A Message From the NHPPA President

June 14, 2021

A metamorphosis is a process of transformation. If you’ve ever seen a monarch go from larva to butterfly, you know it’s an otherwise unimaginable change. How could something so ordinary change into something so remarkably different?

Well, here we are. In the fullest sense of the word, we are emerging from a cocoon jam-packed with Zooms and Facetimes, and long days working from home punctuated with countless Amazon deliveries. Some of those daily events may transpire into the “new normal,” it’s true… but I do know that an extraordinary transformation lies ahead.

What kind of transformation, you ask? What’s in it for NHPPA?

I’d say it’s fitting for the theme for the year ahead to be “Coming Together!“ Not just in our global communities, but in our small neck of the New Hampshire woods, too.

The past year has tested our resolve in many ways, but it has not taken from our faith and love for NHPPA. From April 2020 to April 2021, our membership numbers remained essentially unchanged. That’s right! During an unprecedented time when the world was simplifying and decluttering, the NHPPA remained a steadfast part of your life and mine.

As we resume in-person programming for our first monthly meeting this September (the first since March 2020), now is the time to strengthen the connections throughout our membership. Please join me in getting to know fellow members like the family we all are. Given the size of our membership, I hope that by year’s end we can each genuinely say that we know each and every member in the association. Let’s know eachother by photographic genre and geography, longevity and life stories.

I believe one of the greatest assets of our association is the fusion of young and seasoned talent spread out from the Seacoast to the mountains and all points between. That is an asset that we can all leverage by learning from one another, lending equipment, referring each other, and sharing a stories over dinner at our monthly meetings and annual programs.

We have a unique moment in time to breathe new life into our mentoring program, social media channels, image competition (which NHPPA volunteers pulled offer virtually with flying colors, by the way!), and annual programs.

Speaking of programs – shaBANG! Peter Hurley is coming in November! Get your SQUINCH on.  It’s sure to be a packed program. It was a difficult but necessary decision to post-pone his presence at our 2020 Fall Seminar. But alas, he has remained enthusiastic about coming to New Hampshire PPA. Be sure to register today for his program on November 14, 2021. It’s sure to sell out.

As a membership-driven organization, please feel free to reach out with programming interests to your First and Second Vice President, your Photo Festival and Mini Monday Chairs, and your Conference Chair. The NHPPA is fortunate to have such a terrific volunteer base on the Board and Committees spanning photographic genres and experience levels.

I look forward to seeing you in September as we resume our in-person monthly meetings. We’ll be opening the doors an hour early to foster more time to reconnect and socialize with your friends at NHPPA!

I look forward to your hugs, handshakes, and pandemic-normalized fist bumps.

Cordially yours,

Chris Keeley, CPP

President, NHPPA 2021-2022

Chris Keeley Photography

Dover, New Hampshire