Member, Photographic Society of America
Winner of the 2008, 2011, and 2012 PSA Henricks Award for best newsletter!
Sherm Edwards, Editor, 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.
- Dec 3 – Speaker Night (7:30 p.m.)
- Dec 5 – Field Trip – Color by the Creek (Change!) – Click here for details.
- Dec 10 – Competition – Selective Focus (7:30 p.m.)
- Dec 17 – Closer Focus (7:30 p.m.)
If Montgomery County Schools close due to inclement weather, Silver Spring Camera Club meetings and outings will be cancelled. 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: Officers and Committee Chairs
More information is available in the Silver Spring Camera Club (SSCC) Member Handbook: 2020-2021 Member Handbook
© 2020 Silver Spring Camera Club and its contributors. Copyright Notice & Disclaimer Policy
PLEASE CONSIDER PROVIDING MATERIALS FOR THE JANUARY CABLE RELEASE:
E.G. ARTICLES, AWARDS, EXHIBITIONS, LINKS, REVIEWS, …
DEADLINE: BY DECEMBER 24th TO cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
October meetings will be online by Zoom teleconference.
Speaker Night via Zoom Videoconference December 3rd – Lawrence Jackson – “Yes We Did” – Former White House Photographer Under the Obama Administration
Lawrence Jackson is a former White House photographer under the Obama Administration. He spent 18 years working for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA and The Associated Press in Boston and Washington, DC before working at the White House. Since leaving the White House in 2017, Lawrence has been building his editorial photography business telling stories for news organizations, corporations, families and political events. He recently published a book on his eight years as a White House photographer (entitled “Yes We Did”) and lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife and two children. (Read more)
COMPETITION COLUMN — NEW “BEGINNERS” CATEGORY!
The October Nature Photography competition kicked off an exciting addition to our competition nights. We appreciate that many of you (particularly if you’ve recently joined the club), may be a little intimidated about entering your images in competitions. So, to ease the glide path, we created a “Beginners” category that will give you the benefits of a competition without having to compete against more experienced photographers. To encourage participation, we repeat the following information about how the Beginners competitions will work:
- The Beginners category is open to any club member who has not yet received a ribbon in any club competition.
- You may enter 1 or 2 images per competition, using the same procedures for submitting electronic images for the Novice and Advanced categories. Please be sure to include “Beginner” where you would otherwise enter “Novice” or “Advanced” in the identifying information.
- Your images will be critiqued by the competition judge, just as if you had entered the Novice or Advanced competitions.
- The judge will select 2 Beginner images for Honorable Mention, but no club competition points will be awarded.
- If you enter an image in the Beginners category, you may join the Novice or Advanced categories at any subsequent competition. (And even if you choose not to participate in a Beginner’s competition, you may still join the other categories directly, as per current competition rules.)
- Our current competition rules govern the number of times you may enter the same image in Novice or Advanced competitions. Entering an image in the Beginner’s category will not count against the limit on the number of times you may submit an image in the other two categories.
So, please have at it in the Beginners competitions. Despite any trepidation you may feel, competitions are an extremely fun and valuable part of participation in the Club!
Larry Gold, Competition Chair
Our December topic is Selective Focus:
Selective Focus Photography encompasses images in which the photographer isolates the camera’s sharp focus on an object or place in the image, rendering it distinct, in contrast to other parts of the image that are in lesser focus. When effective, this technique draws particular attention to the primary subject which the photographer wishes the viewer to observe.
Members may submit up to two images meeting this definition. The images should be emailed to: competition@ssccphotography.org by midnight on Thursday, December 3. (One important detail – In order to participate in the competition, you must have paid the club’s annual dues before the start of the competition.)
Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the year:
- January – Open
- February – Abstract
- March – Open
- April – Decay
- May – Monochrome Photography
- June – End of Year Competition (special rules apply)
Please refer to the website link for the definition of each topic.
ED PALASZYNSKI – JUDGE – DECEMBER SELECTIVE FOCUS COMPETITION
Ed Palaszynski’s photographic journey has taken him into the areas of historical documentation, architecture, motor sports, nature, and fine art photography. He enjoys studying a subject or scene to determine how the light will affect shape, tones, and textures and how the resulting image will look when printed. He has recently completed the first in a series of images for a project called “Life Forms” to answer the question, “What Does Life Look Like?” Read more.
A CLOSER FOCUS – December 17
– by David W. Powell
An opportunity to share ideas, images, questions, and inspirations. The December meeting will be by Zoom videoconference. Look for an invitation in an e-mail from the Club or a Meetup announcement.
Half an hour will be an open forum discussing issues at hand. A half hour is devoted to presentations by members. And a half hour is set aside for member image reviews.
This is always a great evening of sharing and learning. What topics would you like to explore? Topics are very wide ranging, such as photo book reviews, an aspect of your own photography that you’d like to share, reviews or discussion of gallery shows, photo gear, software, etc. Or bring a gadget to share.
- General discussion topics
- Takeaways from December speaker — silencing your inner critic
- What makes a good competition topic?
- What “abstract” means to us as photographers
- Breakout sessions:
- Topic(s) TBA, but breakout groups of Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced photographers
- Picture assignment:
- Submit one or two images that you think would be considered “abstract,” the topic for the February competition; see the definition here.
- Or, submit one or more images in any category for discussion. It’s a chance to get some gentle guidance from Club veterans on how to improve your photography.
- For either category, send your images to Dave Powell before the meeting (davidwesleypowell@gmail.com).
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Future topics of A Closer Focus might include: compositional strength, HDR, or anything else photographic you want to bring to the table. This is an opportunity for you to provide input to the SSCC experience.
