Welcome Back!

Welcome back to NVPS as we begin our 51st year of existence. Hopefully everyone has had the chance to get out and build their portfolios this summer. Between competitions, member galleries, the portfolio project, and exhibitions, there are plenty of opportunities to showcase your best images. We will kick off the season on September 1 with a Programs presentation on portrait photography with Erika Nizborski. The Board and our volunteers have worked hard to make sure the presentations are coordinated to support themed competitions and exhibits.

The Nature Visions Photo Exhibition 2015 will be the first opportunity to exhibit your best work. As a member of NVPS you are eligible to submit up to six images to the nature category and two images to the Photo Art (previously Fine Arts) category. More information about submissions can be found on the Nature Visions website at http://naturevisions.org/the-exhibits/expo-submissions/. If your digital submission is selected, you will be required to submit a matted print. If you’ve never matted an image, you can learn how.

The Education and Training presentation on September 8 will show you how to prepare your images for competition, including digital preparation and matting prints. Nature Visions is supported by several Northern Virginia and Maryland camera clubs. Roger Lancaster is the NVPS representative and you can e-mail him with questions at naturevisions@nvps.org. The timeframe for submitting images is August 25 to September 23. Ticket sales for the exhibition are open now and there are several great presenters scheduled, including Joe McNally, Marc Muench and Tim Grey. Don’t wait too long to register as some of the events are likely to sell out quickly. Please visit http://naturevisions.org for all of the details. I hope to see you and your images there. (More on NatureVisions further down in this edition of FotoFax.)

At our summer Board meeting, we discussed starting the competition meetings at 7:15 p.m. instead of the normal 7:30 p.m. start time. As the number of submissions have grown, the end time of the meeting has gotten later. We want to make sure our judges have ample time to provide comments on each image, without going too late into the evening. We would start with digital submissions to allow those bringing prints a little extra time to arrive. I will ask for a show of hands at the September 1 meeting to see who is in favor of the change. If we have a majority in favor of the change, I’ll bring it back to the Board for a vote.

I’d just like to say it’s an honor and a privilege to serve as your president. Thank you to our Board and Key Volunteers, who work so hard to make NVPS one of the best camera clubs anywhere.

Jamie

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” ~ Arnold Newman

Treasurer’s Report

The NVPS Board has kept dues at the same price for the 2015-2016 club year: $65 for family and $45 for individual memberships.

Dues may be paid by check (to “NVPS”) or cash, with the fillable form from the NVPS website (under “Membership”) from (“All Things NVPS”) and given to the Membership Chairs (Judy or Paula) at NVPS meetings, starting on 1 September, or a check, with the form, mailed to Tom Brett, 4216 Wynnwood Drive, Annandale, Va. 22003-3453. You may also pay dues through PayPal, by way of the NVPS website.

During the 2014-2015 NVPS club year, Board member expenses were kept within the budget.

Annual expenditures during 2014-2015 were: $4,725 for the meeting hall rental at Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department; $1,430 for Competitions (judge honoraria and meals), End of Year (EOY) Banquet ribbons, trophies, plaques and printed programs; $614 for Programs (speaker honoraria and meals); $376 for EOY Banquet subsidy; $400 for liability insurance; $332 for the NVPS 50th Anniversary celebration; $180 for web and host server; $89 for Membership; $71 for batteries. 

The EOY Banquet cost for the Waterford meal and support fees was $3,907 against ticket sale income of $3,531 at $35 per person. NVPS paid the $376 subsidy to allow ticket prices to be $35 per person.

Income from Membership dues was $9,624 and from sales of Spudz micro-cloths was $230.

The NVPS bank account balance on 3 August was $10,270, which will increase as dues are received in September and October.

Please encourage your friends to renew or to join NVPS.

Thank you, Tom Brett, Treasurer

Monthly Program

September 1st: Portraits with Erika Nizborski

Erika Nizborski has been working as a professional photographer in the D.C. area for five years. She started her photography business shortly after graduating college and has been building it ever since.  Focusing primarily on wedding, lifestyle, and event photography Erika uses her fast thinking photojournalism skills to her advantage.  In addition to working as a photographer, Erika also assists for various local and out of town commercial and editorial photographers.  It is this experience that has helped Erika gain valuable lighting knowledge and skills.  

