Fall is my favorite season. I love Mother Nature’s show of changing colors, the children all dressed up for Halloween, the smell of burning leaves, and the wind blowing through my hair.  As of this writing, it  is still too early to tell if this hot, dry summer will give us great colors or quick changes to brown but I hope you are all making lots of images.

The big highlight in November will be the Mid Atlantic Nature Photography Expo (MANPE) or Nature’s Vision that will be held on November 13th and 14th. Congratulations to those that entered images that were juried in. Please do not be too disappointed if your images did not. The competition is incredibly tough and as always, judging is a subjective thing. Whether you have images in the expo or not, I hope you will all take advantage of the opportunities for education provided by the Expo. We will need many volunteers for that weekend, please read other Fotofax articles, check the website, talk to John Quigley and use the sign up sheets at the meetings.

As the weather gets colder, we will be heading into cold and flu season. We have many members in fragile health who can ill afford to be exposed to germs. Please, if you are not feeling well or even feel that you might be coming down with something – STAY HOME! We will miss you, but not your germs.

Happy fall!

Sandi Croan
pashli "at" aol.com

Great Falls and Mather Gorge
Roy Sewall
Tuesday, November 2nd, 7:30 PM

Please join us for a photographic exploration of our local natural wonders, with Roy Sewall, one of the leading photographers of the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal.

Biography

Although Roy spent most of his youth in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, his State Department family’s home base was the Washington, D.C., area. Roy has a BS in Physics from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland and a MS in Engineering Science from Penn State. He returned permanently to the Washington area in 1969 and worked for several major technology corporations for over 30 years.

Roy’s interest in photography evolved from extensive travel in five continents. In 2001, he started his transition to full-time photographer. He always found the Washington area to be one of the most photogenic locations in the world. Roy’s first photography book, Our Potomac, from Great Falls through Washington, D.C., was published in 2005; it was inspired by his affection for hiking and bicycling along the river and the adjacent C&O Canal. The book has led to numerous lecture and slide show engagements with local organizations.

In 2007, Roy became the first Chair of the Board of Directors for the C&O Canal Trust, a non-profit friends group for the National Park Service. Roy has done extensive photography work for river- and C&O Canal-related government and non-profit organizations, as well as private and commercial clients. 

Roy’s second book, Great Falls and Mather Gorge, was published in 2009. In addition, he was a guest on WETA’s TV program Great Views of Washington D.C., the lead photographer in the Best of D.C. publication, and in a feature article in the 2009/2010 Where Guestbook, Washington, D.C.

Program Description

Roy Sewall’s coffee table book Great Falls and Mather Gorge is the definitive, in-depth look at the spectacular Great Falls area on the Potomac River, including the two adjacent National Parks: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Maryland and Great Falls Park in Virginia. What makes the book unique is that it concentrates on just one square mile – a half-mile wide swath along two miles of the river. This wilderness area is a diverse wonderland of river scenery, unique environments with rare plant life, wildlife, historic structures, world-class whitewater paddling, rock-climbing, and other recreational activities. All of this is easily accessible to people in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Roy will do a slide presentation of the Great Falls and Mather Gorge area using photographs from the book, and will discuss some of the its photographic challenges and opportunities. Books will be available for sale at a substantial discount to NVPS members. 

Roy will be joining us at Chili’s at 5:45 pm prior to the presentation, so please rsvp to mary.m.o’neill@gsk.com if you’re interested in joining us for dinner.

Mary O'Neill
mary.m.o’neill "at" gsk.com

Creative In-Camera Techniques
Ed Knepley
November 9th

On Tuesday, 9 November, the workshop will be a presentation from Ed Knepley on in-camera techniques that help to make your images more unique.  You can get a preview of Ed's work at his Photo-a-Day gallery that he has been running since 2004.

The 3-Cs (Craftsmanship, Composition and Creativity) are a foundation upon which many NVPS members have been taught to use while making images.  Ed believes that there is a 4th C (Communication) that is the ultimate purpose behind making images, and he maintains a blog Photography Improvement through the 4-Cs that provides a mix of photographic techniques and post-processing workflow to help you improve your images.

According to Ed, it is unfortunate that creativity is often missing element in our images as we strive to make the world's ten-thousandth copy of an Ansel Adams classic.  In Ed's presentation you'll learn ways to create images ranging from abstract to "arty"–but no one will say "I've seen that a million times before."

Creativity can take many forms ranging from

• Routine techniques but using unusual perspectives, angles, light, etc.
• Unusual techniques such as black light and montages as presented by Scott Musson and Matthew Schmidt in September and October.

