May 7th: David Luria—Where the Good Pictures Are

David Luria is an architectural photographer who has lived in Washington DC for 40 years. He knows where all the good pictures are, and he will be sharing a few of those with you tonight!

Trained in Paris by a protégé of French photographer Henri-Cartier Bresson, David is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers and has had his images of DC appear in over 100 local publications. You’ll also find his name on the back of the many postcards sold in the DC area.  He is a contributing photographer for WHERE-Washington Magazine, Apartment Showcase Magazine, NOW Magazine, the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Destination DC. He has photographed over 2,500 local apartment complexes and 300 restaurants in the area and he is the official photographer of the Gray Line bus company.

David says he got his start in photography a long time ago when he took a picture of his 8-year old daughter’s best friend and her father liked it so much he cried! In 1999 David decided to share his joy photography with others by founding the Washington Photo Safari, through which he and his team of 12 instructors have trained over 27,000 amateur photographers in camera use and photographic composition. Getting many positive reviews, it is now rated as # 11 on Trip Advisor’s list of 68 favorite tours in Washington DC.

Many of us at NVPS have benefited from David’s photo safaris, so we are especially pleased to welcome him .so that he can show us pictures from our neighborhood that we never even knew were there!

Unrelated to the program, the annual NVPS Officer election will be held at the beginning of this meeting. See the list of candidate further down in this newsletter. We will also consider proposed changes to our competition rules.

May 14th: Roy Sewell - Final Portfolio Critique

This month's Education & Training program will be the final portfolio critique, and will be conducted by Roy Sewell.

Roy Sewall is one of the leading photographers of the Potomac River, and the C&O Canal.  Although Roy spent most of his youth in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, his family's home base was the Washington, D.C. Area.  Roy has a B.S. in Physics from the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, and a M.S. 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 six continents.  In 2001, he started his transition to full-time photographer.  He has always found the Washington area to be one of the most photogenic locations in the world.  Roy's 1st photography book, Our Potomac, from Great Falls through Washington, D.C., was published in 2005.  His 2nd 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.

Please visit Roy's website to learn more::
http://www.roysewallphotography.com/iWeb/Home.html

May 21st: Competition — Judge Missy Loewe

April Competition Results

The full April competition results can be found at: http://nvps.org/home/?p=3801

Some of the winning images from April

Clicking on any of the images above will display a larger version of the 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.  This is not done 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@nvps.org and provide the following information:

Your name
Image Title
Image Category (digital, color print, monochrome print)
Award Received (1st, 2nd, 3rd, HM)
Image Class – for those categories with classes (Advanced or Novice)
Competition Date

Digital Winners: just provide consent for posting your image

Print Winners: send a digital version of your print, sized as if it were for digital competition (smaller is ok, but not too small).

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.

May 28th: Sandi Croan - Around the World

May 28th: Prints — Paul Herholz - Iceland

Paul Herholz will be presenting prints from his August 2012 trip to Iceland.  Most of the images were taken in the Highlands. 

Paul was a member of a photo tour consisting of three other participants, the pro guide, the guide's wife and Paul.  They lived in a cottage and the wife did the cooking (magnificently).  There was no TV or radio for a week, just conversation.  Paul thought it was a nice change from “normal” life.

He scheduled two plus days by himself in the fascinating capital city of Reykjavik.  Paul wandered the streets, doing more street photography than he had ever done. He will include two montage prints of photos taken in Reykjavik.

Iceland is geographically unique in the world.  He highly recommends it to any landscape photographer, but suggests taking a formal photo tour.  The interior of the country is difficult and you might not be happy with the results if you tackled this trip on your own.

Paul has three albums from Iceland on his website, http://www.paulherholz.phanfare.com/   The largest is called “The Highlands”, another is “Reykjavik”, and finally “Iceland-Memory Pictures”.  This is the back story, so to speak.

May 28th: Digital — The Self Improvement Project

Our May Digital program features the images created by the participants in the self-improvement project throughout the club year.

“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.”

We used Freeman Patterson’s book, Photographing The World Around You (A Visual Design Workshop) as a study aid. Each month there was an assignment, e.g. lines, triangles, circles, etc. There were monthly field trips to Green Spring Park.

Bob Friedman

The NVPS election will be at the first club meeting in May. It will be by voice vote, if there are no additional nominations, or, by written vote, if added nominations have been made.

The nominating committee members were Bob Friedman (Chairperson), Mike Whalen & Georgette Grossman. Here are the nominees:

Other Board members will be appointed by the President and are not elected.

