Anyone who frequently drops by the James Prendergast Library, at 509 Cherry St. in Jamestown, is aware of the large number of ways in which the library enriches our community.

Right now, in the library’s small art gallery, an exhibit is being shown by the Chautauqua County Camera Club. The walls of both the graciously decorated gallery and the small annex which connects that room to the library’s larger, permanent gallery – the Fireplace Room – are covered by a showcase of the photography of the club’s members.

I recently spent some time with Chad Ecklof, who is the club’s founder and is presently its president. He told me about the founding of the club and a great deal about the photos which are now being exhibited on the library’s walls.

Whether you’re an avid observer or you relish the idea of being an exhibitor of your own work some day in a similar exhibit, I hope you enjoyed learning about a new cultural opportunity in our community.

Chad Ecklof

I met Ecklof in the gallery where I was just beginning my regular working day and he had recently ended his. Ecklof is a baker at the family bakery which bears his name, on Foote Avenue near Jamestown’s southern border. When I arrived, he had a camera set up on a tripod and was filming the photos in the display for use in his photo club’s archives. He said that he starts work, six days per week, at 4 a.m. and stays at it until the day’s baking is done, whenever that might be.

“This time of year is our least busy season,” he said. “So I can have all the bread, cakes, pastries and even the bakery’s signature pink-striped cookies finished well before noon. As we get closer to Easter and in the summer – with picnics and cookouts, and near the holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas – it takes many extra hours, to get everything made and baked.”

He told me the Chautauqua County Camera Club – affectionately called “4C” – was founded in November of 2012.

“I belong to the photo club at the Audubon Society and I think it’s a wonderful organization. However, because of its affiliation with a nature organization, the Audubon Club limits its activities largely to nature art and often to photographs which are printed as the camera sees the subjects,” he said.

“My interest has always been associated with computers and I was first drawn to photography by the ability to manipulate and to enhance images with a computer.” Ecklof first became interested in photography when he was hosting a radio show about computers and the Audubon Photography Club invited him to address one of their meetings on the subject of software for manipulating images with a computer. There, he made good friends and enjoyed an opportunity to share ideas and understandings with other motivated people.

“As I worked with the Audubon Club, I found that some of the members wanted to take different kinds of photos, in addition to natural art, and some of them wanted to work with computer enhancement and manipulation of images. I got the idea that if I started another club, with a different structure, that it would be a useful and valuable companion to the Audubon Club,” he said.

In its first year of life, the Chautauqua County Camera Club has gained 30 members – of whom 23 have chosen to participate in the library showcase – and has enjoyed a number of successes, with some members having their work selected for publication or exhibition in a variety of professional journals and other publications.

Last February, Ecklof had a one-man show of entirely his own photographs at the Prendergast Gallery, and he found that preparing for the show had proved to be excellent discipline for developing and expanding the nature of his photography.

“We discussed that it would be desirable for the whole club to have a public exhibition of all, or nearly all of the members’ work so that the community can know that we exist and so that members have a goal to work toward. We encouraged each member to submit five of their photographs for the showcase and the exhibit is hung with each contributor’s work arranged in a group.

“One woman had her five photos all ready when she happened to get an outstanding photo of the snowy owl which has been visiting our community in recent days. We quickly decided that we could stretch her limit to six works so we could definitely have that owl photo in the show,” he said.

Since then, he continued, so many members have gotten good photos of the snowy owl that the club is contemplating arranging for an exhibit entirely of owl photos.

The president said that the Chautauqua County Camera Club is open to photographers of all ages and all levels of accomplishment. Its only rules are that all the work which is submitted to be shown to the membership at meetings, should begin with a photograph – not with a painting or an illustration – and that the photo must be taken by the member who is submitting the photo.

Ecklof considers himself to be a beginning photographer and is almost completely self-taught. “I’m still working with a ‘point-and-shoot’ camera, he said, indicating the Sony DSC-HX100V which sat ready for use on the tripod. He plans to one day graduate to a full digital Single Lens Reflex camera, but for now, he is happy with the product of the less complex camera and he is happy to focus much of his attention on manipulating his images after they have been captured.

His personal great interest, for the moment, is in what is called High Dynamic Range Photography. That practice involves taking multiple photos of the same subject, usually in a quick burst of multiple exposures and then superimposing those images, one atop the other, creating a single image with extreme or even surrealistic depth.