Ed's presentation will illustrate less common techniques guaranteed to keep you busy and your viewers interested.  Techniques will include:

• Selective Focus
• Deliberate Camera Motion
• Multiple Exposure
• Light Painting
• Glass & Water
• and more.

Although the emphasis will be on Creativity, since we are looking at in-camera techniques, craftsmanship topics such as lens selection and camera settings necessary to achieve the desired creative results will be addressed as well.

Ed has won numerous awards including eleven end-of-year awards during his one year of competition at NVPS.  His work has been published in books, magazines and hangs in several permanent and private collections.  He is a volunteer photographer for the National Park Service where his work is on display in the Shenandoah National Park's Byrd Center and is used extensively in park brochures, newsletters and websites.

Questions can be addressed to Matthew Schmidt at mgs "at"loreleistudios.com.

Club Member Equipment Swap Meet

November is a month with five Tuesdays, and in keeping with NVPS tradition, we will have a fifth meeting.  So on Tuesday, November 30th, members are encouraged to bring unneeded and unwanted camera equipment and/or supplies to the meeting for sale, trade or give away.

Matthew Schmidt
mgs "at" loreleistudios.com

Judge: Corey Hilz
November 16th, 2010

On Tuesday November 16th, our competition judge will be Corey Hilz.  There is no theme for the November Competition.

On competition night, please plan to join us and Corey Hilz for dinner at Chili’s at 5:30 prior to the competition.

Biography

Corey Hilz is a professional photographer specializing in nature and travel photography. His work is seen in magazines, books, calendars and catalogues, as well as in art galleries. Corey finds the diversity in nature offers boundless opportunities for new images. He approaches his subjects with an artistic eye, looking for a fresh perspective. Corey has a passion for helping others improve their photography by sharing his knowledge through group and private instruction. He offers workshops and classes in the Washington DC area on various photography and software topics, plus leads workshops to locations in the United States and abroad. Find out more about workshops and classes on Corey's website: www.coreyhilz.com.

October Competition Results

Competition results can be found here on the website. If your name or the title of your photograph is spelled incorrectly, please do not blame the VPs of competition. The simple reason is that you did not PRINT clearly. Please be more careful in the future. If necessary, our seven year old granddaughter has agreed to conduct a workshop on penmanship. As a bonus she will also teach you to program your ipod.

Competition Images

Willa and Bob Friedman
Co-VPs Competition
willa-f "at" cox.net
bob-f "at" cox.net

Huntington Beach State Park &
Brookgreen Gardens
Myrtle Beach, SC
November 4th - 7th

See the writeup in the October FotoFax.

Night Photography in Old Town

The field trip to Old Town Alexandria was originally scheduled for Sunday, December 5th, but in order to have the town more to ourselves, it has been rescheduled for Monday night, December 6th.  Although this is a work night, the time would be 7:00 – 9:30 pm, no different from a NVPS meeting on Tuesdays.  If you do not have to wake up early, you could stay out longer. 

Although the town will still be busy, there will be more shooting room compared to the previous weekend celebration that had Alexandria bringing in the Holiday Season.  The holiday decorations and lights will be up at this time.  A positive aspect with Alexandria is that I have never heard bad stories regarding the use of tripods compared to Washington, DC.

I will be at Market Square on King Street, between North Royal Street and North Fairfax Street at 7:00 pm.  There is a parking garage underneath and plenty more garages around the town.  It should not be hard to find a parking spot because it is a week night.  From Market Square, I will probably shoot my way down to the dock behind the Torpedo Factory.  You are welcome to join me or go wherever you desire. 

January Trip to the National Cathedral is Canceled

There will not be a field trip to the National Cathedral in January.  We would have to make reservations for a group visit and do a tour.  The tour would be about 30 minutes, and there would not be time to stop and take photos.  They also want payment for the group four weeks in advance.  Instead, the trip to the Dulles National Air and Space Museum (The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center) will be scheduled for January 8, 2010.  Details will follow in the next Fotofax and updated on the website soon.

Curtis Gibbens
gibbensc "at" verizon.net
703-802-6283

Note: Clicking on any of the images above will display a larger version of the image. Simply hit the "back" button in your browser to return to the newsletter.

Monochrome Photography
Willa Friedman
November 23rd

Join us for this month’s forum presentation on monochrome photography presented by Willa Friedman.  In summarizing her forum presentation, Willa simply says, “I am often asked what to look for in an image that will make a good monochrome and how I convert to monochrome.  Here are several of my favorite tips to improve a monochrome image.”

