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Remember to wear your name tag!
Meeting Location: Manatee Technical College – Main Campus, 6305 FL-70, Bradenton, FL
5:15 to 6:00 pm: Pre-Meeting Foto-Focus
Topic:
6:00 to 6:30 pm: Gather, Socialize, Buy 50/50 Tickets, Vote for People's Choice
6:30 pm: General Meeting with Guest Speaker Darin Heinz
Topic: The Critique
You know how your camera works. You've learned how to shoot and edit your photographs. This program explores the critique, the essential next stage in a photograph's lifecycle that prepares you for presentation. The Critique is a step-by-step approach to assessing the strengths and weaknesses an image possesses, and, more importantly, how to determine the weight of each, leading to how you can use that information in order to improve your craft. You want to succeed as a photographer, and this program will be instrumental in turning your question marks into periods, so that you can step confidently into the next contest or gallery show with your finest work.
About Darin
A native of Melbourne, Florida, Darin Heinz first picked up a camera, his father's Nikon FM, without permission, at age 6 and promptly shot a whole roll of Kodachrome on out-of-focus views of the home office. Discovering the transgression two weeks later, his dad confronted him about it, and gave him a choice: 1977-style corporal punishment, or a rigorous education in how to properly use the thing. Choosing the latter, it turned out to be a life sentence.
In his high school photography class, Darin turned heads with his unorthodox composition and experimental darkroom techniques. Later, as an undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University, expanded his knowledge with 4x5 and studio lighting, and having turned many more heads as a finalist in several student shows, was tapped to serve as a juror in a half-dozen exhibitions. After graduating with a BS in Psychology and minors in Photography, Mass Communication, and Anthropology, he joined ASMP and founded Heinzfoto, a commercial photography studio in Richmond specializing in imagery for global advertising campaigns, exploiting his unique combination of academic disciplines.
After 9/11 (and a few personal setbacks), Darin returned to Melbourne; the relatively cooler commercial photography climate in his hometown allowed him to shift focus more onto creating fine art, conducting workshops, judging competitions. He joined the Camera Club of Brevard and quickly took a seat on the Board of Directors, holding the vice-president's role for several years, until relocating to Tampa.
In 2020, Darin became a member of PPA and the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association (TAPPA), and joined TAPPA's Board of Directors shortly afterward, eventually serving as the organization's president in 2024 and 2025.
Today, he is still on TAPPA's Board of Directors, and is currently working to reestablish ASMP's presence in the area, while offering one-on-one consulting services to photographers at all experience levels, as well as continuing his practice in the fashion and advertising worlds, using various film formats, Nikon digital cameras, and, from time to time, still shoots with the Nikon FM that started his adventure.
