Member, Photographic Society of America
Winner of the 2008, 2011, and 2012 PSA Henricks Award for best newsletter!
Sherm Edwards and Tanya Riseman, Editors, 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.
- Jan 5 – Speaker (7:30 p.m.)
- Jan 12 – Competition – Open (7:30 p.m.)
- No Field Trip in January
- Jan 19 – Photo Forum (7:30 p.m.)
- Jan 26 – Board Meeting
2022-2023 Calendar
See here for this season’s calendar, which will be updated as information becomes available. It includes Speaker Night, Competition Night, Photo Forum, Board Meetings, and Field Trips.
If Montgomery County Schools close due to inclement weather, Silver Spring Camera Club meetings and outings will be canceled. 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:
More information is available in the Silver Spring Camera Club (SSCC) Member Handbook:
SSCC-Member-Handbook-2022-2023
PLEASE CONSIDER PROVIDING MATERIALS FOR THE FEBRUARY CABLE RELEASE:
If you’d like to share an article, announcement, or Letter to the Editor about anything photographic please email them by January 24. Email items or questions to Tanya Riseman and Sherm Edwards at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
DEADLINE: BY JANUARY 24th TO cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
Up to now this year, we have been meeting virtually and this will continue for Speaker Night, Photo Forum, and Board meetings. As of now, with regard to competitions, we will decide how to meet on a month-by-month basis, guided by Montgomery County and the CDC. Any in-person meetings will be held at Northwood Presbyterian Church (https://www.northwoodchurch.com/), and KN95 masks will be required.
SPEAKER NIGHT WITH LES PICKER – Behind the Scenes with a Pro Photographer
Two characteristics shape Les Picker’s photography: passion and inquisitiveness. Since an early age Les has been interested in the natural world and in other cultures. He has photographed for National Geographic Society publications and many other consumer and corporate magazines and newspapers. Les has had more than 650 published articles in major national publications. He was a monthly columnist and features contributor to Oceans Magazine and a weekly columnist, Op-Ed contributor and features travel writer and photographer for The Baltimore Sun. Read more.
COMPETITION COLUMN
Our January topic is Open:
In open competitions, free rein is given to the choices the photographer makes in the creation of the submitted image. Images of any and all subjects or themes, created using any photographic or post-processing methods or techniques, are acceptable. The images are evaluated based upon the judge’s general assessment of their creativity, emotional and/or intellectual impact, aesthetic beauty, uniqueness of subject, and technical skill. The judge need not assign any specific weight to any single attribute of the image.
Members may submit up to two images meeting this definition. The images should be emailed to: competition@ssccphotography.org by midnight (11:59 p.m.) on the day of the month’s Speaker Night. (One important detail – In order to participate in the competition, you must pay the club’s annual dues before the start of the competition.)
Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the year:
- February – Yellow
- March – Open
- April – On the Job
- May – Monochrome Photography
- June – End of Year Competition (special rules apply)
Please refer to the website link for the definition of each topic.
DONNA BROK – JUDGE – JANUARY OPEN COMPETITION
Donna Brok is an architect by profession, but also a pro photographer. She has been teaching photography classes, doing presentations, and judging throughout camera clubs. As a NFRCC (Niagara Frontier Regional Camera Club) member, she was previously the NFRCC Oversight Chair on the judge’s committee. Donna completed the PSA Critique Analysis course in 2018. She has an art and architectural degree from the University of Buffalo (SUNY). Her specialties include macro, wildlife, landscape and travel photography. Very skilled in photo editing, she has been published in two wildlife publications. See examples of her work here:
https://www.dlbrokphotography.com/
https://www.instagram.com/donna_gwgt/.
For the past few years, Donna has edited the NANPA blog. You may find relevant articles here and here.
PHOTO FORUM JANUARY 2023
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
“Photo Forum” is our monthly opportunity to share ideas, images, questions, and inspirations on a wide variety of photographic topics.
This is an online event. We will meet using Zoom – look for the meeting link in an email and via Meetup.
Open Forum Discussions:
- What’s on your mind?
- What did you get out of our December speaker, Les Picker: “Behind the Scenes with a Pro Photographer“?
