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 [at] ssccphotography.org.
(filling in for Sherm for the March issue: Dennis Freeman)
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.
- Mar 4 – Speaker Night (7:30 p.m.)
- Mar 11 – Competition – Open (7:30 p.m.)
- Mar 18 – A Closer Focus (7:30 p.m.)
- Mar 20 – Field Trip – Eastern Market CANCELLED
- Mar 25 – Board Meeting (7:30 p.m.)
Note that this policy does not apply to online meetings! 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’.
For general information about the club, contact us at: info [at] 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
© 2021 Silver Spring Camera Club and its contributors. Copyright Notice & Disclaimer Policy
PLEASE CONSIDER PROVIDING MATERIALS FOR THE APRIL CABLE RELEASE:
E.G. ARTICLES, AWARDS, EXHIBITIONS, LINKS, REVIEWS, …
DEADLINE: BY MARCH 24th TO cablereleaseeditor [at] ssccphotography.org.
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
All meetings will be online by Zoom teleconference until further notice.
SPEAKER NIGHT WITH HAROLD CLARK – MARCH 4 – FROM GOOD TO GREAT
Howard Clark
Tonight, we are pleased to welcome back former Silver Spring Camera Club member and professional photographer, Howard Clark, who will present his program, Getting from Good to Great.
All artists and photographers produce some “good pictures” that satisfy us completely. We also produce some stinkers and, maybe, a few great ones. Howard wondered what he could do to shift the distribution in a positive direction … (Read more)
COMPETITION COLUMN
Our March 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 projected images meeting this definition, in one of 3 categories: Beginner, Novice, and Advanced. The images should be emailed to: competition [at] ssccphotography.org by midnight on Thursday, March 4.
(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.)
>>> Please read the following request for submitting your images – Make Competition Night Easier
Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the year:
- 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.
ROY SEWELL – JUDGE – MARCH 11 OPEN COMPETITION
Roy Sewell
Roy Sewall is a full-time photographer based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Roy’s interest in photography evolved from his travels in six continents, yet he found his own community to be one of the most photogenic locations in the world. From 2001 to 2009 Roy concentrated on capturing scenes of the Potomac River and the adjacent C&O Canal … Read more.
A CLOSER FOCUS – MARCH 18
– by David W. Powell
An opportunity to share ideas, images, questions, and inspirations. The 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. Topics for March will include:
- Personal takeaways from the Speaker Night (Howard Clark – Getting from Good to Great)
- Your favorite plug-ins
- Competition topic ideas for next year
A half hour is devoted to presentations by members in breakout sessions. March’s presentations include:
- Monochrome Conversions — Pete Morton
- Basic Workflows in Lightroom and Photoshop — Dave Powell
There will be a portfolio review from Tanya Riseman.
And a half hour is set aside for member image sharing. Our last themed topic of the club year, in May, is “Monochrome,” so get a head start and bring any monochrome images you want to share – and get feedback for. You can also share anything else you want (e.g. April’s “Decay” theme).
Send your images to Dave Powell before the meeting (davidwesleypowell [at] gmail.com).
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 (when we get back to in-person meetings).
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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 [at] gmail.com
MARCH FIELD TRIP: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY — EASTERN MARKET CANCELLED
Eastern Market, D.C.
Date & Time: March 20, 11:00 a.m. CANCELLED
Location: Eastern Market – located at 225 7th Street SE, Washington, D.C.
No Carpool due to COVID
Directions to site: Link to Eastern Market Directions/Parking
Overview: Join the club for a fun visit to the Capitol Hill ’s Eastern Market area. It’s a colorful location with lots of food, vendor stalls, people, and interesting architecture.
Row Houses Near Eastern Market
Bring: Camera, Lens(es), Picnic Lunch, Drink, Mask, & Warm Clothing!
Leader: Phil Boyer – 301-204-5549, philboyer60 [at] gmail.com
Ideas on food: Bring picnic lunch & drink.
COVID: The following are the rules for attending:
- RSVP Required to Leader– Maximum of 15 attendees: RSVP to Phil Boyer – 301-204-5549, philboyer60 [at] gmail.com
- MASK WEARING AT ALL TIMES IS STRICTLY MANDATORY
- Participants must sign leader-provided COVID Waiver of Liability (e.g, if you contract COVID, you won’t hold club liable)
- Participants Must Complete COVID Self-Assessment Checklist prior to trip; any COVID Symptoms precludes Attendance
- Club will not arrange Carpools
- Appropriate Social Distancing is required
- Hand Sanitizer will be provided; use is strongly encouraged.
- Field Trip Leader has sole discretion over safety Precautions
- PRACTICE SAFE BEHAVIOR
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Here is the schedule for the rest of 2021’s COVID-safe Field Trips — all outdoors, until we get our vaccines!
