Focal Point Camera Club announces annual competition winners
Winners in the annual Focal Point Camera Club (FPCC) photography contest have been announced and Carolyn Wetuski’s “Fighting For A Mate” took home Best of Show.
The FPCC consists of 40 members hailing from Clark, Marathon, Portage, Wood, and Waupaca counties. A total of 53 images were entered into the intra-club competition. There are four categories: Window View, Abandoned, Flowers, and Other.
In Window View, Steve Coates’ “Drizzly Outside” took first, Trey Foerster’s “Opera House Window” placed second, Amy Peterson’s “View from the 103rd” was third, and Mary Coates’ “Reflections of the Past” was Honorable Mention.
In the Abandoned category, Steve Coates’ took another first with “Leaning Peril”, Mary Coates had a second with “Dried Dock”, Foerster placed third with “Two Peaks”, and Honorable Mentions went to Eric Nelson’s “Clover Huller, tintype” and Chuck Julin’s “I Should Have Read the Reviews”.
In the Flower category, Foerster took first with “Trillium and Fern”, Donna Streiff placed second with “Ice Cream Cones,” Steve Coates had a third with “Camellia”, and William Prutz had an Honorable Mention with “Stars Upon Thars.”
In the Open category, Carolyn Wetuski’s “Fighting For A Mate” took first and also was Best of Show, Scott Adamski’s “Ear-y Grelie” took second, Marty Welter’s “Ohio River Pedestrian Bridge” was third, and Adamski’s “Ingenious!” was an Honorable Mention.
First place winners
Carolyn Wetuski grew up in rural Juneau County and joined the US Army after high school. She, her husband David, and two children moved to Wisconsin in 1992 and relocated to Plover in 2004. Carolyn has always enjoyed taking pictures and advanced in her photography over the years. For the past six years, she has focused on nature photography, especially birds and insects. She spends as much time as she can visiting the nature areas in the region and in the state. Carolyn is the current president of the Focal Point Camera Club and a member of the Photographic Society of America.
Steve Coates grew up in Racine County and moved to the Weston area, with his wife Mary, more than 30 years ago. The couple raised their family there and Steve coached youth soccer for many years. Steve has been interested in photography since he was young. His grandmother gave him a start with a “Brownie” camera when he was about 10 years of age. Along with photography, he enjoys traveling and beer and winemaking. Steve serves as the current treasurer for Focal Point Camera Club.
Trey Foerster has been a serious photographer since high school, he secured a journalism degree from Marquette University, and eventually, he and his wife Mary owned and published several weekly newspapers in Central Wisconsin winning numerous photojournalism awards along the way. He is a member of the Photographic Society of America and has served on the Focal Point Camera Club board. His photographic interests include Nature, Landscape, and vintage cars since he hails from Iola-Scandinavia.
Focal Point Camera Club
Focal Point Camera Club was founded in 1996 by a small group of faculty and staff from UW–Stevens Point; early membership numbered around a dozen. There was a lot of image sharing, prints, and slides at the time as this was before digital came into its own. There were intra-club contests and a lot of camaraderie.
The group started to expand beyond just UWSP and soon members of the public were getting involved and the club started to grow. New members included area professionals, serious amateur photographers, and those just starting in photography.
The club joined the Photographic Society of America and started to participate in contests hosted by the PSA Wisconsin Chapter and inter-club completions. Meeting activities included guest speakers, hands-on demonstrations, image critiques, and more. Club members also participate in meet-ups at different locations around the area to be able to be out photographing together.
Meetings were held at Schmeeklee Reserve on the campus of UWSP, in the visitors’ center until the club membership outgrew that location with over 50 members. By this time, members were coming from all over Central Wisconsin including Stevens Point and Plover, Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, Mosinee, Marshfield, and even as far away as Neilsville. Because of the membership growth and the distance members were traveling, the club found a new home in Junction City, which was pretty centrally located. Meetings were held at the Junction City Park Lodge from about 2010-19.
Like many groups and organizations, the pandemic in 2019 offered challenges to the club and its members. Meetings were transitioned to Zoom and other technology was introduced to be able to continue image sharing, contests, and critiques. One interesting upside was that by meeting via Zoom, the club was able to bring in guest speakers from around the country at a very reasonable cost, even partnering with other clubs to make things more worthwhile for the speakers.
As the pandemic started to wind down, there was a desire by some members to bring back in-person meetings, so in 2023, the club introduced hybrid meetings, continuing on Zoom, but if members wanted to meet in person, they were able to do that as well as meetings were hosted both on Zoom and in person from a new location in Kronenwetter as a trial run and the club is still evaluating this meeting option. Club membership has also fluctuated in the past few years with a current membership of around 40 paid and life members.
If you would like to learn more about Focal Point Camera Club, you can visit its award-winning website at www.focalpointcameraclub.org. If you are interested in joining, you can attend up to two meetings at no charge to get a first-hand look at what the club is all about.