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 Contest and Field Trip. Look for announcements and invitations by e-mail, Meetup, and on the club’s Website.
- April 4 – Speaker (7:30 p.m.)
- April 8 – Solar Eclipse Day! See Dennis Freeman’s guide to photographing it here.
- April 11 – Competition Night: Intentional Camera Movement (7:30 p.m. at Northwood Presbyterian Church)
- April 18 – Photo Forum (7:30 p.m.)
- April 20 – Field Trip: Cromwell Valley Park
- April 25 – Board Meeting
- May 9 – Competition Night: Monochrome; and drop off Print entries for End of Year Competition
- May 10 – Deadline for submissions for Projected entries for End of Year Competition.
- June 13 – SAVE THE DATE – End of Year Celebration!
2023-2024 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.or
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-2023-2024.
PLEASE CONSIDER PROVIDING MATERIALS FOR THE NEXT CABLE RELEASE:
If you’d like to share an article, announcement, or Letter to the Editor about anything photographic please email them by April 24. Email items or questions to Tanya Riseman and Sherm Edwards at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
DEADLINE: by April 24th to cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
For the 2023-2024 club year, the second Thursday meeting of each month will be in person, at Northwood Presbyterian Church (https://www.northwoodchurch.com/). The address is 1200 University Blvd., West, Silver Spring, Other meetings will be on Zoom. The in-person meeting will be Competition Night if the judge agrees, otherwise it will be Photo Forum and Competition Night will move to the third Thursday on Zoom.
SPEAKER NIGHT WITH CHRIS MURRAY — THE SUBJECTIVE LANDSCAPE
Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
Are you making objective or subjective photographs? In brief, objective is impersonal and documentary, while subjective is a creative, artistic process, a personal interpretation. Using landscape photos as examples (though the concepts apply to any type of photo), our April Speaker Chris Murray will discuss the defining qualities of each and how they differ. Then he’ll explore the ways that we can express and develop our own personal voice in order to make more subjective, personally expressive images that go beyond mere representation.
Chris Murray is a professional photographic artist, instructor, and writer living in the Thousand Islands region of Upstate NY. He photographs primarily in the landscape of his home, the woods, lakes, mountains, and streams of New York State. His work has appeared in several magazines including On Landscape, Popular Photography, Adirondack Life, Life in the Finger Lakes, and New York State Conservationist, among others. He leads photography workshops independently and through the Adirondack Photography Institute.
For Chris, the appeal of photography lies in the opportunity to create art in an environment that ceaselessly inspires and invigorates. His goal is not to document literal appearances, but rather make photos that are a creative expression of my emotional response inspired by the subject. His photography tends toward the quiet and intimate, scenes within a scene with a creative focus on simplicity and detail.
COMPETITION COLUMN
Our April topic is Intentional Camera Movement:
The term “Intentional Camera Movement Photography,” or ICM, encompasses images in which the photographer has intentionally moved the camera while depressing the shutter, such that some aspect of the image indicates that movement.
Members may submit up to two images meeting this definition for the Projected competition. Look here for details on Projected submissions. Projected images should be emailed to: competition@ssccphotography.org by midnight (11:59 p.m.) on the previous Thursday. Usually, this is the day of the month’s Speaker Night.
Members may also submit up to two images meeting this definition for the Print competition. Look here (Section IV) for details on submissions. A label template for Print submissions may be found here.
(One important detail – In order to participate in either competition, you must pay the club’s annual dues before the start of the competition.)
BIDYOTTAM MITTRA – JUDGE – INTENTIONAL CAMERA MOVEMENT
Thursday, April 11, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., at Northwood Presbyterian Church
Bidyottam Mittra is an infectious diseases scientist by profession, currently working at the NIH, and a photographer by passion. His photographic journey started with a Fuji point-and-shoot camera he received from his dad as a high-school graduation gift. The limitations of a point-and-shoot camera forced him to explore compositional ideas from his formative days, seeking unique light and point of views to make his photographs stand out; qualities that he found extremely helpful when he graduated to SLR, and finally to DSLR in 2005.
Bidyottam’s first and foremost passion has been nature photography, inspired by the masters like Ansel Adams and Sebastiao Selgado. He has extensively traveled and photographed the American West. He has also traveled and photographed across the globe with the sole intention of the capturing stories of the places and people in his images.
After settling in the DC area, he joined the Gaithersburg Camera Club in 2014, which opened a completely new world of photographic possibilities for him to explore and helped him mature as a photographer. He enjoyed planning and shooting photographs for themed competitions, particularly to experimenting with light and monochrome.
