Silver Spring Camera Club

Category: guest speaker

  • November Speaker: Zolt Levay Wows with Hubble Space Images

    Did you ever peer at the night sky and wonder what it would look like if we could really see it – closely and clearly? Well, that’s what our November speaker brings us:  views of space as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

    zolt-levayA  fine nature photographer in  his  own  right,  Zolt  Levay  is Imaging Group Lead in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He studied astronomy  at  Indiana  University  in  Bloomington  and  Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. He then worked on several space  science  missions  at  NASA’s  Goddard  Space  Flight Center  before  joining  STScI  in  1983  to  develop  science analysis software.

    Since 1993, Zolt has been a member of the News Team in STScI’s  Office  of  Public  Outreach.  His  responsibility? Transforming Hubble Space Telescope data into aesthetically attractive images and graphics to illustrate Hubble’s science discoveries  (http://hubblesite.org).  Zolt  leads  the  Hubble Heritage Project (http://heritage.stsci.edu), which is a team of astronomers at STScI whose goal is to establish a repository of the visually finest Hubble imagery.

    It’s hard to imagine that Zolt has any spare time, but when he does, he enjoys exploring and photographing wherever and whenever he can. His Flickr site shows the beauty and breadth of his images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zoltlevay

    Note: Zolt Levay speaks to us this month thanks to a tip from SSCC member Elise Shurie

  • October 8 Competition: “Nature” Judge Mary Louise Ravese

    For our annual Nature competition, we’re lucky to have Mary Louise Ravese as our judge. Mary Louise is no stranger to SSCC, having been both judge and speaker numerous times. A fine artist in her own right, Mary Louise brings an unusual clarity and articulate perception to her judging. Everyone learns from her critiques.

    mary-louise-raveseFounder and owner of Bella Vista Photography in Waterford, VA, Mary Louise specializes in fine art nature and travel photography from locations across the US and in Europe and Japan. Her favorite subject matter includes country landscapes, nature close-ups, architectural details, and wildlife. She draws inspiration from a variety of visual arts to produce photographs often described as “painterly.”

    In fact, Mary Louise’s artistic intention is to incorporate the beauty of painting in the clarity of photography. Her images are recognizable for their intriguing juxtaposition of vibrant colors, distinctive shapes, and unique textures. Specifically, she aims to capture the essence of the natural world in color. With a goal of staying true to nature, Mary Louise emphasizes producing the best “in camera” images possible, rather than depending on digital manipulation.

    Mary Louise’s fine art photography is in private, university, and corporate collections in over 30 states and is exhibited nationally through art shows, galleries, and shops. Her images have been used in calendars, magazines, books, and websites including various projects with National Geographic maps.

    Noted as a popular speaker and competition judge for photography clubs in the Mid Atlantic, Mary Louise excels at explaining complex topics in an easy-to-understand way. She also enjoys teaching on a wide range of topics related to nature, travel, and creative photography. She leads classes and field workshops in the Mid Atlantic region and at a variety of locations in the US and abroad.

    Mary Louise studied photography through the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Cruz extension programs, the Washington School of Photography, and with such noted photographers as Barbara Brundege, Mark Citret, and Harold “Doc” Edgerton. She is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association, the American Society of Picture Professionals, the Equine Photographer’s Network, and the Loudoun Arts Council.

    You can explore Mary Louise’s images and learn more about her work and her workshops at www.BellaVistaPhotography.com.

  • October Speaker: Len DePas Speaks on a Favorite Topic

     

    Our speaker this month is known for numerous specialties – weddings, portraits, bar mitzvahs, and other commercial subjects. But we’ve invited Len DePas to talk to us about photographing food. It’s definitely not as easy as you might imagine! For the past 20 years, Len has photographed the chefs and restaurants of Washington. On October 1, you’ll see some of his exemplary images and hear what goes into creating them.

    lenDepasLen DePas started his career under the tutelage of some of the most celebrated photographers in New York City. He studied portraiture with the legendary Philippe Halsman and advertising with Josef Schneider. Since those early days, his photographs have been commissioned all over the world, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his work. A true artist, Len is continually evolving as he refines the innovative techniques he took years to develop.

