South Florida Camera Club

The theme for July was David LaChapelle with a sub-theme of erotic. This was unquestionably my favorite competition so far this year!

Coming in first place was Svetlana Chapman with her print entitled “Gaga” which was inspired from David LaChapelle’s photograph of Lady Gaga. Svetlana says “I took this picture in my home studio. The model is Jaqueline Fischer, and the MUA was Janine Wehby. I saw the picture of lady Gaga by David LaChapelle and thought that I could recreate it with my model. I printed all the words on her body on my home printer, and then glued them on the model’s body with help of my MUA. This is a composite photo. I combined with a background taken from Fotolia.com and put my model on top of it.”

Coming in second place was Tracy Mendy with her print entitled “Red Hot Comic”. Tracy says “The Model Crystal was my inspiration for this image. Her bright red hair reminded me of a comic book character. After a great afternoon searching thru many comics at this cool little shop to find the most colorful ones, we had everything we needed to complete this fun photo!”

Coming in third place was Rick McCawley with his print entitled “Lick Me”. Rick says “This photo is of one of my favorite models Rita. I shot the lips with the Cannon G9 and then the final photo with a Nikon D70 f/ 5.6 60th of a second, natural light.

Svetlana is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. Her photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of August. Svetlana, Tracy and Rick have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, August 12th, 2011 to see Svetlana’s print is all its glory.

The theme for June was Arnold Newman with the sub-theme of Environmental Portrait. As usual the competition was pretty stiff and most people competed using black & white prints.

Coming in First Place was Lew Lautin with his print entitled “Barry Gross” which he created by photographing a good friend of his. Lew said about his print “I met Barry Gross in South Beach about 6 years ago and was introduced to his amazing artistic abilities at that time. Barry is a painter and has work in many of the most impressive museums in the US; when the time came for this month’s South Florida Camera Club contest in which we were asked to shoot an “Environmental Portrait” in the style of Arnold Newman I knew Barry was the only subject for my entry.

The image was taken at Barry’s new studio at 3535 NE 32nd Ave, off A1A and just north of Oakland Park Blvd. I used my new Canon 60D with a 17-85mm f4-5.6 lens shot at 53MM, f5.6 and 1/60th. Lighting for the shot was the on camera flash and a 580 Canon Speed-light set on a light stand set about 45 degrees off to the right. Barry was standing in front of one of his paintings of a male nude.

A great deal of time was spent in post-production and printing to bring out the sharp whites and the deep black in the print. The final image was printed on my 4880 Epson Printer on a fairly new Epson Paper; Exhibition Fiber Paper which is receiving high marks for its strong range of color and it’s penetrating presentations of whites and blacks. The printer was set for Epson Color (different from using the Photoshop selection) to determine the tonality of the print; advanced Black & White settings with a slight addition of Brightness, Highlight and Contrast added to the final print instructions.
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Coming in second place was Svetlana Chapman with her print entitled “Painting a Beauty”. Svetlana says “This picture of MUA and her model was taken at AOG. The model was painted in gold paint and looked very exotic. They were playing with her face and the frame, so at one point I suggested for them to make this look, and I then shot the picture.”

Coming in third was John Marks with his print entitled “Leon”. John says “I was looking for a color shot that was very similar to this one. I found this one that I had actually taken as a black and white shot .. I found the color shot and thought it was a little too busy in that a second microphone blocked off part of the right side of his face, so I decided to use this shot instead, in fact it was a cleaner shot because taking shots in such low lighting conditions can affect the clarity. That being said, the original shot was a bit flat so I decided to try and alter the brightness and contrast a bit. I upped the brightness just a little and I created 3 separate shots with 3 different contrast levels… I then went in and used the original shot with the 3 separate contrast levels in a 4 part HDR combination. Then I tried again with just the 3 part HDR of the 3 shots with the contrast levels altered… I made a third HDR shot which is the one I used.

Lew is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of July. Lew, Svetlana and John have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, July 8th, 2011 to see Lew’s print is all its glory.

