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Editor: Sam Schaen - Email: Editor@NVPS.org
As Joseph Miller continues his recovery and as we miss his very informative and inspiring presentations or just seeing him at NVPS meetings and miss his photography workshops at The Joseph Miller Center for Photography, this seems the right time to talk about some of the many things he has taught us. "Professor" Miller has influenced my photography as much as Ansel Adams or Freeman Patterson has. Mr. Miller has been the photography teacher and mentor for me, and many folks in the DC area, and elsewhere. Below are some of the many principles taught by Joseph Miller. Each is designed by him to increase your knowledge about photography, to inspire you to be a better photographer and to produce more satisfying photographic results for you.
Mr. Miller's many presentations and workshops on the elements of visual design (such as lines, shapes, tone, rhythm, texture, and others) have certainly challenged us and made us better, more thoughtful, photographers. I am, as you are, very eager to learn from "Professor" Miller during his next great presentation on composition, or photography as art, or any other subject. And, we hope it will come soon. Please join me in wishing a speedy recovery for Joseph Miller. Tom Brett
Saga of Producing Your First Photo Book
On Tuesday, April 7, Karen Keating will present: Saga of Producing Your First Photo Book. Her talk will follow the steps from a project through several iterations to the published book, “Cubans: Watching and Waiting” in November 2008. She will have a slide show to accompany the conversation, questions and comments are welcome, and she’ll have some images and books. Karen will join us for dinner at Chili's at 5:45 pm prior to the Program, so please rsvp to mary.m.o'neill@gsk.com if you're planning to attend dinner. Karen Keating is a fine art photographer and an educator. Trained as an elementary school teacher and after raising a family and taking basic and intermediate photography classes at Glen Echo Park, Karen received a Masters in Fine Arts Photography degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 1986. For the past 20 years she has balanced a career as Director of Photoworks, an artist residency program at Glen Echo Park, Maryland, a studio photography teacher at The Field School in Washington, D. C., and as a fine art photographer exhibiting her images locally and nationally. Karen is a member of the Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Like most artists photography became a process of self-discovery. Karen’s early interest was as a photojournalist working for a local newspaper as photo editor and covering people and events of local Maryland interest. Most images were clear documents as the “photo was worth a 1000 words.” Beginning with her graduate school portfolio Karen began to explore portraiture with an eye on culture and connections. Her thesis portfolio, A Mother Daughter Colloquy observed the tense and complicated relationships between adolescent daughters and their mothers. The exhibit was shown locally and in Ohio and its completion was aided by a Maryland State Arts Council grant in 1986. Slowly Karen’s style evolved into a documentary street portrait photographer. Travels to Europe, Central America, Africa and most recently four trips to Cuba presented new places and people and her consuming interest became the everyday life of the people – their rituals and routines, the beauty found in the unremarkable events of daily life. At the same time, Karen maintains an on-going portfolio titled, “Close to Home” which focuses on the personal moments of her interests and life. Karen’s exhibits (solo and two-person) include Lasting Impression: Portraits from Honduras, Hope for Honduras: Her Children, Portraits from Three Continents, A Cuban Odyssey, 2000-2001, Cuban Lives, 2003, Close to Home, Silence, 2003, Morning Pages, 2008, Transfiguring, 2008, Cubans - Watching & Waiting, 2008-2009, Looking Back, Looking Ahead, 2009. While exhibiting and producing fine art photographs Karen loves her life of teaching both high school students and adults. A moment of distinction and delight was the Tufts University Teacher Recognition Award in 1998 in which Karen was nominated by a former graduate of The Field School. As President of Photoworks, Inc. a non-profit photography teaching program at Glen Echo Park, Maryland Karen gives back to the community with an adult and young person photography program. The Photoworks program offers quarterly classes from basic to advanced level darkroom courses, a digital program and an exhibit program. Karen is proud of the cooperation and community support that has kept this an on-going 30-year arts program in the Washington, D.C. area. Karen
has recently published her first photography book, Cubans – Watching
and Waiting in December 2008. It is available at Multiple Exposures
Gallery, Fraser Gallery and Photoworks at Glen Echo Park. Mary O'Neill
On Tuesday, April 14th, a critique night is scheduled, the last one
for this club year. It is designed to give constructive feedback
on your images. Generally critiques are held the same months as
themed competitions. The April competition is architecture/cityscape. Members
are encouraged to submit architectural/cityscape style images, but it
is certainly not a requirement.
