Club Holds January Meeting

The Coastal Carolina Camera Club held its first monthly meeting of 2022, featuring Gary Allen whose presentation was entitled: "Macro Photography on a Budget."   Gary told interesting stories and used great examples of macro photography.  His interest in photography began in 1974 when he got his first camera at the age of 12 and has been a professional photographer since 1980. During the 80’s and 90’s he worked as an award-winning newspaper photojournalist, mostly with the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC (North Carolina photographer of the year five times and runner-up six times). He has won awards for his work on local, state, regional, national and international levels including being part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team at the N&O in 1996. Gary provided many examples of how old lenses can be repurposed for close-up photography on a shoe-string budget.

The Club's next meeting was scheduled for Feb. 10 but we have been informed by our host Shallotte Presbyterian Church that due to the current high rate of infection in Brunswick County they have closed the church to outside groups for the month of February.  Check back here for more information.

Upcoming Field Trips

The club is breaking out!  We have a couple of field trip opportunities coming up.  The first one is to Georgetown, SC on Feb. 16 and a exciting new two-night trip in mid-April to Scotland Neck, NC has just been announced. If you are tired of waiting for an opportunity to get out and shoot, this is for you.  Check out the box at the bottom of this home page for more information.

Long-Time Club Member and Technical Director Joe Hamel Passes

Armand Joseph "Joe" Hamel of Carolina Shores, a long-time member of Coastal Carolina Camera Club and its technical director for several years, died January 19 of Covid-19.  Born in Rhode Island and lived in Massachusetts for many years before retiring to Coastal Carolina. He was 77.  Joe had many interests, including bee keeping, computers and other electronics, his church, and of course, photography. As technical director for the Club, he created many slide shows featured on our website. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Nancy Hamel, children and grandchildren. Please enjoy this short video of Joe's nature photography. 

CCCC Members Named as National Contest Winners

Two members of Coastal Carolina Camera Club were recently recognized by the Photographic Society of America for their photos. Thousands of entries are submitted worldwide for the quarterly competitions.  Michelle Tinger's entry entitled "Beautiful Bunting" received a Blue Ribbon in the Projected Image Division (best overall photos).  Steve Wingfield was recognized with a "Merit" ribbon for his image entitled "The Energy of a 4-Year-Old" in the Creative Division.   The next quarter's images are currently being collected from members by the club and will be submitted in next few weeks.  Congratulations to our local winners!

Monthly Slide Shows Featured Below, Member Galleries Above

On this club homepage you'll find examples of the photography our members are doing.  Below you'll see monthly slide shows on a specific theme. In the top right corner,  you'll see a portfolio provided by one of our members. If you have an interest in photography and how to improve your skills, come visit our next meeting, held on the second Thursday of each month in the Fellowship Hall of Shallotte Presbyterian Church.

Field Trips

The club's first field trip for 2022 will be a day trip on Wednesday, Feb. 16 to the quaint and historic waterfront town of Georgetown, S.C.  This trip will be led by one of our board members, Carmen Daughtry.

We will leave from Lowe’s Food in Little River at 8 am. It takes about 1 ½ hours provided traffic is light. Travel via SC-31 to 707 and then 17. Carpooling will probably be best but if not, we can meet at Kaminski house at approximately 9:30 before we start the walk-tour.

We will tour the grounds of Kaminski House, the fountain and the landing. Next we will  proceed on the Harbor Walk to the Rice Museum and Town Clock. These 5 blocks of downtown will offer plenty of photo opportunities. We will tour the Rice Museum.

Attendees will have the option of lunching together at Murrell's Inlet, which has a wonderful boardwalk that offers additional photo ops. We expect to conclude around 2 p.m.   Members are reminded to bring a mask for indoor portions of the day.

Sign up Soon For Great Opportunity at Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Marsha Kerchner is taking the lead for this two-night April 12-14 field trip to Sylvan Heights Bird Park.  Sylvan is approximately 3-1/2 hours away in Scotland Neck, NC.  It features over 2000 species of birds from all over the world that you can view through large, walk-through aviaries.

Sylvan Heights Bird Park seeks to advance conservation of waterfowl and wetlands, to act as a local educational resource for avian biology and wetlands ecology, and to serve as an international center for avicultural training and research.

Please check out their website at https://www.shwpark.com/ for more information. They have many new adventures, including a 5-person tour of the park.  Marsha would like to do this if she can get four other people as the price is $50.00. They will not stop for us to take pictures, but we can return later.  There are picnic tables for you to bring your own lunch or a snack bar for you to buy sandwiches.

The nearby Scotland Neck Inn has given us a $69.00 plus tax rate because we are going to the park.  Please make your own reservations by calling Jack at the Inn, 252-826-5141.  They have plenty of rooms right now, so book as soon as you can.  You can cancel within 24 hours, if necessary.

We will be going to dinner both nights at LaCasett Italian Restaurant around 6:30p.m.  Marsha will make reservations as it gets closer and she has a better count as to who is going.

Please let Marsha at barefootmarsha@gmail.com  know if you are attending and if you will be bringing a guest so she can make sure all hotel reservations are accounted for and have an accurate count for restaurant reservations.