Camera Club
January 2016
PHOTO NOTES
Park West
This Issue
Volume 78 • Issue 5
Club News......................................2 - 15
Photography News......................16 - 23
Exhibits, Workshops, Etc............24 - 26
Schedule of Activities..................27 - 32
End Page…………………………..….33
Complete Index...................................34
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
1
Committee Chairs
Park West Camera Club
The Park West Camera Club is an independent not-forprofit corporation. Guests are always welcome at meetings and activities.
The Park West Camera Club newsletter, Photo Notes, is
published every month by and for the members of the
Park West Camera Club. Subscriptions are included
with Club membership. Yearly subscriptions are available to non-members by e-mail at no charge. Printed
issues are available at PWCC meetings.
Submissions of full-length articles or smaller items of
photographic or general interest are always accepted.
The staff of Photo Notes reserves the right to edit any
submissions which are published.
Deadline for submissions is the first Monday of each
month.
Archives
Myrna Harrison-Changar
212 663 1422
[email protected]
Competition
John Brengelman
917-543-7957
[email protected]
Hedy Klein
718 793 0246
[email protected]
Field Trip
Susan Sigrist
212 758 0036
[email protected]
Paul Grebanier
718 629 7164
[email protected]
Gallery
vacancy
House
vacancy
Membership
Marlene Schonbrun
212 662 3107
[email protected]
Elena Pierpont
212 956 4515
[email protected]
Photo Notes is optimized for viewing on the internet.
Contact Information
Website
www.parkwestcameraclub.org
E-Mail Address
[email protected]
Club Mailing Address
319 West 16 Street, #1
NY, NY 10011
Photo Notes Mailing Address
680 West End Avenue, #5D, NY, NY 10025
Newsletter
Chuck Pine
212 932 7665
[email protected]
Program
Marilyn Fish-Glynn
212 685 8784
[email protected]
Social
917-699-3497
Marvin Fink
[email protected]
Website (interim) Michael Schleiff
917 359 6823
[email protected]
Workshop
Jerry Harawitz
646-823-7223
[email protected]
Club Officers
President
Ed Lee
212 255 9678 [email protected]
V. President
Michael Schleiff
917 359 6823 [email protected]
Corres. Sec.
Helen Bohmart Pine
212 932 7665 [email protected]
Cover Photo
Candle Flame
by Chuck Pine ©2014
Rec. Sec.
Christine Doyle
212 595 4920 [email protected]
Treasurer
Maria Fernandez
908 447 8075 [email protected]
Pres. Emeritus
Chuck Pine
212 932 7665 [email protected]
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
2
CLUB
Editorial
First of all, I want to apologize
for the lateness of this issue of
Photo Notes. There is no excuse,
but there are plenty of reasons.
Permit me to explain.
For the days leading up to
the Club’s holiday party in our
apartment we, were sort of going crazy with all the preparations. Combine this with the
medical problems that both
Helen and I were experiencing,
and I’m sure you can figure
out that I was not in the best of
shape to work on the newsletter with any kind of major
effort. To be honest, I’m surprised that I got any of it done
before the party.
Things didn’t change much
after the party, either. Usually,
by that I mean in better, less
stressful years, we do the final
clean-up the Tuesday after the
party, pack on Wednesday, and
then load the car and head toward Florida on Thursday.
This lets us take a leisurely
drive of five or six days to get
to our home-away-from-home
in beautiful, warm, snow-free
Delray Beach (with plenty of
photo-ops along the way.
This year we had more doctors appointments, more tests,
more aggravation, and more
anxiety. All told, we didn’t
leave the City until about 4
p.m. on New Year’s eve.
The drive down was without incident. Lots of miles going by. Lots of hours spent lis-
January 2016
tening to an audiobook, The
Goldfinch. We didn’t nearly finish it, so we’ve got something
to look forward to on our
plane flights to and from Asia
and/or on our drive back
north in early May.
Once we arrived here in
Florida, we picked up with our
medical adventures like we
never had a week-long break
in the car. We’ve still got more
procedures, visits, examinations, tests, etc. but we’re taking them all in stride and
counting the days until we
leave Florida and off to Hong
Kong, southeast Asia, and our
28-day cruise.
Well, I finally finished the
January Photo Notes a day be-
fore my birthday. I know I
won’t work on anything much
tomorrow, but the following
day I’ll start on the February
issue. This will be the first intercontinental publication I’ll
be working on, so I don’t want
to delay.
Hopefully, I’ll find time between our photo shoots to
write some articles, layout the
pages, and all the rest that goes
into each issue.
For those of you in the Big
Apple, the Frigid Apple, the
Snow-covered Apple, bundle
up and continue to see the
world through your lens.
Chuck
Photo Notes
Publisher:
Ed Lee
Editor:
Chuck Pine
Committee:
Bill Apple, Elsa Blum, Madeleine
Barbara, Ann Broder, Ruth Formanek, Gladys
Hopkowitz, Hedy Klein, Paul Perkus, Helen Pine,
and Judy Rosenblatt
Contributors: Bill Apple, Elsa Blum, John Brengelman,
Sarah Corbin, Karen Corrigan, Christine Doyle, Maria
Fernandez, Paul Grebanier, Sal Maci, Chuck Pine, and
Helen Pine
Photo Notes is produced on a MacBook Pro
using iWork Pages and Adobe Photoshop.
All uncredited images are royalty-free clip art or otherwise believed to be in the public domain.
Credited images remain the sole property of their
copyright holders—all rights reserved.
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
3
CLUB
Images of the Month
January 2015
by John Brengelman
Print-of-the-Month
All ‘Board byGeorge Hansen
Honor Prints
Island in Autumn by Madeleine Barbara
Newlyweds by John Brengelman
Ramose Rearing by Sarah Corbin
Simple Pleasure by Marvin Fink
Monk and Dogs by Marilyn Fish-Glynn
Scarlet Ibis by George Hansen
Blue Notes by Hedy Klein
PDI-of-the-Month
Street Workers by John Brengelman
Honor PDIs
Competition Statistics
A/Honors
A
B
C
Prints
25.0%
31.3%
43.8%
0.0%
PDIs
30.9%
23.5%
45.6%
0.8%
Entries
32
68
Average Scores 6.8
January 2016
6.8
Bright Tree by Bill Apple
Neptune at Bergdorf’s by Madeleine Barbara
RoboAnt by Dinah Capota
Must Run Train on Schedule by K. Corrigan
Boardwalk by Calvin Eagle
Through the Glass by Marilyn Fish-Glynn
Dawn Light by Julie Foehrenbach
Lost in Space by David Francis
Into the Wild by Niv Gidron
Black and White by Marjorie Gurd
Stairwell ABC Carpet by George Hansen
Morning Fog by Edward Lewit
Harm Bay by Sal Maci
Letchworth 1 by Natalie Manzino
West 65th Street by Natalie Manzino
Street Barber by Paula Paterniti
Light Swirls by Elena Pierpont
Puppy in Costume by Rita Russo
Transit Hub by Larry Sapadin
Bushwick by Larry Sapadin
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
4
CLUB
Cumulative Point Totals
through January 2015
by John Brengelman
Congratulations to our
winners and honorable
mentions!
Prints
Paul Grebanier
Edward Lewit
Madeleine Barbara
John Brengelman
Hedy Klein
Bill Apple
Oggy Doytchinov
George Hansen
Sarah Corbin
Elena Pierpont
Sal Maci
Natalie Manzino
Marilyn Fish-Glynn
Calvin Eagle
Marvin Fink
Dinorah Capota
Jerry Vogel
Paula Paterniti
Alice Somma
Elsa Blum
Ruth Yashpan
January 2016
66
52
50
50
50
48
46
46
36
36
34
34
30
28
28
26
22
20
12
10
4
Thanks to all who entered
and competed this month
and to all who helped
make the competition run
so smoothly.
And, a special thank-you
to our judge, Jean Miele,
for a job well done.
For the rest of us, there’s
always next month!