Willa was introduced to photography right after college when she was an instructor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She was given a choice of several summer projects including cleaning small animal cages, filing old forms or counting owl pellets.  One choice was photographing wildlife in city parks.  She chose the photography because Bob knew about such things. She was handed an SLR camera and light meter.  Over the following weekend,  Bob taught her enough to have the result published!

For close to forty years Willa was too busy for photography.  As she approached retirement, Willa drifted back into photography.   She has taken several workshops, including one with Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant and has studied Photoshop with Eliot Cohen. She shoots digitally with Nikon equipment and does her own printing on an Epson 3800 Photographic printer.

Tom Burden
TomBurden "at" me.com

Prints
Melanie Marts
November 23rd

Melanie A. Marts is a Graduate Gemologist and independent jewelry appraiser by profession.  For many years, she took record shots of jewelry for her clients; first, using a Polaroid and then some of the first digital cameras in the mid-nineties.  In 2005, she upgraded to a 7.1 megapixel point-and-shoot and had a lightbulb moment when she realized…“Hey, I can take pictures of other stuff!”  Soon after, she started photographing flowers in her backyard.  In the fall of 2006 she bought her first SLR, a Nikon D80, and hasn’t looked back since.  Currently, she uses a Nikon D300 and various lenses.

After joining NVPS in the spring of 2007, Melanie became more actively involved in photography.  She served two years on the Board for Workshops, Education and Training.  This year, she is co-chair of the new Members’ Resource Program.  Last fall, she decided that she would, eventually, make photography her new career.  In working towards that goal, she recently completed the Professional Photography Program at the Washington School of Photography in addition to taking seminars from Corey Hilz.

Digital Presentation
Vivian Luu
November 23rd

In the old days, Vivian Luu was passionate about being in the pictures instead of taking pictures; this was especially true after a new hairdo! She considered pictures of her and her family and friends priceless.

When posing for pictures, she was instructed to move to the right a little or to the left a little, but she was never exposed to the language of photography–composition, design, depth of field, shutter speed, aperture, etc. These were words that were not part of her vocabulary.

In 2005, after joining a local Vietnamese Photographic Society camera club, Vivian purchased a Canon 5D camera. The new equipment motivated Vivian to become passionate about photography as a "photographer" rather than a "model."

Vivian joined NVPS in 2006 and her photography skills accelerated. During her second year with NVPS, she actively participated in the club's competitions.  In the third year she received the Photographer of the Year award in the Advanced Digital category and also received the Image of the Year award.

Charlotte DeFuria
cdefuria "at" yahoo.com

A list of current Board members and their contact information can be found at nvps.org/main/about/board-members.

Meet Your Board Members

As part of a continuing series on our board members, we continue with biographies for Mary O'Neill and Matthew Schmidt.

Mary O'Neill
VP Programs

Mary has been a member of Northern Virginia Photographic Society (NVPS) since 2003, and has been photographing since 2002 when she took a course taught by NVPS member, Jim Steele, at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. She has also taken workshops offered by Joe Miller, Tony Sweet, Ian Plant, Corey Hilz, Jim Clark, and Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant, but has not received any other formal training in art or photography.  She is also a graduate of Joe Miller's “Seminar on Camera Club Judging”.  Mary has held several NVPS volunteer positions, including Member’s Forum Chair, Membership Chair, and VP of Programs (for the past three years).  When she first joined NVPS, Mary frequently entered competitions, and won the Novice Photographer of the Year award for slides, and the Monochrome Print of the Year in 2005.  She has also won the Nikon and the Joe Rossbach Sponsors Choice awards at the Meadowlark Nature Photography Expo.

Her work has been published in West Virginia Magazin, and has been juried into various exhibits including The Art League (Torpedo Factory) in Alexandria, VA

Mary considers herself to be an enthusiastic amateur photographer.  She has a BS in Biology, and sees photography as a means of expressing her appreciation for the natural world. Mary also enjoys hiking, travel, art, gardening, and generally loves being outdoors.  For now, she's working full-time as an Account Director for GlaxoSmithKline, and looks forward to retirement someday soon! 

Mary shoots images from nature almost exclusively, but has also gained a real appreciation for abstracts and impressionistic imagery.  Recently, she has been venturing out of her macro-comfort zone to gain experience shooting wide angle landscapes.

Her equipment is very simple—she shoots with a Nikon D300 body, and four Nikon lenses:  18-200 mm utility lens, 12-24 mm, 70-200 mm, and 200mm macro.  Mary always uses her tripod—a carbon Gitzo tripod, with a Really Right Stuff (BH55) head. 

