Member, Photographic Society of America
Winner of the 2008, 2011, and 2012 PSA Henricks Award for best newsletter!
Dennis Freeman & Sherm Edwards, Editors, Cable Release, at cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
Contents
KEY EVENTS
- Sept 2 – Labor Day Field Trip to Maryland Renaissance Festival (10:00 a.m.)
- Sept 5 – Speaker Night (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 12 – Competition Night: Open (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 19 – A Closer Focus Meeting (7:30 p.m.)
- Sept 25 – Board Meeting (7:30 p.m.)
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@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: 2019-2020 Member Handbook
SSCC member submissions for the Cable Release should be directed to cablereleaseeditor@ssccphotography.org.
© 2019 Silver Spring Camera Club and its contributors. Copyright Notice & Disclaimer Policy
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FROM OUR PRESIDENT
I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and is ready to participate in our 2019 – 2020 club year. The board and chair positions have been working hard this summer to ensure we have a well-planned and full agenda. Look in the Cable Release and on our website for updated information. Our updated handbook will help guide you through the year as well. (Read More)
MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS
MEETING LOCATION
Silver Spring United Methodist Church
8900 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD
Click for details
SPEAKER- SEPT 5 – ALAIN GUTIERREZ: BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER IN CUBA; ADVENTURES, FIASCOS, AND PHOTOS
We are pleased to have Alain Gutierrez as the guest speaker for our season opener on September 5th. Alain will speak about his career as photojournalist in Cuba, the adventures he has experienced, and some of the fiascos he has had to overcome. His images portray the daily life and stories of his country – a visual narration that speaks to us all. (Read More)
COMPETITION COLUMN
Hi to all SSCC members. I’m very excited about the upcoming 2019-20 Competitions season. The competitions, held the 2nd Thursday of each month, provide a great opportunity to share your images with fellow members and have them critiqued by professional photographers. Though their judgments about the images and their selection of winning photos are necessarily subjective, the judges invariably offer helpful insights and suggestions about the entered images, whether they’re yours or those of another member. In my 3+ years as a SSCC member, I have yet to leave a competition without having picked up something useful that I can incorporate into my photography.
For the new Competitions season, we have what I believe will be a fun, stimulating and diverse array of competition topics. Our repeating mainstays – Open, Nature and Monochrome, will be joined by three new topics – 1) Reflections; 2) Shadows; and 3) Cityscapes. Please refer to the website link for the definition of each topic.
Here’s the schedule for the season:
- September – Open
- October – Nature Photography
- November – Open
- December – Reflections
- January – Cityscapes
- February – Shadows
- March – Open
- April – Open
- May – Monochrome Photography
- June – End of Year Competition (special rules apply)
As indicated, the topic for the season’s first competition on September 12th is Open, which gives you full freedom to enter images on any topic (or no topic) that you choose. The only requirement is that original images must be created by a light sensitive device, like a camera or scanner. Any subsequent alterations or manipulations of the images are permissible, so have at it.
Please be mindful that electronic submissions for projected images must be received no later than 11:59 pm, September 5th. The images should be emailed to: competition@ssccphotography.org (One important detail – In order to participate in the September competition, you must pay the club’s annual dues before the start of the competition.)
To learn the nitty gritty about the competitions, please refer to the Competition Rules and the Members Handbook, both of which are accessible from the SSCC website. Of course, if you have any questions about the competitions, please feel free to contact me at competition@ssccphotography.org
Finally, our monthly competitions are meant to be engaging, interactive member events, rather than dry, impersonal contests. As such, we heartily encourage all members who submit photo entries, whether print or electronic, to be present at the competitions. I say this for several reasons. First, the critiques the judges offer of the photo entries can be valuable for the creators of the images. After all, the SSCC enlists our judges not only to have them select their favorite images for ribbons but, as importantly, to offer their professional photographic expertise and insights as they evaluate the images. Second, audience members really appreciate hearing from ribbon winners a little of the contextual history of their images. Knowing where an image was made or how it was processed can be informative and often entertaining. And third, being able to personally congratulate award winners makes for a more vibrant, fun experience for the audience. If a ribbon winner is absent when his or her name is called, the enthusiasm the audience wants to convey to the winner is unavoidably diminished. So, for all these reasons; if you plan to enter an image in a competition this season, please try your best to attend the event. It really helps strengthen the ties that bind us together as the SSCC.
SANDI CROAN TO JUDGE OPEN COMPETITION – SEPT 12
Sandi Croan is an independent photographer from Centreville who has been living in Northern Virginia since 1978. She specializes in landscape, nature, and travel photography with an eye for capturing the unique and creating fine art for homes and offices. (Read More)
A CLOSER FOCUS – SEPT 19
– by David W. Powell
An opportunity to share ideas, images, questions, and inspirations
Half an hour will be an open forum discussing issues at hand. A half hour is devoted to presentations by members. And a half hour is set aside for member image reviews.
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.
- Dave Powell will present “Candid People Photography”, which is broader than just street photography. Bring your questions!