The theme for May 2011 was Elliott Erwitt to present humor… This was a fun theme and there was lot of fun had during critique of the prints.

Coming in first place was Bob Feinberg with his print entitled “Walk the Dog” which he made while in New Orleans. Bob says “This image was taken with a Nikon D70 with a 17-35 f/2.8 at ISO 200 1/500th f/4.0. I was walking through the French Quarter early one morning about 6 months after Katrina. While standing on the corner this guy in the white Uncle Sam suit came strutting his stuff with his dog. I quickly fired off three frames and he was gone. The image was adjusted in Lightroom 3.0 then brought into Photoshop using NIK Silver Efex to convert to B&W. I chose the film emulsion using an Agfa ISO 100 B&W film. I also chose a preset that gave me a softer B&W look. It was printed on an Epson 2200 using Red River Polar Pearl Metallic paper.”

Coming in second place was Ed Oest with his print entitled “Indiscreet in Havana” which he made in Havana, Cuba. Ed says “This photo was taken on a side street in Havana. I spotted a boy on homemade skates along with his companions and took two shots. Taken with a Nikon D700, 50mm lens @ ISO 1600, 1/500s, f11, and toned using Silver Efex.”

Coming in third place was Svetlana Chapman with her print entitled “If I Could, I Would” which she made using her daughter and cat as models. Svetlana says “The picture is of my 4 month old baby and another baby Barsik - scottish fold cat. I was having dinner and my cat started stalking the food on the table, stretching his paws and trying to grab the food. I then got my camera and shot this picture.”

Bob is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of June. Bob, Ed and Svetlana have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, June 10th, 2011 to see Bob’s print is all its glory.

The theme for April 2011 was photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson or Walter Iooss to present the decisive moment! Most SFCC members went with Henri Cartier-Bresson as their theme and most presented their prints in black and white.

Coming in first place was Jayne Villamizar with her print entitled “The German, The Wheel and The Dog”. I asked Jayne to give me a little background on making the photograph and this is what she had to say ” I spent six weeks backpacking through Europe alone, but not really because I had my camera with me. There were very few moments I put my camera down. However, at this particular time right before I took this picture I had put my camera down and away, while I sat down to eat some Mediterranean food at a little cafe. I remember just about everything in this moment, the sounds, the smells…because I was able to capture and preserve this special moment in time. As, I sat on a bench trying to eat my falafel and hummus I noticed a most peculiar man who was strolling down the street whistling, and in one hand a single bike wheel, and a dog on a leash in the other. To me this was not just a man with a wheel and a dog; it was something I knew to be quite special, something I knew I had to make sure to never forget. I fumbled with my small camera pack, feeling frustrated and like I couldn’t get my camera out and turned on fast enough! There wasn’t enough time to change settings, I snapped just this one single image, with such relief that I had done the moment justice. This of course, not ever having known anything about Henri Bresson, or his style of “the decisive moment”. This was just me finding simplicity and beauty in the world. This moment in time truly did become one of the highlights of my trip. When I feel myself start to get nostalgic for my wonderful Europe adventure I always seem to think about the man in the business suite with the wheel and the dog. To this day I still like to guess what such a man would be doing with just one bicycle wheel, in a business suite.”

Coming in second place was Lew Lautin with his print entitled “Surfer Girl”. I asked Lew for this story behind his image and this is what he said “This image was taken in a small Mexican village Quimixto half an hour south of Puerto Vallarta by boat. There are 400 full time residents and 400 horses. Cruise ships stop here for day trips and since there are no roads leading into the village the way to get there is often by Panga, small fishing boats which travel the Mexican coast and drop you in the surf, hopefully close to shore! I met a young Australian woman who was kind of a caregiver, housekeeper for one of the expatriates from the US who lives there full time. She is an avid surfer and could be found on one of the isolated beaches late afternoon surfing.”

