The Photo Club is back up for the fall semester! We’re still deciding what to do but have an upcoming fundraiser where we will be selling Carne Asada cooked fresh on the barbie on campus. We did a Halloween themed photo club promotion at the club fair, but the pictures are turning out to be quite the project. We got lots of new sign ups! Our club is in transition this semester and has new members and a fine set of officers to forge our new direction.

The arts may be come a threatened major at our campus and the SWC Photoclub is transitioning to the Photo & Arts Club. We inviting all artists into our experience and embracing more than just the photographic arts. This will put us in the position to be a voice for saving the arts and the fine staff who teach it at Southwestern College. Please enjoy the attached photos of our first event.

-Allen C. Morse III
President, SWC Photo & Arts Club

That's Todd, our fearless leader, (club advisor).

Bake Sale is a success!

Crystel gets a sale back at the main table too!

[caption id="attachment_59" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Our cupcakes! YUMMY!"][/caption]

...Meanwhile back at the main table.

[caption id="attachment_57" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The mobile team gets a sale in the Student Center!"][/caption]

The mobile team has to restock!

[caption id="attachment_55" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Our mobile team Crystel and Marlon on the prowl for customers!"][/caption]

Laura and her boyfriend man the main table.

On April 30th, the SWC Photo Club held a bake sale. While there were three other clubs holding similar events it turned out great for us! Our location was kind of off the beaten path too, tucked away in front of the Academic Success Center. The event was organized by Crystel Gomez and the goodies we sold at the event were baked by Crystel, Marina Lacayo and Laura Palomino. We had cupcakes, cookies and our big hit brownies for sale.

Since we were kind of off the beaten path, Crystel came up with this idea, why not pack covered trays with a variety of stuff and two members form a mobile sales team and spread out to different areas of the campus and see what we could do? Boy did that work! We immediately started having to restock the mobile team as they sold stuff all over the place! As a consequence, school employees at the Student Center as well as students got the chance to eat some of our stuff and they all loved it! We even got some sales in the lines awaiting some of the other club’s events. Our bake sale was uniquefrom the others and thus it did well! So, our bake sale turned out to be a dsuccess! Much thanks is extended to Crystel Gomez, Marina Lacayo, Laura Palomino and Marlon Luna de la Fuente for all the hard work they put in to make this event happen. Without them it wouldn’t have happend at all!

Allen C. Morse III
SWC Photo Club President

“Find the Photo” Camping trip a success!

On April 17th-19th the SWC Photo Club went camping! A good time was had by all who attended the event.

We started off on Friday moning and arrived about noon and set up camp.That afternoon I struck off on a nature trail hike through the countryside and was surprised at what I saw.

The Cedar fire had raged through that area about 6-years ago now and the terrain is slowly recovering. Some of the Live Oak trees survived and are starting to return but the tall pines are completely dead! It seems they burned from the top down. This is called a “Crown Fire” and it is by far the worst kind! Much of the Manazanita was pretty much burned up too, and none had regained the familiar red bark on the outside that characterizes that kind of tree. That wood is real hard too, so you can imagine how hot that fire was! I climbed up the side of a mountain up to the top with Marlen and we felt victorious after reaching the top!

That night we had a big pot of Spaghetti and built a big fire because it definitely was getting cold! I decided to stay in my car and that was a mistake because not only was it cramped but freezing! The next morning we set up a tent so I would not have to go through that again.

Saturday saw a side trip to Lake Cuyamaca and Julian and we arrived in Julian with a whole bunch of bikers in town! Still we had a great meal and and the biggest Chocolate Sunday I’ve ever had!

During that morning, some of the people worked clay and made some ceramics to fire in the fire that evening. We did that and heard many explosions during the process but a lot of the ceramics actually came out! During the evening we also toasted marshmallows and hot dogs.

Sunday we weren’t in a hurry to take off and hung out ate food and relaxed before tearing down camp. We made our way back to San Diego, sorry to see the weekend over. I’ve included some photos of the event so check them out for yourself!

Allen C. Morse III
SWC Photo Club President

Ms. Montoya’s 2nd graders and the SWC Photo Club.

We have had an ongoing event going with Ms. Montoya’s 2nd graders at Central Elementary in Imperial Beach. We have visited the Tijuana Estuary and the San Diego Zoo with the class. In both instances we provided disposable cameras and processed the film for the class. We then came back and the kids made collages from the photographs! It gave the kids exposure to photography, and we helped them learn to frame and compose pictures. It was also very interesting to see the development of an “eye” for photography develop between the two events for some of the kids! It was also fascinating to watch how each kid approached making each of their collages. Some liked lots of photographs, others applied more art and some got into elaborate little cut outs. Art is very much a function of personality and even at this early age their artwork is very distinctly different from each other.

Upcoming is another trip with the class to the Tijuana Estuary, the last one occured at probably the highest tide that had been seen at the Estuary in a long time. This resulted in it being quite flooded and forced a lot of the wildlife away. We’re planning to return when there is more wildlife around to view. Again the Photo Club will provide disposable cameras for the kids to use, and the talented ones might even get to take a few pictures with mine! Nothing like a long lense to capture wildlife in its native habitat!

Our relationship with Ms. Montoya and Central Elementary promises to be an enduring one! This is just one of the many community events that the Southwestern College Photo Club participates in. There are many more upcoming in the months and years to come!

Allen C. Morse III
SWC Photo Club President

Ms. Montoya's class and us.

Photo Club goes to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

On February 28th the SWC Photo Club went to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It started with one of the most interesting displays of old street lights out in front of the museum. Here were all these old lights, lined up in columns that you could wander through. I found some very interesting extreme angle photographs in this display. The exhibit we went to see was “Vanity Fair” featuring some of the great photographers of this magazine. Most memorable was the black & white photography, particularlythat of Edward Steichen who I had heard of but never seen his work. His use of light to illuminate his subject was awe inspiring for me! Much of the fine work by the photographers of Vanity Fair magazine was featured.

Afterward, we went down to a place called “Bergamot”. It is the name for avery unique Museum of Art in Santa Monica. Artists have their own galleries and you can actually talk with some of them! The art shown here was very unique, it included a crochet representation of a coral seascape! It was amazing to see what people could make art out of!

We ended up in Venice. Ah yes THE Venice Beach! We ate on the main drag and enjoyed a superb meal and hunted down some good coffee for the trip home. It was an amazing and successful event! Stay tuned for more on our activities upcoming!

The gang out in front of the street lamp display at LACMA.

[caption id="attachment_12" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="The entrance art at LACMA."][/caption]

An idea of how Bergamot is, (the Santa Monica Museum of Art).

[caption id="attachment_14" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="An example of the crochet art we found at Bergamot."][/caption]

Winding down in Venice after a full day of art museums!

Our gang as of last semester!

This is the first posting of our club! The officers of our club are:
Allen C. Morse III-President
Laura Palomino-Vice President
Marlon Luna de la Fuente-Treasurer/ICC representative
Marina Lacayo-Secretary.

At the SWC Photo Club we are passionate about photography. We welcome members that enjoy both traditional film and also digital photography. We’re here for those just discovering the passion of this art and for those who are highly skilled and teach and guide those new to photography.

Our club also is involved in many events, including field trips to museums, actual camping trips for finding beautiful pictures to take and of course activities on campus as well. On this site we will be documenting much that we do so that you can come be a part of our organization. So drop by again and keep up what’s happening with us, the Southwestern College Photo Club.

SWC Photo Club President Spring 2009 Allen C. Morse III

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