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
PDIs
Paul Grebanier
Marjorie Gurd
George Hansen
Karen Corrigan
Madeleine Barbara
Natalie Manzino
Elena Pierpont
Chuck Pine
Joan Slatkin
Carole de Beer
Marilyn Fish-Glynn
Edward Lewit
Dinorah Capota
Julie Foehrenbach
David Francis
Christine Doyle
Janet Susin
John Brengelman
Harriet Josephs
Hedy Klein
Sal Maci
Alice Somma
Bill Apple
Jay Bitkower
Calvin Eagle
Yuri Kalina
Dottie Mills
Rita Russo
Don Raney
Jerry Vogel
Paula Paterniti
Larry Sapadin
Niv Gidron
Martin Smith
Oggy Doytchinov
Ruth Yashpan
Meg Darnell
Rain Bengis
Ann Broder
5
60
60
60
54
52
52
52
48
46
44
44
44
42
42
42
40
40
38
38
38
38
38
36
36
36
34
34
32
30
28
26
26
20
16
12
12
10
8
8
CLUB
PWCC’s Yahoo Group
PWCC Flickr Group
by Paul Grebanier
Do you have an idea to go out shooting but
don’t want to go alone? Have a question about
Photoshop, or your camera, or some technique,
but don’t have someone to ask? Know of a
great photo op or workshop that you’d like to
share with your fellow Club members? What
are you to do?
Ta Da! The Club’s Yahoo group is the answer to your questions. You can communicate
with other PWCC members about these and
more. All you have to do is sign up for the
group. It’s easy and it’s free.
All you have to do is send an e-mail to the
Club at <[email protected]>We will respond
with an e-mail from the group website, and…
you’re in.
If you have a (free) Yahoo e-mail account
you can go to the group site. There you can see
all prior e-mails, post pictures, post links to
other websites of interest, and more. If you
don’t have a Yahoo account, you can only send
and receive e-mails.
We belong!
January 2016
Did you know that there is a way for PWCC
members to share their pictures with other
members and the world? Probably not! Seven
years ago, a “Park West Camera Club” Group
was set-up on the “flickr” picture sharing and
social networking site, just for such a purpose.
Unfortunately, the idea never really caught on
at that time. The weeds of neglect and disrepair
have overgrown the site. But the structure is
still there—awaiting rehabilitation.
What a waste!
When we go on field trips and attend other
PWCC events and take pictures, how do we
easily share them? We don’t! How do we get
feedback on these images? We can’t! The Solution? Join our flickr group with many other
members, and actively add to and comment on
the images to be viewed there.
For those who are not flickr members already, you should know that the site allows
members to store and share their pics with millions of other members throughout the world–
and also with non-members. Uploading pictures and making comments is easy. Groups of
images and people that share an affinity are
also easily created and can be shared by anyone. The site is free to join. But if you really become an active member, showing over 200 pics,
full membership costs $25 a year.
To view the Park West Camera Club Group
site, go to <www.flickr.com/groups/pwcc>
To join flickr so you can add pics to the
group, and also to make and receive comments,
go to <www.flickr.com> or click on the “join
group” button shown on the Group front page.
Hope to see you there soon!
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
6
CLUB
A New Club Website!
by Christine Doyle
As you know, the Website
Committee has been developing a new website for Club
use. The plan is to have this
site up and running, using the
Club’s current website address,
early in the new year.
We would like all members
to sign up to have full access to
the site. It’s easy to do:
• Enter this URL into your
browser or click on this link:
<http://parkwestcameraclub.visualpursuits.com>
• On the home page, press the
“Login” button in the upper
right hand corner.
• On the login page, scroll
down to the bottom, you
will see a box marked “New
User Registration.” Press the
“Membership Information”
button.
• On the next page, there is a
button “Create a new User
Account and Request Membership.” Press this button.
• Scroll down to the box
marked “Login Name.” Enter your email address as
your login name and press
the “Next” button.
January 2016
• On the next page you will
be asked to create a password and reminder question
for that password. Please do
so.
• This will lead you to the
next page where you will be
asked for some personal information. You need only to
fill in the lines where “required” is indicated.
• A request will be sent to the
webmaster to approve your
request. The webmaster will
approve the request and a
message will be sent back to
you that you can access the
website as a member.
The Website Committee
would like your help in developing the site. Any suggestions
should be directed to us at the
PWCC email address:
<[email protected]> We will
review the suggestions and get
back to you.
Finally, we need members
to come forward to volunteer
as members of the Website
Committee to help maintain
the website and ensure all its
content is up-to-date. (You do
not need to know how to code
in order to make changes and
add content!) The more folks who join
the Website Committee, the
better the website will be.
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Travel Tips
Many of us PWCCers have the
travel bug. We’re flying, cruising, busing, driving, and otherwise moving around the
country and the world. Here are
a few tips that could save you
time, money, and headaches:
The easiest people to meet are
the ones who serve you at your
hotel, restaurants, or at the
tourist attractions you'll be visiting. Take pictures of these
people and you will become
more comfortable taking photos
of strangers.
Some of the most impressive
travel portraits can be of people
in native or historic costumes.
Shoot photos of people in costumes and uniforms. But, as
always, ask before you press the
shutter button.
Many of the people you’ll meet
are earning their living by selling products to tourists like
you. Buy their goods and services and they’ll be more likely
to let you capture their image.
It costs you nothing but a few
minutes of your time to email a
photo to someone who posed
for you. It does, however, make
you feel better about taking
their picture and it makes them
more apt to pose for other photographers in the future—”pay
it forward!”
7
CLUB
Club Members Kudos
Helen Pine was awarded two
trophies by the Boynton Beach
Camera Club at their end-ofyear banquet in January. She
won 1st place place in point
totals for the Salon/Masters
group for Black & White/Sepia
and 2nd place in point totals in
the Masters group for Color.
One of Helen Pine's images
Winter Forest, was selected as a
semi-finalist in the 2015 Yellowstone Forever Photo Competition, sponsored by Nature's
Best Photography magazine.
Winter Forest
©2013 Helen Pine
Chuck Pine won Best-In-Show
for the 2015 Photographic Society of America’s Worldwide
Interclub Photo Competition.
His image, Reddish Egret, had
the highest score out of the
hundreds of entries. Helen
Pine received an Honorable
Mention for her image, Wowie
Zowie at the Fair. Due to their
efforts, Boynton Beach Camera
Club placed first among all the
competing Clubs.
January 2016
Butternut Squash
by Elsa Blum
For the Holiday Party, I
made a roasted butternut
squash side dish. Everyone
seemed to like it, so here’s
the recipe. [Please note, this
recipe is guilt free—lo-cal,
vegan, vegetarian, kosher,
parev, and halal.]
Cut the squash into one
inch thick slices, peel and
remove seeds. (Squash is
easier to peel if you don't
make the peel too thin,
about 1/8th inch deep
works.) Put the squash into
an oiled pan—I use light
olive oil. Add cut-up,
peeled apples and/or dried
fruit such as cranberries,
raisins, cut-up prunes and
mix. (Some orange zest
would be a nice addition).
Sprinkle lightly with cin-
namon and drizzle more oil
over the top. If you don’t
care about vegan or parev
pieces of butter instead of
oil are very good.
Bake at about 450° to
475°—check and stir every
ten minutes or so. When the
squash begins to brown
turn the temperature down
to 350°. If the squash seems
too dry you can add a bit of
orange juice. Keep checking
and stirring until all the
squash is tender but not
mushy. This will take about
50 to 60 minutes.
The squash cooks down
a lot during roasting—the
large pan I brought to the
party consisted of three
medium-large squashes
roasted in two pans and
then poured into one).
Bon apetit!
Wow Zowie at the Fair
©2015 Helen Pine
Reddish Egret
©2015 Chuck Pine
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
8
CLUB
Field Trip Photos
On Monday evening December
28th, in lieu of a Club meeting,
members met in the Dyker
Heights section of Brooklyn to
shoot the over-the-top Christmas decorations for which this
neighborhood is famous.
Here are some of the results
of their efforts…
Harriet Josephs
Karen Corrigan
David Francis
All images
©2015
Rita Russo
David Francis
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
9
CLUB
Members’ Photos
The New York City subway
system had its 100th anniversary in 2015. To celebrate, they
ran vintage subway cars filled
with actors in vintage costumes. Members of Park West,
of course, were there to record
the event.
