Years of Wisdom and Artistic Sensitivity
Bruce Metzger is a unique member of the Simsbury Camera Club with a background that combines being a mechanical engineer specializing in aeronautics and having a longtime interest in the fine arts that accounts for his finely tuned artist’s eye. As an engineer Bruce has designed functional airfoils and propellers that combine beauty and extreme attention to details. As a photographer he has been able to create both stunning and cleverly refined photos. Bruce joined the Simsbury Camera Club in the 80s when everyone was using 35mm film and producing slide photos. Being an engineer he was an early adopter of digital photography and 90s he switched to it in the 90’s. Bruce and Jim Patrina were big instigators in moving the club into the digital era and they both were instrumental in helping the club select the appropriate equipment to project digital images, a work still in progress.
Bruce began to show an interest in art by he age of 6 and was taking art lessons on Saturdays. He developed a critical eye that he continues to use his images that have been praised for their compositions. His has given many evening workshops at the Simsbury Library that highlight how to compose a variety of images including still-life, portraits, landscapes, and seascapes. Bruce has been an inveterate traveler and shared many memorable photographs of his trips, especially those he made in France around Paris its gothic cathedrals, Normandy and the famous beaches of WWII, Mount Saint Michel, and the chateaus of the Loire valley and Provence. Farther afield, his favorites included Prague, Moscow, S. Petersburg, London, Wales, Ireland, Kyoto, the rugged Oregon Coast, and the U.S. National Parks. He and his lovely family shared a house on the coast of Maine at Cape Porpoise. Bruce particularly enjoyed the photographic expeditions a few miles north around Prout’s Neck where Winslow Homer lived and painted in his day.
Bruce joined the Simsbury Camera Club to learn from others, obtain sage advice and improve his skills. It has been our good fortune that he has now become the oracle, the fountain of wisdom for the rest of us. Bruce has been a valuable mentor and our skills have the benefited from his gentle and humbly delivered advice. In addition to helping moving the club into the digital age, Bruce started the monthly photo seminars at the Simsbury Public Library and gained their approval for the club display photos monthly in the library. Countless library patrons have been exposed to the extraordinary skill level of our club through these works. Bruce enjoys the friendliness of the club and rarely misses a meeting. He welcomes new members, enjoys nurturing photographers of all levels and has given many presentations that have both educated and entertained his fellow club members as well as general audiences when they occurred at the library. Bruce continues to be focused on the club and we are grateful for his extraordinary creativity and hard work on the club’s behalf. It should also be noted that Bruce designed the original logo for the Simsbury Camera Club.