Hill Country Alliance Photo Contest

Ranchers Welcome Photographers

$500 bonus added to Hill Country Alliance Photo Contest

Austin (April 6, 2009) – Spring is bursting out all over the Hill Country. It’s a great time to capture that winning photograph and enter the Third Annual Hill Country Alliance Photography Contest. Take your photo on a Texas Hill Country Nature Photography Alliance (THCNPA) member ranch for a chance to win a $500 bonus award.

The Texas Hill Country Nature Photography Alliance (THCNPA) is a group of ranchers offering up their ranches to guests for nature photography and tourism. Most of the ranches have several established photography sites with food and water to attract wildlife, with one or more professionally established photo blinds carefully situated for optimal photographic opportunities. Many also offer overnight accommodations, allowing guests the chance to enjoy magnificent hill country scenery, and special encounters with critters, in privacy.

For the second year, THCNPA is offering $500 prize that may be split by the HCA Photo Contest winner(s) of either category 2 - “Working the Land: gardening, agriculture, ranching, farming; or category 4 - “Natural treasures: wildlife, plants, springs, parks, rivers, special places in nature,” provided the winning photo(s) were created on one of the Alliance member properties.

Any photographer who wants to photograph on one of the five member ranches needs to make an advance reservation for $100 per person, a $25 savings off the regular fee. To learn more about each ranch and to make a reservation go to www.hillcountryphoto.org.

This year’s theme for the Hill Country Alliance (HCA) Photo Contest is Celebrating the Treasures of the Hill Country. The judges for this year’s contest are: Rusty Yates, contemporary fine art photographer; Carter Smith, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife; and Kevin Vandivier, photographer and owner of Alpha Omega Photographic Gallery.

Thirteen winning photographs will appear in the HCA 2010 Hill Country Calendar, and a cash prize of $250 will be offered in each the four categories:

1. Hill Country people: individuals, children and families

2. Working the land: gardening, agriculture, ranching, farming

3. Hill Country enterprise: wineries, tourism, festivals, towns

4. Natural treasures: wildlife, plants, springs, parks, rivers, special places in nature

For more details and to enter the contest, visit www.hillcountryalliance.org.

The Hill Country Alliance is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to raise public awareness and build community support around the need to preserve the natural resources and heritage of the Central Texas Hill Country. Please see the HCA website (www.hillcountryalliance.org) for the latest news and events, and to learn more about our initiatives and how you can contribute to our activities.

Agenda for meeting on March 19, 2009

Here's the agenda for our upcoming meeting on Thursday, March 19, 2009

7:00 - 7:15 : Announcements, Introduction of new members/guests, Member News

7:15 - 7:40 : Web Sites of the Month - we'll visit member-recommended web site resources. Don't forget to recommend your favorite website!

7:40- 8:30: Guest Speaker - Rusty Yates - Photographer

8:30 - 9:00: Formal critiques. Topic: Recent Work. Don't forget to send your 3 critique images (jpg 800 pixels wide) by Tuesday, March 17th via email to: hcphotoclub@gmail.com. View the new critique process here:
http://hillcountryphotographyclub.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-critique-process.html

Location: Merrill Gardens in San Marcos. Map and directions available on our club website.

About the Guest Speaker - Rusty Yates

Rusty Yates has been exploring the natural world since childhood. His interest in photography started while living and working on a cattle ranch, shooting his herd for informational and promotional purposes. He soon became passionate about making art through photography. His curiosity and sense of adventure have taken him around the world in pursuit of this passion. Rusty's work has appeared in numerous magazines, livestock publications and advertisements. A featured photographer in both Texas Highways Magazine and Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine he has received awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and National ADDY awards. His work has appeared in numerous galleries and exhibitions and is in several private collections.

