Member, Photographic Society of America
Winner of the 2008, 2011, and 2012 PSA Henricks Award for best newsletter!
Tanya Riseman and Sherm Edwards, Editors, Cable Release, at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
Contents
KEY EVENTS
The following scheduled events will be conducted online as Zoom teleconferences, except for the Field Trip. Look for announcements and invitations by e-mail, Meetup, and on the club’s Website.
- Sept 1- Speaker Night (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 5 – Field Trip! Maryland Renaissance Festival (10 a.m.)
- Sept 8 – Competition – Open (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 15 – Photo Forum (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 17 – Outdoor Social (noonish – 4 p.m.)
- Sept 22 – Board Meeting- (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 24 – Field Trip – Patuxent River Wildlife Refuge (10 am)
2022-2023 Calendar
See here for this season’s calendar, which will be updated as information becomes available. It includes Speaker Night, Competition Night, Photo Forum, Board Meetings, and Field Trips.
If Montgomery County Schools close due to inclement weather, Silver Spring Camera Club meetings and outings will be canceled. See montgomeryschoolsmd.org for closure information during the work week. For Mon-Fri AFTER 5:00 pm & on the weekends, call 240-777-2710 or 311 from within Montgomery County. Sign up for text alerts: AlertMontgomery and choose both a local MCPS school and ‘Community Use of Public Facilities Alerts’. Note that this policy does not apply to online meetings!
For general information about the club, contact us at: info@ssccphotography.org
A list of the club officers and committee chairs, and their emails, is located here:
More information is available in the Silver Spring Camera Club (SSCC) Member Handbook:
PLEASE CONSIDER PROVIDING MATERIALS FOR THE OCTOBER CABLE RELEASE:
If you’d like to share an article, announcement, or Letter to the Editor about anything photographic please email them by August 24. This issue is a great opportunity for articles about summer projects and travel! Email items or questions to Tanya Riseman and Sherm Edwards at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
DEADLINE: BY SEPTEMBER 24th TO cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Welcome Back!
I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and is ready to participate in our 2022 – 2023 club year. The board and chair positions have been working hard this summer to ensure we have a well-planned and full agenda. Please look in the Cable Release and on our website for updated information. Our updated handbook will help guide you through the year as well. We will be hosting our Thursday Meetings via Zoom until further notice. Please contact membership if you need assistance in joining us on Zoom.
While our meetings will be initially virtual, any in-person meetings will be held at Northwood Presbyterian Church.
I would like to introduce our board members. Dennis Freeman is returning as our Vice President, Bruce Schaefer is returning as Treasurer, and I am returning as President. Our directors are Michael Koren, Bob Catlett, and Pete Morton. The position of Secretary is open.
Our current chair positions are as follows: Larry Gold as Competition Chair, Phil Boyer as Field Trip Chair, Norm Bernache is our Historian, Tanya Riseman and Sherm Edwards as Newsletter Editors, Mark Paster and Will Rabinovic are running our website, Frank Gallaghe is the Program Chair and is finding our judges and speakers, and Lisa Auerbach, Marc Auerbach and Andrew Rein are running Membership.
We continue with the successful Photo Forum. David Blass, Pete Morton, Dennis Freeman, Andrew Rein, and Dave Powell comprise the working group that plans the meetings. This program has a format with discussions, presentations, breakout rooms and photo critiques.
I want to thank all those who participate and volunteer to make this a successful group. We are looking for more help this year. Please consider volunteering some time to help the chair positions and Executive Council.
We added more new members at the end of last year and look forward to meeting new people with our gatherings posted on Meetup. If you are not a member of Meetup, please reach out and we can get you signed up to help let you know what we are doing each week. We are enjoying good turnouts for our various meetings.
We have a list of field trips ready, speakers and judges lined up, and competition topics available. Get ready for another exciting year. I look forward to seeing everyone again over the next few weeks!
Catherine Honigsberg
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
As of now, we will meet virtually for all meetings this September. Beginning in October, with regard to competitions, we will decide how to meet on a month-by-month basis, guided by Montgomery County and the CDC. Meetings will be held at Northwood Presbyterian Church (https://www.northwoodchurch.com/), and KN95 masks will be required.
STEFFAN KAPLAN – SPEAKER – ON CREATIVITY
Silver Spring Camera Club is pleased to kick off our new season with professional photo editor, educator, and photographer Steffan Kaplan as our guest speaker.