 Having an on-going personal project is also very important to Erika because it keeps her creative juices flowing.  Currently Erika is working on documenting her ever-changing neighborhood with a series called The Hyattsville Project and she is starting a new series where she is documenting urban bike racing. In 2013 Erika joined SilverCore Photography Collective as a founding member.

To view Erika’s work, visit her website and blog, please visit erikanizborski.com  and enphotoblog.com. If you are interested in taking a photography class from Erika? She will be teaching a natural light and portraiture class for Capital Photography Center on Saturday, October 17.  See http://capitalphotographycenter.com/classes/

Examples of Erika's work:

Monthly programs for 2015-2016:

The VP for Programs for this year Willa Siegel.

Education & Training

September 8th: Preparing Your Images for Competition

For this season we are working on a great mix of software instruction and fun hands-on opportunities.  In preparation for competitions, we start off September with “Preparing Your Images for Competition”.  We'll begin with suggestions for maximizing your digital images for projection, followed by a show-and-tell for matting before we break into groups in practice mat cutting.  Several mat cutting experts from the club will show you how to decide on the overall size of the mat, measure the opening, and share their techniques with the cutters.  Bring an image to mat, or just come to learn and practice.  16X20 mats and foam core will be available for purchase at cost.

See you there!

Ginger and Chris

The Education and Training Coordinator for this year is Ginger Werz-Petricka.

Competition

September 15th: Judging by Don Rosenberger

There is no theme for the September Competition. For themed competitions, please see below.

Don Rosenberger sold all his camera gear and walked away from photography.  But that was back in 1983.  He picked up a camera again in 2005 and has spent most of his weekends and vacation time trying to make up for those years he walked away. 

In the years since 2005 he has worked with and been mentored by a great group of well-known and some not-so-well-known photographers.   Today Don is still driven by the passion and urge to always create something better and constantly strive to take his work to the next level. 

In addition to pursuing his personal work he is a partner in Road Runner Photography Tours and leads national and international photography tours. 

The Co-VPs Competition for 2015-2016 are Tami Stieger and Kevin Egan (competitions@nvps.org)

Competition Themes for 2015-2016

Note: The Board reaffirmed that there will be three themed competitions per program year, but there will be no theme competitions in the months of December, January, and February.  

The themes for 2015 – 2016 are:

• Portraiture - October 20, 2015
  The subjects for this theme can be people or other animals, primarily capturing the face; but full figure is acceptable, for example, a wedding portrait also shows the dress. Both formal and informal (candid) captures allowed but keeping the main subject as an individual.
• Creativity - March 15, 2016
  This theme is meant to push the boundaries of your creativity through use of in-camera and or computer processing techniques. Examples being, multiple exposures, zooming and camera manipulation, panning, layering with textures, lighting techniques, digital painting, anything goes! A time to show off your processing techniques.
• Architecture - May 17, 2016
  Images of man- made structures including bridges, buildings, alone or collectively; parts of buildings such as arches, columns, ceilings, cupolas, stairways etc. Architectural structures within a landscape environment also accepted, such as a pergola or gazebo.

Competition Themes for 2016-2017

The themes for 2016–2017 are:

• Love
  We turn our attention to one of the most valuable virtues; an international language and possibly the strongest of all feelings…Love! It is an invitation to explore the path of love as an emotion, an attraction, an attachment… in all its forms! Some sample images might include: a lovers’ embrace, a passion you love, an X drawn in vapor trails, a goodbye, a friendship, etc.
• Drag the shutter
  Show us your best shutter drag. Whether capturing motion in waves or panning cars zooming by, we want to see you get creative with this topic. Slow down your shutter speed to show a sense of motion or action.
• Colors
  Life is a stream of color. Red, blue, yellow, and a billion pigments in between… For this theme we ask you to show us color-inspired photographs. Scenes, details, narratives or moods. Subtle tones or Technicolor daydreams, color must be a primary component of your image.

Competition Image Use

The NVPS Website has a gallery of past Competition winning images at http://nvps.org/gallery/v/competitions/. If your image placed first, second, third or received an honorable mention in a club competition, it is eligible for this gallery.  Images are not posted automatically, you must specifically provide consent for your image to be included in the gallery.

To have your winning image included in the gallery, email competitionwinners" at "nvps.org and provide the following information:

Your name
Image Category (digital, color print, monochrome print)
Image Class (1, 2, or 3)
Competition Date

Digital Winners: When you upload your image for the competition, you can check the box to grant permission for it to be posted if it wins.  

