As you can see, having navigated to this first issue of the year of the Cable Release, we now have a web-based newsletter!   We will no longer publish the PDF version, although we will maintain our archive of prior newsletters.

And why did we do this?  This new format has a number of big advantages over the previous hardcopy-compatible PDF format when read with a digital device.  The majority of the readers of the Cable Release are reading it on a computer or tablet, with only a few preferring to print it.

You will open the month’s Cable Release on a high-level page that provides key events, dates, and topics at a glance.  Information that rarely changes, such as the membership application, SSCC Officers and Chairs, and Competition Guidelines, is moving out of the newsletter and into the main website for the club and the Membership Handbook.  What remains is primarily new material, results of the prior month’s competitions, and other items befitting a “newsletter”.  You will see introductory paragraphs on the primary page leading into larger articles that exist on other pages.  You can quickly navigate to topics of interest without paging and re-paging through a serial magazine format.

Another big advantage is that we have removed the size constraint for articles (for the most part).  While we still want to keep each articles concise and readable in a few minutes, we can now include galleries of pictures for an article rather than just a few selected photographs.  We will be doing both, depending on the subject.  For example, look at the field trip to Longwood Gardens in this month’s Cable Release for a gallery of 12 photos taken by attendees.  I think that you will agree that more is better in this case.

There are some great articles and opportunities in this edition, and hope to receive more great ones for the October issue. Please keep the articles coming so that the Cable Release remains an informative resource for all our members. If you have any questions about possible articles for submission, please email me at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org. Full details on submission guidelines can be found in the Member Handbook at www.ssccphotography.org.

This is my first entry as Cable Release editor, and this is our first web-based edition.  I welcome all feedback and criticism.  I also wish to thank our new team of regular contributors, reviewers, and web masters, and especially all of those that sent in the terrific articles for this first web edition.  I especially want to thank our outgoing editor, Patrick Stuart, for his excellent work, and for his assistance to me.

Your editor,

Dennis Freeman