Steffen Kaplan is a former award-winning supervising photo editor at The New York Times turned social media and visual strategist, and live stream producer for many top organizations, non-profits, universities, and professionals, including The Pulitzer Prizes and Emory University. Steffen is also an Adjunct Professor at The Fashion Institute of Technology teaching the fundamentals of social media to photography students, and is the founder and creator of the Spin It Social Hour live stream. A social media and visual strategist and live stream producer who believes in using social media for social good, Steffen started the Spin It Social Hour when the pandemic hit to help photographers around the world share their work and journeys, as their work had literally dried up with everything being shut down.
Steffen is a born and bred New Yorker who documented the NYPD and street life in NYC for years, has been living in Ramsey, NJ for 13 years now and has discovered a true passion for nature photography especially since the pandemic hit. He uses his smartphone camera to capture the beauty of the nature preserves and state parks in Northern NJ and NY State, including local wildlife. A true believer in exploring everywhere he goes, he loves to #JustCreate imagery, including using his #JustLookUp style, especially in the great outdoors and throughout big cities.
Steffen has lectured at libraries throughout Bergen County, New Jersey.
COMPETITION COLUMN
Welcome to the 2022-2023 Silver Spring Camera Club Season. As we try to understand what the upcoming season will look like, the one thing that is certain is that we have a great lineup of speakers and judges. To open our first Zoom competition on September 8, we are proud to have Lori A. Cash as our judge.
Our September topic is Open:
In open competitions, free rein is given to the choices the photographer makes in the creation of the submitted image. Images of any and all subjects or themes, created using any photographic or post-processing methods or techniques, are acceptable. The images are evaluated based upon the judge’s general assessment of their creativity, emotional and/or intellectual impact, aesthetic beauty, uniqueness of subject, and technical skill. The judge need not assign any specific weight to any single attribute of the image.
Members may submit up to two images meeting this definition. The images should be emailed to: competition@ssccphotography.org by midnight on Thursday, September 1. (One important detail – In order to participate in the competition, you must pay the club’s annual dues before the start of the competition.)
Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the year:
- October – Nature Photography
- November – Open
- December – Long Exposure
- January – Open
- February – Yellow
- March – Open
- April – On the Job
- May – Monochrome Photography
- June – End of Year Competition (special rules apply)
Please refer to the website link for the definition of each topic.
LORI CASH – JUDGE – SEPTEMBER 8 OPEN COMPETITION
Lori A. Cash is an award-winning wildlife and nature photographer who has over thirty years’ experience photographing wildlife and nature. She, as a photographer, has always had a love for the natural world and hoped that her images would inspire others to appreciate our natural world. This love for our natural world has brought Lori into the realm of conservation photography and visual storytelling. Lori resides in Hampton, Virginia and loves to focus her conservation efforts by photographing and storytelling about the biodiversity around the Commonwealth of Virginia. Through her conservation storytelling and photography, Lori continues to want to inspire and educate others about the beauty of the natural world and to advocate for the protection of our environment and wildlife.
Lori’s wildlife and nature images have been published in a variety of media and she has received numerous awards in photo competitions. She is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), Professional Photographers of America (PPA), and is a partner photographer for Wild Virginia.
PHOTO FORUM
Thursday, Sept 15, 2022, from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
“Photo Forum” is our monthly opportunity to share ideas, images, questions, and inspirations on a wide variety of photographic topics.
This is an online event. We will meet using Zoom – look for the meeting link in an email and via Meetup.
Open Forum Discussions:
- What’s on your mind?
- How were your summer photography projects & activities?
Presentations:
“Effective Use of Interchangeable Camera Lenses” by Dennis Freeman
“Demonstration of MidJourney AI – Art from Text” by Pete Morton
Is it Art???
Send in your own text descriptions of an artistic image you’d like to see in Pete’s demo! Email to: pete.morton [at] yahoo.com by midnight Thursday, September 8 (Competition Night). Pete will choose one or more of the suggestions for his demo.
Image Sharing:
We will have member image sharing. This month’s theme will be “What Images are you Working on?” Send up to 2 images you would like ideas or feedback on. Or send two images of whatever you want!
Send up to two jpg images. Your jpg images can be up to 1 MB size each. (please use our digital Competition specs: ssccphotography.org/competitions/digital-entry-specifications/ ) . Send your images to Dennis Freeman before 5:00 p.m., WEDNESDAY, Sept 14. (dennisfreeman4510@msn.com).
