Miriam Struck
I am a retired school occupational therapist. I worked with children with disabilities in Montgomery County Public Schools for 30 years, traveling school to school throughout the county so I know the local geography fairly well. I taught at Towson University for 5 years in the Occupational Therapy department and got to know I95 and the Baltimore Beltway. I had a private practice for about 15 years focusing on Assistive Technology for children with disabilities, which got me traveling around the US and Brazil. My life goal as an OT was to enable individuals to participate more fully in school, home, and community, and to live their lives to the fullest. Since I retired, my focus is on my family, friends, and myself to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and to learn. I continue to take literature and art history classes that I started during the early days of Covid.
When I retired from MCPS in 2017, as did my husband, Scott from his job at the Laborer’s Union, we took up traveling, ticking off the many places on our list which included Yellowstone, Yosemite, Scotland, Italy, Nova Scotia to name a few. We have a trip to Japan in the spring and Cornwall in the Fall on our calendar for 2024.
Retirement has also allowed me to volunteer as a reading tutor through the Jewish Council on Aging, meet friends for walks and lunches, exercise daily, and practice yoga.
From a young age, I always had some sort of camera in hand and loved taking pictures starting with my Kodak Brownie camera, then later a Ricoh Rangefinder, and then digital cameras. I did not have an DSLR until my husband gave me one as a retirement gift. I used photographs taken with my iPhone in my work as an occupational therapist, to help my students practice the skills we were working on. I also took the usual family snapshots. It was not until 2017 that I would start my photographic journey, experimenting with different genres including nature, travel, landscape, street, architecture, and abstract. My current favorites are architecture and flower photography.
I came to SSCC by way of the website and, my friend and colleague, Jane Powell. Jane encouraged me to come to a meeting. My first meeting with SSCC was a presentation by Earl Dotter. I have known Earl and his wife Deborah for years and have appreciated Earl’s life’s work documenting people at work. During the Covid years, the club became a lifeline as well as a way to learn to take better pictures and express myself. I appreciated the guest speakers and Photo Forums. It kept me sane in an insane time I look forward to more speakers, field trips and photo forums.
Karen Finkleman
I first learned of the camera club through a photography class that Michael Koren was teaching at Montgomery College. Fast forward five years to the present day and the club continues to be a source of learning, inspiration and growth in my photographic journey.
My grandfather’s interest in photography helped frame the earliest memories I have of my family and childhood. I can vividly recall the dedicated camera closet in my grandparents’ house which held what appeared to be hundreds of slide carousels, the projector and screen. After dinner, family gatherings would often include hours of watching and reminiscing over the various birthday parties, milestones, and vacations my grandfather captured on those slides. Sadly, the carousels are no longer around, but I still have and cherish the last camera my grandfather used, a Nikon F.
I initially became interested in photography about 20 years ago as a means to simply document my travels. Living in various places across the US, London, England, and Northwest Canada fed my love of travel, but something was lacking in those early images. When I moved to Maryland, I enrolled in a few photography classes which introduced a better understanding and produced quite a few ‘aha’ moments. Today, I especially enjoy taking photography workshops in the US and abroad. As a solo traveler, the workshops have become a way for me to experience and photograph places I might not otherwise think of visiting on my own. As an added benefit, I always meet the nicest people, some of whom I continue to travel with today.
Currently, I have been happily retired for three years. Much like the diverse places I’ve lived, my career has also followed that path beginning with working in nuclear power plants to doing a complete re-boot into the social services arena. However, the last 14 years have been the most rewarding as a self-employed exercise instructor working with seniors living in assisted and independent homes. They are a gift and a treasure to work with.
My camera of choice is a mirrorless Canon which I call my forever camera because it will take me forever to figure it out. I’m getting there, though. I love nature, street, architecture, and abstract photography. Of all the places I’ve traveled to, New York City beckons me home every year. There’s not much nature there, but I do have my share of favorite pigeon pictures.
Marc Auerbach
We (myself and Lisa) attended the SSCC end of year meeting in 2017 as guests while we were visiting our daughter and family. We were living in Houston at the time and little did we know that 3 months later we would be moving to Kensington. We joined SSCC and have been on the membership committee for the past 5 years.
I grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from the University of Tennessee. I met Lisa in Atlanta and we eventually settled in Houston (her hometown). Career wise I was on the ground floor when racquetball took the country by storm in 1975. I opened the first RB club in Houston and spent 15 years opening clubs and training managers. As a player, I won 7 state and 1 national doubles championship. I was selected by USA Racquetball to be the team leader of the US National Team for the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, and for the Tournament of the Americas in Cali, Columbia in 1996 and in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2002. I wrote a book, “Playing and Winning Racquetball” in 1982, and in 2009, I was inducted into the Houston Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. After 15 years of club life, I went to work for Oshman’s Sporting Goods, a Houston-based chain with 65 stores (eventually purchased by Sports Authority), and was one of the Houston distribution center management team.
Lisa introduced me to photography about 10 years ago and we were members of the Houston Camera Club. I enjoy photographing landscapes, architecture, and anything rusty and old. Together we have been on workshops to Banff, Bosque Del Apache, Yellowstone in winter, Woodstock Vermont, Outer Banks, and the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.