Bob Friedman,
Chairperson of the nominating committee, and Past President

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

Our 2012 - 2013 program year and outgoing board officers are:

Please remember to upload your images to your Portfolio folder and do your final tweaking by the April 30 cut-off.  For the final critique on May 14 with Roy Sewell, we need a maximum of 15 images plus your artist statement.  
Next steps include deciding on the format of the final presentation of your images.  If you are unsure what format you want to use please review Scott Musson's presentation on Photo Books & Calendars presented on 3/30/2010 at:   http://nvps.org/main/f_stop/docs/PhotoBooksCalendars.pdf.

For books, allow yourself 2 weeks to get them back in time although it may not take that long.  Blurb, My Publisher and Shutterfly all have easy to follow instructions on their websites.  If you have had a good, or bad, experience with another company let us know and we’ll pass it on. The most frequent complaint I’ve heard has been that the color isn’t always true to the image we saw at home.  I plan to calibrate my monitor for a final run through before putting the book together.

Last year’s participants presented their work in a variety of ways, including matted prints, books, posters and a slide show on a laptop. The format is up to you.

Thanks for your participation; we look forward to seeing your images in May!

Ginger Werz-Petricka (vze39dgt" at "verizon.net) and Ken Barnett (ken.barnett" at "gmail.com).

Notice: Workshop and contest announcements of events not sponsored by or affiliated with NVPS are provided as a courtesy to Members. Members should review the detailed contest rules and conditions to determine what impact entering images has on rights and ownership of the submitted images. Review the descriptions of workshop to whether participation in a workshop would actually meet 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.

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/home/?cat=17 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 email addresses of club members who have volunteered to help club members looking for help on specific technology and technique topics. A recent addition is Wayne Wolfersberger's handouts from his March presentation, Nature Photography in Your Own Backyard.

Image Galleries on the NVPS Website

Have you checked out the NVPS Galleries on the website lately? New material is added regularly, including recent Cherry Blossom photos, the Portfolio project results and selections from the Self Improvement project. There is a wealth of NVPS photography available in multiple categories. Check it out at: http://nvps.org/gallery/main.php

Members News for Wayne Wolfersberger

Wayne Wolfersberger has been really busy lately. He judged at the Manassas-Warrenton Camera Club in September, presented a program on Photographing Wildlife to the Vienna Photographic Society in November, was the judge for North Bethesda Camera Club in January (the topic was Abstracts in Nature), judged with Erwin Siegel at the Vienna Community's annual photographic weekend event, had a photograph published in the Shutterbug magazine and some images selected for a national/international calendar. He has also published a number of short videos on YouTube under his name, of course. He continues to teach photo classes and private lessons when he can fit it all in. 

Members News for Dan Ward

Dan Ward has a one-man photo show opening at the Atrium Gallery in McLean on Monday, May 13th. The show, called "Here There Be Dragons", is a selection of 20 images from Dan's NVPS Portfolio Project. The Atrium Gallery is a private gallery owned by The MITRE Corporation, in the MITRE-1 building on Colshire in McLean. Gallery access is normally restricted to MITRE and US Government employees, but there is a public reception for pre-registered guests on Monday, May 13th, from 4:45- 6:45 pm. If you would like to attend the reception, contact Dan at danlward" at "aol.com.

Exhibition Opportunities

NatureVisions Open Exhibit

There will be an Open Exhibit, on an experimental basis, at Nature Visions in November. The Open Exhibit will be about half the size (150 images) of the nature photo exhibit at the Hylton. The images will be displayed in Beacon Hall. Beacon is a new building, adjacent to the Hylton Center, where we will be holding Nature Visions classes and creating a new lounge area, in addition to staging the Open Exhibit there.

NVPS has many members who do not shoot nature or take part in Nature Visions each year. Many of you expressed an interest in such an exhibit. For that reason, NVPS voted in favor of this experiment, which was proposed by the Loudoun Photo Club. We hope you are excited.

Any NVPS member may submit up to two non-nature images for the Open Exhibit competition. The entries will be due in late October. There is no entry fee. Each club will separately judge its images. The greater the number of NVPS entries, the greater will be the number of images that NVPS will be entitled to jury into the Open Exhibit.

NVPS needs a lead volunteer to collect the entries, to recruit a judge to make the selections, and to coordinate set-up and take-down at Nature Visions. If you are willing to be the lead volunteer or assist in this effort for the Open Exhibit, please contact me (John Quigley.)

The new Open Exhibit necessitates no changes to the Nature Visions competition and exhibit of nature images. As before, NVPS members may submit six images at no fee, and up to four more for a $20 fee, to compete to be juried into the nature exhibit at Nature Visions. Current Nature Visions rules on image sizes, mats and volunteering will apply to the Open Exhibit.