- How do you use your Smartphone Camera for your Photography? (Part 2)
Presentations:
- “Using Photoshop Editing Tools to Create Abstract Images” by Wendy Kates
- “Bodies of Work” by Kent Mason
- Your Masthead Image Submissions (see “January Photo Forum Assignment” (below)
Image Sharing:
- We are making changes to manage our time better: Send up to 2 images you would like to share and get feedback on. Use a “1” or “2” in the titles. We will do all of the #1’s first, then the #2’s. If your two images are to be compared with each other use a “1a” and “1b”. We will spend more time on the #1’s. We may not spend as much time on the #2’s. If you are submitting images to Photo Forum for the first time tell us!
- If your prefer, include “Share Only” in your title to indicate that you’d like to just share and talk about your image, and are not asking for suggested critiques and processing suggestions. To get the default critiques and suggestions do nothing!
This month’s theme will be Open.
Send up to 2 jpg images. Your jpg images can be up to 1 MB size each. (Please use our digital competition specs: ssccphotography.org/competitions/digital-entry-specifications/ ). Send your images to Dennis Freeman before 5:00 p.m., WEDNESDAY, Jan 18.. (dennisfreeman4510@msn.com).
January Photo Forum Assignment!
Each of the SSCC Meetup Events has a landscape (16:9) masthead image that illustrates the nature of the club. We have a nice one for Photo Forum:
Sometimes we have a custom image to use for a particular event, but we need a bigger set of your images to use on a rotating basis for all of our events, i.e., Speaker Night, Competition Night, Photo Forum, and Field Trips.
Please ATTACH (not embed) your Landscape Orientation images (16:9 ratio) to your email to dennisfreeman4510@msn.com by Wednesday, January 18, at 5:00 p.m. to be included! Use “SSCC Masthead Images” as your email subject.
Resources for cropping to 16:9 ratio:
- Lightroom: https://expertphotography.com/aspect-ratio-in-lightroom/
- Free Online Tool: https://redketchup.io/image-resizer
- In Photos on a Mac: crop-and-straighten-photos-pht13f0918f0/mac
NO FIELD TRIP IN JANUARY
Brrrr. See you in February.
CLUB NEWS
BOARD MEETING
The SSCC Board did not meet in November. Minutes from the December meeting will be in the February Cable Release. Minutes from all meetings can be found in the board meeting minutes archives.
DECEMBER FIELD TRIP: COLOR BY THE CREEK, FREDERICK MD
Several Club members bundled up to photograph the wonderfully decorated boats in Carroll Creek Linear Park in downtown Frederick on December 17. Despite the cold, there were many others enjoying the display as well.
FEATURES
WINTER PHOTO CHALLENGE: “WORDS AND IMAGES”
The idea of the “Words and Images” challenge is to use the text and the image together to create an artistic composite that is greater than the sum of the parts. The text does not have to be long and can range from a longer poem or prose, to a Haiku (Write-a-Haiku-Poem), or to a one line phrase. Here are the images submitted for this year’s challenge.
CONFERENCES AND EXPOS
MEMBER ARTICLES
COMPETITION RESULTS
LONG EXPOSURE COMPETITION – DECEMBER 8
December’s competition was Long Exposure, for projected images only. Denise Silva was our judge. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the competition was held remotely using Zoom.
There were two categories judged: Advanced Projected (i.e., digital images) and Novice Projected. No Beginner entries were submitted. The Print categories are suspended until we start in-person meetings again. Awards are given for first, second, and third place, with the number of honorable mentions (HM) dependent on the total number of entries in the respective Advanced and Novice categories.
ADVANCED PROJECTED
1st Place: Karen Finkelman ~ Stunt Practice
2nd Place: Pete Morton ~ The Beach at Ocracoke
3rd Place: David Terao ~ Storm at Great Falls
HM: Karen Finkelman ~ Brooklyn Pilings
HM: Wendy Kates ~ Autumn Waterfall
HM: David Terao ~ Mormon Temple at Dusk
Karen Finkelman ~ Stunt Practice
I came across this cyclist while I was walking along Hudson River Park in NYC. I was immediately drawn to the skillful and daring way he handled his bike while doing some crazy stunts. It was a fortuitous opportunity to practice some panning with the long exposure competition in mind. The blurred woman added some interest as it looked liked she was running to escape the path of the bike.
