NEWS RELEASE – Palmer Divide Photographers Group
For Release January 9, 2018
For more information:
Lynn Roth – • 719-649-4241
Local Photographers Talk On Wandering Through Southern New Mexico
Jim and Marjorie Van Hoy will give local photographers tips on getting great photos while “Wandering Through Southern New Mexico,” at 7 p.m., Monday, February 12th at the meeting of the Palmer Divide Photographers Group at the Mountain Community Mennonite Church facility, 643 Hwy 105, Palmer Lake.
The well-known local photographers will be presenting a program about their experiences on their trips during the last several years to the Tularosa Valley in southern New Mexico, including White Sands; and the Organ Mountains, now part of a new National Monument. The presentation will start with a 15-minute slide show accompanied with Marjorie’s original piano music, and our main presentation will feature Jim’s photos with a discussion of photo-ops in the area, as well as historical, cultural and geological/aspects of this fascinating region.
The meeting is free and open to all interested photographers. To see more about the event or the Photographers group, go to
Marjorie Van Hoy is an East-Coaster by upbringing, where she studied piano and violin as a youngster.The couple raised their family in Detroit, where Marjorie went to Wayne State University and received a B.A. with a Major in Music as an adult. She studied composition with AndrasSzentkiralyi and piano with Fedora Horowitz. During retirement in Colorado Springs and, as Jim was becoming more active as a photographer, she developed her skills in photography, attending workshops with Ken Wyatt and Craig Varjabedian. Her Southern New Mexico slideshow with music is her second multi-media project; the first was a shorter show about Patagonia.
Jim Van Hoy has been interested in photography for many years, but began to get serious 10 years ago with his retirement. “I joined the Shutterbug Camera Club in Detroit and began to hang out with good photographers that had years of experience.”
Jim Van Hoy specializes in landscapes of the southwest and macro/wildflowers, and says his artistic influences have been other photographers in Colorado Springs and the work of Georgia O’Keeffe.“Because I don’t/can’t paint,” he says,“I take pictures. On occasion, I render the original photograph into a painterly version using digital software or add textures that are blended into the original photo.”
Jim Van Hoy says monochrome has come to be more important to him as his vision develops. Two of his monochrome photos have won Best of Show Awards.