Last but not least, the Open Exhibit is an experiment. Its future will be determined by the Nature Visions board after this year’s Expo. The popularity of the Open Exhibit, in terms of submissions and in terms of volunteer turnout, will probably determine whether it is continued in 2014.

John Quigley jhquigley" at "msn.com
Exhibits Coordinator/NatureVisions Rep

Celebrate Fairfax Photo Contest

The last chance to enter something for Celebrate Fairfax is May 1st. Check their website if you have something ready. http://www.celebratefairfax.com/PhotoContest

Events

Peace Officers Memorial Service - May 15th

The 32nd Annual National Peace Officers' Memorial Service will be held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The service is from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. While a solemn event, many participants will be in dress uniform. A Wreath Laying Ceremony will be held immediately following the Memorial Service at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, located in the 400 block of E Street, NW. Washington DC.

Horseshoe Crabs - May 25th

Each spring on new moon and full moon evenings, horseshoe crabs come ashore on the beaches of Delaware Bay to spawn. By being at the right place at the right time, it is possible to witness tens of thousands of these crabs covering the shoreline for miles. Those who have witnessed it say it is a "creepy cool" experience. Slaughter Beach, at the north end of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, is one of the best places to experience this event. On Saturday evening, May 25th, the full moon rises at 9:04 pm. Crab activity peaks with the evening high tide, which will be at 9:37 pm.

Slaughter Beach can be reached from the north on RT 36 or from the south on Slaughter Beach Road (County Road 224). Both exits are well marked on Rt. 1. The Slaughter Beach Fire Company (located just north of Slaughter Beach Road on Bay Road) reportedly has a large parking lot and a picnic pavilion just off the beach with public restrooms. There are seven roads that provide parking and access to the beach between the Fire Company and the north end of the town of Slaughter Beach.

Mathew Brady's Portraits of Union Generals - Continuing Show

Mathew Brady was the most famous photographer of the American Civil War. As he was nearly blind by that time, it may be debatable as far as how many photos he actually took, but he was brilliant in organizing a professional studio with 20+ teams of photographers. (Just remember, f32 and be there!)

There is little doubt his work defined photojournalism for the era and dominated the field for many years. The National Portrait Gallery features a collection of Matthew Brady photos of Union Generals. For more details, see their website: http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/uniongenerals/#4

 

 