Print Winners: send a digital version of your print, sized as if it were for digital competition.

The FotoFax newsletter is usually finalized during the weekend immediately following the monthly club competitions.  If your image is a first place winner and you send it in before the Friday following competition, your image will be forwarded to the editor for inclusion in FotoFax.  If you have not provided permission before that deadline, another winning entry may be used.

Portfolio Project

Co-chairs for the Portfolio Project for 2015-2016 are Willa Friedman and Ceasar Sharper.

Forum

September 22nd: Seeing Creatively Before and After with                                Sandi Croan

Think about it. How many individual decisions both unconscious and conscious do you think you make to produce one image?
By breaking down the process using Sandi’s images and stories, Seeing Creatively Before and After takes you through the potentially hundreds of steps/decisions that we all make from the moment we decide that we will go shooting to the final product.

This presentation is geared for novices to advanced photographers and will hopefully get you thinking, reinforce what you already know, make you laugh and give you a few new ideas.

Sandi Croan is an independent artist from Centreville who has been living in Northern Virginia since 1978. Professionally, she has been a registered Physical Therapist, Director of Personnel and Administration at a social science consulting firm, and president and co-founder of a personnel staffing agency.

Sandi has always looked at the world through the lens of a camera. She has been taking photographs for family, friends, and her own gallery since her first  “Brownie” camera. Over the past 15 years, she has gotten much more serious about landscape, nature, travel, and portrait photography. Now, she devotes herself full-time to her photographic passion, and constantly striving to capture that special moment in time as well as the beauty, wonderment, feelings and humanity that surrounds us.

Sandi has won numerous competitions and awards for her fine art photographs. She was recently awarded Best Landscape and People's Choice Award at the prestigious Nature Visions Photography Exposition and was honored with both Best of Show and second place at the Meadowlark Nature Photography Expo. She has also won Versatile Photographer of the Year (Advanced), Photographer of the Year (Advanced Color Prints and Advanced Digital) and numerous Prints of the Year at Northern Virginia Photographic Society (NVPS), as well as many competition awards.

Sandi was a featured artist in Elan Magazine, and her photograph “Blue Lagoon” was on the cover. She has also had photographs published in other local and national magazines. In addition, she has been juried into the prestigious ArtSpace Herndon Fine Art Photography Competition, George W. Glennie International Digital Competition, Nature Visions Photography Expo, VisArts of Rockville, Fairfax County Council of the Arts Show (Unlocked), The Fraser Gallery International Photography Exhibition, Art at the Mill, Oatlands Plantation Art Show, Aldie Mill Art Show, and the Meadowlark Photography Expo.

Sandi has sold many of her photographs to private, corporate and government clients, and does shows for businesses and other local events. Sandi has been an active member of the Northern Virginia Photographic Society (NVPS) since 2004 and has served in a variety of Board positions since 2005. She served as President of NVPS for two terms from 2009-2011. She also is a speaker and serves as a judge for area photographic clubs, competitions and exhibitions..

Presenters for the 2015-2016 Society year are:

The Forum Coordinator for 2015-2016 is Beth Morris.

Members Gallery

September 22nd: Prints by Curtis Gibbens and
            Digital Images by Judy McGuire

Digital - Judy McGuire

Judy McGuire became interested in photography and travel when she was 10 and took her first road trip to the western states with her family and her Kodak Brownie camera.  She took snapshots documenting family, travels and pets for many years before getting a Nikon SLR for slide photography. In 2007, she switched to digital and now shoots with a Nikon D7000.

Judy is most interested in travel and nature photography and loves to photograph anywhere, searching out back roads as well as obvious sites. She enjoys giving slide shows for various groups and makes calendars and note cards with her photographs. Her work has been juried into NatureVisions and the Joseph Miller Abstract Exhibit, and published as winners in Virginia Wildlife Magazine’s annual photography contest.

In 2001, Judy saw former member Luella Murri on one of the first Photographers of Northern Virginia television programs. She phoned Luella after the show for NVPS information and became a member shortly afterwards. Since then, Judy has enjoyed learning about all aspects of photography from the club's activities.   She has received a number of awards in the NVPS end of year competitions, including Slide of the Year, Advanced Digital lmage of the Year, and Digital Photographer of the Year.

Judy's show will feature photos of varied subjects taken within the last two years. A number of locations will be spotlighted, many of them only a daytrip away. Examples of Judy's work:

Prints - Curtis Gibbens

Curtis will present nature and wildlife photography prints he has taken over the past 10 years at some of his favorite places such as Huntley Meadows Park, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, and Shenandoah National Park.