Matthew Schmidt
Workshops, Education and Training Coordinator

Matthew has been a member of NVPS since 2006 and a board member since the 2006 - 2007 camera club year.  He has held the positions of Digital Competition Coordinator, Equipment Manager, Co-VP for Competition, PSA Representative and is currently the Workshop, Education and Training coordinator.

He has been photographing seriously since 2003 with training from photographers such as Freeman Patterson, John Isaac, Art Wolfe, Mollie Isaacs and Joe Miller.

He shoots mostly action sports like motorsports, lacrosse and soccer but he also enjoys much more tame subject matter like macro, flowers and still life.  For more artistic interpretations he shoots montages and multiples for which he has developed several actions in Photoshop to simplify the techniques.  Over the last year he has added panning and camera tossing techniques to his repertoire.

Canon makes up the majority of Matthew camera equipment and while a LensBaby Composer is currently his favorite lens, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens spends more time on a body than any other lens in his collection.

The exhibit will be held November 13-14, at the Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Prince William campus of George Mason University, Manassas, VA. The hours of the exhibit are 9:30 am - 5:00pm each day. The keynote address will be given on Saturday evening by Bob Krist, a noted travel photographer and author In addition to the exibit of 300 nature photographs, a stimulating and informative series of lectures will be conducted during the two day exhibit. Vendors including Nikon, Tamaron, and Olympus will be available to demonstrate their newest products.
 
Advance sales of tickets are avalable on line through the http://naturevisions.org website or at the Hylton Center ticket ofice. Tickets my be purchased for individual events or as packages. Seating for the workshops is limited and there are very few slots still available. The following packages are available:

Package Deals

John Quigley
NVPS Representative to Naturevisions
jhquigley "at" msn.com

Dan Ward "Phoetry"

Dan Ward was selected by his company, MITRE Corporation, to display his photography in the company's Atrium Gallery. The “Plane of Life” show is based on Celtic life cycle concepts.  It has 20 “phoetry” images that combine Dan’s photos with poetry written by Dr. Catherine Sweeney Burton. The Atrium Gallery is a private gallery supported by the MITRE Corporate Arts Program for the benefit of MITRE employees and clients and is not open to the public without a MITRE escort.

DanWard@aol.com

Will Haubert

Will Haubert had several successful entries in the 4th Annual Claude Moore Park Photography Expo: September 2010. His photo, The Twins, received First Place Advanced in the "Winged Wonders" category and his photo, Sitting Pretty, received an Honorable Mention in the same category.. He also received a Third Place Advanced in the "Roots and Buds" category with his photo, Reach for the Sky. A total of 5 of his images were accepted.

Laura Howell

Laura Howell received an Honorable Mention award for her image Sand Detail #3 in the annual PhotoArt Photography exhibit with the League of Reston Artists. The show runs from Monday, October 4 - Monday November 1 at the Reston Community Center Lake Anne 1609-A Washington Plaza, Reston, VA.

Thank You to NVPS Members
Tom Brett

The annual reunion, hosted by me, of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Association (Army, Combat Infantry unit) was a great success, due to the generosity and willingness of many NVPS photographers.

Approximately 35 NVPS members had responded to my request and donated about 130 images to be given to the veteran soldiers. All of the images were 8 X 10 or larger and most were matted. Most were of Washington, DC area memorials, monuments & statues–many with a military theme. The veterans were very surprised and very pleased to receive your images as gifts.

The Korean War Memorial images were quite popular, because of the memorial's depiction of Combat Infantrymen carrying rifles and machine-guns while covering the battlefield on foot, as we had done, and the realistic appearance of the soldier statues. Also very popular were images of Memorials, such as the Lincoln, Washington and the Jefferson, shot through cherry blossoms, and the many other images with patriotic themes.

I had arranged five images per table, as part of each table's centerpiece for the Memorial Banquet and allowed each veteran to take an image. I also used about 20 images as raffle ticket prizes.

The women and men were very complimentary about the high quality and beauty of the images and very appreciative of the work done by the NVPS photographers. Thank you very much.

Tom Brett

Right to Photograph Federal Buildings

Bob Friedman forwarded a Washington Post article about a Federal Court settlement between the Federal Protective Service and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The case concerned a person's right to photograph a federal building. The public has the right to photograph the exterior of federal buildings. The article can be found here.

