Our March speaker, Alan Sislen, has been an avid photographer for over 45 years. Landscape photography is his passion, and this month he will talk to us about the beauty and challenge of this discipline.
Alan has photographed in the US, France, Iceland, Italy, Canada, England, Chile, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and New Zealand. Although his equipment might be state-of-theart, Alan’s style and technique are traditional. He has studied with well known British landscape photographer Charlie Waite, former National Geographic photographer Bruce Dale, digital expert Thom Hogan, black and white master John Sexton, photographic artist and Photoshop expert John Paul Caponigro, fine art photographer Charles Cramer, color management/printing expert Bill Atkinson, and Photoshop expert Eliot Cohen.
In 2005, Alan was juried into Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria and was then juried into the Torpedo Factory as a Resident Artist in 2006. He is a long-time member of North Bethesda Camera Club, where he has served on the Board and has been selected as Advanced Color Print Photographer of the Year, Black and White Photographer of the Year, and Advanced Electronic Photographer of the Year.
In Alan’s presentation, he will discuss why, after more than four decades of doing photography, he has gravitated to and specializes in landscape photography. He will discuss the equipment he uses, but more importantly, what he looks for in a particular location to try to capture that elusive “great photograph.” Pre-planning is always a major part of landscape photography, and Alan will talk about all the variables that should be considered and how to deal with the unpredicted events that always occur.
For a landscape photographer, more important than the scene that’s being photographed is the light on the scene that’s being photographed. He will use many examples throughout his presentation to demonstrate this critical element, as well as other important topics such as composition, aspect ratio, mood, and emotion, all of which can help make what might be an ordinary photograph, extraordinary.
Alan’s photography may be seen at his web site:
www.AlanSislenPhotography.com