January 2020 Meeting

Next Meeting Thursday January 9, 2020

Loyalist College Pioneer building room P13

7:30 – 9:30

Guest Presenter

The County Photographer

Phil Norton

Phil Norton, 62, comes from the old days of film and darkroom photography with a career in magazine and newspaper journalism. But he’s staying current by embracing the new technology, adding the likes of drones and Instagram to his toolkit. 

His work has evolved from an artistic style to documentary and visual storytelling and now back to fine art. For magazines and blogs, he uses the written word, audio and multimedia to enhance the still pictures.

In the 1980’s, with an environmental science degree from Penn State, he focused on issues about energy, air pollution and water. In Quebec he was the editor of a bilingual weekly newspaper, and as a freelancer for Harrowsmith Magazine, he won two National Magazine Awards for articles on acid rain and forest dieback. Similar work along with travel and biographical features were published in Canadian Geographic, Time, National Geographic Traveler and regional publications like Adirondack Life.

At the dawn of the 21st century, he worked in the Photography Department of The Montreal Gazette where he was at the forefront of learning Adobe Photoshop and digital photography and archiving.

As more and more people flocked to DSLR’s and smart phone cameras, he moved into personal tutoring and leading Photography Adventures, week-long group trips to all points of North America. Currently his County Outings business, and a partnership with the Drake Devonshire Inn, offer private winery and birding tours in Prince Edward County.

On November 14, Norton will bring you up to date with some of documentary stories he is pursuing, including a “Then and now” project revisiting the places and people from his bicycle camping tours of 1979-80, as well as the “2020 Vision” and the “Pulse of America” projects prior to the US presidential election next November, and his ongoing Energy Documentary about climate change. Also featuring his drone project, “Vertigo” for an upcoming home studio exhibition of vertical aerial panoramas.

Monthly Theme

This month we have an Open Theme so you are free to two your TWO best images of 2019 to share. Don’t worry if you see an error message after the upload. It is just a glitch on the website that we can’t seem to get rid of.