Here are some images from
that day…
George Hansen
Ann Broder
All images
©2015
Karen Corrigan
Marlene Schonbrun
Marjorie Gurd
Marlene Schonbrun
January 2016
Christine Doyle
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
10
CLUB
2015-2016 PWCC Schedule
September
3 Print Workshop
7 No Mtg. Labor Day
14 No Mtg. Rosh Hashanah
21 Welcome Back Show and Tell
28 Business Meeting
October
5 Competition (Bill Perlmutter)
11 Cape Ann Field Trip (6-days)
12 No Mtg. Columbus Day
19 Guest Speaker (Wayne Parsons)
22 PDI Workshop
26 Scavenger Hunt
November
2 Competition (Brian Yarvin)
5 Expanding Visions 21 Mini
9 Hartlepool Exchange
12 Expanding Visions 21 Mini
16 Guest Speaker (Jordan Matter)
18 Print Workshop
19 Expanding Visions 21 Mini
23 Workshop—iPhoneography
(Dan Burkholder)
30 Business Meeting
December
3 Expanding Visions 21 Mini
7 Competition (Nir Arieli)
10 PDI Workshop
14 Guest Speaker (Mary Engel)
21 Holiday Party
28 No Mtg. Winter Break
January
4 Competition (Jean Miele)
11 Guest Speaker (David Brommer)
18 Workshop—Music Slide Shows (MLK Day)
25 Workshop—Tim Grey on Adobe
February
1 Competition (Lynn Saville)
8 Portfolio Review
15 Guest Speaker (Melissa Fleming)
22 Workshop (Chris Nicholson—Nat’l Parks)
29 Theme Night—Snow White & Rose Red
March
7 Competition (Ron Terner)
14 Workshop—Before and After
21 Guest Speaker (TBA)
28 Business Meeting
April
4 Competition (TBA)
11 Tech Rep
18 Guest Speaker (TBA)
25 Theme Night—B&W Oldies
[or Competition Make-Up]
May
2 Competition (TBA)
9 Portfolio Review
16 Guest Speaker (Lois Greenfield)
19 Expanding Visions 22
23 Business Meeting
26 Expanding Visions 22
30 No Mtg. Memorial Day
June
2 Expanding Visions 22
6 Year-End Competition
9 Expanding Visions 22
13 Otto Litzel Memorial Dinner
16 Expanding Visions 22
20 ExCom Planning Meeting
23 Expanding Visions 22
27 TBA
30 Expanding Visions 22
[Field trips, workshops, the 2016 Summer Schedule,
and other activities are to be announced.]
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
11
CLUB
Photo Notes Deadlines
Issue
Deadline
Feb 2016
Feb 1
Mar 2016
Mar 7
Apr 2016
Apr 4
May 2016
May 2
Summer 2016
Jun 6
The sooner articles and
items are submitted to Photo
Notes, the quicker the editing
and revision process can begin.
Competition scores and cumulative points are submitted as
soon after the competitions as
possible, usually one to three
days following the submission
deadline. The draft copy of
Photo Notes will be sent to the
editorial staff as soon as possible once all items are in place.
The staff will then have two to
three days to edit and return
their comments.
Once the Photo Notes issue
is complete, it is sent to the
Website Committee to be posted online. As soon as this is accomplished, an e-mail is sent
to all Club members and other
Photo Notes recipients informing them that the PWCC newsletter is now available for
downloading.
Club Participation
Nights
• April 25—Theme Night
Tonight’s theme is Black-andWhite Oldies. Your assignment,
This coming year there will be is to put together a portfolio of
recently-shot images, but prefour programs which require
member participation. Here’s a sented in black-and-white as if
they were taken and printed in
quick rundown on these fun
decades past.
and educational activities:
Note change of date!
• February 29—Theme Night
Tonight’s theme is Snow White
and Rose Red. Your mission,
should you decide to accept it,
is to create a portfolio using
this theme—however you
deem to interpret it.
Shutter Speed Hints
If you consistently struggle to
capture clear shots of subjects
in motion, check out this guide
as a quick reference next time
you need to determine proper
shutter speed.
• March 14—Before and After
In this workshop we ask members to bring in a before and an
after shot of a single image.
The before shot may be the
RAW file or a JPG file direct
from the camera. The after shot
will be your final image with
all your adjustments, changes,
what-evers done in your editing software.
Birds in flight—1/2000 sec
Cars in motion—1/1000 sec
Person running—1/500 sec
Person walking—1/250 sec
Fast-moving water (to create
that pleasing blur)—1/8 sec
These are suggestions for starting points. You may have to
adjust the shutter speed up or
down depending on the subject’s speed and direction.
Have fun!
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
12
CLUB
Members’ Galleries
by Christine Doyle
After you log on and create a
user account on the Club’s
new website, (see page 8 in
this issue of Photo Notes) why
not create a gallery of your
images.
Here are the steps to set
up a member gallery:
• Go to the My Account tab
and log on to your Member Account. • Click on the New Gallery
button, down a bit on the
right side.
• An online form will open.
This allows you to customize your gallery, e.g.,
by adding a Title or Description, and also offers
additional settings…
> Gallery Visibility (Private, Organization Access
or Public)
> Transition (set how
the images will move)
> Options on what to
display (Image Title, Author, Captions, Thumbnails, etc.)
> Click on Update
Gallery Options to save
your settings and preferences. You can now add
your images to your
gallery.
Here are the steps to upload images to your gallery:
• Open the gallery to which
you want to add images.
January 2016
• Click on Edit Images in
Gallery. • Click on Upload Images
Into This Gallery.
• Scroll down to the bottom
left of the page and click
on Select. This will take
you to where you store
your images on your
computer. Highlight the
image(s) you want to upload and hit OK.
• Once your images are uploaded, click Save Images.
• This will bring you back
to the Edit New Images in
Gallery page, where you
can edit the image titles
and set the image order if
you like. Click on Done
when you are finished
making changes.
• You can also change the
order of the images another way: go back into
your gallery and select
Edit Images in Gallery. This
will take you to a page
with thumbnails of your
images in this gallery.
Here, you can change the
order of your images by
clicking and dragging the
thumbnails into the desired sequence. Click on
Save Updates to Image Order when finished.
Congratulations! You
have just created your own
photo gallery on the Club’s
website. Wanna do another?
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Committee Liaisons
The Executive Committee
(ExCom) has decided to continue for this coming year
with the committee liaison
model to spread the responsibility among the entire Executive Committee.
Here’s how it’ll work:
Each of the ExCom members (the five elected officers
plus the President Emeritus)
will be assigned committees
as liaison. Each committee
chair or co-chair will report
to the ExCom through this
liaison. In this manner, it is
felt that communication will
flow much more smoothly,
in both directions, between
the committees. In addition,
any concerns raised by the
ExCom will be passed along
to the committee chairs
through the liaisons.
Here are the committee
liaison assignments for the
2015-2016 Club year:
Archives Maria Fernandez
Competition Mike Schleiff
Field Trip
Chuck Pine
Gallery
Helen Pine
House
Christine Doyle
Membership Helen Pine
Newsletter
Chuck Pine
Program Christine Doyle
Social
Ed Lee
Website
Mike Schleiff
Workshop
Ed Lee
13
CLUB
Portfolio Page
PWCC treasurer and long-time
member, Maria Fernandez,
spent some time in the country
surrounding Invergordon and
Glasgow, Scotland, a few years
back (in 2014, to be precise).
From the looks of these images, it was time well spent!
All images ©2014
Maria Fernandez
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
14
CLUB
New Member Bio
by Karen Corrigan
Cal Eagle, one of our newer
members, shares the Club
members’ passion for photography and wants to be more
involved with other photographers and to refine his photographic vision.
Cal graduated from SUNY
Plattsburgh in 1973 with a BA
degree. He followed this degree with an MSW (Master of
Social Work), in 1988 from
Hunter College. Currently, he
is employed as a therapist in
an agency-based practice located in Coney Island. In the
course of his studies and afterwards, he was an inveterate
traveler and owes his wanderlust to his curiosity about other
peoples and their cultures with
a close eye on human behavioral patterns.
