How does a photographer get a closeup of a dragonfly teetering on a leaf, its translucent wings outspread and glittering in the summer morning sun?
Charles Vasely learned the answer as a member of the Nature Study & Camera Club of the Morton Arboretum: Get out there early in the morning to photograph them.
“What happens is most of these little critters are somewhat stunned by the cool air,” said Vasely of Darien, who is a former president of the club and has been a member for 20 years. “They also collect little beads of moisture from fog, and they have to wait until the sunlight dries them off before they can fly.”
The Nature Study & Camera Club formed in 1965 to help photographers broaden their knowledge of nature and improve techniques for recording natural phenomena on film.
“It was founded by Dick Wason, former naturalist and director of education at the arboretum,” said Raymond Kammer of Naperville, current club president. Kammer said that Wason believed the study of nature and photography would be a good mix for a club and an excellent program for the arboretum, located in Lisle.
The club is going strong. It has about 80 active members who pay annual dues of $25 and come together at 7:30 p.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month, either at Thornhill or Cudahy Auditorium at the arboretum.
This club, however, is definitely different from other camera clubs in that the study of nature is just as essential a part of the club as learning about how to take good photographs.
“It’s an important part of our club,” said Ruth Smith of Lockport, who has been a member for 17 years and is an award-winning photographer whose work has been published in Country Living magazine as well as various calendars, textbooks and coffee table books. “It’s a bit of work, but I never fail to learn at least one thing about the subject I’m doing.”
For the club’s competitions, which take place five times a year, members may submit three slides at a time. Along with the slide, however, they must submit a written commentary on the subject.
“People who first join sometimes find writing the commentary a bit daunting, but after a while it becomes easier,” Vasely said.
“I find writing the cards very laborious,” said Barbara Kudrnovsky of Oak Brook, a member for 10 years, “but I learn a lot by writing them.”
Even though the commentaries are short, it can take quite a bit of research to write one, Smith said. And a good commentary can sometimes influence a judge to give a better mark.
“The commentary might help show how difficult it was to get the shot, or it may point out something small like a small insect in a flower,” said Jim Nachel of Western Springs, also a former president of the club and a member since 1974.
One more restriction in the club is that slides considered for competition must not show “the hand of man.” In other words, they must be strictly nature; there can be no evidence of man, such as footprints, a sawed-off stump, roads, paths or even cultivated plants.
Photographers from the club enter competitions in either Class A, B or C, with A being the top level of expertise. Slides in a competition are graded by points. The photographer with the most points at the end of the year automatically moves up to the next class. Judges are typically two camera club members and one outside judge.
At a recent competition, Tom Schutt of Glen Ellyn, a former nature photography teacher at College of DuPage, was the guest judge.
As slides of leopards, lightning, ferns, bugs, mushrooms, canyons, seascapes, deer, aspen and pine cones appeared on a screen, the judges made comments, giving suggestions to the photographer on composition, light or technical guidance.
“When you shoot animals, you’ve got to have the eye in focus,” said one.
“I’d like a little more nature study in the reading,” said another judge.
The slides go by quickly. A proctor at the front of the room calls out the points. The audience, composed of club members and visitors is quiet, waiting for the next slide and pondering the comments of the judges as well as listening closely to the descriptive passages, which are read as the slide is shown.
But wait, this is so subjective. One judge may not like something that someone else loves. Has there never been a complaint because of a low score? Hasn’t anyone ever stood up and shouted out in disagreement?
“People are very respecting of the judges,” Kammer said. “We invite them because of their expertise and artistic ability.”
That’s a pretty high-minded answer, and Kudrnovsky said some members’ feelings have been hurt when they thought they had a good slide that was judged poorly.
“I think that’s why many new people drop out,” she said. “We try to tell them ahead of time that we’ve all gone through this. I don’t mind (not getting a good score), but some people are very sensitive about it and do drop out when they don’t do well and don’t have time to improve. I very frequently disagree with the judges. I’ve gotten a low score on a slide and the following year resubmitted it and then have gotten a ribbon.”
Jean Feierabend of Naperville has been a member of the club for about a year but didn’t enter a slide until the most recent competition. She came away with an honorable mention in Class C, which is considered good for a first attempt. She beat out a half-dozen other comeptitors in her class.
“I was so scared,” she said. “I don’t even have a slide projector. I had never seen one of my pictures projected. You just sit in awe of these slides. These people are really good.”
Schutt agreed: “When you get into the Class A stuff here, it’s good, it’s really good. I don’t see any better nature photography than what comes out of the top class of this club. Nine is the highest amount of points you can give, and there are not very many places where I give a 9, and I gave three or four of them tonight.”
The group frequently sponsors field trips where members can shoot nature and learn from one another. They also share tips at meetings between competitions where members may show selections of slides, or there may be a lecture on a nature topic.
“I don’t get to travel much,” Feierabend said, “and looking at these slides is like sitting and looking at National Geographic (magazine). The pictures capture perfect moments from all over the country. It’s just always a treat.”
The really good pictures make photography look simple, but it’s hardly that, Smith said.
“It’s very challenging and sometimes very hard,” she said. “At the last competition I had an image of a lavender flower, a fringe gentian. They grow on a piano-wire thin stem in prairie grasses. First of all, you’ve got to figure out some way not to trample down all the grasses and some way to shoot them so they’re not a distraction in your background as well as some way to stabilize the flower. You don’t just go up and click, you’ve got it.”
Most of the members of this club also belong to general interest camera clubs, Smith said. “Although nature photography is my first love, it is limiting, and, through the course of traveling, I take images of other things as well,” she said.
Kudrnovsky said she joined the club as a birdwatcher intent on taking photographs of birds but was surprised to find her interest switch to flowers and insects: “I just love to do insects. Every time I would do a flower, an insect would jump on there, and that actually makes the photograph more interesting. You go up in points. So now I actually go out looking for spiders. I jump up and down when I see one. Before I would run away; now I run to them.”
“There is a great deal of diversity of background in the club,” Smith said. “Many people join for different reasons. We’ve had a lot of teachers come in. They learn photography to use it as a teaching tool. Some have been scientists and biologists. They may want images of what they are studying. There are secretaries, doctors, lawyers, whatever, but they all have the common interest of photography. It’s a wonderful place to go.”
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For information on the Nature Study & Camera Club of the Morton Arboretum, call 630-719-2465. Ray Kammer will be teaching a class on outdoor photography on Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 21 to Feb. 11 at the arboretum. For information, call 630-719-2468.