Curtis is an outdoor nature photographer whose primary interest is wildlife.  He tries not to limit his wildlife subject to birds.  However, since birds are easier to find than reptiles, easier to approach than mammals, and he doesn’t usually have his macro lens in the field, bird images outnumber all other wildlife in his Lightroom files. 

His favorite birds are the large wading birds that hang around water.  He has thousands of pictures of these at sunrise or sunset, and will probably capture thousands more in the future.  This scene never gets old for him. 

His interest sparked the first time he visited Huntley Meadows Park almost 20 years ago.  Since that time, he has returned countless times armed with more expensive toys over the years.  He is also a regular at many other locations in the local area where he has come away with successful images.

He takes advantage of trips by exploring parks and reserves in the area, especially when his work required travel.  He has seen a large portion of the country with his camera, including a three-month trip in Southeast Alaska. 

His photography has expanded beyond nature by capturing events, such as “Gotta Fly,” an air show for wounded warriors.  He is also part of the photography team at his church, which is by far the most challenging photography he has endured.   His favorite events are his nieces and nephew’s sports events.  He can easily fill up a card in one soccer game.

He has exhibited his images and won awards in Nature Visions, the Ward Museum of Wildlife Art, and has had two exhibits at Huntley Meadows Park.  He currently shoots with the Nikon D600 and the D7100.  The lens he shoots 75% of the time is the Nikon 400mm with a 1.4 extension.  He hopes to get a 600mm lens, and if he wins the lottery, or gets a big inheritance from a rich relative, he will get an 800mm lens. 

Curtis works for the Department of Defense, which has nothing to do with photography, so he looks forward for the weekends. 

He has been a member of NVPS since 1999, which has played a big role in his photography knowledge.  He has learned a lot through many talented members.   Here are examples of Curtis' work:

You can check out more of his photography work at www.curtisgibbensphoto.com.

Presenters for the 2015-2016 Society year are:

The Member's Gallery Coordinator for this 2015-2016 is Ron Taylor.

Fifth Tuesday

September 29th: Anonymous Critique with Sandi Croan                               [Education and Training Night]

You've been working all summer taking pictures that you want to enter in this years competitions, and are wondering if they will make the cut.  Here's your chance to get some early feedback.  

Our last Tuesday in September will feature an anonymous critique with Sandi Croan, award winning photographer, judge and past president of NVPS.  Sandi will provide a critique with possible improvements for each image submitted if possible. Members are asked to only submit one image if they are level 2 or 3 and no more than two if they are level 1.

Submissions must be made by September 22nd so Sandi can review and plan her comments for the 29th. While anyone may submit however many they choose, we can not promise that all submissions from any one person will be reviewed because of time constraints.  The image maker will not be identified unless that person chooses to do so during the judging.

Please submit your images to nvpsimagegallery@nvps.org, sized the same as for competition with a maximum of 1400 pixels wide and 1050 pixels wide (vertical shots have the same 1050 pixel high requirement), sRGB workspace. 

See you there!

Ginger and Chris

Field Trips

NOTE: The field trip is postponed from September 12 to September 19 due to inclement weather.

This field trip features the historic mansions, gardens, houses and Civil War sites in and around downtown Fredericksburg.  It will include opportunity to visit public sites such as The Chatham Manor and the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center at which there is no admission charge, as well as sites such as the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, the Rising Sun Tavern, and the Mary Washington House and Gardens, which each charge an admission fee of $5.
 
We will meet at Chatham Manor at 9:00 a.m., and club members can choose various sites in downtown Fredericksburg they may wish to visit later in the day. We will meet for lunch at 1:00 p.m. at a local restaurant.

Visitor information for Fredericksburg can be found at http://www.visitfred.com

A map of a walking tour of Fredericksburg can be found at: http://www.visitfred.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/Fredericksburg_Walking_Tour_Map.pdf

More detailed information on this trip including maps, directions, and suggested sites to visit will be provided around the first of September on the NVPS website, Facebook page and by e-mail.

Note: To facilitate sign-ups, please download this fillable .PDF to your desktop, fill it out on your computer, save it using your name as the file name, and attach it to an e-mail and send it to field-trips@nvps.org

Field Trip Coordinators for 2015-2016 are Bill Millhouser and Alan Goldstein

Bob and Willa Friedman are resurrecting, by popular demand, the Self Improvement Field trips for the 2015-2016 NVPS year.  Paul Simmons created this project for the 2006-2007 year and we did it in 2012-2013.  