Cal's love of history, as
well, led him to become a traveler, camera in hand, to fantastic locales like Peru and Turkey. One year he traveled from
Cape Town, South Africa, to
Harare, Zimbabwe. Another
year, he went with an overland
January 2016
tour company through China
to Islamabad, Pakistan. As
some of us know, this is extremely rough and difficult
travel. Cal says that “during
these trips, I gravitated towards shooting street scenes,
which were my memories, and
helped me better understand
my place in the world, appreciating the commonality and
diversity of human experience,
culture, and history.”
After 2005, Cal stored his
traveling Frye boots away, but
not his camera. During his
travels he had honed his photographic skills and was ready
to pursue them further. His
first camera had been a Pentax
point-and-shoot; taking with
him up to 60 rolls of film when
he travelled. He bought his
first digital SLR in 2006, eventually getting the hang of
shooting manually, and using
fast prime lenses to stop people in motion. Last month I happened by
chance to see Cal at a gallery
show in Chelsea. He was carrying his Sony camera. This is
a sure sign of a dedicated street
photographer. Photographing
people in everyday situations
is his passion. He pursues this
as a way to explore and understand life’s marvels. The
serendipity that reveals itself to
one who pauses long enough
to capture it with his lens.
Street photography is the
most difficult genre to pursue.
Among Cal’s influences are the
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
greats: Gary Winogrand,
Robert Frank, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Others in the pantheon include Joel Meyerwitz,
Eugene Smith, and the recently
elevated Vivian Meier. Cal follows one concept of street photography, in particular, attributable to Meyerwitz: seek
to make order out of chaos for
an artful image.
It is evident that Cal has
absorbed their lessons by the
Honors recognition a photograph received in the December competition. I saw that Cal
was very pleased by this. He
says, “I tend to feel enlivened
when shooting street images.
Being able to free myself, by
losing myself in a crowd, and
taking images, is an appealing
process for me. I also tend to
take too many images, with the
rate of return being 1%. I hate
editing! I tend to be overly attached to the images that are
not worthy of presenting, but
find a place in my soul.”
Cal hopes to develop a
more thoughtful direction in
the future for doing a book or
finding a theme for a longterm project. Let’s welcome
Cal, and speed him along on
his photographic journey.
15
PHOTOGRAPHY
Depth of Field
chore he’s taken on is far
greater, not unlike that which
By Bill Apple
music theory, say, accomplishes: Do rules govern phoWhat’s the Punctum?
tographs like the rules that
govern musical composition,
Though I’ve taken pictures—
from Bach to hip-hop (my exserious photographs—nearly
ample, not Barthes’)?
50 years, the name Roland
For his theorizing, this
Barthes never crossed my
philosopher is not content to
radar. Till recently.
focus on esthetics (pictures he
Who’s this Barthes, I wonlikes or dislikes for whatever
dered, hearing his name
reason); techniques or styles
dropped by David Brommer,
(high-key, stop-action,
speaking on composition at the
macrophotography); photoB&H Event Space.
The Book Barthes’ 1980
graphic or optical science (darkBarthes, it turns out, was a
philosophical musings
room chemistry, lens design);
French philosopher whose
sought
to
develop
a
unior even categories of subject
1980 book on photography
fying
theory
behind
all
matter (landscapes, portraits).
created quite a splash. (The
photographs.
No, Barthes wants to move
English translation came out a
beyond the superficial to hone
year later, by which time
in on general rules that make
Barthes, 64, had died, run over Camera Lucida: Reflections on
photography what it is. No
on a Paris street.)
Photography. Did this slim paHis Wikipedia entry reads
perback (110 pages, with illus- small task
The book opens with
like that of a high-powered in- trative photos) hold anything
tellectual: “a diverse range of
important for photographers? Barthes contemplating an 1872
photo of Napoleon’s youngest
fields… including structuralFirst, the title. A “camera
brother, Jerome. “I realized
ism, semiotics, social theory,
lucida” is the optical device,
then,” he writes, “with an
design theory, anthropology
invented in the early 1800s,
amazement I have not been
and post-structuralism.” Northat lets artists “cheat”:
mally, such words work on me periscope-like optics project a able to lessen since: ‘I am looking at eyes that looked at the
better than Ambien®. I don’t
live scene onto a wall, canvas
Emperor.’” (You’ll know the
know what the hell all that
or paper, for tracing outlines.
means.
(It packs the guts of an opaque “amazement” if you’ve inherited old family snapshots—of
Call me a Yahoo—you
projector, the A/V staple of
great grandparents, say.)
know, in the Swiftian (!) sense 1950s classrooms for displayIt’s no easy sledding after
—but I’ve always counted phi- ing images from bound books.)
losophy as the sport of
What Barthes seeks to eluci- that.
At a basic level, there is aleggheads, a wet dream for
date, if you will, is some grand
ways a photographer (the “opacademic élites. Impractical,
theory underlying photograerator,” Barthes writes) and his
useless, wasted brainpower
phy itself, whose essence—
subject—and us, “spectators”
that could be curing cancer.
photographs—he views as
looking at pictures. ComplicatStill, I felt compelled to
“simple, banal; no depth: [a
ing matters, all three often
read for myself Barthes’ book, sight] ’that has been.’” The
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
16
PHOTOGRAPHY
share history and culture,
dragging them into the deal.
One key photo pictures a
trio of soldiers, rifles drawn,
against a backdrop of a battlescarred town (in Nicaragua). In
the background: two nuns
cross the scene (see photo). “I
understood at once that this
photograph’s ‘adventure’ derived from the co-presence of
two elements,” Barthes notes
[italics added]. And he takes
that as a clue—an ah-ha moment—for his photography
“theory.”
Soldiers and Nuns Nicaragua
(1979), by Dutch war photographer
Koen Wessing. The nuns provide
punctum, Barthes writes (see text).
Barthes has discovered two
elements that may be distilled
from a wide range of pictures,
maybe all pictures. He assigns
them Latin words because, he
writes, there’s no French for
the concepts: studium and
punctum.
On studium: it’s the culturally determined background
January 2016
that an observer would bring
to a scene, that might arouse
him or her with some mild reaction, like the geography or
people’s clothing or automobiles or a movie-like set (the
bombed-out Nicaraguan
street).
On punctum: it’s a picture
element (like the nuns) that
punctures or breaks through
“this complacency of response,
provoking a more intense and
personal reaction in the
viewer.”
Further, the punctum can
bruise, shock or
prick the viewer
and, thereby, lift
up a photo to
something extraordinary. You
sit up and take
notice. It grabs
you by the lapels.
It’s a surprise, a
piquant secret
sauce, a lucky
find, a flash. “A
lightning rod.”
Good pictures need both
elements, of course. But
Barthes’ fixation on discovering a punctum everywhere
seems obsessive, at times even
idiosyncratic. Your punctum
might not be my punctum.
In a 1926 family portrait by
the black photographer James
Van der Zee, Barthes focuses
on the stylish, middle-class
shoes one woman is wearing:
pumps with straps, an oldfashioned shoe he calls “Mary
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Janes.” Those straps jump out
at Barthes and signify or echo
all sorts of speculation about
these poor people in their
Sunday best. I couldn’t relate.
Plowing through Barthes
was not fun. Think: head-banging and walls. His convoluted
sentences and odd, hifalutin
words—some, philosophers’
jargon—don’t help: eidos,
palinode, anamnesis. Look ‘em
up, if you want.
Shortly after the book appeared, one reviewer—Andy
Grundberg, former N.Y. Times
photography critic and now
arts professor at George Washington University—dubbed
Barthes “one of the high
priests of contemporary intellectual opinion.”
But Grundberg, like me,
seemed puzzled and frustrated
about what it all means.
There’s precious little takeaway for photographers
Maybe it’s bad translating,
maybe bad editing. Or maybe
Barthes was just one of those
contemptible souls who don’t
care whether readers “get”
what they’re saying. (Sadly,
they exist.) At times—to my
writer’s ear—the book sounds
like a parody on deep philosophical thought. What we
have here is a failure to communicate. Inaccessible, turgid
prose.
More fundamentally, who
needs a Grand Theory of Photography anyway? What does
it buy us?