- April 18: Spring in the Mountains –- Washington Monument Park, Boonsboro MD (1500 foot altitude, includes part of the Appalachian Trail—bring your hiking boots!)
- May 16: Birds of Spring & the Chesapeake Bay — Sassafras Natural Resource Management Area, Kennedyville MD. (Wildlife Sanctuary on the Eastern Shore)
- June (date TBD) and/or an alternate for any of the above: Antietam Battlefield and Cemetery.
For SSCC’s rules for safe field tripping during the pandemic click here.
CLUB NEWS
PLEASE HELP MAKE PREPARATION FOR COMPETITION NIGHT EASIER!
Preparing images to present in our monthly competitions is a fairly complex process. There are many steps involved behind the scenes to have everything ready to go in the contests. While the majority of participants follow the guidelines, in recent months there have been quite a few images submitted that deviated from the recommendations. This makes our job more difficult and increases the possibility that those images won’t make it into the competition.
When an entry comes in that doesn’t conform to the guidelines (number of images, deadline, image size, image name) in some way, one of us has been contacting you for a correction on the first occasion. We will not continue to do this. Contacting you for corrections, following up and getting the new images ready for competition increases the work in what is already a busy process. Adding steps, dealing with duplicate images, etc. increase the chances that your image won’t make it to the competition.
Naming your image by the standards seen in the link below is necessary, as images that are not named that way may not be found or counted when it comes to tallying your points at the end of the year. Since Photographer of the Year (Novice and Advanced) is determined by counting points, you may not get the recognition you deserve if the images are named wrong.
When submitting your images, please
- Read and follow the guidelines from the club’s web page, link below.
- Submit only 2 images, by midnight the Thursday before the competition (Speaker Night).
- Note that you can submit the images early if you want.
- Pay particular attention to the name of your image(s).
- The guidelines for preparing and sending in your images can be found here
Thank you for your efforts to make this process as easy as possible for everyone. If you have questions, we encourage you to read, or reread the guidelines.
Many thanks!
David Blass
Kim Keller
COMPETITION TOPICS FOR NEXT YEAR
Each year SSCC has nine regular competitions. Of these four are Open competitions, October is always the Nature topic, and May is always the Monochrome topic. That leaves three competition topics free for us to select. These are usually slated for the December, February, and April competitions.
For the current Club Year the selected topics were Selective Focus, Abstract, and Decay. Over the past several years we’ve had Reflections, Cityscapes, Shadows, Rural/Country, Red, Action/Motion, Low Light, Anything Washington, Architecture, Street Photography, Macro, and Events.
We are currently soliciting your creative ideas for competition topics for the 2021-2022 club year.
Please send one or two ideas to Dave Powell (davidwesleypowell [at] gmail.com), who will collect and provide them to the board for a final down-selection at the April board meeting. Thanks!
PSA BENEFITS – BY LISA AUERBACH
Some of you are new to SSCC. As such, you will hear about MPA, Maryland Photo Alliance. Our club is part of that regional group. You might also hear about PSA, Photographic Society of America. I would like to draw your attention to PSA, which is the national organization for clubs.
I am often happily surprised at the diverse opportunities that PSA offers. One ongoing support is a Travel Advisory Service. If you let the service director know where you are visiting, he will help you find information from a travel aide. A travel aide is a PSA member who volunteers to provide information to another PSA member about a specific geographic area. These aides are found all over the world so there may be a travel aide who is knowledgeable about photography in the area you are visiting.
Some of us have joined Digital Dialogue Groups. Each month we submit a photograph which is critiqued by the group. We learn from suggestions given and from those we share.
This month I learned that PSA is offering two brand new courses; Advanced Photo Travel and Introduction to Photoshop. Most services provided by PSA are part of the price of membership. I hope you will look at the PSA website to see if there is something for you.
If you have questions about this or any other topic mentioned in our meetings, please reach out to any of us on the membership committee. We will answer your question or guide you to someone who can help.
Lisa Auerbach
Marc Auerbach
Andrew Rein
membership [at] ssccphotography.org
BOARD MEETING
The SSCC Board met on January 28 and February 25. Minutes of the January meeting may be found here.
Minutes of the February meeting will appear in the April Cable Release. The next scheduled meeting is March 25, to be conducted on Zoom. Any members are free to attend.
FEATURES
ART IN THE GARDEN
This month’s speaker, Howard Clark, is featured in Brookside Garden’s “Art in the Garden” exhibit.
Twenty-one of Howard Clark’s most successful images are currently on exhibit at the Brookside Gardens Visitor Center in Wheaton, MD. The images range in size from 11”X14” to 24”X36.” They are grouped into three sets – (1) Cherry Blossoms, (2) Animals and Flowers, (3) Landscapes and Scenics. While most are matted and framed, several are presented on glossy aluminum. An additional dozen or so images are available as 16”X20” loose prints in the Gift Shop’s Bin Box. The show will continue through March 27.