Currently, Bidyottam is one of the most successful members of the club, becoming a “Grandmaster” in 2018 and winning six “Photographer of the Year” awards between 2017 and 2019. He has won multiple awards in other competitions including a first-place award in the 2019 Maryland Photography Alliance (MPA) Photo Contest. His photographs have been published in magazines and images have also been exhibited in multiple juried exhibits including all of MPA’s exhibits from 2017-19.
Bidyottam considers his association with the camera club to be a major influence in his personal development as a photographer, and believes in giving back to the club in various capabilities – in mentoring new comers as well as a member of the board. Recently he discovered a new avenue to share his photographic experience and passion with fellow enthusiasts in the role of a MPA certified photo competition judge.
Web gallery: https://bidyottammittra.smugmug.com/
YEAR END COMPETITION ENTRY DATES AND RULES
The Year End Competition is not about selecting the best entries for a single month, but rather selecting the best entries from the monthly competitions for the entire club year (September 2023 through May 2024). The results will be announced at the Year End Celebration on June 13.
Send an email to SSCC Historian, Norm Bernache, at normbernache@comcast.net if you would like a list of all of your print and projected images submitted from September 2023 to April 2024.
As in other competitions, the judge will select first, second, and third place winners, and as many honorable mentions as the number of entries requires. There are no ribbons or points awarded; however, a Best in Show award will be presented, known as the Len Tuchin Award.
Be aware of the submission deadlines in May:
End of Year Competition Entry Schedule
- Print Deadline: Thursday, May 9 – drop off at meeting; late entry option TBA
- Projected Deadline: Friday, May 10 (midnight) – via email
Each member may submit up to 5 projected and 5 print images from those that s/he entered in monthly club competitions this 2023-2024 season. Eligible submissions need not have won an award in the monthly competition(s) in which they were submitted. But please remember — images submitted for the year-end competition must be identical to those submitted in the regular season competitions and entries must be submitted in the same categories (print or projected) in which they were originally submitted.
Complete Details on the Rules and the Submission Forms are Found Here.
If you have any questions about the Year End Competition, please feel free to contact competition@ssccphotography.org.
PHOTO FORUM
Thursday, April 18, 2024, from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Open Forum Discussions:
- What’s on your mind, photographically? Opinions, Observations, Questions, Exhibits, Reviews, etc.
- Do you have ideas for next year’s Competition Themes? (We need three. This year’s were “Macro/Closeup,” “Industrial,” and “Intentional Camera Movement.”)
- Do you have recommended travel destinations (e.g., other countries)? What about recommended photo workshops?
Presentations:
- “Drone & GoPro Photography & Video” – Dennis Freeman
- “Experiences in Planning and Organizing the SSCC Gallery Show” – Wendy Kates
We wrap the evening up with Photo Sharing. Send 1 or 2 of your images to share if you wish; this month’s theme is Open. You have a choice of Critique, Editing Suggestions, or just Sharing.
FIELD TRIP – CROMWELL VALLEY PARK
Saturday, April 20, 8:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m.
Leader: Phil Boyer, 301-204-5549
Where: 2175 Cromwell Bridge Road, Parkville Md. 21234. Come in at the Willow Grove Farm entrance; meet in the gravel parking lot at the Park Office at 10:00 a.m..
Alternate Meetup: For an early morning bird walk, meet at 8.00 at Bird Walk. Must call Trip Leader in advance [NLT April 16] so I can make reservation.
To Photograph: Nature and birds. Check out the website here and/or here.
DIRECTIONS: Take Rte 29 or I 95 North to 695 (Baltimore Beltway]; go west;
Continue on I-695 E (Baltimore Beltway Inner Loop) toward Towson/New York. Go for 4.2 mi. from Rte 29; farther from 95;
Take exit 29A toward Cromwell Bridge Road. Go for 0.2 mi.
Turn left onto Cromwell Bridge Rd (MD-567). Go for 1.2 miles to the entrance.
Lunch: Conrad’s Crabs and Seafood Market, 1720 East Joppa Rd., Parkville.
Bring: Good walking shoes, tripod/monopod, binoculars.
CLUB NEWS
CLUB SURVEY IS COMING
You should soon be getting (or may have already received) an invitation to participate in a survey to help the Board and committees plan programming that best meets members needs. Please take five minutes or so to tell us what’s on your mind regarding competitions and other events.
BOARD MEETING
The SSCC Board last met in March. Minutes from all meetings can be found in the board meeting minutes archives when they have been finalized. April’s board meeting will be on the 25th.
END OF YEAR CELEBRATION
COMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT FUND
MARCH FIELD TRIP TO PEABODY LIBRARY IN BALTIMORE
Sunday, March 3, 2024.