His display in the current showcase includes printing on backgrounds other than paper, including metal plates and on fabric. He and club member Dan Swackhammer have both utilized a newly available possibility for viewers who own a smart phone or a computer tablet. A photo of one of the historic trains who visited the Jamestown Railway Station a few months back, for example, is hung beside a small black and white square. If the square is scanned with a computerized device, the viewer can see a short YouTube video on that exact train arriving at the station on West Second Street.

Swackhammer, whose images are mostly of scenes taken in Paris, has a black code which will produce a video showing more of the images of the same places from that trip.

“The club is a great place to get advice on taking photographs and to catch up on the most recent developments in photography,” Ecklof said. “Developments currently being studied include Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom and others. Almost every day, new technology becomes available online. If we don’t continue to learn the new developments and the changes in equipment and techniques, it’s very easy to be completely passed by, by technology.”

On the other hand, he explained, if someone is happy to just find new subjects and to continue with the same technology, he or she is welcome in the club and can benefit from its many offerings. “It’s not up to us to tell you how to take photos,” he reported. “Whether you’re ready to make an assault of the profession of photography, or you’re just looking for friendly company as you go about your interest, we welcome you and have things which you’re almost certain to like.”

The Club

The Chautauqua County Camera Club meets on the first Wednesday of each month in the Fireplace Room of the James Prendergast Library. Anyone may attend.

Newcomers are welcome to attend three meetings of 4C, after which they may decide to join the club or to drop out of its membership. In addition to meetings, participants are able to participate in workshops, seminars, photo walks, tours, public exhibits, parties and social activities. Membership prices are $30 for a single annual membership or $50 for a family annual membership, and members may join up or begin their three-month free trial at any time.

The goal of the organization is the provide a welcoming environment, where members can comfortably learn from each other and can share their experiences and their expertise.

Typically meetings include a period of show and tell, when members may show images which they have taken and can discuss problems which they might have encountered or new techniques which they haven’t previously explored so they can get other members’ advice on problems or techniques. Each month, members are offered an assignment on either shooting or editing projects, which gives them the chance to use techniques which have been demonstrated and to apply them to the kind of photographs which the individual takes.

Each month, members are asked to present a short lecture or demonstration. This gives each member a chance to share his own knowledge or experience, and can serve as a challenge to learn something new in order to teach it to the club.

Each month, the formal meeting includes a question-and-answer period for sharing of ideas and experiences. Finally, each month, members are welcome to submit one or more images for blind critiques so they can learn how their photos stack up against those of other members and can learn, without personal biases becoming involved, what things would make them more successful as photographers.

At least once per month, often on the third Wednesday of each month, members are invited to participate in photo walks. The club seeks out locations which pose incentives and challenges to the taking of photos, and learn from each other how to take advantage of the incentives and how to overcome the challenges. Sites such as the Fenton History Center, the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, and other have welcomed club members. A number of these sites have utilized photos inspired by the club’s visit in advertising and to illustrate the organization’s use of grants.

A photo by Ecklof himself of the interior of SS Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, which is part of this showcase, has been included in a book on the history of local churches.

The Prendergast Library Showcase is the first official exhibit for club members. The club is now seeking other public venues for display of members’ photos. Banks usually display artworks on their walls, for example, and Ecklof has already discussed with a number of banks how the club could provide images for display on the bank’s walls, and how often they could switch out new images for older ones so that the look is always new and as many people get opportunities for displaying their work.

Some of the members have joined just to learn how to use a camera they have bought or received as a gift. Some want to learn to print out their own pictures. A few achieve that knowledge and don’t want to go any further, and that’s fine, but most members learn something new and enjoy the experience so much that they aren’t content to just do what they’ve always been doing.

Ecklof said that the club and the library have worked together to get photographic software, which will be installed on the computers in the library’s learning laboratory. In the future, whenever the computers and the software are used, the public will be invited to participate along with members of the club, in using the new materials.

The Showcase of the 4C club’s photography will be available in the library’s art gallery through March 14. To reach the gallery, enter the main doors of the library on Cherry Street. Walk into the building with your back to the doors until you are about half-way back to the large reading room and are under a small bridge which crosses the reading room at the level of the second floor. You will see a staircase to your left. The gallery is at the top of the stairs. Directly to the left of that staircase is an elevator which will also take you to the gallery.

The library is open from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. It’s open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. If you should arrive during hours, and find the gallery locked, ask at the reference desk located right at the bottom of the stairs to the gallery and it will be opened for you. There is no charge to visit the gallery.

For more information about 4C, phone 487-6460 or go to www.chautauquacountycameraclub.com.