For this critique, there will be several judges, who will vote on the images, and give feedback. Please email your competition sized images to prosserwm@aol.com, no later than Sunday, April 12th. You are allowed to submit up to 3 digital images, in order of priority, in case we run out of time. Please label your images with a number 1, 2, or 3 to indicate priority and your last name. Example: 1-Marts. For those who wish to submit prints, the same guidelines apply. You may submit up to 3 prints or slides, in order of priority, at the appropriate table before the meeting. Label them the same way as you would for competition. If there are any questions, please contact one of the Workshop Coordinators:
Competition Judge Steve Gottlieb will be our competition judge on April 21st.
The theme for April's competition will be Architecture/Cityscape.
Please plan on meeting Steve at Chili's for dinner prior to the
competition at 5:45PM.
Images must meet the below guidance for Architecture/Cityscape
to be eligible:
Capture the artistic essence of manmade structure(s). Strive
to photograph the scene in an unusual manner and/or from a unique
perspective.
In addition, all images and parts of images must have been photographed
on or after April 22, 2007 and your NVPS membership dues must
be up to date. Please review all competition rules posted on the
NVPS website under "competitions" for eligibility requirements,
number of images, types of images, deadlines and instructions for
uploading images, etc.
Steve Gottlieb has photographed architecture for architects, home-owners, interior designers, real estate developers, construction companies, corporations, magazines and advertising agencies. Steve is the photographer of five books, including American Icons, Washington: Portrait of a City and Abandoned America. His books contain a wide range of architectural photos and cityscapes. Abandoned America was selected by both People Magazine and USA Today as a 2002 Gift Book of the Year. Noted architect I.M. Pei declared: "Gottlieb is not just an architectural photographer . . . he is a true artist." Steve was designated as one of a half-dozen Kodak Professional Icons in the U.S. Steve is the director of Horizon Photography Workshops in northeast Maryland, where he is also one of Horizon’s 12 instructors. He teaches four different courses: architectural photography, lighting, creativity and People and Portraits. Steve is also a business consultant. His company, VisionMining, uses photography as a tool to help people in business learn to expand their vision to meet the challenges of today’s economy. Sandi Croan Matthew Schmidt Below are some images that received a first place award in the March competition. Clicking on one of the pictures will display a larger version.
First place winners in future competitions may be submitted to editor@nvps.org. Submitted photos should have maximum width and height of 1024 pixels and 768 pixels respectively. Images should be sent to editor@nvps.org by the Friday following the competition. February Competition Results
Competition standings can be found on the NVPS website.
Blue
Bells at Bull Run Join us in photographing the spectacular show of Virginia Bluebells, spring beauties and other spring wildflowers along Bull Run at the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Sign up during a NVPS meeting or send e-mail to gerry.abbott "at" cox.net to receive directions and trip details as well as any subsequent revisions. Charleston SC Information about the trip can be found in the February FotoFax at nvps.org/main/docs/fotofax//2009/2009-2.html#Charleston.
If you have any questions or suggestions about any of the field trips, please call or email: Gerry Abbott
"Andy Warhol" Technique Those of you who have attended our competition evenings or Meadowlark
this year, have seen Susan Breen's breathtaking work, where she turns
print images into beautiful works of art similar to paintings. In the
April Forum she will share one of her more light-hearted techniques with
us - Susan will show us how to turn a portrait into an Andy Warhol type
painting.
Gayle Dennis
Prints
Gallery Although his primary profession is the design and creation of fine jewelry, Tom Mangan’s avocation is photography. As an artist, he has worked in several media, including sculpture, wood carving, painting and drawings. His photography interests are eclectic, and his has shot everything from weddings and events to macros and landscapes. Tom’s interest in photography began as a child, when he was given a simple Kodak Brownie film camera and soon became the official family historian. He then graduated to “moving pictures” when he borrowed his parents’ Super Eight movie camera. His early films consisted of animated toys, his pet snake, and his younger sister who would magically vanish and reappear on screen. Tom later studied darkroom technology and film making in college, where he learned to create black and white prints and dabbled in video production. Until recently, Tom only used film, mostly doing technical photography in conjunction with his work as an appraiser and jewelry designer. He also shot images of his jewelry designs with models posing for advertising layouts. He currently owns and operates Mangan Jewelers in McLean, VA. Photography was given a back seat to family and career until 2005, when he made the move to digital. The ease of the new format, along with the ability to use a computer as a digital darkroom, rekindled his love of the printed image. He took several classes, joined a couple of clubs, and started shooting everything he could find. “The challenge,” he stated, “is to everyday, find a new way of seeing the ordinary world around us in an extraordinary way.” He is most passionate about nature photography and simply enjoys being immersed in the natural world. .