    Website

  • Josh Taylor: First Judge for 2015-2016

    It’s always fun when Josh Taylor comes to judge an SSCC competition. And we learn a lot, too! To kick off our new season, Josh has again agreed to judge our first open-topic competition. Many of us know Josh not only because he’s judged for the club before but also because we’ve taken workshops with him. In fact, his workshops around Brookside Gardens and especially of Brookside’s butterfly exhibit are now established institutions. His in-the-field guidance, followed by critiques at the computer indoors, have proven to be a popular education experience.

    joshtaylorBesides Brookside, Josh has presented photography workshops at the Smithsonian National Orchid Show, US National Arboretum, US Botanic Garden, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, American Horticultural Society Garden School, Adkins Arboretum, and Longwood Gardens.

    In addition to being a Canon Camera instructor, Josh speaks at camera and garden clubs, judges photographic competitions, and exhibits his photographs in gallery shows. He is a member of Garden Writers Association, National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and member and past president of the Northern Virginia Photographic Society. Josh was voted best garden club speaker in 2005.

    He was also a judge for the 2009 Garden Writers Association National Media Awards and the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Nature Photography Expo. Longwood Gardens chose Josh as its Instructor of the Month (October 2010), and he was a selected photographer to assist the public at Longwood in photographing Bruce Munro’s Light: Installations (2012).

    Visit Josh’s web site to see more of
    his work: www.joshuataylorphotography.com.

  • May 14: Emily Reid Campbell Judges Abstract Competition

    For the culmination of our exploration of abstracts this season, we celebrate with this month’s competition on abstracts. By now, many SSCC members are old hands with this topic. We’ve created abstracts for our group exhibit, and many of us have been juried in – again – to Joe Miller’s annual abstracts exhibit.

    Emily Reid CampbellFinding a judge for this topic was a bit tricky. We wanted someone with a special interest in abstracts but someone with a new perspective to which we haven’t been exposed before. Emily Reid Campbell is just that person.

    Also known as “dcemmy,” Emily is an abstract, architectural, conceptual, and experimental landscape photographer and web designer. She’s a member of InstantDC, ExposedDC staff, AMPt, and several other photography, web design, and digital media organizations. Her work has been featured in local galleries and exhibits, as well as on many national and international photography websites.

    For Emily, the primary focus is on architecture, in both “standard building” and abstract forms, and though she enjoys branching out into other photography styles and genres, this is her true passion. She is fascinated by lines, patterns, and angles – and she loves finding new ways to use these to create unique art forms and alternative perspectives.

    Emily lives in Washington, DC with her husband James and son Thomas. She and her husband are co-owners of Bright Zebra Media, a web design firm catering to a diverse array of small business clients.

    To see some striking examples of Emily’s work, visit her web site: www.dcemmy.com.

  • Guest Speaker: Lew Lorton on Travel and Street Photography (May 7)

    For our last speaker’s night of this season, we present the iconoclastic Lew Lorton, who actually has a temperament like a lot of us. In his professional background, Lew had a long and checkered career as an Army officer, VP of a statistical consulting company, CIO of a health care research organization, Executive Director of a technology consortium, and finally the founder of a small Internet company.

    lewlortonHe has been married for a very long time and has five grown children, including two sons named Michael. Lew says that realizing at last that he was wasting a great deal of time working, he retired and got pretty serious about photography. (Sounds like many of us!) Since mountains, trees, and buildings don’t move very much and most wildlife moves too quickly to catch, he didn’t see either of those kinds of photography as much of a fit with his temperament. So…he began to concentrate on shooting pictures of people. He used to shoot with full frame Nikons but has switched to mirrorless cameras – Sony A7 II and Olympus OM-D E-M5. He loves prints more than screen images.

    A return trip to Vietnam aroused Lew’s love of South East Asia and its various peoples, and he has been back there several times – three times to Myanmar, three times to Vietnam, twice to Laos, and once to Cambodia. Each of these trips started and ended with some time in Thailand. His most recent trip was in February, 2015 when he traveled through the north of Thailand and over the border into Laos up near China, all by bus and boat. Lew has never gone on a tour and prefers to travel ad hoc with only a faint schedule and a plane reservation home. His love of street photography influences the photos he takes while traveling, and in Lew’s May presentation, he’ll talk about how that all fits together.

    Lew’s web site and blog are www.lewlortonphoto.com

Member, Photographic Society of America