Bob Catlett
I first became interested in photography in high school. In an issue of Popular Science there was an article of contact printing. I ordered a metal box that had an light bulb in it and a trap door. I took a negative from a roll of 120 film and laid a sheet of photographic paper on top and turned the light in the box on and off. Then I processed the paper and had a monochrome print.
Sometime in the 1980’s I met a lady by the name of Anne Lewis, a past president of the Silver Spring Camera Club, and she invited me to check the club out. I came to the meetings and joined the club. The club rule was we had to do everything without help — take the image, process the image, and print the image (unless you took slides).
I enrolled in Montgomery County Community College and took all the photography classes offered on the Rockville Campus. Then I purchased a second hand enlarger, and built a darkroom in my basement. About the time I became proficient in printing the digital world came.
Henry Ng offered Photoshop classes in his basement. And then Charlie Bowers offered advance classes in his studio.
During the growth and development of my photographic skills, I spent 10 or 11 years as Field Trip person and Treasurer for 5 years and Vice President for 4 years. Then I graduated to Director.
In the early days of my SSCC membership the club went to Europe every other year. In the in-between years we went to New England. I was able to spend 3 weeks in France, 3 weeks in Spain, 3 weeks in Italy, 2 weeks in England, and 2 weeks in Ireland. The Trips to Europe were set up by Edna Knop.
The SSCC is responsible for instilling my lust for travel. I have been in every state in the continental USA, twice to Hawaii, and twice to Alaska as well as all the islands in the Caribbean and most of the countries in Europe. In between trips I play duplicate bridge.
Michele Destin-van Rijn
Greetings fellow photographers,
I have been a member for a little over a year. I found Silver Spring Camera Club when searching for fellow enthusiasts a few months before my retirement from the US Department of State in late November 2022. My husband and I came to the somewhat distanced picnic in September 2022, just after our epic visit to South Africa. I joined in early November and then promptly broke my ulnar and radial bones in my left arm from a bad fall. Luckily, I am a righty, but it still put a kink in my photography.
I am a proud mom of two adult children; our daughter lives in DC, and our son lives in Minnesota. Our son is getting married this November. Paul and I have been married for over 35 years and we are thrilled that we have been able to retire together and visit the world on our own schedule. Mind you, we decided to undertake a world trip, backpack-style, before we ventured into parenthood from 1996-7. Travel is in our bones and souls. As a diplomat, I was able to explore other countries in a deep manner and often grew attached to the people of those countries and the beauty of the landscapes. In my last two postings, I coordinated with my team and host countries and organizations to support asylum seekers, refugees, and troubled youth who found their identities within extremism. As a result, although my big passion has been environmental and trade policy, I found myself drawn to volunteering for Shepherd’s Table, Manna, IRC, and Upwardly Global, and have become chair of the board for a fabulous non-profit that I have supported since I worked in Israel, Artolution. Artolution works with the neediest communities, providing them a voice and agency through collaborative public art-making.
I have taken photos since I was a teenager starting with a Canon AE1. I started with black and white photography and visited the dark room several times. When my Canon was stolen, my mom purchased a Nikon, and I have stuck with Nikon since. I am still getting to know my Nikon z7ii and enjoy iPhone photography as well. I love nature shots, am a particular fan of clouds, and reflections of all kinds. I love looking at photos of people, but it’s not my forte.
Besides photography, travel, and volunteering, I sing in an a cappella barbershop chorus, enjoy hiking in our woods down the street from our home, swimming and aquafit, and working out at the gym. We are off to New Zealand on the 10th. I have a new tripod, so we’ll see how things go! No matter what, I know we will enjoy ourselves.
See you in March!
Dennis Freeman
I googled, then joined, SSCC in March 2015, one year before my planned retirement. I wanted to have a creative, social hobby for my post-retirement. The club has provided me with good friends and camaraderie, and greatly expanded my skills and interests. My club roles have been Cable Release Editor and Vice President (current).
I bought my first camera, a Canon EOS SLR, in 1993 at age 37, having borrowed my first wife’s Canon AE-1 before that. I mostly used it for travel and documenting my children in good old Automatic mode. I went digital in 2003, graduating to a Canon DSLR in 2009. After several ‘safaris’ with Washington Photo Safari I learned to operate my camera’s aperture, shutter, and ISO – about time. That started me on the camera and lens poorhouse trail.
I was born (pre-Sputnik) in Antioch, California. My father worked in a corrugated container factory and my mother was a homemaker. I have one younger sister who lives in Salt Lake City.
After graduating in Physics at UC Berkeley I joined the Air Force and served for four years in Rome, New York. There I managed R&D contracts in Electronic Intelligence and discovered snow and winter coats. I met and married my first wife there.
I left the Air Force in 1984 and moved to balmy Maryland to work at IBM as an engineer on a passive radar project. My children were born here and are now 34 and 35. I stayed with my company for 32 years, which by then was Lockheed Martin, retiring in 2016. My last seven work years were doing algorithm development and testing for the Missile Defense System (think “Skynet” from Terminator).
I met my wife BJ in trips with a hiking club that I joined in 1995. That was the same year I bought a motorcycle and rode to the Pacific and back with camping gear, engaging with a tornado, bison, packs of Harley riders, and the Secret Service along the way – excellent! BJ and I got married and moved to Kensington in 1999. We enjoy lots of outdoor activities together including running, biking, hiking, and recently kayaking. We’ve had many pets, and are now thinking “beagle” . . .
I enjoy a variety of photography, including macro, landscape, architecture, infrared, and astrophotography. Some of my favorite photo trips have been the PSA Annual Conferences in Pittsburgh and Spokane, a macro workshop at Madeline Island in Lake Superior, the Highlands of West Virginia, the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse from Tennessee, a Wallops Island rocket launch, and Milky Way shooting in the Outer Banks. Currently I’m messing with camera tethering, flash, and classes in “Phlorography” (flower photography). And the next PSA Conference will be in Tucson – hmmmm!