Kaposia Camera Club hosts new workshops

The club’s members collectively choose themes for the competitions before the season begins, however each one also has an “open” category that allows submissions of any subject matter. This year’s themes are: September, rust/metal; October, abandoned buildings; November, window(s); January, flowers; February, tree(s); March, airplanes; April, long exposure; and May, nature that is okay with the hand-of-man. Photos can be edited, and members can submit up to four photos for each theme. All photos must be printed.

Club president Keith Randolph said pictures may be printed on any photo paper but that the best results come from higher-end pigment-based printers found only at a few select shops in the Twin Cities.

“Our club is what I would call a print club,” he said, as opposed to other clubs that allow digital submissions. “In the old days when you had darkroom work, you had your negative and your slides and basically what came out of the camera is what you printed, and any alterations were made in the printing process or in the processing of film. Nowadays everything is done on the computer, and the final result is the print, so it’s kind of backwards with that…. I know film is making a comeback, which means that the darkrooms are slowly making a comeback.”

Randolph joined the club, which dates to 1957 – 30 years ago and has been president for the past decade. Attracting new members has proven difficult amid the rise of digital photography and there are only 10 members currently. However, the club has been getting creative with recruiting efforts and public outreach. It held its first-ever photography scavenger hunt this summer during South St. Paul’s Kaposia Days and recently helped a Girl Scouts troop earn their photography badges. Some may also recognize the club’s name from the 35-piece exhibit that was on display at Kaposia Library in South St. Paul for over a month earlier this summer.

Randolph was a sideline photographer for the Minnesota Vikings for a Chicago-based publication for many years and memorialized several epic home game moments. His “Gridiron Ballet” photo of former star running back Adrian Petersen was named the Photograph of the Year for the 2008 National Football League season. He credits his love for photography to youth trips to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the ability of the artform to have meaning that goes “beyond the frame.” The very first photo he ever took, nearly 60 years ago, illustrates the point perfectly.

“My mom handed me a (Kodak) Hawkeye Instamatic camera when we went down to Fort Sill (in Oklahoma) to pin lieutenant bars on my older brother,” he said. “I came across the print, so I copied it and made a larger one and gave it to my brother. And he just looked at it and said, ‘this is the day that changed my life.’”

For more information on the club, visit cameracouncil.org/member-clubs.

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