Digital Projection David has been photographing seriously for about seven years. He is
very active in the photographic community in Virginia having served as
the president of the Vienna Virginia camera club where he received the
Photographer of the Year award.
He has had his prints on display at Alexandria Virginia Torpedo Factory
Art League where his work was juried in numerous times. He has
also had his prints displayed with the Reston League of Artists and at
shows on the Eastern Shore and in Pennsylvania. His work is on display
in both of these locations.
He has attended the Maine Photographic Workshop, the Freeman
Patterson course in New Brunswick Canada, and a Great Smoky Mountains
workshop with Tony Sweet. He has attended photography and digital courses
at NOVA.
His images have been published in Natures Best and selected for the
Meadowlark Exhibit for several years.
David’s favorite subject is nature photography, especially landscapes
and flower macros. He also is very interested in abstracts. He finds landscapes
the most challenging because is very hard to find unique subjects and ways
of presenting them that have not been done many times before.
One of his favorite pastimes is just to drive back roads and small towns
searching for good shots. Last year he had the opportunity to drive
the coast of Nova Scotia and catch Peggy’s Cove lighthouse at sunset.
He is also very fond of northern Pennsylvania and the Eastern Shore.
He mentors beginning photographers in composition, techniques and the
use of their equipment. He has instructed courses in macro photography
and Adobe Photoshop.
Luella Murri
Best Western Hotel As is our tradition, we celebrate a great year of photography with our end of year banquet. The banquet will be at the Tyson’s Westpark Hotel, the same place we were last year on Friday evening, June 5th. On display will be all the prize winning photographs from the monthly competition. There will be good food and good friends. Please plan to come. Image Submission All images (prints, slides and digital) that have won any award (1st, 2nd, 3rd, HM) during any of the monthly competitions are eligible to be submitted for judging by our End Of Year judge, Elliot Stern. Please set aside your winning prints and slides so that they will be easy to submit beginning at the April competition. There will be sign up sheets for submitting your digital entries as well. Tickets Tickets are $38 per person until May 26th and $45 per person after May 26th. The amount covers the variable costs of the meal. NVPS will subsidize the fixed costs, which came to $547 last year. Please pay Fred Chitty, our Treasurer. You can give him a check at any meeting or send it to him at: Fred Chitty Directions From: Interstate 495. Take Exit 47 to Leesburg/Tysons Corner, Route 7 West. Turn right onto Westpark Drive, it will be the sixth light. The Best Western Tysons Westpark Hotel will be located immediately on your right. More information will follow in coming issues of FotoFax and on the NVPS web site.
It is almost Cherry Blossom time! Peak Bloom Period is predicted for Friday April 3 - Thursday April 9, 2009. The blooming period begins many days before peak bloom is reached and can last up to 14 days. Another photo opportunity is the Festival Parade Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 10 AM. " The Parade runs along Constitution Avenue from 7th to 17th Streets, NW, and will be featured in a live simulcast on ABC 7/ WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8. Giant colorful balloons, marching bands, and performers will burst down Constitution Avenue in an energy-filled spectacle of music and showmanship seen only once a year during the National Cherry Blossom Festival. ... Free and open to the public. Prime viewing grandstand seats, located on Constitution Avenue between 15th and 17th Streets, can be purchased for $17 through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com." For complete information check the Official Cherry Blossom http://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/.
