Prints with Lisa LeGrow
Lisa LeGrow began her love of photography while in high school. A few years, lots of school, work, and then kids got in the way of any serious efforts, until that love was rekindled a couple of years ago. Lisa’s photographic eye is grabbed by color, people, and architectural shapes. And she now uses photography as her excuse to travel. The prints that she will display were taken from recent trips to Europe and several excursions within the National Capital Region and West Virginia.
Digital Presentation by Mike Whalen: Exploring Iceland’s Ring Road – a 2200 mile adventure around the island’s number one highway.
Bio
Mike is a former software engineer who considers himself an advanced amateur/enthusiast photographer. He first learned the basic workings of an SLR camera when he was a teenager, from his father, a fine art painter and graphic artist. Ironically, he did not become passionate about photography until after his retirement and in 2006 when he purchased his first digital SLR camera.
He attributes most of his advancements in photography to becoming an NVPS member. He says that coming to the weekly meetings has increased his photographic knowledge across the board and has provided opportunities he may never have discovered on his own. He has also met many talented and friendly people at NVPS who share his passion. His inspiration comes from seeing the great works of his peers as well as those shown on popular photographic websites.
Since joining NVPS in 2009, Mike has served on the board as Assistant Webmaster, Co-VP of Competitions, and this year as president. Mike received NVPS Advanced Versatile Photographer of the Year awards in both 2011 and 2012, as well as Photographer of the year in Monochrome Prints in 2012, and his image, titled “Old Spigot” won Color Print of the Year in 2012. His works have been exhibited at Gallery West in Alexandria, VA; Washington School of Photography in Rockville, MD; Nature Visions in Manassas, VA; and in a number of private homes including those of family and friends. His flower and bird images have appeared on the cover of the spring edition of Washington Gardener Magazine in 2010 and 2011. He loves to photograph all kinds of subjects and has gotten comfortable with the entire photographic process from composition, exposure and post-processing to printing, matting and framing the final work.
The Presentation
In June, 2013 Mike and Cindy Whalen, joined by their two longtime friends and travel companions, drove a 2200 mile journey around Iceland’s ring-road, also known as Route 1. The trip lasted 17 days and it started and ended in the capital city of Reykjavik. In their 4-wheel-drive vehicle, they set out on a self-guided tour, each day driving on average 160 miles and staying in a different guest house almost every night of the trip. The driving was shared among 4 people but Mike, serving as the designated photographer, was frequently assigned to riding shotgun and given the best views of the road ahead. They did make frequent stops, took side road excursions, hiked up a mountain, visited many of the iconic landmarks, but also took many photos through the windshield of the moving vehicle.
They visited countless waterfalls including Iceland’s 4 largest, viewed electric blue thermal pools, sulfur steam vents, and a very active geyser. They saw black sand beaches, took a zodiac boat ride through a lagoon of numerous icebergs, saw incredible rock, lava, and cloud formations; photographed puffins up-close, walked along 1200-foot high cliffs with 3 million nesting birds; saw countless sheep and rode Icelandic horses through a rocky valley. Days were extremely long and tiring but at the end of each day they were completely and totally satisfied with the incredible sights. Michael Reichmann from the Luminous-Landscape called Iceland “A Photographer’s Paradise”. The members on this trip all agree that this is a correct assessment. Please come and join Mike to see a magical tour around Iceland’s ring road and possibly one of his most rewarding photographic tours or all times. You might just want to put a trip to Iceland on your own personal bucket list!
