NEAR AND FAR (Clark and Joan Barker)
Clark Barker
Clark’s photographic experience has mostly been as a tourist taking snapshots of interesting places visited and photos of his son and daughter when they were children. After retirement as a staff analyst from the Navy Comptroller Clark and wife Joan have taken several overseas trips with organized tour groups. The use of tripods was not an option and the lighting was “as is” during bus stops and city tours. A fair number of photos were taken through a bus window.
Clark’s first “real” camera was a used 35mm fixed lens Voigtlander followed by a Minolta SRT101 when he became gainfully employed after college. After a couple more Minoltas, mostly using slide film, he entered the digital age with an 8 megapixel Olympus, followed by several Canon cameras. He currently uses a Canon 5Dmk3 with Canon lenses. Most of the pre-digital photos became 35mm slides.
Clark used Photoshop Elements to process and print digital images for many years, upgrading to Lightroom/Photoshop CC after joining NVPS four years ago. He attributes improvements in technical skills and composition to NVPS and was the class two color print Photographer of the Year for 2016-2017. He cuts his own mats and does his own printing, currently with an Epson P800 printer and his favorite paper is Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
He enjoys taking travel photos, especially landscapes, but has begun exploring other types of photography such as wildlife and macro since joining NVPS.
Joan Barker
Although Joan has always enjoyed photographing family and places they visited, she was not sure that she would enjoy being a part of a photography club. Joan was using a point and shoot camera at the time and knew nothing about F stop, Shutter Speed, or ISO. Needless to say Joan has learned a lot in the past 4 years. She now shoots with a mirrorless Panasonic Luminx Micro 4/3 camera and finally understands how to get off auto.
She enjoys shooting landscapes, flowers, and abstracts. Joan has surprised herself with the success she has had in the monthly competitions from the very beginning. She loves doing post processing on the computer as it encourages her creative juices.
Being retired gives her more time to pursue many interests and Joan is pleased to add that photography is now one of them. Joan was an educator and taught elementary school before her children were born. After kids, she chose part time teaching and eventually administration in Early Childhood.
Clark and Joan have two children, a girl and boy, and 3 grandkids. They are favorite subjects to shoot for both of them. In the future she would like to continue to improve her technical skills while keeping the creative side as a big part of what she does. Joan is interested in becoming more proficient in monochrome photography. She appreciates all the help she receives from Clark and her two Mentors, Willa and Willa. Joan has learned a lot from these ladies reinforcing what Clark tries to teach her at home.
Yes, Joan is glad she joined as she enjoys the people and the programs but especially the competitions. So much thanks to Bill Vanderpool and Nancy Dubiell for their encouragement to join NVSP.
Title: Highlighting Varied Subjects
Member: Judy McGuire
Description: Judy’s show will feature photos of varied subjects taken in the last couple years. A number of locations will be highlighted, many of them just a day trip away.
Bio: Judy McGuire became interested in photography and travel when she was 10 and took her first road trip to the western states with her family and her Kodak Brownie camera. She took snapshots documenting family, friends, pets and travels for many years before getting a Nikon SLR for slide photography, and currently shoots with a Nikon D7200.
Since she joined NVPS in 2001, the club’s activities and members have been a constant inspiration for learning and improving her photography. Judy believes regular practice is critical to developing skills – as she tried to impress on young students during her many years of teaching piano. But in photography – as well in music – another part of the experience is enjoying the results!
Judy is most interested in travel and nature photography and loves to photograph anywhere, searching out back roads as well as obvious sites. She enjoys giving slide shows for various groups, and makes calendars and note cards using her photographs. Her work has been juried into Nature Visions and the Joseph Miller Abstract Exhibits, and published in Virginia Wildlife Magazine. She has won a number of awards in NVPS competitions, including Slide of the Year, Advanced Digital Image of the Year and Advanced Digital Photographer of the year three times.
