Amy Bezek, a professional photographer, was invited to the Creative Meetup to give a presentation on her new passion — underwater photography.
Submitted photo
Creative Meetup attendees were invited to arrange mason jars with fresh flowers provided by Patchwork Planting, a flower, produce and plant farm with a roadside stand in Sweet Valley.
Submitted photo
When the Creative Meetups first came back, in-person at Kirby Park, it was realized that there was a new job for a volunteer attendee — the sign twirler.
This person has the important task of identifying where our group of creatives are meeting in the increasingly bustling center for activity that Kirby Park is. Zumba class, Pee-wee football, joggers, walkers, etc. It’s inspiring and indicative of a world slowly returning to normalcy.
“One of my favorite parts of the meetup is greeting people who are attending the session,” NEPA Creative co-founder Sam O’Connell said. “Whether it’s a new face — someone who has no idea what kind of creativity they are about to experience, or someone who has attended since day one, it’s so exciting to witness one-by-one the eclectic group of individuals who are choosing to spend an hour or two together.”
We kicked off the evening by arranging beautiful mason jars with fresh flower snips provided by Patchwork Planting, a flower, produce and plant farm with a roadside stand in Sweet Valley.
Candice provided us with instructions on how to approach creating our displays. You can frame a mason jar like a triangle, or go low on the left to high on the right. If someone wants to view it all around, you can also rotate the jar to get the wrap-around look. This is where we stop and let you know creating bouquets is a lot harder than it looks, and pronouncing the names of the flowers is even more challenging.
We played with big dahlias, snapdragons, celosia, zinnias, purple ageratum, Cosmos, Gomphrena and amaranth. (Did you try to pronounce them? See! We told you.) Just know that every bouquet turned out absolutely beautiful, and we’re still drooling over the beautiful colors and textures that were grown right in our backyard in good ol’ NEPA.
To keep the night flowing, we invited Amy Bezek, a human from planet Earth, and also a professional photographer since 2004, to share about her newest passion: underwater photography.
Amy owns her own business, Amy Bezek Photography LLC, and recently invested in underwater gear for her camera. Amy led us through a captivating show-and-tell presentation about her new underwater endeavor, sharing brands and budgets along the way. (Customized casing adds up faster than you’d think!)
“There are two photographers that inspired me to start underwater photography. Elizabeth Blank and Shark Pixel, both amazing photographers and both women in photography. I reviewed many videos on underwater photography, paid for an online class and decided to jump right in,” Amy explained.
Amy has had sessions in pools, lakes, and even the ocean! She shared the differences in lighting and the lack of control over the water and currents in spaces like a lake or ocean. And the deadly lily pads! Let’s just say underwater photographers are working a lot harder than one might think to capture beautiful images, especially those that involve animals.
As the meetup neared its end, we were treated with a reminder that summer was also coming to a close —It got dark before 7pm. This required our group to get a little creative and use cell phone flashlights to illuminate the final breakout session led by Amy. It gave this informative and fun session the simultaneous feeling of seeing one of your favorite bands in concert, or looking, or searching for something special in the dark. It’s these special moments, surrounded by strangers and friends that make up the Creative Meetups and NEPA Creative.
We invite you to join us at our next meetup (we’ll even throw in snacks). The Creative Meetups take place every third Tuesday of the month. The next meetup will occur on Tuesday, October 19th at 6:00PM. Follow us on Facebook to get all of the details, including location. All are welcome to attend these free meetups, kids included.
If you are interested in leading a breakout session at a future meetup, you can email Holly K. Pilcavage at holly@coalcreative.com. To learn more about NEPA Creative, visit the website at www.nepacreative.com.
