Bring digital images to share and discuss, particularly from recent field trips: Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre, Conner Prairie, Holliday Park and Holcomb Gardens.

We'll gather at 7 a.m. at Conner Prairie, 13400 Allisonville Road, Fishers, which will open its gates early to photographers, nature lovers, artists who want to enjoy wandering the grounds in the early morning. The cost is $10. If you want to stay after 10 a.m. when Conner Prairie officially opens, you'll need to pay the regular $8 admission fee.

Note that Conner Prairie requires that all photographs and works of art be for personal use only. Images from the grounds cannot be used commercially, for marketing purposes or for personal financial gain. Photographers must sign consent forms, available at the ticket desk.

Club members attending this meeting will judge entries that have been submitted to be included in the club's entry in the annual Indiana State Fair Photography Contest. Note that images cannot have been entered in the State Fair competition previously. This is a digital competition (how to enter digital competitions) and the deadline to submit is midnight on Sunday, June 10. 

Note location and time change: We'll be photographing the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre's dress rehearsal for "A Night in India." This will be at The Tarkington theater in Carmel. 

Location change: We're meeting for an evening of photography at Holcomb Gardens on the Butler University campus. 

Photo competition turn-in: Submit your best work from the past two years to be considered for the club's entry in the annual Indiana State Fair Photography Contest. Note that images cannot have been entered in the State Fair competition previously. This is a digital competition (how to enter digital competitions) and the deadline to submit is midnight on Sunday, June 10. 

We'll meet at 9:30 a.m. at the auto graveyard in Modoc, Ind., 60 miles east of Indianapolis. Parking is on the lot at the NW corner of US 36 and Indiana 1. https://tinyurl.com/PVCCModoc

The proprieter, Gene Shore, also owns the gas station on the other side of US 36. He is fine with photographers. There is no fence and no junk yard dogs. He has had photographers visit from around the world.

Also, the Wilbur Wright Birthplace and Museum is nearby and worth visiting.

NOTE BOTH THE LOCATION AND TIME CHANGE!

We'll be meeting at Renditions Framing Center, 6935 Lake Plaza Drive, B-8. (See their web site at http://www.renditionsfineart.com.) We'll gather at 7 pm, accompanied by some wine and cheese, after which Rendition's Mary Scharnberg will discuss framing concepts, equipment and processes. She'll lead us on a tour of various art works, the gallery and frame assembly area and answer our questions.

NOTE LOCATION CHANGE for this month's competition judging. We'll be back at Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis, 615 W. 43rd Street. This month's topic, in digital format, is "Eyes."

PVCC member and art fair veteran Scott Kinzie will discuss the ins and outs of showing your work at art fairs and marketing your photos effectively.

Paraphrasing member Karl Zemlin here: We'll have a presentation by Walter Kuhn - motorsport photographer extraordinaire. He's been shooting at the Speedway for many years, and often has the best seat in the house, at least for the start and the finish. Walt's also the Director of Education and Special Projects at Roberts Imaging, so it's likely you'll learn something useful during his presentation.

It's also competition turn-in for May. The topic is "Eyes" and the format is digital. Instructions on how to enter digital competitions.

We will be visiting Bundy Duck Decoys, makers of hand-carved wooden duck decoys. Not used for hunting, these ducks are works of art.  Bundy Ducks is the last decoy manufacturing plant in the United States. Owner John Bundy will be our guide and fill us in on the world of duck decoys. John is a member of the Indiana Artisans and will personally show us his ducks and keep us entertained with lots of stories.  This is a unique opportunity to get inside a fading industry.
 
We meet at the duck factory at 9:00, Saturday morning, April 29.  The address is 16506 Strawtown Avenue, Noblesville.  This is northwest of Noblesville.

This field trip is for Photo Venture members only.

The Art Center is unavailable this week, so we will meet at Holliday Park, 6363 Spring Mill Rd, Indianapolis, to photograph the park grounds. Sunset is at 8:35 pm, so let's plan to meet at 6:30 on the patio in front of the nature center.  Anyone who arrives later can find us around the grounds.