This is expected to be a great evening of sharing and learning. What topics would you like to explore? Topics can be wide ranging, such as photo book reviews, an aspect of your own photography that you’d like to share, reviews or discussion of shows, photo gear, software, etc.
Please join us for a fun and educational evening!
FALL SOCIAL — GEORGIAN FOREST LOCAL PARK
Announcing a Crisis Break, Saturday SEPTEMBER 17!
Covid – Omicron – Murder Hornets – Monkeypox
Tired of lurching from one crisis to another? Ready for a break?
So are we! Dump the dread and join your camera clubbers on Saturday, September 17 for an end-of-summer get-together with old friends and new!
We’re kicking off the 2023 season with another in-person picnic event. Bring your pictures, show off your new camera, wear yellow – and celebrate life again! Share your summer foto projects, your travel adventures, your stories – we’re all ears and anxious to see you again.
As in spring, we’ll gather at a picnic shelter so we’re good RAIN OR SHINE. Club will supply cups, plates, napkins, and utensils. Members are invited to bring favorite foods and/or beverages to share.
Besides a gorgeous setting and a rain-or-shine roof, the shelter provides picnic benches AND spotless clean bathrooms. Sanitation is not a concern.
Behold, the deets:
- SATURDAY, September 17. Noonish – 4:00 pm. RAIN OR SHINE!
- Georgian Forest Local Park, 2720 Silverdale Dr, Silver Spring, MD. (between Aspen Hill and Glendale)
- Bring a mask. Just in case.
Please RSVP so we can plan for numbers!
Include your spouse or friend if you wish to bring them.
YES, I’M COMING! Email Bruceschaefer9@gmail.com
In the SUBJECT line, enter your name and guest, if any
FIELD TRIP — MARYLAND RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL
Date & Time: Monday, September 5 (Labor Day) at 10.00
Location: Address 1921 Crownsville Rd, Annapolis. Meet at Front Gate.
Leader’s phone number—301-204-5549
No Carpool due to COVID
COVID: Masks required; participants will be required to sign a waiver.
Overview: Make believe 15th Century village fair, with King/Queen, hundreds of people in period costumes, games, entertainment, jousting, and general merriment.
Bring: Tripod, walking shoes, and appetite (lots of food and drink).
Leader: Phil Boyer –301-204-5549, philboyer60@gmail.com
Directions
Get on I-495 E in Silver Spring wherever you are
6 mi
US-50 E to Anne Arundel County.
20 m
Take exit 16 for MD-424/Davidsonville Rd toward Davidsonville/Crofton.
0.5 mi
Keep left at the fork, follow signs for MD-424 N
456 ft
Take Rossback Rd, Rutland Rd and MD-450 E to your destination
FIELD TRIP — PATUXENT RESEARCH REFUGE
Date & Time: Saturday, September 24 at 10.00
Location: South Tract, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708-4027. Meet at Visitor Center
Leader’s phone number—301-204-5549
No Carpool due to COVID
COVID: Masks required; participants will be required to sign Waiver.
Overview: Nature, Wildlife, Birds. The winner of the Nature Competition is just waiting there to be discovered.
Bring: Tripod, BUG SPRAY!! Telephoto, BUG SPRAY!! walking shoes, BUG SPRAY!!
Leader: Phil Boyer – 301-204-5549, philboyer60@gmail.com
Driving Directions
From Washington, D.C.: Take Baltimore/Washington Parkway (Route 295) North, Exit 22 to Powder Mill Road-Beltsville exit. Turn right (east) onto Powder Mill Road and go 2.0 miles. Turn right into Visitor Center entrance (Scarlet Tanager Loop). Go 1.4 miles to Visitor Center Parking area.
DID I MENTION BUG SPRAY??
CLUB NEWS
MEMBERSHIP
A new year of photography is coming soon, and membership wants to help you prepare for all that awaits us.
Our 2022-2023 season starts September 1st with speaker night. Frank Gallagher is busy contacting speakers and judges for our meetings. The Photo Forum team will educate and entertain us with a variety of topics on the third Thursday of each month. Phil Boyer has planned field trips that present photographic opportunities. Sherm Edwards and Tanya Riseman continue to produce the very informative Cable Release, which can be found on the Silver Spring Camera Club website https://www.ssccphotography.org/ (see NEWSLETTERS at top of the page). With the success of our two previous outdoor socials, Renee and Bruce Schaefer have once again agreed to plan another one September 17. More information will follow.