17
PHOTOGRAPHY
I should have been wary at
the outset. More than once
Barthes repeats—even boasts—
that he is not a photographer,
knows nothing himself about
taking pictures. It’s mystifying
how someone has chutzpah to
write of what he doesn’t really
know. There were inexpensive
Kodaks, even Polaroids, in
Barthes’ lifetime.
Then there's this: punctum,
to my ear, sounds almost like
“bunkum.” Is this what
philosophers do? For a living?
Photo Cartoon of the Month
Photo Tip
Just because you have an expensive looking camera it doesn’t
mean that you are a good photographer—learn to use your
equipment properly.
January 2016
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18
PHOTOGRAPHY
Europe, Anyone
PhotoWordJumble
by Sal Maci
Norwegian Air Shuttle just announced its intention to offer
one-way tickets to Europe for
$69, possibly as early as 2017.
This raises some questions:
How can they offer fares this
low? And why do we have to
wait more than a year to nab
one? The airline’s CEO, Bjorn
Kios, explained that Norwegian (one of Europe’s biggest
budget carriers) hopes to offer
flights to Edinburgh, Scotland
and Bergen, Norway, from
small U.S. airports, such as
Westchester County Airport in
New York because those airports have much lower fees
than popular transatlantic airports like JFK.
The airline has ordered 100
Boeing 737 MAX jets, powerful
enough to cross the Atlantic
but small enough to work in
smaller airports. It’s too soon
to say how this plan will be
accommodated by U.S. customs at regional airports that,
at present, do not handle international flights.
Wow Air, based in Iceland,
offered one-way fares from
Boston to Paris for $99 last
year. Norwegian already offers
lower-than-average airfare
from the U.S. to Europe, and
its use of the smaller jets may
make it an even bigger player
in the transatlantic flight game.
We’re looking forward to hearing more!
January 2016
Unscramble these five scrambled words, one letter to each
square, to form words pertaining to photography.
Now arrange the circled
letters to form the answer
suggested by the clue.
Last month’s answers: POSING, OPACITY, VIBRANCE, HIGHLIGHT,
RESOLUTION
Surprise answer: CHANNEL CLIPPING
Workshop
by Sarah Corbin
A lot of you know Sandra Carrion. She has judged at the Club.
She and Lois Youmans run the Portfolio Series at B&H. Their
company, the Image Factory, gives hands-on workshops at Soho
Photo a few times a year. I took an ”Image Transfer” workshop
with them lsat year. It was great! They provide all the materials
and a printer to use. We transferred digital images onto watercolor paper, leather, wood, etc. All you need to bring is your
laptop with a few digital images on it.
They are offering the same workshop on Monday, March 7th
from 1-5 p.m. They will offer a 10% discount to Club members.
The cost is $150 per person (before the discount). Plus you pay a
$20 materials fee. The class is limited to 8 people. For more info,
<www.imagefactoryworkshops.com>
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
19
PHOTOGRAPHY
Miles of Museums
• Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco, CA
by Chuck Pine
Right after the holiday season,
with religion possibly still going through our minds, here is
a list of some beautiful and
photogenic churches from
across the country. Road trip,
anyone?
• Basilica of St. Louis in New
Orleans, LA
• Cathedral of St. Andrew in
Honolulu, HI
• Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York City
• Cathedral of St. Paul in St.
Paul, MN
• Thorncrown Chapel in
Eureka Springs, AR
• St. Mary of the Angels in
Chicago, IL
• St. Patrick’s Cathedral in
New York City
• Washington National
Cathedral in Washington
• Memorial Presbyterian
Church in St. Augustine, FL
• Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho
Palos Verdes, CA
• St. Mary’s Catholic Church
in High Hill, TX
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Photo 101 Tips
Change your perspective and
clear the clutter from your images. Getting down to a really
low angle or shooting down on
your subject from a really high
perspective can significantly cut
down on the clutter in the background. In most cases it will also
lend itself to a more interesting
and exciting image.
Pick the right lens. If you are
shooting a portrait, in most
cases, you should choose a lens
with a focal length or 120mm or
more to help compress your
background. For interior shots,
a wide-angle lens is your best
choice. Distant objects often call
for a telephoto lens.
Avoid centering everything. This produces rather static, boring pictures. One of the ways to
counteract this is to use the Rule
of Thirds, where you split the
image up into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and try
to place your subject on one of
these imaginary lines or on a
Power Point (where the Rule of
Thirds lines intersect).
Keep your camera steady. You
can achieve this by using a tripod or other camera support, by
leaning the camera against a solid object like a tree, wall, or car
roof. If all else fails, hold the
camera securely with two hands,
stand with your feet spread
apart, and push the shutter release gently.
20
PHOTOGRAPHY
PhotoShopping
Next, I clicked on the fourth
by Chuck Pine panel, HSL/Grayscale…
Glowing Results
Are your portraits looking dull
and blah? Here is a technique,
done completely in Lightroom and clicked in the Convert to
Grayscale box. My image now
or Camera RAW, that will
looked like this:
make them simply glow.
Open your image in ACR or
LR. Here’s what I started with:
I then moved to the next panel
to the right, Split Toning…
In the Basic
Panel, the one
all the way to
the left, I increased both
the Exposure
and Contrast.
My image now
looks like this:
and moved the
Shadows Saturation slider to the
right until I got a
pleasing tint:
Finally, I clicked
on the 7th panel,
Effects, and in
I then reduced the Clarity by
moving the slider left to to
about -50 to get an image that
looks like this:
the Post Crop Vignetting section, I
moved the Amount
slider to +50.
This is my final image:
January 2016
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21
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo Shopping
MeFOTO RoadTrip
Aluminum Travel Tripod
Load Capacity: 17.6 lb.
Max Height: 61.6"
Min Height: 15.4"
Folded Length: 15.4"
Weight: 3.6 lb.
by Chuck Pine
Is it time to travel? How much
equipment will you lug along?
Will you leave your tripod at
home because it’s too bulky
and heavy? All good questions,
but the last one need not hinder your photography. (After
all, most professional shooters
rate the tripod as their most
important gear, behind their
cameras and lenses, of course.)
There are plenty of great
tripods on the market today
which are lightweight, ultrasturdy, tall enough to shoot
comfortably, short enough
(when collapsed) to stow
easily, and will not break your
bank account.
Each of these tripods
weighs in the three-pound
range, can support a camera/
lens combo over 10 pounds,
extend to around five feet tall,
fold down to about 15 inches,
and cost under $200. And
many come in an assortment of
colors to match your outfits
Wow!
Here are four models from
four different manufacturers
that meet the bill. Many more
are available as well. Most
come with ball heads (but pantilt and pistol-grip heads are
available, too, as well as just
the legs).
January 2016
Vanguard VEO 265AB
Aluminum Tripod
Load Capacity: 17.6 lb.
Max Height: 57.1"
Min Height: 7.25"
Folded Length: 15.4"
Weight: 3.7 lb.
Sirui T-004X
Aluminum Tripod
Load Capacity: 13.2 lb.
Max Height: 58"
Min Height: 4.9"
Folded Length: 15.7"
Weight: 2.5 lb.
Prima Photo Big
Travel Tripod
Load Capacity: 17.6 lb.
Max Height: 53.9"
Min Height: 16.5"
Folded Length: 16.5"
Weight: 3.6 lb.
Disclaimer
I do not, nor does anyone else in
the Club, make a profit from the
sales of these items—Chuck
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
22
PHOTOGRAPHY
Inquiries
by Chuck Pine
How do I take a shot of a waterfall
and get that cotton candy-effect?
Or, how do I shoot a seascape photo and get the water and the
clouds to blur in a pleasing way?
Both of these beautiful,
blurry kinds of images all use
the same photographic trick—
a very slow shutter speed! A
fast shutter speed freezes most
everything in an image. A long
exposure allows moving subjects to be recorded as blurs.
Here’s how:
• Most shots of this type require a tripod and a remote
shutter release (either a
cable-type or wireless one).
• Set your camera to its lowest
ISO—usually 100 or so.
• In aperture priority exposure mode, set your camera
to its smallest aperture—
usually somewhere between
f-16 and f-32.