The Visitor Center is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
Brookside Gardens
1800 Glenallan Avenue
Wheaton, MD 20902
ESSENTIAL WORKERS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: ZOOM PHOTO EVENT
Essential Workers – by Earl Dotter
TUESDAY, MARCH 9th, 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Let’s acknowledge the efforts of Essential Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Photographer Earl Dotter shares current photographs of Essential Workers taken in the midst of the Pandemic.
His talk includes a “History of the Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)”. Throughout his career, many assignments have focused on workers performing hazardous occupations with the use of Personal Protective Equipment, including those in textile, auto, steel mills, and other hazardous job sites. Emergency responders, farmworkers, and public workers will also be featured, as they protected themselves from pesticides, toxic chemicals, asbestos, infectious disease, cotton, silica, and coal dust. Healthcare Workers on the Frontlines will be featured as they protect us all today.
PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE FOR THIS EVENT AT THE LINK BELOW:
Fort Lee Public Library: ESSENTIAL WORKERS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
MARYLAND PHOTOGRAPHY ALLIANCE (MPA)
What do you get when two internationally known photographers are speaking? What do you get when their topics are “Travel Photography” and “Creative Ideas for more Engaging Images?” What do you get when the MPA Member ticket price is only $15 and on top of that you receive a $30 Gift Card? The answer is simple – You get an affordable, inspiring, motivating, educational experience which will be recorded in case you cannot attend that day.
For more information and to register go to www.mdphotoalliance.org/2021-odyssey-of-light
Be sure to use the password – MPA2021 – to receive your MPA $20 discount.
Ticket Purchase Process: Odyssey-of-Light-Ticket-Purchase-Process
MEMBER ARTICLES
COMPETITION RESULTS
ABSTRACT COMPETITION — FEBRUARY 11, 2021
February’s competition was for projected images only. Cynthia Keith was our judge. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the competition was held remotely over Zoom.
There were three categories: Beginner Projected, Novice Projected, and Advanced 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. In the Beginner category, only Honorable Mentions are awarded.
BEGINNER PROJECTED
- HM: Cathy Faughnan ~ Leaf Abstract
- HM: Diana Martin ~ Surface
Beginner Projected ~ Cathy Faughnan ~ Leaf Abstract
NOVICE PROJECTED
- 1st: Catherine Honigsberg ~ Blue Bow 1
- 2nd: Larry Brauer ~ Double Entendre
- 3rd: Anne Golfer ~ Happily Confused
- HM: Diane Sanders ~ Cross Currents
- HM: Maude Svensson ~ Steel Poles
- HM: Ilona Linnoila ~ Purple Crown Itch
Novice Projected ~ Catherine Honigsberg ~ Blue Bow 1
ADVANCED PROJECTED
- 1st: Renee Schaefer ~ Keyhole
- 2nd: Kate Woodward ~ Color Medley
- 3rd: Karen Finkelman ~ Prehistoric Landscape
- HM: Bob Catlett ~ TT Tavern
- HM: Kate Woodward ~ Pastel Glow
- HM: Wendy Kates ~ Back to the Future
Advanced Projected ~ Renee Schaefer ~ Keyhole
We grabbed our cameras and headed to Rock Creek Park in late fall. I knew an upcoming competition theme was going to be abstract so I was specifically looking for abstracts in nature. I took lots of pictures and came home with many interesting images, but one looked very special to me. It was an image of tree fungus. It had interesting textures and astounding colors. I loved it as is - Before Image: ( http://www.ssccphotography.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Advanced-Renee-Schaefer-Keyhole-fungus.jpg ) The fungus looked like little turkey tails to me and I knew I wanted to enter it into a competition, but wasn't sure if it was abstract enough in its original rendition. I brought it into Photoshop and started playing with distort in the filter section. The image started taking on a completely different dimension as I started twirling and rotating it. When I was done, I had produced an image that I was really happy with. I wasn't sure what to call it because I see so many images within this picture. I thought it looked like a car insignia but the keyhole shape captured my imagination and thus the name.
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 [at] 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.
Lewis Katz is offering an online (Zoom) class in March through the Capital Photography Center titled, “From Capture to Print: The Art of Black and White Photography”:
from-capture-to-print-the-art-of-black-and-white-photography-march-15-2021
Don’t overlook the 50% off offer! Winter50 coupon code.
PSA member, Nic Stover, is offering free monthly presentations to camera club members. For a listing of his free presentations as well as tutorials and other workshop offerings, go to: www.stoverphoto.com/Workshops/FreePresentations. Additional resources and Psychology of Photography Meetup Chapters can be found at www.stoverphoto.com/About
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—
Please let us know of other online opportunities you discover by emailing us at cablereleaseeditor [at] 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.
Check out the 2021 C&O Canal 50th Photo Competition!
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