- Picture assignment: Bring in photos from your summer projects! If you’d prefer to talk about something else bring in some other photos you’d like to share and discuss.
- Discussion: Any topics that you’d like to explore. In addition, we will talk about how to encourage more Novice Print entries in the monthly competitions. We will also survey your favorite and least favorite competition topics.
- Book/Gear Reviews: What book/gear/software have you experienced that you’d like to review?
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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@gmail.com
SEPTEMBER 2 FIELD TRIP TO MARYLAND RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL
On Labor Day, Monday, September 2, we will go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. You will have an opportunity to shoot hundreds of people in weird medieval costumes, all of whom love to have their pictures taken; jousting, archery, jugglers, street entertainment, Shakespeare type stage productions, feasting, drinking, and general bacchanalia. (Read More)
CLUB NEWS
MEMBERSHIP
Dear SSCC Members,
The Silver Spring Camera Club is already planning for the 2019-2020 year. We have many ideas for speakers, topics, and field trips. There are several committees whose chairs could use help. If you are interested please let us know. Chairpersons are always happy to have an extra set of hands. If you have ideas for the club, please let us know those as well. We encourage full participation.
Besides the camaraderie and educational programs, renewing your membership means you are eligible to enter your best shots in our monthly photo competition and continue to receive our award-winning newsletter, the Cable Release.
To renew membership:
- Get your membership renewal form HERE and fill it out. Bring it to our first meeting on Thursday, September 5th, along with a check made out to Silver Spring Camera Club. Give it to Treasurer, Bruce Schaefer.
- Or, mail the membership form and check to Bruce at the address provided on the form.
Please fill the form out completely even if you have in previous years. This is where you can give us your ideas.
See you soon. We look forward to seeing your summer photos!
Lisa Auerbach
Marc Auerbach
Andrew Rein
SSCC Membership Co-Chairs
PROGRAMS
Hottest Summer in 125 Years
If you think this summer has been hot, you haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until you experience the exciting speakers and well trained judges that the SSCC program’s co-chairs have arranged for the 2019 – 2020 Camera Club Season. Plan on showing up the first Thursday of each month to listen and learn from a whole new group of talented speakers. You’ll see presentations that will prepare you for upcoming competitions and others that may take you out of your comfort zone.
Circle the second Thursday of each month because along with our standard themes of nature and monochrome, we are also going to challenge you to submit your best images exhibiting reflections, shadows, and cityscapes as well as photos for our open competitions.
Don’t forget the third Thursday of month where through our A Closer Focus seminars, led by Dave Powell, you will be able to have images critiqued by fellow members, learn new photographic skills and hear about creative experiences in our area.
This upcoming season promises to sizzle. Don’t forget to pay your membership dues early so you don’t miss out on any of the fun. See you in September.
– Renee Schaefer & Karen Finkelman
| MONTH | SPEAKER | JUDGE | TOPIC/THEME |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | Alain Gutierrez | Cuba | |
| Sandi Croan | Open | ||
| October | Don Rosenberger | Rust/Ruins | |
| Sarah Hood Solomon | Nature | ||
| November | Steve Rosenbach | Cityscapes | |
| Duane Heaton | Open | ||
| December | Burke Seims | State of the Camera Industry | |
| Janet Jeffers Little | Reflections | ||
| January | David W. Powell | Practical Lightroom | |
| John Hoover | Cityscapes | ||
| February | Earl Dotter | Life’s Work, a 50 yr Photographic Chronicle of Working in the USA | |
| Mary Braman | Shadows | ||
| March | tbd | tbd | |
| Keith Chamberlain | Open | ||
| April | Aubrey Gemignani | NASA | |
| Kristi Odom | Open | ||
| May | tdb | tbd | |
| tbd | Monochrome |
A PREVIEW OF THIS SEASON’S FIELD TRIPS
Our field trip coordinator, Phil Boyer, has provided the following table that includes this camera-year’s currently planned field trips and some notions still in process. Details on meetup times, leaders, etc will be published in that month’s Cable Release, eBlast, and Meetup announcements. If you have thoughts on field trips, or would like to volunteer to lead, please talk to Phil.
| Date | Destination | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2 | Maryland Renaissance Festival | Seniors Day. All seniors 62+ are admitted free. |
| Oct 6 | Covered Bridges of Frederick County and Catoctin Furnace | http://Catoctinfurnace.org |
| Oct 19 | Rockville Antique and Classic Car Show | >550 antique/classic cars displayed on the grounds of Glenview Mansion. |
| Oct 27 | Maple Lawn Farms | |
| tbd | Dickerson Whitewater Course | |
| Nov 24 or 25 | Race cars Potomac Motorcross | Summit Point Motorsports Park West VA |
| Dec 7 | Street Photography Walk | |
| Dec | National Zoo lights | |
| Jan 12 | Baltimore RR Museum | |
| Feb 9 | The Antique Center – Savage Mill | Large indoor area, with free parking, south of Columbia. |
| Mar 15 | Dickerson Whitewater Course | |
| Mar 28 | Guinness Brewery Baltimore | Tours free, but guided tasting is $15, has restaurant on site |
| Apr 19 | Dawn over the Potomac | Boat Launch Rock Creek Pkway & VA Ave |
| May 17 | Annapolis Harbor | http://www.downtownannapolis.org/ |
CHANGING THE FILE SIZE AND FILE NAME FOR SSCC COMPETITIONS – BY DAVID TERAO
A number of SSCC members have been submitting images for Projected (digital) competitions that do not meet SSCC requirements. The issues happen for both the file naming requirements and for file size limitations. This is creating an extra burden for managing these competition images because our digital entry manager, David Terao, ends up doing this for you.