"For as long as I can remember, I have been enamored by the natural world and the beauty within it. The play of light on the land has transfixed me since I was a child. I am attempting not only to interpret this beauty in a personal way but to also invoke an emotional response from the viewer. In addition to fulfilling a personal need to artistically express myself, my purpose, for making photographs is heightening awareness. Making photographs intensifies my experience of the world around me. If even only in a small way, my work brings awareness of the incredible beauty of our world and the need to be wise stewards of our natural resources - then I have been successful."

Schedule for Cafe on the Square Exhibitors

Here's the proposed schedule for the next 8 months for Cafe on the Square exhibitors. The aim is to change the images out near the end of each month.

February:

Larry Alford

Rose Epps

March:

Lucy Durfee

Lois Schubert

April:

Crystal Bushacker

Elizabeth Lautner

May:

Kathy Williamson

Judy Nicholls

June:

Carol Watson

Benny Rice

July:

Jane Guerin

Phyllis Rummel

August:

Carol Serur

Wes Odell

September:
Tom Bender

October:
Jo Hunter

November:
Raena Wharton
Janice Knox


December:

Reminders will be provided at each club meeting along with an email.

Agenda for Meeting on February 19, 2009

Here's the agenda for our upcoming meeting on Thursday, February 19, 2009

7:00 - 7:15 : Announcements, Introduction of new members/guests, Member News

7:15 - 7:40 : Web Sites of the Month - we'll visit member-recommended web site resources. Don't forget to recommend your favorite website!

7:40- 8:30: Guest Speaker - Adolfo Isassi - Photographer

8:30 - 9:00: Formal critiques. Topic: Black and White Images. Don't forget to send your 3 critique images (jpg 800 pixels wide) by Tuesday, February 17th via email to: hcphotoclub@gmail.com. View the new critique process here:
http://hillcountryphotographyclub.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-critique-process.html

Location: Merrill Gardens in San Marcos. Map and directions available on our club website.

About the Guest Speaker - Adolfo Isassi
Adolfo Isassi has been taking snapshots since he got his Agfa-Matic for his 7th birthday, and photographs since he graduated from the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico in 1985 with a major in architecture and a minor in graphic design. He has exhibited his work with the Austin Association of Visual Arts, Texas Documentary Photographers shows, the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division, PX3 De La Photographie Paris, and fine art galleries around Central Texas.

Johnson City Chamber of Commerce Wildflower Art Contest

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!

The Chamber has extended the deadline for art entries for the 2009 WILDFLOWER FESTIVAL to Friday, January 23. The winning entry will receive $100.00.

Entries should convey our Hill Country Wildflowers. The winning entry will be reproduced in promotional materials to represent this year's Wildflower Festival.

Entries (any media, no larger than 16"x20") should be dropped off at the Visitors Center.

Please pass this email on to your artistic friends!

For additional information:

Susan Kirchman, Director: Kirchman Galleries

213 N Nugent (Courthouse Square) 305 E Main (Hwy 290W)

Johnson City, TX 78626 Johnson City, TX 78636

(830 868 9290) (512) 629 9376

email: susan@kirchmangallery.com snail-mail: PO Box 115

Photoshop 4 Creativity Tour - San Antonio

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
Room: 103
200 E. Market St
San Antonio, TX 78205
Phone: (210) 207-8500

At long last, you can spend a day with the photo realist genius of our times, Bert Monroy. While you may not be able to draw like Bert does (no one can, he's truly the master) in this seminar you'll be able to learn the techniques he's developed over the years to create realistic images that boggle the imagination.

It's the perfect seminar for Photoshop users, photographers and illustrators alike! Different from any seminar offered before, Bert will show you features that are underused and even overlooked by most people, yet powerful enough to make any imagined effect a reality.

More information here.

NANPA Texas Hill Country Regional Event

North American Nature Photography Association
Texas Hill Country
April 16-19, 2009

Located in the heart of the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg is a historic German community. There are numerous sites for photography in the vicinity, including: Pedernales Falls State Park, Enchanted Rock State Park, the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park, and beautiful private ranches set up for nature photography.

This event is being presented in partnership with the Texas Hill Country Nature Photography Alliance.

More information here.