• You are looking for a slow/
long shutter speed anywhere from 1/15 of a second
to several seconds or even
several minutes.
January 2016
• The actual shutter speed
you need depends on several factors including: the
speed of the moving subject;
the direction of its motion
(across the frame, directly
towards the camera, or diagonally); the distance from
the camera to the motion;
and the focal length of the
lens you are using. There are
no hard and fast rules to
choose a shutter speed. Just
take the shot, look at the image, and evaluate it. If you
nailed it, great! If you need a
faster or slower speed, make
the adjustment, and shoot.
• Sometimes, the light is too
bright and you don’t have a
low enough ISO nor a small
enough aperture. This is
where the use of a neutral
density filter comes in
handy. A ND filter is all grey
in color and either screws
onto the the front of your
lens or drops into a filter
holder on the front of your
lens. The ND filter does not
affect the color or quality of
the light, just the intensity.
ND filters come in different
strengths to suit your shooting situation.
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Winter Shooting Tips
The cold weather and snow
are upon us—or are soon to
be. Here are some tips that
can make your photography a
little bit better.
• Dress for the weather—a
comfortable photographer
is a better shooter.
• Keep your equipment
warm and dry (inside your
coat, for example) and carry an extra battery or two
in an inside pocket.
• Choose bright days, ideally
bright overcast days, and
attempt to keep that dulllooking sky out of your
pictures. However, if the
sky is bright blue, include
it in your images.
• If there’s snow, expose to
make it as white as you
can, but without overexposing it.
• Try to include colors other
than white (yes, I know, it’s
not a color) and brown.
• Reflections make good subject matter, especially in the
winter.
• Ice formations—hanging
from limbs or eaves, frozen
in a lake or stream, whereever—are welcome.
23
EXHIBITS • WORKSHOPS • ETC.
Accessory Quiz
Can you name this photo
accessory? No prizes, just a
fun challenge! Send your
guesses to the Club’s address <[email protected]>
Googling not permitted—on
your honor!
See the answer next month
in PWCC’s Photo Notes.
Cover Photos?
Last Month’s Answer
This is a USB 3.0 hub. (You
can tell it’s a 3, and not a 2
or a 1, by the blue color of
the contacts.) It is used to
connect peripherals to a
computer when you run out
of ports. It’s speed is 5 GB
per second—much faster
than earlier USB ports,
FireWire ports, and others.
Last Month’s Correct
Answerers…
There were two correct
answers last month. Congrats to Meg Darnell and to
Bill Apple.
January 2016
All the ordering info and a
selection of magazines can be
Looking for a personalized gift found on the website located at
for almost any occasion? My
<www.myowncover.com>
Own Cover magazine covers
are perfect for birthday gifts,
holiday gifts, celebrating a
milestone, or just getting your
images out there in a unique
way. Each magazine cover is as
unique as the images you put
Before
on them.
Here’s how it works:
• Select the magazine you
want to start with. Shutterbug
is one of the options.
• Upload your own photos to
the website.
• Design great personalized
covers.
• Order prints to share or give
After
as gifts.
A frame-ready, 8x10” print
on professional luster paper
starts at only $25!
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
24
EXHIBITS • WORKSHOPS • ETC.
B & H Event Space
B&H Photo offers free workshops. Here are a few of this
month’s offerings:
Tuesday, January 19
Portfolio Development
Speakers: David Brommer,
Deborah Gilbert, and
Sandra Carrion
Monday, February 1
When the Sun Goes Down
Speaker: Matthew Bourgeois
Tuesday, February 2
Personal Projects
Speaker: Gabriela Herman
Wednesday, January 27
Intro to DSLR
Speaker: Alex Podstawski
Thursday, January 28
Lighting for Portraiture
Speaker: Joey Quintero
Check out the B&H website at
<www.bhphoto.com> for all
the details as well as a complete list of additional presentations, and to register for the
course(s) of your choice. Please
note, they do accept walk-ins
for events that have not
reached capacity. The B&H
Event Space is located on the
second floor of their SuperStore, at 420 9th Avenue.
Travel Tips
Close to Home
Looking for something between a staycation and a road
trip? Start by exploring locales
within a two-hour drive from
your home. For most Americans, that includes gorgeous
parkland, cool small towns,
food you won't find at home,
and often the kinds of surprises that are worth shooting.
Etiquette
Don't be ‘that guy.’ You know,
the one hitting McDonald’s in
Rome. Or wearing an ”I’m
With Stupid” T-shirt to a museum of tolerance? Learn how
to say hello, goodbye, please,
and thank-you in the language
of your destination. Learn the
ins and outs of a culture’s body
language, hand gestures, food
customs, and tipping rules.
Good Credit
Some credit cards offer free
travel insurance for cancellations due to illness. Others do
not charge foreign transaction
fees for those purchases overseas. Many cards have no annual fees. Shop around to get
the one(s) best suited to your
travel preferences.
Speedy Security
The TSA’s Pre-Check program
can get you through US checkpoints in a flash. There is a
small cost, but time is money,
as well.
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
25
Photo Salon
Are you ready to take your
photography skills to the “next
level?” Come join Scott Kelby,
live on stage, with a follow-up
to his most popular photography seminar ever, with Shoot
Like a Pro: Reloaded! This totally
new tour, with all fresh new
content, picks right up where
the first tour left off and is
packed with more of those “ah
ha!” moments, more eye-opening revelations, and more of
the same clear, concise, and
just downright fun photography training that made the first
tour such a big hit. The entire
day is designed with one thing
in mind: showing you the next
level of concepts, ideas, and
techniques to help you make
the kind of images you’ve always dreamed of.
The New York City seminar
will be held on Monday, February 22nd, from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. at the Jacob Javits Center.
The cost is only $99 per person.
But wait, if you sign up by
February 22nd, you get a $10
discount. Even better, sign up
as a group of four or more, and
everyone gets a $20 discount.
This offer is good through
March 3rd.
For all info and registration,
<www.kelbyone.com/live>
You’re invited to the next gathering of The NY Photo Salon
hosted by School of Visual
Arts’ Master of Professional
Services Digital Photography
Department. This monthly
event will take place this
month on Thursday, January
21st, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
This month’s presenters
will be: Lara Atallah, Adam
Bernstein, Hernease Davis, and
h. eugene foster.
The venue is located at 136
West 21st Street (between 6th
and 7th Avenues, on the south
side of the street), Room 418-F.
There is no cover charge,
but seating is limited.
January 2016
© Hernease Davis
© h. eugene foster
Photo Competition
© Lara Atallah
© Adam Bernstein
EXHIBITS • WORKSHOPS • ETC.
Shoot Like a Pro
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
The Color Camera Club of
Westchester is pleased to
sponsor their 43rd International Exhibition of Photography, recognized by
the Photographic Society of
America (PSA). The exhibition is open to all interested
photographers. Membership
in PSA is not required.
Check their website at
www.colorcameraclub.com for information on the International Exhibit 2016, the
registration form, and more.
The closing date for entries
is February 27th.
26
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Schedule of Activities
The Park West Camera Club
meets every Monday night
(with some exceptions for holidays and a curtailed summer
schedule). Please join us at a
meeting or on one of our other
scheduled activities.
All Club Monday night
meetings take place at the Soho
Photo Gallery located at 15
White Street, between West
Broadway and Church Street/
Avenue of the Americas (6th
Avenue) unless indicated otherwise in the listings below.
Following the schedule of activities are detailed directions
to each of our meeting sites.
Check the PWCC Website
<parkwestcameraclub.org>
for late-breaking details on all
meetings and other Park West
Camera Club activities.
All meetings begin at 7
p.m. sharp unless otherwise
indicated below.
An asterisk (*) preceding
the date indicates an official
PWCC activity. Other listings
included below are: Photo
Events which may be of interest to photographers; and Photo Ops which offer opportunities to take pictures. January 2016
* Thursday, January 21
Field Trip—
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85acre sustainable waterfront
park stretching 1.3 miles along
Brooklyn’s East River shoreline. The Manhattan skyline
may be seen from no better
vantage point. But that’s not all
the park has to offer. There’s
plenty of history around plus
lots of scenery, people, architecture, and so much more. We
will meet at the entrance to
Pier 1 at the end of Old Fulton
Street, near the Ice Cream Factory at 1 p.m. If you’d like to
come with the group, meet Susan at the front of the downtown A train platform, West
4th Street station at 12:15 p.m.
