The April 25th Members Gallery will be Proceeded by April’s Forum presentation.
Willa Siegel – Biography
Willa has been a member of NVPS since 2011. She has been taking photos since the 1970s, but became involved in and serious about photography since her retirement and joining NVPS in 2011. She likes to shoot flowers, macro & abstracts… and then landscapes. She uses Fuji x pro 2, a Velbon tripod, and an Acratech ball head. Retired, her previous career was with the National Head Start Program (DHHS)where she was an Education and Literacy Specialist. Her husband is David Siegel, a local theater critic and arts writer. Her future photography goals/plans are to become better in both the technical aspects of photography and her ability to convey her visions.
Many of Willa’s photos are not true representations of the actual subjects. Instead, she reduces objects to their essential elements of color, contrast, texture, and light to avoid the distraction of reality. Some of her images are captured in camera and others are created during post processing, where she can twist, turn, and flip the world around her to create images of simple beauty.
Willa’s work has been juried into shows and exhibited throughout northern Virginia, including The Art League of Alexandria at the Torpedo Factory, Joe Miller Abstract Photography Exhibits, Nature Visions, Broadway Galleries and Buchanan Partners Art Gallery at the Hylton Center (GMU). In June, 2016, her photo “Busy Bee” won the prestigious Ollie Fife Image of the Year Award from the Northern Virginia Photographic Society. Prints of many images are in offices and private collections throughout the country.
Her photography allows her to express her vision of the subject, and many of her images are impressionistic and painterly. When she can get the viewer to emotionally connect with the image and see the subject in a new way, she is delighted.
Alan Goldstein – Biography
A member of NVPS since 2012, Alan has been involved in some way or other with photography for the past 55 years. It all began with a science teacher instructing him on the art of film developing. At that time, he was using a Kodak Brownie. Veering off during his teen-age years to using an 8mm movie camera, he returned to still photography during his college years and while working as a reporter for his hometown newspaper.
Alan was supposed to call in a newspaper photographer for photos, but she lived nearly 30 miles away, so he opted to take photos himself. At first, he used a Polaroid Type 103 for photos since it made instant, crisp pictures. But encouraged by a classmate and photographer, Alan got access to the college’s darkroom, and processed Tri-X each time he had a news event or other photo request. This plus being a radio disc jockey probably contributed to his less-than-stellar GPA!
After graduating from college, Alan enlisted in the Navy, becoming a Navy Journalist and later a Public Affairs Officer.
His high school girlfriend had a Nikon SLR, and that became Alan’s Holy Grail. As a low-ranking Navy man, Alan scraped up the money and bought his first true SLR — a Minolta SRT-101. As he progressed up the Navy ranks, he upgraded to a Minolta X700.
Fast forward to 2003. Alan’s brother-in-law was getting married and Alan was the photographer. An acquaintance who was a Nikon rep loaned Alan a D100. It was love at first click! Since then, Alan has had a D100, D200, D300, and now a D800 and a D810.
Alan considers himself an advanced amateur, even though he has made more than five figures making pictures. His biggest job was making progress photos of the deconstruction and reconstruction of the D.C. public library in Georgetown.
Retired from the Navy in 1994 and retired from Civil Service in 2011, Alan is happy to spend his time making images. He loves photographing just about everything, but really likes night scenes and landscapes. His photos have been used for greeting cards by non-profits, used for proposals by environmental entities, have been used by sports web sites, have appeared in newspapers, and even hang in a gas station.
Alan says he loves being a member of NVPS. He has gained some great friends, enjoys the camaraderie, and has learned something new nearly every meeting.
Alan’s presentation is entitled: “Home Sweet Home”