Paul said:"The objective of these field trips is to improve our photographic vision by learning to recognize and use the building blocks of visual design in creating images.  If you're like me, you have favorite pictures, ones you have taken and those taken by others, but have difficulty articulating what it is that makes them good. Hopefully, these Self Improvement Field Trips will help us in consciously using the elements of visual design to create and understand compelling images."

Bob and Willa will be using Freeman Patterson's book, Photographing the World Around You (A Visual Design Workshop) as a study aid.  Each month, starting in September,  there will be an assignment, e.g. lines, triangles, circles, etc.  There will be a monthly field trip to Green Spring Gardens. The schedule is to be determined so that these do not conflict with other NVPS field trips.

The plan is to meet at  9 am on either a Saturday or a Sunday. There will be mentors at each field trip to assist and answer questions.  In addition, there will be a photo gallery where you can post images and have a guest critiquer comment on your image.

Bob and Willa encourage novices to participate.  Of course, even advanced photographers are invited to come and improve their photo eye.

The first field trip will be September 19th at Green Spring Park.   The topic will be "lines".

Purchasing Freeman's book is not a requirement but it will be useful to understand the monthly assignment.  The book is not readily available, in fact it is out of print.   You can purchase the book on Amazon.com
This is the newest edition
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1552636127/ref=olp_tab_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
The following is the previous edition and it is essentially the same
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1550135902/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=&qid=
 Please let Bob know it you want to participate.
self-improvement@nvps.org
To see photos from the last self-improvement trips go to http://nvps.org/gallery/v/2012self

Board of Directors

A full list of all current NVPS Board members and their club contact information also can be found at: http://nvps.org/home/?page_id=23

NatureVisions

Nature Visions 2015 features Muench, McNally, Grey and Magill

Online Entries Open August 25 and Close September 23
Nature Visions Photo Expo 2015 takes place Friday-Saturday-Sunday November 13-15 at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia with over two dozen instructional sessions, great local and national vendors, and two stupendous exhibits of YOUR work.  Registration and sales for paid classes began on August 1 at NatureVisions.org. Online registration is required for admission.

This year you are only allowed to submit a total of six images to the Nature portion of the expo, and two to the Photo Art portion (previously called Fine Arts.) In past years, you were allowed to submit 10 nature photos, with six being free, and a charge to submit up to four more. With the addition of another club (North Bethesda), the feeling of the NV Board was that we would overload everything if we stayed with the 10 image criteria. The number you can submit to the Photo Art portion remains the same (two). There is no charge to submit images.

You can begin uploading your images on August 25. The final day for uploading submissions will be Sept. 23. All the info on submissions can be found on the Nature Visions website (www.naturevisions.org) specifically at http://naturevisions.org/the-exhibits/expo-submissions/.

Please make sure that your nature images do not include any "hands of man." There will be pre-judging of all images prior to formal judging to make sure that this rule is followed. See this portion of the website for more info (http://naturevisions.org/the-exhibits/expo-submissions/ ).

A new rule for the Photo Art section this year is that any image that meets the criteria for submission into the Nature section will not be eligible for entry into the Photo Art section. Specifically, the rules are:

• If an image conforms with the nature exhibit rules, it may not be entered into the Photo Art competition.
• All elements of the final image must originate as one or more in-camera photographs. In post-processing, all manipulations, including digital filters that alter the original pixels (e.g., blurring, distorting, colorizing, etc.) are allowed.

If your image is selected for the expo, you will be required to print and mat your work. Please make sure that the colors of the printed image coincide with the colors of the digital image used in judging. Additionally, make sure that your mat job is suitable for display purposes—i.e. we don't want the mat to fall off during the expo. If you need help with matting, please contact me or other members of the club who do matting.

A couple of points regarding registration for the Nature Visions photo competition and upload of images.

Visual Pursuits is the website used by Nature Visions for entering images into the Nature Visions competition. Any NVPS members who were not previously in Visual Pursuits (i.e. you were not registered last year), but who registered with VP this year, will receive an email from Visual Pursuits, which will contain your log in information. This is the information you will need to use when submitting images to the Nature Visions competition. The uploading period for images is August 25 to Sept. 23.

