our own chickens disappeared last year one by one. Often, I’d come home and Papa fox would be sleeping in the lawn, barely bothered by my arrival. Sometimes he would trot through the garden with the kits in tow, lined up behind him until they took up a rather steady residence in the rock wall of the old stockade in our woods. From there they would come “out” to play in a flat spot in our yard, conveniently visible from an upstairs window. It’s here that I made many of the shots of their tussling and their “who can open their jaws widest” contest.
They’ve mostly dispersed now, but I still hear them calling at night along with the Barred Owl and the remaining crickets slowly quieting down for winter.

From Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake by Tom Blagden

To encourage an abrupt end of summer and usher in early fall, my wife, Lynn, and I went to the Adirondacks last week for 2 1/2 days of hiking & biking in the park The color was starting to kick in nicely with accommodating temperatures. The highlight was the stunning new rail trail from west of Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake. We biked over 30 miles past numerous lakes, ponds, swamps, bogs and forest on a perfect level tract. These are “grab shots” taken en route, but it is well worth pursuing in a concentrated photo effort.

Hummers by Sarah Blodgett

My hummers are gone now, they left a bit early this year. I had double the tribe this season having planted many native flowers, word must have gotten out! These tiny winged fighters fly all the way back to Central and South America to winter, can you imagine? They travel back to our neck of the woods in the Spring, all this way to build the tiniest of nests, shingled with lichen and hatch just two little littles. We only have Ruby Throated Hummingbirds here in the Northeast but did you know there are more than 360 species of hummers? And did you know they are only in the Americas? In any case, have you ever thought about Hummingbird feet? If not, I’m here to help. With so much focus on their little wings and beaks, I feel their feet need more of a platform, ha!