To remind you of the requirements, and to show you how to easily meet them, David has put together two articles on how to resize and rename files.
Windows users can use a free publicly available software product, IrfanView. (read more)
Mac users, who do not use Lightroom, can do the following. The program we will use is called Preview and is Mac’s flagship OS program for editing photos (The other two Mac photo programs are Image Capture and Photos). Preview can import photos directly from a digital camera or iPhone and is a useful tool for resizing and renaming images to meet SSCC competition requirements as well as converting images to other formats and making color correction, if necessary. (read more)
THE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT FUND
Its official name is the George DeBuchanne Community Service Project Fund, and it is a way for you to combine your love of photography and your interest in helping others. Its purpose is to award grants to club members to assist with a community-minded photography project.
Grant money is available all year long, so club members can apply for and receive a grant at any time.
You can be involved with the Community Service Project Fund in one of two ways:
– Apply for a grant for your own project.
Last year’s recipient was given a grant to help with the expenses of the Help Portrait project, in which matted family portraits were given to area families during the Holiday season. The possibilities for projects are limited only by your imagination.
If you would like to talk over a project you are considering, please contact David Blass at davidablass@gmail.com
-Donate to the Fund.
Any amount is welcome, and all the money will go into the Fund to support a Community-related project. Contact Bruce Schaefer, the Club Treasurer, to make a donation.
Follow the link below to download the full Guidelines and Application form for the Community Service Project Fund:
NOVICE PRINT COMPETITIONS
In looking back at our monthly SSCC competitions over the past few seasons, a noticeable trend has emerged. While our “Novice” competitions have generally seen a healthy number of entrants in the Projected category, there has been a relative dearth of entrants in the Print category. We suspect the reason may be that many Novices have not yet taken the plunge to purchase their own photo printers. However, given the wealth of reasonably priced, high quality, online print services, the lack of a personal printer should not be an impediment to entering our print competitions. (Read More)
BOARD MEETINGS
The SSCC Board met on April 23, and also on May 23. The minutes are in the following links:
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ELECTIONS
We voted and filled the open Executive Council positions for the 2019-2020 club year on May 9. These are:
- President: Catherine Honigsberg
- Vice President: Open
- Secretary: Maude Svensson
- Treasurer: Bruce Schaefer
- Directors: Bob Catlett, Michael Koren, and Pete Morton
The list of all officers and committee chairs can be found in the following link: SSCC Officers and Chairs
A big “thank you” to these folks who volunteer their time and energy to keeping our club running!
ELISE SHURIE WINS MULTIPLE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS AT MONTGOMERY COUNTY AGRICULTURAL FAIR
The Montgomery County Agricultural Fair was held between August 9-17 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The fair includes a photography contest each year, with categories under Department 74 in the following link. SSCC member Elise Shurie entered, and came away with three awards. She talks about her experience:
“I entered 4 pictures in the county fair for the 3rd or 4th time, and received some ribbons.
The fair was a lot of fun. The following picture was a fun opportunity I noticed while looking out the window at Ledo’s. I did this one with my cell phone.
“Inside Out” was taken inside the snail-like architectural sculpture in the Glenstone Museum with a Canon Rebel 6si.
The beer montage was done under the influence. Just kidding, the Photoshopping was quite challenging! I loved the wonderful handles on the taps and couldn’t resist putting them in their place. Pics also done with Canon Rebel 6si. “
END OF YEAR CELEBRATION – JUNE 13, 2019
The End of Year Celebration on June 13 was a great success! We had a potluck dinner at our regular meeting location in Fellowship Hall, mingled, and then handed out awards to recognize the year’s outstanding photographers. There were some excellent raffle prizes and door prizes. Here are a number of photos from our celebration, thanks to Andrew Rein and Norm Bernache.
We had a number of excellent door prizes that we are grateful for: coveted SSCC coffee mugs, Service Photo $, member-donated “Great Falls” by Roy Sewell books, a member-donated PSA membership, BayPhoto $, Luminar software + coupons, a “Venice” book , a Capital Photography coupon, $ from Dodge Chrome, and $ from American Art Makes A Frame! Raffles awarded an Essdras Suarez Photo Review and a pair of Washington Photo Safari trips.