Your log in or user name will be your email address. Visual Pursuits will issue you a password which you should change when you log in the first time. If you forget your log in password there is a "I forgot my password" option you should use.

New members to the club who have not already registered with Visual Pursuits will be allowed to register, but not receive the discount, after August 25 and then upload images for the competition. Procedures to accomplish this will be provided in a separate email on or around that date.

This year’s All-day Friday Seminar Speaker is the well-known landscape photographer Marc Muench.  Marc’s images have appeared on covers and inside National Geographic, Sierra and Arizona Highways; Marc is the photo editor of the National Parks guides and a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.  Marc’s father is David Muench, the legendary landscape master.

The Saturday Keynote address will be given by a genius of imagery and lighting, Joe McNally, author of The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes, Faces of Ground Zero and other outstanding books of photography and instruction.   Joe has been a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated and a staff photographer at LIFE, and is a 23-year contributor to National Geographic, shooting numerous cover stories.  American Photo magazine calls him "perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today."

The Sunday FREE Featured Speaker is Tim Grey, the digital photography educator and co-author with Art Wolfe of The New Art of Photographing Nature.  Tim gives two FREE presentations on Lightroom and his work on Sunday.  Tim is well-known for his FREE daily e-mail digest on digital photography and post-processing, Ask Tim Grey.  Sign up for it now at http://asktimgrey.com/enewsletter/

The Sunday Noontime Featured Speaker is Ron Magill.  A Nikon Ambassador, Ron has worked with wildlife for more than 35 years and is internationally recognized for his photographic “hands-on” experience, from swimming with sea lions in the Galapagos, to tracking tigers on an elephant in India.  A documentary producer as well as a photographer, Ron's work has appeared in the Smithsonian and in publications and galleries around the globe.

Discount classes for beginning photographers will be offered again this year for only $2 per session.  Join the rest of the club at Nature Visions Photo Expo 2015!

Finally, sales of tickets for the expo began August 1.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or require further information.

Roger Lancaster

Announcements

Notice: The information about workshops and events not sponsored by or affiliated with NVPS are provided as an informational courtesy to Members. Individuals should review the detailed rules and conditions for contests and gallery shows to determine what impact entering an image has on the photographer's rights and ownership of the submitted images. Review the descriptions of workshops to see whether participation in a particular workshop would actually meet your personal learning goals. NVPS attempts to screen events for legitimacy and quality; however NVPS does not recommend these events and cannot assume responsibility for their ultimate quality. We recommend due diligence and encourage you to share your experience with other club members.

2015-2016 Membership Dues

This year there are a few good reasons to pay your NVPS dues earlier rather than later!

This year all Nature Visions submissions (Nature and Fine Arts) are digital submissions. To be eligible to enter images you must be a club member in good standing, i.e., be current in your membership dues. To make sure you qualify, Roger Lancaster will compare our list of paid members against the submissions he receives. So please pay your dues before you submit to Nature Visions.

In past years we have given members who compete in monthly competitions a grace period to pay their dues. For those competing in the September 15 competition, the grace period ends October 1. Please note that awards/points received in the September competition will be removed for members who have not paid their dues by October 1.

Early payment identifies you as an active member of NVPS and allows us to better serve your needs.
Membership dues for the 2015-2016 year are as follows:

• Individual           $45.00
• Family                $65.00
• Student              $20.00

There are three forms of payment. Checks and cash are preferred by NVPS:

• Check: make out your check to NVPS. Complete and print out the Membership Application (http://nvps.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NVPS_application_2015-2016.pdf). Please either mail both to our Treasurer, Tom Brett, 4216Wynnwood Dr, Annandale, VA 22003 or bring your membership application and check to a meeting.
• Cash:Complete and print out the Membership Application (http://nvps.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NVPS_application_2015-2016.pdf) with your current information and pay our Membership Coordinators (Judy Graham or Paula Neumann) or our Treasurer (Tom Brett) at any meeting.
• PayPal: use the link on our website: http://nvps.org/home/?page_id=114. Please note that NVPS must pay a fee for this method of payment!

Our new season begins on Tuesday, September 1, 2015. We look forward to seeing you there!

Welcome Committee – Calling For Volunteers

Have you ever walked into a room of a 100 people and didn’t recognize a soul? It can be very intimidating even to the most outgoing. As NVPS has grown in size, potential and new members may feel overwhelmed. In 2010 NVPS Membership established a program to help facilitate the integration of potential and new members into the club.