We welcome you to grow your photography skills and friendships by joining our Zoom meetings and committees. If interested in helping out, we are happy to connect you with the committee chairs who will explain a bit more about their responsibilities. This is an excellent way to become part of the inner workings of our club.
As of now we will meet virtually for all meetings this September. Beginning in October, with regard to competitions, we will decide how to meet on a month-by-month basis, guided by Montgomery County and the CDC. Meetings will be held at Northwood Presbyterian Church (https://www.northwoodchurch.com/), and KN95 masks will be required.
Current yearly membership dues are $50 for individuals and $80 for families. Dues must be paid no later than the 2nd Thursday in September and before entering any SSCC competition. The online application https://www.ssccphotography.org/online-membership-form/ can be used to help you renew.
Hopefully, we’ll soon be together in person. Until then, keep shooting, as often as you can. We look forward to seeing the world through your lens.
Lisa Auerbach
Marc Auerbach
Andrew Rein
Membership Chairs
PROGRAMS
The more things change, the more they stay the same. We begin another club year with COVID keeping us from meeting in person. On the other hand, Zoom allows us to draw on speakers and judges from all over the country and participate from the comfort of our homes. We’re photographers. We’re creative. We’ll make the best of it all. I’m excited about the topics, speakers and judges we’ve got lined up and can’t wait to kick off another great camera club season.
Frank Gallagher, Programs Chair
HANDBOOK IS UPDATED
PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Photographic Society of America (PSA) is a worldwide organization for anyone interested in photography. The society offers resources for casual shutterbugs, serious amateurs, and professional photographers. It was founded in 1934 and has about 500 camera club members and 5,000 individual members in over 70 countries. The Silver Spring Camera club has been a member of the PSA since the club was founded in 1950. Our club also has several individual PSA members.
There are a tremendous number of resources available to individual PSA members. These include:
- Online courses (i.e., History of Photography, Digital Photography, Introduction to Photoshop, Portrait Photography, and more),
- Evaluation of your images by expert photographers,
- Personal mentors for a wide variety of photography topics (e.g., Black & White, Macro, Portrait, Cell Phone, Wildlife),
- Over 100 study groups on different aspects of photography,
- Competitions (PSA competition and International),
- Photographic travel opportunities and guidance,
- Monthly PSA Journal,
- Annual Festivals in picturesque locations with tours available (this year the festival is in Colorado Springs),
- And much, much more!
People eager to advance their photographic skills are encouraged to investigate the PSA. You will find that the members are friendly, welcoming, and eager to discuss all aspects of photography. The PSA website is https://psa-photo.org/. Individual membership in the PSA is available for $45 a year.
Pete Morton, PSA Representative
MARYLAND PHOTOGRAPHY ALLIANCE
Silver Spring Camera Club, along with 25 other Maryland photography clubs is a member of the Maryland Photography Alliance, or MPA. The alliance is dedicated to providing information, education, and inspiration to photographers of all levels.
Artist Spotlight features well known and respected photographers. September 12, Nic Stover will present Technique, Vision, and Processing of Nature Scenes to MPA members. Since its inception, the program has completed 27 webinars. Through voluntary contributions, rather than entry fees, Artist Spotlight has helped Marylanders in need, due to Covid-10. Artist Spotlight has raised more than $55,000 for the Maryland Food Bank. Past speakers’ presentations can be found on the MPA homepage.
Odyssey of Light is a yearly presentation of excellent photographers. This year’s Odyssey will once again be presented virtually. There will be more information as the time draws near.
Photography Contest – This year’s themes are: Chesapeake Life; Close-Up or Macro; Reflections; and Heroes. More information can be found on the MPA website. MPA Members can submit their 1st two images for FREE and submit two additional images for just $10…with a chance to win up to $2,100 in prizes. There are 4 categories you can submit your images, and the submission process begins on September 1. The deadline for image submission is September 30. For more information go to https://www.mdphotoalliance.org/2022-photo-contest.
I hope you will take advantage of the opportunities that you get with your membership to Silver Spring Camera Club. This is one more way to learn and improve your photography skills.
Lisa Auerbach
MPA Representative
SSCC Membership Committee
FIELD TRIPS
Each month, the Club typically organizes at least one field trip for members to shoot together. This is a great opportunity to learn from other members and shake yourself out of a photographic rut, a no-pressure opportunity to experiment with your photography and enjoy the company of fellow club members. When possible, field trips end with a group lunch.