We’ll take the train four stops
to the High Street station and
walk west/downhill to the
pier. After exploring the park,
we’ll head north to shoot in
DUMBO. If you’d like to get
there by ferry (and freeze your
a@& off), the East River Ferry
docks right there. You can get
the boat from either the East
34th Street-Midtown terminal
or from Pier 11 at the eastern
end of Wall Street. Check the
website for times and fares
<www.eastriverferry.com>
Sign up at any Club meeting or
by contacting the trip’s leaders:
Paul Grebanier 718-629-7164 or
<[email protected]> and
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Susan Sigrist at 212-758-0036
(note, this is not a cell phone).
Please contact Paul or Susan if
you must cancel.
* Monday, January 25
Workshop with Tim Grey
Tim Grey has been working
with computers forever, and
has had a passion for photography since high school. He
loves sharing information
about digital imaging in magazines such as Outdoor Photographer, PC Photo, and Digital Photo Pro, and by speaking and
teaching at the Lepp Institute
of Digital Imaging and other
venues. He is regarded as one
of the leading authorities in
Lightroom as well as other
photo-editing softeware and
techniques. You can check him
out on his websites such as
<www.timgrey.com> and/or
<www.greylearning.com> For
this evening, Tim will lead a
workshop on Lightroom folder
organization and the pros and
27
© Tim Grey
images—intended to remind
us that moments of perfection
are possible, in photography,
and in our lives.” Jean has
* Monday, January 25
taught seminars and workCompetition Entry Deadline shops for Adobe, Apple ComPlease note that PDI entries are puter, ICP in New York, the
Maine Media Workshops, the
due tonight for next week’s
Santa Fe Work-shops, Fuji
competition.
USA, Anderson Ranch, and
others. You can see some of his
Wednesday, January 27
work at <www.jeanmiele.com>
Photo Event—Sierra Photo
The meeting, open to the genThe New York City Sierra
eral public, begins at 6:30 p.m.
Club’s Photography CommitA $7 donation is collected
tee is holding its meeting
upon entry. The NYC Sierra
* Monday, February 1
tonight. The guest photograClub Photography Committee
Monthly Competition
pher for this evening is Jean
meets at the Metropolitan
Miele. Yes! The same Jean
Tonight’s competition of PDIs
Opera Guild, on the 6th floor
Miele who judged the PWCC
and prints is sure to be excitof the Rose Building at Lincoln
January competition. The foling. Full rules are available
lowing is a quote from Jean’s
from the Competition or the
website, “I use photography to
Membership Committees at
explore the borderlands beany meeting. Remember, print
tween fiction and reality. My
entries must be submitted by
personal interest in perception,
6:45 p.m. so that we may get
spirituality, and mysticism
under way with the competihave inspired and informed
tion promptly at 7 p.m. PDI
my artwork since the midentries must be submitted by
1980s. Drawing on 19th & 20th
midnight one week prior to
century ideals and enthusiastitoday, January 25th. Just a recally embracing 21st century
minder, you may enter up to
techniques, I strive to create
four images in tonight’s combeautiful prints of strong, quiet
petition, but no more than two
© Jean Miele
© Lynn Saville
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
cons of Adobe’s Creative
Cloud. This is an evening not
to be missed!
Center. The address is 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, located on
the north side of West 65th
Street, between Broadway and
Amsterdam Avenue, closer to
Amsterdam. From the street
level, take the stairs, elevator,
or escalator up one level and
proceed through the revolving
doors into the lobby to get the
elevator up to the 6th floor.
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
28
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
in either category. Tonight’s
judge is Lynn Saville. As a fineart photographer Lynn was
educated at Duke University
and Pratt Institute. She specializes in photographing both
cities and rural settings at twilight and dawn, or as she describes it, ”the boundary times
between night and day.” Her
photographs are published in
three monographs: Acquainted
With the Night (Rizzoli, 1997),
Night/Shift (Random House/
Monacelli, 2009), and Dark City
(Damiani, Bologna, Italy, 2015).
Her work is represented by the
Yancey Richardson Gallery in
New York and is in the permanent art collections of major
museums, corporations, and
individuals. She lives in New
York City with her husband,
the poet Philip Fried. Learn
more about Lynn on her website <www.lynnsaville.com>
groundhog, Charles G. Hogg
(Chuck, to his friends) and he
lives at the Staten Island Zoo.
The gates will open at 6:30 a.m
… and Chuck will do his thing
at 7 a.m. By the way, Chuck’s
prediction success rate of 80%
is tops among groundhogs. To
get to the zoo from the Staten
Island Ferry, take the S-48 bus
at the Ferry Terminal. Exit at
the intersection of Forest Avenue and Broadway, turn left
on Broadway, and walk 3 1/2
blocks to the Zoo entrance.
Admission is $8 for adults and
$6 for seniors (60 and over).
© Miana Jun
Tuesday, February 2
Photo Event—
Soho Photo Opening
Tuesday, Feb 2
Photo Op—Groundhog Day
No! We’re not suggesting you
take a trip out to Pennsylvania
to visit Punxsutawney Phil.
New York City has its own
January 2016
This month’s exhibit opens
tonight with a reception from 6
to 8 p.m. The gallery is pleased
to exhibit six solo shows including touching work by Miana Jun and Rebecca Pine on
the aftereffects of breast cancer.
[Editor’s Note: Although I have a
first cousin by the same name as
Ms. Pine, this Rebecca and I are
not related.] The gallery is open
for viewing Wednesdays thru
Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m., until
8 p.m. on Fridays, by appointment, and on Monday nights
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
at our Club meetings. For more
info on this and other exhibits
at Soho Photo, go to the website at <www.sohophoto.com>
Monday, February 8
Photo Op—Lunar New Year
The celebration of the Chinese
Lunar New Year—the year of
the monkey—begins today
with the Firecracker Ceremony
in Sara Roosevelt Park, located
at Grand and Forsyth Streets.
The closest subway stop is the
Grand Street station on the B
and D trains., but others are
nearby. The festivities are free
and begin at 11 a.m.
* Monday, February 8
Portfolio Night
Tonight is the first portfolio
night of the new year. Four
Club members will present
concise portfolios of up to a
dozen images of their work.
These may be in the form of
prints or PDIs. The purpose of
this review is to determine
how well the images hold up
as a group. The purpose is not
to critique individual images
although some comments of
this nature will sneak into the
discussion from time to time. If
you’d like to participate with
your images, please speak to
29
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
the Workshop Committee
chair, Jerry Harawitz at any
meeting or contact him at
<[email protected]> or
646-823-7223.
* Wednesday, February 10
Field Trip—High Line and
Hudson Yards Station
New York is the ”city that never sleeps.” That goes double
for all the construction that’s
going on, especially in Manhattan. Office buildings, residential buildings, and, yes,
even subway stations and
parks. Two of the newest are
located on the west side of
midtown Manhattan. And,
guess where we’ll be going today? The new Hudson Yards
subway station and the newest, northernmost section of
the High Line park, that’s
where! We’ll meet at the cornet of 14th Street and 9th Avenue, in front of the Apple
Store (inside if it’s too cold
outside) at 1 p.m. Take any
January 2016
north/south subway or bus in and ends up at Sara Roosevelt
Manhattan that crosses 14th
Park (near the corner of Grand
Street and either walk west or
take the westbound M14A or
D bus to 9th Avenue. Sign up
at any Club meeting or by
contacting the leader: Julie
Foehrenbach at 917-855-3515
<[email protected]>
Please contact Julie if you need
to cancel.
and Forsyth Streets).
Wednesday, February 10
Photo Event—
* Monday, February 15
PWP Monthly Meeting
Guest Speaker—
Melissa Fleming
Professional Women Photographers is a group of women
photographers who network
and share their images and experiences. Tonight’s presentation has not yet been announced. Go to their website
<www.pwponline.org> for the
latest info. The meetings are
held at the Metropolitan Opera
Guild, in the Samuel B. &
David Rose Building, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza (65th Street
between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue). The doors
open at 6 p.m. and the meeting
begins at 6:30 p.m. There is a
$10 fee for non-members of
the organization.