Membership is asking for volunteers to participate in the Welcome Committee. Your responsibilities will include:

• Committing to frequently attending meetings during the year and arriving by 7:00 p.m.
• Wearing a Welcome Committee name tag
• Standing by the Membership table during social time (7:00-7:30) and making yourself available to help greet potential and new members
• Answering questions about NVPS and membership
• Introducing potential and new members to other NVPS members
• Encouraging potential and new members to join and new members to keep attending meetings
• Inviting potential and new members to sit with you at meetings or ride with you on field trips

Volunteers are especially needed at the beginning of the club year. Ideally, we would like to have five volunteers on the committee, which will be rotated. So please raise your hand by e-mailing Judy Graham, the Membership Coordinator, at membership@nvps.org and letting her know you are willing to volunteer for this important role!

Frank P. Mertes

Long time member, one time president and three times Photographer of the Year Frank Mertes died of pancreatic cancer July 19, just three months after being diagnosed. Funeral services were held at The Church of the Holy Comforter, 543 Beulah Road, Vienna, Va., on July 24. 

Born in Chicago, April 2, 1935, he received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1958 and a M.S. and Ph. D. in Nuclear Engineering from Iowa State University in 1962.

He then moved to Virginia and was employed by Analytic Services, Inc. from 1962 to 1968. He worked for TRW, Inc. from 1968 to 1990, where he directed several major projects under contracts to the Department of Defense and other government agencies. He took an early retirement in 1990 to devote more time to travel and photography.

Frank's lifelong interest in photography began as a teenager when he built his first darkroom. Over 60 of his photos have juried into all-media exhibits of the Art League at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, the Vienna Arts Society, the Fairfax Arts League, and the Arts Council of Fairfax County. In over 25 trips to Europe, Frank's camera was always in his hand. He also photographed extensively in South America, the Orient, Morocco, and Kenya, as well as the United States. Frank's interest in learning never ceased, and he enjoyed a wide variety of classes offered by the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at George Mason University. He also was a dedicated bridge player. He was a long-time member of The Church of the Holy Comforter, Vienna, Va., where he served on the finance committee and as an usher and offering counter.

Members' Resources:

Do you need help with a photography problem, but don't know who to ask? The Members' Resource Program is here for you. Have you ever been asked, "How do you do that?" If so, then consider sharing your knowledge with other club members.

The Members' Resource area of the club web site http://nvps.org/main/members_resource/ contains a growing set of presentations and "how to" documents created by club members. It contains the Members' Resource List, which provides the names and e-mail addresses of club members who have volunteered to help club members looking for help on specific technology and technique topics.

Our members routinely receive photo awards and recognition and have images in shows. As FotoFax only comes out monthly, the best place to look for current events is on the website at:
http://nvps.org/main/member_news

Members' News:

Fred Siskind

Fred Siskind's photo of a monarch on purple milkweed was used as the opening two-page spread for an article titled “Butterflies Worth Knowing” in the September Extra issue of Birds and Blooms magazine.

David Heagy

David Heagy is having an exhibit of his photography and a reception. The reception will be 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 12, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, 2709 Hunter Mill Road, Oakton, Va. 22124. The exhibit will be displayed from September 9 through October 20.

Judy McGuire

Judy McGuire's photo "White Oak Run Ice" won 1st place in the Patterns & Textures category of the Virginia Wildlife magazine's 2015 Photography Contest, and was published in the July/August issue. (9)

Exhibition Opportunities

Announcements of exhibitions or contests are provided for information purposes only. There is no actual or implied endorsement by the Northern Virginia Photographic Society.

IFES’ 2015 Photography Contest

(Short noticec) Do you have photos of elections and activities that show democracy in action? If so, submit them to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) 2015 Photography Contest. This annual competition showcases images of elections and democracy from around the world.

The contest is open to all levels of photographers. While democracy promotion is a subjective theme, photos that capture the essence of IFES’ core areas of work (listed below) are highly favored:

• Electoral Integrity
• Participation and Inclusion
• Accountability
• Women’s Empowerment

The Grand Prize winner will receive $1,000 (USD) and the winner from the IFES Choice category will receive $800 (USD). There is no submission fee to enter IFES’ Photography Contest.

Participating in IFES' Photography Contest gives you exposure, as the photographs may be used in IFES materials and photo exhibits.