Exhibition Opportunities

Gallery West 14th National Juried Show
Entries Due November 12th

Gallery West is announcing a call for entries for its 14th annual national juried show. The all media show will be juried by CD, awards to total $1000. It will be juried by F. Lennox Campello. The exhibit dates: February 9, 2011 - March 6, 2011. The eEntry deadline isNovember 12, 2010. For more details, go to: www.gallery-west.com

Adam Lister Gallery
Entries Due December 5th

The Adam Lister Gallery is searching for innovative and thought provoking artwork of any medium, size and subject matter. This submission will be juried by a panel of gallery staff, curators and collectors. The deadline for submission is December 5th, 2010. This juried group exhibition will run from January 14th to February 21st, 2011. For details on how to submit artwork visit: www.adamlistergallery.com/submissions.html.

adamlistergallery "at" gmail.com

Events

Michael Du Bois
La Lumiere Du Bois

NVPS member Michael Du Bois will have his exhibition, La Lumiere Du Bois, at the Huntley Meadows' Visitors Center, located at 3701 Lockheed Blvd., Alexandria, from November 6th through December 5th, 2010. He will be hosting a reception on Sunday, November 7th from 2-4pm.

Michael Du Bois
(703) 768 - 2525
www.friendsofhuntleymeadows.org/

Melony A. Price-Rhodes
My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things, a photo exhibition by Melony Price-Rhodes, will be on display at Beanetics Coffee Roasters beginning Nov 4th through mid-December. Beanetics is located at 7028 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA 22003 703.941.4506; www.beanetics.com There is a reception Sat., Nov 13, 2010 7-9 pm. Please RSVP by Nov 9th to

Melony Price-Rhodes
mpricerh "at" vt.edu

The Option of Last Resort: Iraqi Refugees in the United States
Gabriela Bulisova

Exhibit Dates:   October 30 to December 5
Exhibit Hours:   Saturdays, 1pm to 4pm and Sundays & Mondays, 1pm to 8pm.
Artist Talk & Reception: Saturday, November 13, 2:00
Location: Photoworks, 7300 MacArthur Blvd, Glen Echo, MD

Photoworks presents works by Gabriela Bulisova, a documentary photographer from the former Czechoslovakia.  Since 2007, Ms. Bulisova has interviewed and photographed Iraqi refugees who have been resettled to the greater Washington Metropolitan Area and other American cities.  These refugees are among the most vulnerable, systematically targeted for assassination in their country because they provided help and assistance to the United States.  The US government considers resettlement of Iraqis the “option of last resort.”   Free to the public.

301-634-2274
www.glenechophotoworks.org

Workshop Offerings

Roy Sewall

One-on-one Coaching: This coaching is intended for novice and intermediate photographers. Coaching sessions are tailored to an individual's specific needs, and the scope is flexible. Representative topics are: how to operate a digital SLR, equipment selection, photo critique in a private setting, on-computer demonstration of photo improvements, and field technique. Roy judged an NVPS competition in October 2009.

(301) 530-6720
roy "at" sewallinc.com
www.roysewallphotography.com

Nikhil Bahl Photography Workshops

Workshops offered at local destinations. Nikhil is an NVPS member and presented a forum in March 2010.

www.nikhilbahl.com
240-246-6654
nikhil "at" nikhilbahl.com

Josh Taylor, Jr.

Fall workshops, classes, and lectures are posted at archiphotoworkshops.com. Please take a look and hopefully, you will find something of interest, including Canon camera classes. Josh is an NVPS member and most recently presented a workshop in March 2010.

jtaylorj "at" verizon.net
archiphotoworkshops.com

Awake the Light Photo Tours and Workshops
Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindhjem

Join two well-known professional photographers on their exciting and educational photo tours. For 2011 they are offering trips to Alaska's Denali National Park and Katmai National Park, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley in Arizona, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Acadia National Park in Maine. All tours include extensive photographic opportunities in the field, as well as personal one-on-one assistance and classroom instruction. Mollie and Mary gave an NVPS Program in October 2009.

Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindhjem
www.awakethelight.com
757-773-0194  
awakethelight "at" cox.net

Northern Virginia Alliance of Camera Clubs (NVACC)

The Northern Virginia Alliance of Camera Clubs (NVACC) is an informal entity started in 1997 by Joseph Miller with the assistance of Dave Carter and Ed Funk. It purpose is to promote communication and cooperation among area camera clubs. NVACC is made up of Member Clubs and Associated Member Clubs.

NVACC publishes a monthly Calendar of Virginia Member Club Events that can be found at www.nvacc.org/Calendar.html.

.NVACC has published a Field Trips Guide Book for Photographers, which provides information about nearby areas that camera clubs might wish to visit (http://www.nvacc.org/Field%20trips%20Guidebook/NVACCPublications.html).