This week we'll hear our judge critique the photos entered in our monthly competition. The judge is Marc Lebryk: http://www.lebryk.com/. 

NOTE MEETING LOCATION CHANGE: We'll be meeting at Unitarian Universal Indianapolis Church at615 W 43rd St.

We'll be photographing the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre's dress rehearsal of the show Superhero at The Tarkington in Carmel.

Jarrid Spicer of Roberts Camera discusses new photography equipment with emphasis on mirrorless cameras.

This is also the deadline day to turn in images for the April competition. The topic is Action, the format is digital. Instructions on how to submit images are here.

We have canceled this week's meeting -- officers and committee chairs will be holding a planning session. So, if you aren't at the planning meeting, go out and take some pictures! :)

We'll travel to Crawfordsville, about one hour northwest of Indianapolis, and meet at 9:00 a.m. on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum. We will be provided a personal docent to explain the Study and the life of Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur.  We will have exclusive access because the facility does not officially open until 10:00. Tripods are welcome.

Note: There will be a $5.00 charge per person

Afterwards we will visit other historic sites in Crawfordsville before having a lunch at the Creekside Lodge on Sugar Creek.

On the way home there will be an opportunity to shoot a covered bridge in Darlington.

Share images that pay homage to the style of Edward Weston. If you attended our March 2nd "shoot like Weston" workshop bring one of your images from that meeting, plus 2-3 Weston style shots taken at home.

Whether you entered or not, come enjoy the images, the comments and the critiques at our monthly competition judging. Our judge is Indianapolis photographer Juan Flores, who you may have seen online as Johnny Flowers. The topic this month was "My Public Lands," in print format.

Bring a piece of equipment you like, especially new gear, and talk about it.  Also, bring gear you want to trade or sell.

This week will be holding our monthly competition judging on the topic "Curves." James Willis -- local photographer, educator and one of the experts at Roberts Camera -- will be our judge.

Photo Venture members Bill Petrovic, Sandy Stawiasz and Eric Schoch will give short presentations about three photographers of note: Vivian Maier, Clyde Butcher and Leonard Nimoy.

Plan to swing by M10 Studio to see the second annual First Friday show by Photo Venture photographers. We're encouraging people to come to the show -- and see other art at the Circle City Industrial Complex and elsewhere in the city -- and will not be holding our usual Thursday meeting.

Thursday is still turn-in day for the February competition, on the topic "Curves."  It's a digital competition, see the entry instructions. 

Our holiday party will once again be hosted by M10 Studio, 1125 Brookside Ave., in the Circle City Industrial Complex. (Park in the lot across the street, use the door with the big CCIC "Gear" sign next to it.)

We'll once again have our fun "white elephant" style gift exchange of photos, so bring one of your images wrapped -- preferably matted but not framed -- for the exchange.

This is a pitch-in event, so bring a side dish and/or beverages.

Bokeh: the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. PVCC member Karl Zemlin will talk the creative application of bokeh, with some useful examples perfect for the holidays. 

We'll be traveling to the Pike Performing Arts Center, 6701 Zionsville Road in Indianapolis, to photograph the dress rehearsal of the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre's performance of the Nutcracker. Be there ready to shoot at 6 pm.

Don't worry, our scheduling mavens are hard at work on a cool meeting for tonight!

Bring no more than 3 images. Rather than showing a large number of images, we want members to share information on why and how the capture was made and why and how any post processing was done. If edited, please show both the original image then the final image.

Also, it's competition turn-in for November. It's print format this month, and the topic is "Street."

Tonight has been set aside for a meeting of Photo Venture officers and committee chairs. However, any interested club members are welcome to attend. This will be an in-depth session tackling a broad range of topics -- membership, competitions, our Facebook and web pages, field trips, meeting presentations, the works. If you have ideas, we want to hear them.

We'll be taking a fall foilage field trip to Morgan Monroe State Forest. We will move among the most photogenic spots. Historically, this has been the peak color weekend. Meet at the park at 10:00 a.m. More details as the trip gets closer.