Workshop Offerings Speakers and competition judges for NVPS are offered the opportunity to have notices about up-coming tours and workshops in FotoFax for two years after the date of their NVPS program. NVPS members are also welcomed to list their workshops. Sam D'Amico Sam was our judge for April 2013. He asked that we post this information: "Thank you to all who extended their hospitality and made me feel welcome. If you're interested here's a post on my website that was inspired by our meeting. http://samdamico.com/different-point-view/ See Sam's website for more information about his services: Sam D'Amico Photography - Original Photography And Excellent Photography Instruction. Classes held in Washington DC and Online--Introduction To Photography classes start monthly.  Corey Hilz Corey was our speaker for the April 2013 program. He regularly holds workshops on Lightroom, Photoshop and Aperture as well as hosting photo tours. See his website for the current schedule: http://www.coreyhilz.com/ James Steele Jim provided our 2012 Portfolio Critique and was our competition judge in May 2012. He does individual coaching and tutoring and can be reached at his gallery in the Torpedo Factory or via his blog at: http://jamesdsteele.blogspot.com/ Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindhjem Mollie and Mary have been regulars at NVPS and were scheduled for a weather cancelled meeting last year. They are coming back in the Fall. During 2013, they are offering trips to birding sites in North Carolina and Florida, Alaska's Denali National Park and Katmai National Park, Yellowstone National Parks, 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. See their website for details. Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindhjem http://www.awakethelight.com/ or http://awakethelight.blogspot.com/ 757-773-0194 awakethelight" at "cox.net Wayne Wolfersberger Wayne Wolfersberger is a NVPS member, past President, and our March 2013 Forum speaker. He teaches a number of classes with the Fairfax County Park Authority. The 2013 calendar schedule is available via Wayne's website at: http://www.waynewolfersberger.com/ Steve Gottlieb Steve was our November 2012 judge. He is Director of Horizon Photography Workshops where he and other instructors offer workshops, mostly on weekends, all year round. http://www.horizonworkshops.com/ Tony Sweet Tony was our September 2011 speaker. Tony is a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens, a charter member of Team Nik, a Lensbaby Guru, and a Bogen mentor. Tony offers a wide variety of other location and software training workshops, as well as individual coaching services. Tony also has an active blog and newsletter. See his website for more details and information: http://tonysweet.com/workshops/ Roy Sewall Roy was our November 2011 judge and is scheduled to provide Portfolio Critiques in May 2013. He offers one-on-one coaching for novice and intermediate photographers, tailored to an individual's specific needs. See more at: http://www.roysewallphotography.com/iWeb/Home.html Frank Van Riper Frank Van Riper was our March 2013 judge. In addition to teaching at Photoworks, he offers a variety of acclaimed workshops in great locations. Frank and his wife, Judith Goodman, lead sold-out photography workshops in Italy, Maine and Washington DC. They invite you to join them for low-key, hands-on instruction in some of the world’s most beautiful settings. See their website for the current opportunities: http://gvrphoto.com/wp/?page_id=82 Nikhil Bahl Photography Workshops Nikhil was our December 2012 presenter and has spoken at the club numerous times in the past. He offers a variety of workshops and coaching events. For more details with his latest workshop updates, visit: www.NikhilBahl.com Joshua Taylor, Jr. Josh Taylor is a past NVPS president and was our September 2012 Competition judge. His goal in photography is to help you create, capture and refine your vision. Josh is offering fall photography workshops and classes, including Canon camera classes. For a complete listing and registration, visit his website: joshuataylorphotography.com Joseph Rossbach Joe was our speaker in February 2012. He has several tour events listed for the next few months, including the Grand Tetons and a Valley of Fire tour. Rossbach details are at: http://www.josephrossbach.com/photography-tours-workshops/ Alexander "Sasha" Vasiljev Sasha was our March 2013 NVPS program speaker. His company, NATURE & PHOTO TOURS offers a number of photo tours:  http://naturephotographytours.com David Heagy David Heagy is a NVPS club member and was the Digital Gallery presenter in November 2012. The Travel Photography Satisfaction class will show novice and experienced photographers how to increase their satisfaction with their travel photos, handle a variety of situations, protect their images and equipment, and use photography to plan their trips. His schedule of classes and more information are at: http://imageryx.com/. Want Ads For Sale New camera equipment comes out almost every day! Someone else may be waiting for you gently used gear. Turn your unused imaging equipment into money for that next photographic purchase by posting it here on FotoFax. Send your Want Ad listing to fotofax" at "danlward.com. Wanted to Buy NVPS member looking to buy a used Nikon Nikkor 200 mm f/4 macro lens in good condition. Please call 703-855-9888. Tuan Pham For Sale Canon Equipment - All equipment is in excellent/like new condition with instruction and in boxes. Canon EOS 60D Digital Camera (Body Only) 18mp, ISO 6400, 9 AF, 5.3 FPS, EOS Movie, Full HD, Raw + JPEG in Camera, DIGIC 4, (See www.canonusa.com for full camera details.) Includes all accessories + extra battery ($100 value) Brand new Canon 60D Camera Strap, Additional instruction book “60D Digital Field Guide) $20 value. Asking $550 Canon BG-E9 Battery Grip for 60D (new!) $140.00 Better Bargain! = Camera + Battery Grip Together - $650 Canon Power Shot G12 Digital Camera, 10 mp, 28mm wide, 5X Zoom Includes Battery Pack and Charger + Software Sells new for $499 – Asking $250 TAMRAC Expedition 3 Camera Backpack (See Tamrac’s web site for photo and details) $45 Contact Louise Ransom: RJWagons" at "aol.com. Donate Old Cameras The Camera Heritage Museum, in Staunton, Virginia, has over 2,000 antique cameras as well as a collection of old photographs. Staunton is about 2 1/2 hours from Washington, near the intersections of I-81 and I-64. The museum is soliciting donations, so if you have old camera gear collecting dust, the museum will give you tax credit for your donation. Their policy is that if they already have a donated model in their collection, they will keep the item in better condition and sell the other to raise funds for the museum. For more details, check out their website: http://cameraheritagemuseum.com/index.html 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. Its 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 calendar of area member club events that can be found at: http://www.nvacc.org/Calendars.html NVACC has a free, downloadable series of 25 guide books for photographers, which provide information about nearby areas that camera clubs might wish to visit. See their booklets at: http://www.nvacc.org/Booklets.html Editor's Note Comments, requests and submissions are welcomed. They should be sent to editor@nvps.org or given to me at a regular meeting. I test each issue of the newsletter using Internet Explorer, Safari and Google Chrome to ensure the layout and embedded links work correctly. If you encounter a problem reading FotoFax on your system, please let me know. Newsletter Editor, Dan Ward Copyright 2013 by the Northern Virginia Photographic Society and its Contributors. The contents of this FotoFax are copyrighted. No material herein may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the Editor or the material’s specific contributor. All photographs are copyrighted by the photographers who have granted permission for NVPS to use their image in FotoFax and/or on the NVPS website, but otherwise retain all rights to their image.