The COVID pandemic put a crimp in our Field Trip style, but we were able to meet outdoors for much of the last Club season. For the 2022-2023 season, the Club is continuing its tradition while continuing to adjust for life under COVID. We have scheduled outdoor and very spacious indoor Field Trips for the Fall of 2022, kicking off with the Maryland Renaissance Festival and Patuxent Research Refuge in September. See the club calendar for more fall field trips. For the remainder of the season (January-May) and into the summer, we have a number of proposed locations, both inside and outside. In order to consider the ongoing impact of COVID, no decision on additional trips will be made before November. In order to ensure the safety of members, the following COVID Rules have been implemented for all Field Trips:
- Club will not arrange car pools
- RSVP required to Leader
- MASK WEARING INDOORS AT ALL TIMES IS STRICTLY MANDATORY
- Appropriate social distancing is required
- Hand sanitizer will be provided; use is strongly encouraged.
- Participants must complete online COVID checklist prior to trip; any COVID symptoms precludes Attendance;
- Field Trip Leader has sole discretion over safety precautions
- PRACTICE SAFE BEHAVIOR
- Participants must sign COVID Waiver of Liability (if you get COVID, you won’t hold club liable)
Phil Boyer
BOARD MEETINGS
The SSCC Board met on April 28, May 26, and July 28. Minutes from these meetings can be found in the board meeting minutes archives .
THE GEORGE DEBUCHANANNE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT FUND
The Silver Spring Camera Club comprises a diverse group of individuals passionately dedicated to the pursuit of photographic excellence. We believe that photography, like many art forms, can be a means of serving a purpose greater than self-expression for the artist. To this end, the Board of Directors has established the George DeBuchananne Community Service Project Fund. The Fund honors George DeBuchananne, an avid photographer and club member who was a great proponent of community service.
The purpose of the George DeBuchananne Community Service Project Fund is to financially support a photography project that advances a community-related cause. A project may be proposed by a Club member, by another photographer sponsored by a Club member, or by a community organization sponsored by a Club member.
See here for more information and a grant application form.
FEATURES
Member Websites
A list of member websites can be found on the club’s webpage. You can add your website to this list by contacting web@ssccphotography.org
CONFERENCES AND EXPOS
MEMBER ARTICLES
COMPETITION RESULTS
MONOCHROME COMPETITION – MAY 14
See the July Cable Release
END OF THE YEAR COMPETITION FOR 2021-2022 – JUNE 9, 2022
See the July Cable Release
END OF THE YEAR AWARDS FOR 2021-2022 – JUNE 9, 2022
See the July Cable Release
COURSES, CALLS FOR ENTRY, AND EXHIBITS
PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Needed: Someone to author the Classes and Workshop List for the 2022-2023 Cable Release club year. Please let Catherine [ president@ssccphotography.org ] know if you might be interested. This is an opportunity to inspire the learning of club members. In the meantime, we will show some online sources.
One vendor typically included in the Photography Courses/Class List has announced a few online classes: See Capital Photography Center: https://online.capitalphotographycenter.com/collections?category=courses . The rest either have suspended courses or are communicating to registrants by email.
The online course providers typically listed in The Cable Release are obviously still operating—
Also offering free webinars—on photography printing—is Moab Paper. See: https://www.moabpaper.com/moab-tv?rq=tv I have never taken one of Moab’s webinars, but Moab is a main producer of artistic photo papers. Other vendors are offering free webinars, but they tend not to give advance notice, so the ones I have located are offered only in April.
Please let us know of other online opportunities you discover by emailing us at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
CALLS FOR ENTRY
by Dennis Freeman
The following offers a number of competitions for your consideration this month. Some of these sources having standing calls for entry, and others are one-time calls. Some offer cash and prizes, and others don’t.
See the full Calls for Entry article here. (Read More)
EXHIBITS AND EVENTS
WASHINGTON POST
Here is a link to the online Washington Post’s lists of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia photography-related exhibits and museums. The various photography-related exhibits appear in different parts of the online paper, making a simple search or link unreliable. You can search within:
Photography section: Photography
Going Out Guide: Going Out Guide
Art Section: Art
Take a look at what our sister camera club, the NIH Camera Club, has going on. Here is a link to their site. There you can find their newsletter, the Cameraderie: nihcameraclub.com
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