Tonight’s guest photographer
is Melissa Fleming. She is a
visual artist who is interested
in the duality of the visible and
invisible, the relationship between realism and abstraction,
and the interplay of art and
science. She has a particular
interest in the transient and
often unseen aspects of the
natural world. Ms. Fleming’s
work has been exhibited and
collected internationally. Her
work is included in the permanent collections of the University of Colorado at Boulder,
the James Hotel (NYC), the
Museo de la Fotografía
(Rafaela, Argentina), the FedSunday, February 14
eral Reserve Bank of New
Photo Op—Lunar New Year York, and numerous private
collections. She has also lecThe Chinatown Lunar New
tured about her work at variYear Parade and Festival will
be held today starting at 1 p.m. ous universities and art organizations (including previously
The parade takes off in Little
at PWCC). Melissa received a
Italy at Mott & Hester Streets,
heads over to Chatham Square, Master of Fine Arts degree
from the Parsons School of
winds through Chinatown,
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
30
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
photographers
everywhere. In the
pages of Photographing National Parks, as
well as in tonight’s
presentation, Chris
Nicholson delves
into what each of
the parks offers to
the photographer,
and how to best re© Melissa Fleming
search and prepare for a trip to
explore the artistic opportuniDesign and a science-based
ties within. Learn how to travel
Master Naturalist Certificate
from Cornell University. She is safely and photograph in the
various environments found in
also the author of The Weather
the park system, including
Gamut, a blog about weather
desert, alpine, forest, and
and climate. She lives and
coastline. Discover where to
works in New York City. To
find valuable information
learn more about Melissa and
about iconic and secret photo
her work, visit her website at
locations, how to stay powered
<www.melissafleming.com>
The curtain raiser for tonight is up in the outdoors, and ideas
for supplementary gear that
PWCC’s Recording Secretary,
our very own Christine Doyle. will make a photo project more
productive and enjoyable.
Check out <www.photographingnationalparks.com> to learn
more about Chris, what he
does, and his images.
© Christine Doyle
* Monday, February 22
Workshop—National Parks
From sea to shining sea, the
national parks preserve some
of the country’s most unique
wilderness areas. And their
existence is a gift to nature
January 2016
© Chris Nicholson
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Wednesday, February 24
Photo Event—Sierra Photo
The New York City Sierra
Club’s Photography Committee is holding its meeting
tonight. The guest photographer for this evening is Chris
Nicholson. Yes! The same Jean
Chris Nicholson who presented to PWCC two nights ago.
We don’t know if the two presentations will be similar or
different—you be the judge.
The meeting, open to the general public, begins at 6:30 p.m.
A $7 donation is collected
upon entry. See the listing under January 27th for details on,
and directions to, the venue.
* Thursday, February 25
Field Trip—Brooklyn Botanic
Garden in Winter
A trip to the Brooklyn Botanic
Garden in winter is a dream
come true. Snow-covered
fields. Icicles dripping from the
bare tree branches. Teeth chattering in the frigid air—well
we can always
go inside to
shoot the tropical and desert
plants. We’ll
meet at the
Visitor Center
near the Washington Avenue
entrance and
the parking lot
right in back
of the Brooklyn Museum at 1 p.m. The
closest train stations are
31
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
(grand)kids dress up and shoot
them. Or,… whatever fills the
bill. Bring in up to a dozen
PDIs or prints to share. Just
remember to have fun.
* Monday, February 29
Competition Entry Deadline
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn
Please note that PDI entries are
Museum on the #2 and #3
due tonight for next week’s
lines and Franklin Avenue on
competition.
the #4 and #5 lines. Sign up at
any Club meeting or by contacting the trip’s leader: Paul
Grebanier at 718-629-7164 or
<[email protected]>
Please contact Paul if you must
cancel at the last minute.
You can’t “photoshop” bad images into good ones.
Spend less time looking at other
people’s work and more time
shooting your own.
Photo editing is an art in itself.
Have at least 2 backups of all
your images. Like they say in
war, two is one, one is none.
You don’t need to always bring a
tripod with you everywhere you
go (hell, I don’t even own one).
Always use a tripod!
* Monday, February 29
Theme Night
Portfolios, projects, themes,
what are they? They are two
things. First off, they are a way
to get your creative juices flowing. They make you think
about what you’re shooting.
They give purpose to your
photography. Second, they are
fun. Period. Tonight’s theme
challenge,
should you
choose to accept it, is Snow
White & Rose
Red. You may
interpret this
however you
wish. Go out
and shoot
snow scenes
with red objects. Or just
shoot the snow. Or have your
January 2016
Tip from the Pros
Find your style of photography
and stick with it.
Directions to Soho Photo
at 15 White Street, between Avenue of the Americas and West
Broadway. Take the #1 train to the
Franklin Street station (one stop
below Canal Street). Walk one
block north on West Broadway to
White street, make a right turn,
and walk half a block to the
gallery. Take the A, C, or E train
to the Canal Street station. Walk
south on Sixth Avenue/Church
Street 3 blocks to White Street,
make a right turn, and walk half a
block to the gallery. Although a
little bit longer walk, take any
other train to Canal Street, walk
west to Church Street, and follow
the directions immediately above.
Street parking is limited.
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
Capture the beauty in the mundane and you have a winning
photograph.
People with DSLRS who shoot
portraits with their grip pointed
downwards look like morons.
Photography isn’t a hobby—it’s
a lifestyle.
Don’t be afraid to bump up your
ISO when necessary.
Always underexpose by 2/3rds
of a stop when shooting in broad
daylight.
Never let photography get in the
way of enjoying life.
32
End Page
PDI Workshop Revisited
Back on December 10th, the
Club held its PDI Workshop at
the home of the Pines. But this
was not the ”same old, same
old” PDI workshop that we’ve
been used to. Not by a long
shot! This was our experiment
of cutting down on the number
of images each member could
bring and concentrating more
on making actual corrections to
the images right before their
very eyes.
Each member brought a
handful of PDIs, we looked at
them all, and then chose one or
two that we would use as
demonstration images. All the
members present were able to
comment and make suggestions on how to improve the
submitted photographs.
Here some examples of
what we did…
Wagging Tongue
© Alice Somma
Brooklyn Bridge
© Peter Houts
Everyone liked
the new procedure
so much that we
decided to continue with this format
in the months (and
years?) to come.
Cigar and Chicken
© John Brengelman
One Way
© Ann Broder
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
33
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Table of Contents
Club News
2 Who’s Who at PWCC
3 Editorial
4 Images of the Month
5 Point Totals
6 Yahoo Group
6 Flickr Group
7 New Club Website
7 Travel Tips
8 Club Members Kudos
8 Butternut Squash
9 Field Trip Photos
10 Members’ Photos
11 2015-2016 Schedule
12 Photo Notes Deadlines
12 Club Participation Nights
12 Shutter Speed Hints
13 Members Galleries
13 Committee Liaisons
14 Portfolio Page
15 New Member Bio
Photography News
16 Depth of Field
18 Photo Tip
18
19
19
19
20
20
21
22
23
23
Cartoon of the Month
Europe, Anyone
PhotoWordJumble
Workshop at Soho
Miles of Museums
Photo 101 Tips
PhotoShopping
Photo Shopping
Inquiries
Winter Shooting Tips
Exhibits, Workshops, Etc.
24 Accessory Quiz
24 PSA Conference
24 Cover Photos
25 B&H Event Space
25 Travel Tips
26 Shoot Like a Pro
26 Photo Salon
26 Photo Competition
Schedule of Activities
27 Jan-Feb Schedule
32 Directions
32 Tips from the Pros
33 PDI Workshop Revisited
34 Table of Contents
Wide Angle Hints
Here are some hints to help to improve your
wide=angle shots. Pick and choose; mix-andmatch; use them all.
•
•
•
•
•
Get low, get close, and get in your face
Use distortion creatively
Exclusion and inclusion
Big skies, go wide
Include the sun
January 2016
www.ParkWestCameraClub.org
34