Padre Trails Camera Club was established in 1948. Needless to say,
the Club has experienced considerable change over the intervening
years and continues to evolve. This section of our Web site is devoted to chronicling
these changes, highlighting our current activities and relating the
vitality and innovation our members have brought, and continue to bring,
to their photography. In 1998, PTCC celebrated 55 years of image making on the
Peninsula. While turning 55 often evokes thoughts of
retirement, to the members of Padre Trails here at the beginning of a
new century it represents both an incredibly rich heritage and a strong
foundation upon which to build. This section of our Web site is definitely
a work in progress. Please plan to visit again as new information is
being added regularly.
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 2007
- 2008 The best yet!
Padre Trails is growing! We've refined the way members share and
compete both with color slides and digital images. The Club is also expanding its
field trip and "group shoot" concept to take members out into our beautiful
Peninsula more to capture the beauty there and to learn from one another the
techniques and approaches necessary to take our best shots.
Club members are sharing their expertise in making quality prints of their
digital and color slide images. In January, 2008, samples of the Club's best
nature images will be featured in a print exhibition at the Pacific Grove
Museum of Natural History. Watch for details.
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2005 - 2006 Hey! We're Digital, too...
 In December, 2005, Padre Trails expanded its artistic horizons to
include digital image projection and competition, a necessary step in
attracting new members and stimulating the creativity of all of us. Members
may now show and compete with color slides, digital images or both. There
are some bugs to work out, but the driving focus will be on developing a
methodology that is easy for our members to adapt to and fair for all
regardless of their creative medium. Our January 29, 2006 field trip to the
beautiful city of Capitola inspired both color slide shooters and the
digital folks. This was the first event to include both formats and although
color slide and digital submissions were judged separately and had their own
award structure, it proved that it's the seeing that makes the image, not
the technology applied.
Other developments: 2006: Nikon announced that the bulk of its management
and production resources (in Europe) would now be dedicated to the
development of digital imaging equipment. |
 1998
- 2005
Padre Trails is thriving at the turn of a
new century. Our membership is growing and our programs and competitions are
becoming more diverse and challenging. While still primarily a color slide
oriented club, several of our members are expanding their craft into the
world of digital photography.
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In 1998, Padre Trails Camera Club was recognized by the Photographic
Society of America for its 50 Years of active membership in and promotion
of the PSA.
In his cover letter, president Albert L. Sieg, FPSA, EPSA wrote:
"...[Padre Trails has] arrived at a significant milestone in your continuous membership in the
Photographic Society of America. ... We appreciate your continued interest and support of the Society
and its goals."
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1988 - 1997
Other developments: '93 - Adobe Photoshop available for MS-DOS/Windows platforms. '96 - Kodak
introduces the Advantrix Camera.
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1978 - 1987
In 1978, the late Arthur Hayler was elected president of PTCC. During his administration he instituted
a blind competition of one shot per subject called 20/20: Nineteen
specific subjects and one self portrait. The competition was well received
and in 1986, when Kodak stopped making 20 exposure rolls of film and went
to 24 exposure rolls, the competition's name chanced to 23 & Me. We
all have Arthur and Louise to thank for this beloved and maddening competition.
Other developments: 78 - Konica introduces the first point & shoot autofocus camera.
'85 - Minolta Maxxum 7000 Autofocus 35mm SLR introduced.
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1968 - 1977
In the late 70's, two members of the Peninsula Colorslide Club in Redwood City, Arthur and
Louise Hayler retired to the Monterey Peninsula from San Francisco.
Both Arthur and Louise were avid photographers and
their energy infused Padre Trails. Club meetings began to be held
in the Monterey public library's community room.
The club took a very successful
field trip to Merced Falls in March of '68 to photograph lichen. An
aggressive field trip took place in 1973 when twenty club members traveled
to Yosemite in April of that year. The group spent the night at a motel,
dined together and brought home basket loads of photographs.
Other developments: '72 - Pocket Instamatic Camera-110 introduced. '76 - Canon AE-1 debuts
1st 35mm with built in microprocessor.
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1958 - 1967
Together with the Salinas
Camera Club, Padre Trails produced a slide show for the Monterey County
fair. The first presentation required viewers to look into a barrel
to see the images. Things improved somewhat in following years. The
show, which in its heyday utilized six projectors and three screens,
ran hourly during the day. The program was part of the Monterey County
Fair for several years. Its first venue was a small building that provided
standing room only for those who came late. The show was moved to a
larger room with adequate seating capacity, but the situation was short
lived. The larger room was snatched (sheared?) by the wool growers and
weavers and Padre Trails was relegated to a tent near the kiddy carnival.
The noise and music from the playground made it difficult to hear the taped
narration, and the tent was configured so that people entering had to walk
directly in front of the projectors. Not a pleasant experience. After complaining
to the Fair Board about our poor accommodations, assurances were given
that a new venue, possibly even new building construction, would be provided.
Alas, nothing came to pass and the long running Monterey Peninsula slide
show at the fair came to an end.
Other developments:'61 - Eastman Kodak introduces new faster Kodachrome II film.
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| 1948 - 1957
In the early years, the club met at the Carmel high
school. Slide programs put together by club members depicting the Monterey
Peninsula area's most beautiful sites (it's hard to find those that
aren't) helped not only to increase the general awareness of amateur photography
and promote travel and exploration in our beautiful county, but also
to increase club membership.
Other developments: '48 - First Nikon 35mm camera introduced. '52 - Premier of a new
3 projector, 3 screen wide screen process "This is Cinerama."
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