Nikhil Bahl
Photos of Meadowlark Photos If you had an entry at Meadowlark 2009 that received a Sponsor's Award, Kris Ikejiri took a picture of your picture with a ribbon. To view and download that photo please go to: gallery.me.com/krisikejiri/100108. The site is hosted by Apple and the www. is not necessary. Congratulations! Kris Ikejiri krisikejiri@gmail.com Ed Knepley Ed Knepley was the first prize winner in the recent MountainTrailPhoto.com winter photography contest. All winners can be seen at http://mountaintrailphoto.com/photo_contests.htm
Events Stones and .....Other Life Forms Photography exhibit, Stones and .....Other Life Forms, will run at the Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, April 7 to May 31. Artist reception will be held April 19 from 2 PM to 5 PM. Grace Taylor
SoFoBoMo SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time. It's modeled loosely on NaNoWriMo, where participating writers all write novels in a month, and NaSoAlMo, where musicians write and record solo albums in a month. For SoFoBoMo, the goal is to make the photos, write any needed text, layout the book, and produce a PDF image of the book, all in 31 days. Rather than confining it to a single calendar month, we use a 'fuzzy month', where you can pick any contiguous 31 day period inside a two month window - this makes it a bit more flexible and encourages broader participation. This time around, the fuzzy month is any 31 day period you please, provided that it starts no earlier than May 1, 2009, and ends no later than June 30, 2009, at midnight in your local time zone. For more information, see http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/ Submitted by Ed Knepley Workhouse Photographic Society The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia is pleased to announce openings in the Workhouse Photographic Society (WPS), a cooperative studio and gallery under the direction of the Lorton Arts Foundation. The WPS has a large gallery space in addition to a wet darkroom, digital darkroom, and studio for shooting portraits, products, or artwork. Members are accepted by jury and membership fees are $120 per month. Photographers will be responsible for maintaining the space and providing gallery coverage 5 days a week. Each member will serve 8 hours a month covering the gallery and 6 hours a month on a WPS committee. A schedule for using the studio facilities will be maintained by the studio manager. We are now accepting applications to jury. For those photographers not interested in the WPS, we are also accepting members in the Workhouse Art Guild (WAG). Receiving for our next juried show is March 9th 10-noon. Further information and forms can be found at the web site, http://www.workhousearts.org/participate.php Marti Deppa Kirkpatrick Chesapeake Watershed Photography Show The Chesapeake Watershed Photography Show is sponsored by the Maryland Federation of Art. They are seeking original photographs to be included in the juried show scheduled for June 25-July 26 at the Circle Gallery in Annapolis. Entries must be postmarked by April 2, 2009. The juror is Richard Olsenius, an award-winning photographer, filmmaker and former photo editor at National Geographic Magazine. Prizes totaling $1,500 will be awarded. John Coder 9th Malmö International Exhibition of Photographic Art The Photographic Society of Malmö cordially invites photographers from all of the world, amateurs as well as professionals, to participate in the 9th Malmö International Exhibition of Photographic Art 2009. Additional information can be found at http://www.ffim.se. Nils-Erik Jerlemar iSurfAmerica Photography Competition iSurfAmerica is holding acompetition called My Town. The first place winner will receive a $100 cash prize and two runners up will receive a $25 cash prize each. There is no entry fee. To submit a photo, please visit www.iSurfAmerica.com and click on the Photo Contest icon. You can also see previous contest winners by clicking this icon. Documentary Photography Workshops
Nancy Libson Framing Workshop
Aline Santos Nikhil Bahl Workshops
Nikhil Bahl Backyard and Trail Deluxe Workshop
Wayne Wolfersberger Windstar Cruise with Stephanie Pfriender
Stylander
Lisa Glover
Borneo and Brunei Wildlife Expedition
Akos Hivekovics Joshua Taylor Joshua Taylor’s photography workshops, classes, and lectures for the first half of 2009 are posted on his web site. Added for 2009 are workshops at Longwood Gardens, the Adkins Arboretum, and Ace Photo. Web site: archiphotoworkshops.com. Christine Kent Bowles (CKB) Workshops
Christine Kent Bowles (CKB) Photography Corey Hilz Photography
Corey Hilz
Loudoun Photography Club Contact: Mary Austin-Keller at info@loudounphotoclub.com or 703-435-8907 Website: www.loudounphotoclub.com Program: Book Publishing Pt 2 - Production, Marketing & Sales by Roy Sewall, April 9, 7:00 p.m. Member's Night: April 23, 2009 Field Trip: TBD
Manassas Warrenton
Camera Club Competition: April 16, 2009 - Rhythm & Symmetry judged by Josh Taylor, Jr.
McLean Photography
Club Program: April 8, 7:30 p.m. -- Walter Calahan -- "Mastering the Box: Expand Your Creative Vision" -- An exploration of the creative process, and how being a perpetual student of our tools increases our creative options. Competition: May
13 Program: Competition: Club digital and print competition on Monday April 20th 7:30pm at RCC HW. Theme is Travel, images from your travels that capture the cultural environment. Details in newsletter and web site.
Field Trip: Saturday, March 28… TBA
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