Wlodz Batog is new to our group. Enjoy reading about him in his own words. Wlodz, we welcome you to both the United States and the Silver Spring Camera Club.

My name is Wlodzimierz Batog (Wlodz for short), I am native Polish, so English is not my first language. I live in Poland and am here in Washington for 10 months as a grantee of one of the foundations and doing research in Polish-American history. By profession I am a teacher and teach history in my hometown Kielce in Poland.

Q: How did you hear out about SSCC?

Google helped. I googled for DC photo, DC area photography, etc. and your club popped out. Went to the website and found it interesting, inspiring and worth trying.

Q: How did you get started in photography?

Ambition. My beginnings were rather unusual – a friend of mine showed me his photos taken in Pakistan, I think which were rather simple, so I thought I could take much better. I bought a simple camera and began to try. Then I bought a more sophisticated one and began to read, study books, look for inspiration over the internet, ask friends who photograph and so on. Then took serious courses in photography organised by Nikon Poland and several other workshops.

Q: What photographic subjects do you prefer to photograph?

People and city life. My first project was American Mormon missionaries whom I photographed for over a year and I loved it. And, in fact, taught myself, showed these pics to friends and listened to their critique and criticism. This was a good school.

Q: What has inspired your photography and choice of subjects? Has it been inspired by interesting places where you have lived or visited? By an interest in art or art forms in general? By a journalistic interest in recording what you see? Other?

I like documentary photography, photojournalism and street photo a lot. This is probably because I teach history and like to know what happens and why. Social processes, phenomena are of a big interest to me. I try to catch these in my photographs. I am currently working on a long term project on associated football in small town near my hometown. It is a joint project with a my friend and we have been doing it for two years now.

Q: What type of camera are you currently using?

Canon 5D Mark III plus Canon 1D Mark III with 16-35 mm, 24-70 mm, 70-200 mm (f/2.8)

Q: Do you do much post-processing of your photos? With what software?

I am not good at postprocessing. If I have to I use Lightroom.

Q: What are you interested in learning more about?

I like American photography (Meyerowitz, Vivian Meier, etc) and English Martin Parr.

Q: What other interests, pursuits or hobbies would you like to share with the SSCC membership?

I will be happy to show my football photographs. Here, in Washington, I photographed tailgating at the Skins stadium but have not had a chance and time to go through these photographs. Most of my time I am in the Library of Congress or the Archives, sadly temporarily closed, so it it is hard to find a good opportunity to work on something more seriously.

Q: Are there committees on which you would like to help/learn? We have found that participating is a good way to get to know other members. It may be overwhelming to think that you are being asked to chair a committee but if you begin by helping the chairpersons, you can find out what interests you.

I would be very happy to help and participate more but I will be leaving to Poland in August, which makes my time here limited.