This year’s judging panel includes experts in the field of photography: Jared Soares, community and identity photographer; Susana Raab, Smithsonian Institution photographer; Lawrence Green, landscape and event photographer; and Dmitry Shevkun, IFES Senior Technical Adviser and photographer.

The Photography Contest closes on September 9, 2015. It is through your photos that the story of democracy and the electoral process is told.

Entry and details are at http://www.ifes.org/photocontest

2015 Claude Moore Park Photo Expo - Call for Entries

The Friends of Claude Moore Park (FCMP) invite you to participate in the 8thAnnual FCMP Photography Expo “Natural Spaces and Old Places” to be held on September 26, 2015. Photographers of all levels and ages are encouraged to enter their favorite photos into the juried competition in five categories: Roots and Buds, Wild Creatures, Winged Wonders, Natural Landscapes, and History and Heritage. The Paul Glascock Memorial People’s Choice Award will be voted by the Photo Expo visitors. Ribbons and cash awards will be presented to winners in the various categories. Time flies so make sure that you submit your entries by September 18, 2015. For 2015 rules and entry form, visit www.loudoun.gov/claudemoorepark (go to “Quick Links”) after June 2015 and visit our new facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/FofCMP.  

Washington School of Photography (WSP)

Located within WSP, the Washington Gallery of Photography hosts monthly gallery shows, open to the public, and consisting of work from mid-Atlantic Photographers. They hold regular gallery receptions, hosted on the first Friday of each month. See details on their calendar at: http://www.washingtonschoolofphotography.com/

Southeast Center for Photography – Narrative Portrait

We've all seen them. A portrait that bores rather than engages the viewer. Tells us nothing of the subject.  A narrative portrait implies a story, be it real, painted in the moment, or staged.

We're looking for photographers with the ability to combine the subject and elements such as location, lighting, and composition to tell a compelling story, candid or staged. 

Our juror for the Narrative Portrait will be Nicholas Kahn, half of the creative team Kahn & Selesnick.

Digital, analog or alternative methods, photographers of all skill levels and locations.

Submissions due September 11, 2015; Opens November 6, 2015

For Details & to Enter visit the SE Center for Photography

Other Local News

Super Blood Moon eclipse night of September 27-28

There will be a total eclipse of the closest supermoon of the year on the night of September 27-28. This is the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon – the full moon nearest the September equinox. This September full moon is also called a Blood Moon, because it presents the fourth and final eclipse of a lunar tetrad: four straight total eclipses of the moon, spaced at six lunar months (full moons) apart.

The total lunar eclipse is visible from the most of North America and all of South America after sunset September 27. From eastern South America and Greenland, the greatest eclipse happens around midnight September 27-28. In Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the total eclipse takes place in the wee hours of the morning, after midnight and before sunrise September 28. A partial lunar eclipse can be seen after sunset September 27 from western Alaska, or before sunrise September 28 in far-western Asia. Photo top of post shows a partial phase of the April 14-15, 2014 total lunar eclipse by Fred Espenak. Follow the links below to learn more about the 2015 Harvest Moon and the September 27-28 total lunar eclipse.

Eastern Daylight Time (September 27, 2015)
Partial umbral eclipse begins: 9:07 p.m. EDT on September 27
Total eclipse begins: 10:11 p.m. EDT
Greatest eclipse: 10:47 p.m. EDT
Total eclipse ends: 11:23 p.m. EDT
Partial eclipse ends: 12:27 a.m. EDT on September 28

For additional/detailed information, please see the Earth and Sky web site.

Dan Ward

“I Come From …”
A Photography Exhibition by Karen Keating

Fine art photographer, Karen Keating, will present new work in her solo exhibit at Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Arts Center in Alexandria. The exhibition runs from September 8 to October 18. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, September 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., and a gallery talk on Sunday, September 27, from 3 to 4p.m.

Karen’s images are a visual conversation using words and images as her voice in this exhibit.Encouraged through a creative class and drawing from a notebook of captured phrases from numerous sources, Karen has joined images with a touch of words.

She reflects on her roots both looking back and looking inward.The images use light, shadow, and black and white as fundamentals.She looks carefully at simplicity to express reverence for quiet, found moments, often in the landscape.

Gallery hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Thursdays which are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Multiple Exposures Gallery, Torpedo Factory Arts Center, 105 North Union Street, Alexandria, Va.
Contact:_Karen Keating, kwkeating@comcast.net