NOVICE PROJECTED
1st Place: Steve Harvey ~ Lowell’s
2nd Place: Kim Keller ~ Holidays
3rd Place: Diane Sanders ~ Cape May Meadow Morning
Steven Harvey ~ Lowell's
Pike Place Market is one of Seattle's premier tourist attractions and a colorful place at all times of day. I was in Seattle in late October and had been thinking about possible subjects for the long exposure contest. During lunch at the market one day, I noticed a large ferris wheel on the shore of Elliott Bay just below the market. An elevated footbridge leading from the market towards the harbor provided the best view I could find of the ferris wheel with the very industrial looking harbor in the background. I took a few daytime shots and made a note to come back after dark. I returned around 10 p.m. The market was closed. Dim greenish yellow ceiling lights gave the deserted corridors an eery feel. I tried to capture that eeriness in several shots facing northwest down a corridor lined with empty market stalls, but wasn't happy with the results. Facing southeast, I could see the neon restaurant and coffee shop signs through a locked floor-to-ceiling chain-link gate. I got as close as possible to the gate and tried to shoot through the wire, leaving my lens wide open and focusing into the distance hoping to blur out the foreground, but I couldn't get a clear enough shot. Then I noticed a gate on the other side of the barrier open to the street. Walking out to the street and then back into the corridor beyond the barrier gave me an unobstructed view. I set up my tripod and spent some time composing a shot that would capture the ceiling lights on either side of the corridor acting as leading lines to a vanishing point behind the neon signs. I took several still shots that were nice but didn't really convey the concept of long exposure. Then I remembered a recent SSCC speaker (Denise Silva) who had described the technique of zooming during a long exposure to get the effect seen in this image. I tried the shot in both landscape and portrait format and zooming both from wide to long and long to wide.
COURSES, CALLS FOR ENTRY, AND EXHIBITS
PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Needed: Someone to author the Classes and Workshop List for the 2022-2023 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—
- Coursera
- KelbyOne
- LinkedIn Learning free through Montgomery County Libraries (formally Lynda.com)
- Photographic Society of America (PSA)
Also offering free webinars—on photography printing—is Moab Paper. See: https://www.moabpaper.com/moab-tv?rq=tv I have never taken one of Moab’s webinars, but Moab is a major producer of artistic photo papers. Other vendors are offering free webinars, but they tend not to give advance notice, so the ones I have located are offered only in April.
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 have standing calls for entry, and others are one-time calls. Some offer cash and prizes, and others don’t.
THIS MONTH’S FEATURED CALL FOR ENTRY:
THIRTEENTH ANNUAL JOSEPH MILLER ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT
MAY 1 – MAY 31, 2023
The Joseph Miller Center for the Photographic Arts is proud to announce its THIRTEENTH ANNUAL juried abstract photography exhibit for May 2023. ALL interested photographers are invited to submit entries for this prestigious annual event.
Back in May 2020, rather than cancelling our TENTH ANNUAL (“anniversary” year) exhibit at the Joseph Miller Center, we went VIRTUAL due to pandemic restrictions imposed by COVID. Then again, in May 2021 and last year in 2022, our ELEVENTH & TWELFTH ANNUAL Exhibits once again became VIRTUAL ones due to reinfections at that time and out of an abundance of caution for the continued health and well-being of potential gallery visitors. Despite those factors, last year’s VIRTUAL EXHIBIT has gone on record as one of our LARGEST in terms of entries submitted and possibly our strongest CREATIVELY according to the general consensus.
The Joseph Miller Center will begin accepting entries for the upcoming THIRTEENTH ANNUAL JOSEPH MILLER ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT on Monday, December 26, 2022. The deadline for submission of entries is Saturday, February 25, 2023. The prospectus containing details for entries is available here.
See the full Calls for Entry article here.
EXHIBITS AND EVENTS
FEATURED EXHIBIT FOR EARLY JANUARY:
Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and Rana Javadi
August 6, 2022 – January 8, 2023, at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Living in Two Times features the work of Bahman Jalali (1944–2010) and his wife and closest collaborator Rana Javadi (b. 1953). Noted for their sharp documentary images and haunting photomontage works, the artists are among the most influential figures in the development of late twentieth-century photography in Iran. Driven by the medium’s powerful—and fragile—relationship to memory, Jalali and Javadi created an unparalleled visual record of a tumultuous period in their homeland. Read more here.
WASHINGTON POST
Here is a link to the online Washington Post’s lists of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia photography-related exhibits and museums. The various photography-related exhibits appear in different parts of the online paper, making a simple search or link unreliable. You can search within:
Photography section: Photography
Going Out Guide: Going Out Guide
Art Section: Art
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
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