• Announcements

• "Spring Flowers" assignment pictures

• Walking around in Torrington by Lazlo Gyorsok

• A Tribute to Steve Balkin by Dawn Dingee

• Pictures from the Sharon Audubon

• President's Message by Dawn Dingee

• Latest Photography News

• Tips and Tutorials

• PSA Magazine

Tips and tutorials

Walking in Torrington

A Tribute to Steve Balkin by Dawn Dingee

Photo by Jeff Breitman

The Housatonic Camera Club lost a very good friend recently. Steve Balkin was a long-time member of HCC. He was an active member who participated in our meetings, salon shows and competitions. He frequently sent photos to Lazlo for the newsletter. He was also a lively participant at the Tuesday gatherings at Giffords. His presence will be missed there for sure!

Steve was an interesting character and I say that in a good way 😊 He had many talents and interests….he was a former model, an artist, painter, photographer, a collector of old photographs, an authority on antique toy soldiers, and the father of “Lyrical Expressionism”. Back in the day, he ‘rubbed elbows’ with Andy Warhol, Robin Williams among others.

Steve was a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He owned the Burlington Antique Toy Shop on Madison Avenue in NYC. He retired from that after 33 years. The NY Times featured several articles on him. His store was very unique and was frequented by many famous people who shared his same love of history and antique toy soldiers.

Photo by Julie Glassberg from a NY Times article

Photograph by Allison Michael Orenstein

In addition to his interest in photography, Steve was also an accomplished painter. He’s had several solo shows of his paintings. Several of us attended his 2019 show in Torrington, CT.

Photo taken by Lazlo Gyorsok

Paintings by Steve Balkin

Photos by Steve Balkin

Spring Flowers

A       few pictures from the "Spring Flowers" assignment. Click on any one of the pictures to see them in full size.

Tulips by Dawn Dingee	Green winged orchid and caterpillar by Ian Peters	Dutch tulip fields #3 by Bert Schmitz
Spring flowers #1 by Lazlo Gyorsok	Spring flower #4 by Raphael Swift	Tulips in perspective by Bert Schmitz
Spring flower #3 by Raphael Swift	Dutch tulip fields #2 by Bert Schmitz	Yellow Tulip by Karen McMahon
Spring flowers #4 by Heidi Hoeller	Daffodils at Gramercy Park by Steve Goldberg	Spring flowers #2 by Heidi Hoeller
Bee on Hyacinth by Karen McMahon	Spring flowers #6 by Lazlo Gyorsok	Grape Hyacinth by Karen McMahon
Dutch tulip fields by #4 Bert Schmitz	Spring flowers #2 by Lazlo Gyorsok	Jonquil by Karen McMahon
Spring flowers #6 by Heidi Hoeller	Wild Daffodils by Ian Peters	Snakes head Fritilary by Ian Peters
Spring is here by Bill Devoti	Spring flower #1 by Raphael Swift	Early Purple orchid and Cowslip by Ian Peters
Spring flowers #5 by Heidi Hoeller	Spring Flowers by Brian Wilcox	Spring flowers #5 by Lazlo Gyorsok
Desktop daffodil by A.G. Mudge	Cuckoo Flower and Orange tip butterfly by Ian Peters	Calla lillies by Karen McMahon
Spring flowers #7 by Heidi Hoeller	Pushing daisies by Dawn Dingee	Spring flowers #3 by Heidi Hoeller
Pretty in pink by Dawn Dingee	Spring flower #2 by Raphael Swift	Spring flowers #4 by Lazlo Gyorsok
Orchids and Cowslips by Ian Peters	Spring Flowers by Mary Jean Winkler	Daffodils by Heidi Hoeller
Crocuses by Dawn Dingee	Primrose by Dawn Dingee	Spring flowers #3 by Lazlo Gyorsok
Dutch tulip fields by Bert Schmitz

Outing at Sharon Audubon

A       few pictures from our unofficial outing at the Sharon Audubon on April 26, 2022 . Click on any one of the pictures to see them in full size.

Audubon 25 by Bert Schmitz	Bert photographing the old barn by Lazlo	Jeff and Heidi by Lazlo
	Audubon #5 by Bert Schmitz	Rick, Jeff and Bert by Lazlo
Majestic bird by Lazlo	Audubon pictures #3 by Rick Pauline	Audubon #4 by Bert Schmitz
Audubon #2 by Heidi Hoeller	Audubon #3 by Bert Schmitz	The old barn by Lazlo
Old Barn #2 by Lazlo	Audubon #1 by Bert Schmitz	Audubon #3 by Heidi Hoeller
Audubon pictures #7 by Rick Pauline	Audubon #1 by Heidi Hoeller	Rick photographing the daffodils by Lazlo
Audubon pictures #4 by Rick Pauline	Audubon pictures #6 by Rick Pauline	Audubon pictures #5 by Rick Pauline
Audubon pictures #2 by Rick Pauline	Bert and Heidi by Jeff Breitman	The bench by Lazlo
Audubon pictures #1 by Rick Pauline

President's Message by Dawn Dingee

W       ith spring showers comes May flowers! We have certainly had our fair share of rain over the past month. If the saying holds true, we should have a lot of flowers! Bushes and trees are beginning to bud and birds are beginning to nest. Now if only the temperatures would begin to rise, we’d be able to enjoy these happenings. Let's hope for sunnier days soon. In April, we had our first face-to-face meeting in 2 years! The meeting was our first regular meeting at St. Thomas Church in Amenia, NY. We had a good turn-out and even signed up some new members. The meeting was recorded so an email with a link to the meeting should be arriving in your email shortly. For May, we have a Zoom presentation scheduled and then in June we will have an outside picnic to wrap up our season. More details to follow.
As many of you know, we lost a longtime member Steve Balkin. A tribute to him can be found in this month’s newsletter. Thank you to Jeff Breitman for making arrangements for a memorial service last week. The club will be making a donation to the Amenia Food Pantry in Steve’s name.
Now is the time to begin planning for next season. Hopefully things can get back to normal and we can go back to more frequent face-to-face meetings, scheduled outings / field trips and other activities to keep us engaged in Photography. With this, we will need to recruit members to take on Committee positions that are open such as Secretary, Program Coordinator, Secretary and Salon Show Coordinators. If you are interested in hearing more about any of these positions, please let me know. Currently, the club is being held together by the work of a small few…we could really use your help! THIS IS YOUR CLUB! We would love to hear from your on regarding what you want us to bring to members and would appreciate your help on this.
Lastly, I encourage anyone who hasn’t done so to follow our group in Facebook. Lazlo runs the page and is a frequent contributor but we could really use more posts from members. It’s a great way to share photos, information on upcoming photo opportunities, etc. It’s a good source for reminders and notices about what’s going on in the club.

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