If you would like to be on the agenda, please email me at:
davidwesleypowell@gmail.com
DECEMBER FIELD TRIP — CHANGE! — COLOR BY THE CREEK
Date & Time: Saturday December 5; meet there at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Carroll Creek Park between Court Street and Carroll Street, Frederick MD.
No Carpool due to COVID
Directions to site: Use GPS address of 51 South Market Street (La Paaz Restaurant) Park on the street. We will meet at the Market Street Entrance to Carroll Creek Park, which is across from the Restaurant .
- 270 to Frederick Merge onto Buckeystown Pike/MD-85 N via EXIT31A toward Market St.
- Turnleft onto Urbana Pike/MD-355.
- Urbana Pike/MD-355becomesS Market St.
- 51 S Market St, Frederick, MD, 21701-5524, 51 S MARKET ST is on the left.
Overview: 25 Boats anchored in the river, all lit up with Christmas lights.
Leader: Phil Boyer – 301-204-5549, philboyer60@gmail.com
For SSCC’s rules for safe field tripping during the pandemic click here, and for the SSCC Waiver of Liability, which field trip participants must sign, click here.
CLUB NEWS
FIELD TRIP TO GRAVELLY POINT
On Sunday, November 8, 6 Club members were treated to a beautiful pre-sunrise sky at Gravelly Point, just north of National Airport. Below are some photos from the field trip.
BOARD MEETINGS
The SSCC Board met on October 22, 2020. Minutes from this meeting may be found here.
The Board did not meet in November because of Thanksgiving. The next scheduled meeting is December 30.
FEATURES
CONFERENCES AND EXPOS
MEMBER ARTICLES
PSA DIGITAL DIALOG STUDY GROUPS
by Pete Morton
To me, the most useful aspects of photography competitions have always been the comments and constructive suggestions of the judge. This input has been a valuable way to see my images through the eyes of others. The judges’ remarks have allowed me to refine my photography, especially my post-processing approach.
A few years ago, I discovered another useful source of constructive input. I found that the PSA Digital Dialog Study Groups offer amazingly helpful ways to improve my photography. By joining one of the 98 study groups, I have discussions with six other photographers who comment on each other’s images. The seven study group members each submit one image each month to the group’s Administrator who posts the images within the group. Then, over the next four weeks, there are discussions and suggestions about each submission.
Unlike photography competitions, there are no winners or losers in the study groups. Personally, I like this since I find that judging is very subjective, and the same image can be awarded a prize by one judge and then be thrown out by another. Also, I like the constructive, supportive attitudes of the study group members. And it is useful to be able to ask questions about their opinions and suggestions for my image.
Most of the PSA Study Groups are General in nature, permitting any type of image to be submitted. However, some of the groups specialize in specific themes like monochrome, creative, nature, infrared, close-up, and many more. The overall Director of the Digital Dialog Study Groups helps identify the most appropriate group for new members.Since access to the Digital Dialog Study Groups is included in the PSA’s $45 per year cost, they provide an inexpensive way to learn to see your photographs in a new way. I encourage you to pursue this activity. If you would like additional information about PSA or the PSA Study Groups, please don’t hesitate to email me at Oliver.Morton@yahoo.com.
GET STARTED WITH darktable
by Tanya Riseman
At the October Closer Focus meeting, Tanya presented an introduction to darktable, a powerful, free open software alternative to Lightroom. You can download a pdf of the presentation below.
COMPETITION RESULTS
OPEN COMPETITION — NOVEMBER 5, 2020
November’s competition was was for projected images only. R. Andrew Hoff was our judge. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the competition was held remotely over Zoom.
There were three categories: Advanced Projected, Novice Projected, and Beginner Projected. Print competitions are suspended until we start in-person meetings again. Awards for Advanced and Novice are given for first, second, and third place, and multiple honorable mentions (HM) – the number of awards depends on the total number of entries in the category. For the Beginner category, only Honorable Mentions were awarded.
ADVANCED PROJECTED
- 1st: Kate Woodward – Leaf Study
- 2nd: Wendy Kates – Mostly Rectangles
- 3rd: Bob Catlett – The Watcher
- HM: Kate Woodward – Aix-en-Provence, Transformed
- HM: Norm Bernache – Trick-or-Treat
Kate Woodward ~ Leaf Study
NOVICE PROJECTED
- 1st: Kim Keller – Apparition
- 2nd: Larry Brauer – Musical Fingers
- 3rd: Michael Hickey – The Farallons
- HM: Ilona Linnoila – Autumn’s Path
- HM: Dan Gottlieb – Wear a mask, it’ll brighten your day
- HM: Kim Keller – Transformation
Kim Keller ~ Apparition
Apparition was taken at Hallowell Lake in Olney in mid-September. The Green Heron was perched on a tree in front of an overlook, so we were face-to-face. I was happy to get both the bird and the light behind him, just as it was turning golden. In retrospect, I wish I would have tried lowering my shutter speed and bringing down ISO to see if I could have further taken down noise. It's a tough decision, when you don't know if your heron will fly or sit still for hours!
BEGINNER PROJECTED
- HM: Joanne Finstad – Fountainbleu
COURSES, CALLS FOR ENTRY, AND EXHIBITS
PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Needed: Someone to author the Classes and Workshop List for the 2020-2021 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—
New member Diane Sanders points out that Nikon is offering free online classes through the holidays: https://www.nikonevents.com/us/live/nikon-school-online/
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
by Bruce Schaefer
The following link is a column that lists a number of photography-related exhibits and events occurring now, or soon, in the extended Washington D.C. area. These include gallery exhibits, museum exhibits, college exhibits, special events, and sometimes exhibits or events to photograph yourself! This month, given continued restrictions on gatherings, it features some selected sites for the armchair adventurer!
See the full column here: (Read More)
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