Coming in third place was Ed Oest with his print entitled “Ascension”. When asked about his photograph Ed said “I made this photo for the contest. I wanted a shot with lots of graphical elements and moving people. The curved or spiral staircase shows up in many of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photos. That is not too common in Florida. I went to the Ponce de Leon Light Station, picked a location inside I like, and waited for people to come by and dangled over the railing. Image is 1/30 second exposure, f 8.0, ISO 800 with a 17-35mm lens set to 35mm. Toned using Silver Efex Pro.”

Jayne is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. Her photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of May. Jayne, Lew and Ed have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, May 13th, 2011 to see Jayne’s print is all its glory.

The theme for March 2011 was photographer Cindy Sherman, and because everyone was encouraged to explore Cindy Sherman by doing self-portraits, many of our South Florida Camera Club members were a little nervous to enter the competition for March.

Coming in first place was Edward Oest with his photograph entitled “Untitled #6”. I asked our winners to say a little something about their prints and here is what Ed had to say: “I was trying to make a parallel counter point, perhaps someone older, tired, from the same setting; perhaps the archetypical businessman, even her boss. I printed out an 8 foot wide background from 1960s Manhattan using Poster Print. I used a 32mm wide angle zoom and two flashes. I bought a fedora from eBay and the coat and tie circa 1960 were from my father. I de-saturated my face and processed the background and another layer using Silver Efex Pro 2. I then made the photo in my garage.”

Coming in second place was Isabel Barney with her print entitled “Scary Eyes”. Isabel says: “The idea started when I saw Cindy Sherman’s clown pictures and other self-portraits with bizarre makeup. They make you uncomfortable, make you think (what the heck’s going through her mind when she decided to do that). In some of those she looks as if she’s staring right through you. I knew I wanted to do something along those lines, paint my face in some bizarre way, but not copy her work–that’d be too easy. That’s when I noticed an African mask in my dining room. A mere piece of wood carved so its talks to you, makes you think–like Cindy’s work. So I went around collecting all the African art we have and thought I’d paint my face and try to blend in with the art and make the viewer wonder what’s going on. I like that the eyes are a bit scary (not intentional, just a cramp on my toe from pressing the wireless shutter against the hard floor).”

Coming in third place was Jayne Villamizar with her print entitled “Dancer in the Window”. Jayne Says: “I used a tripod and my Nikon D90 to try and capture the earlier works of Cynthia Sherman. The bay window located in my dining room provided the perfect light and ambiance that I wanted to create for this self-portrait. Although, it was not an easy task and I probably took over 80 snaps to create the final image I decided to go with. However this is not including the prior days of shooting which involved me covered from head to toe in mud, trying to capture her early controversial works. Alas, it was her earlier more elegant portrayal of women which inspired me from the start to finish. Thus was created (Dancer In The Window) by me Jayne Villamizar.”

Edward is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of April. Edward, Isabel and Jayne have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, April 8th, 2011 to see Edward’s print is all its glory.

February 2011 was an exciting month for our photo competitions because it’s the month we started our photographic themes for the year 2011. The theme for February 2011 was “Edward Weston” and many of the SFCC members really stepped up to the plate with some great prints.

Coming in First place was Rick McCawley with his print entitled “Nude”. I asked Rick to give me some details about his inspiration in creating this photograph and here is what Rick said: “This figure study seems in keeping with the sensuality of Edward Weston’s work, and his ideal of looking for the whole of life summed up in a moment captured by a Photographer. Clouds, torsos, shells, peppers, trees, rocks, smoke stacks, are but interdependent, interrelated parts of a whole, which is life. - Edward Weston. I shot it about 5 years ago while working with a model named Amy, who I had met on ModelMayhem.com. She was beautiful but more importantly she was a muse to the ideals I was searching for. Collaborating WE made the image.”

Coming in second place was Bob Feinberg with his print entitled “Orchid”. Bob’s comments about his photograph are: “My image was shot at the Orchid Society using available light. I used a Nikon D90 with Tokina 100mm Macro lens. Exposure was 1/25 sec. F/9.0, with exposure compensation set -1/3EV, ISO 200 using a Gitzo Tripod. The original RAW image was processed in Lightroom 3.0 with the usual adjustments, contrast, black levels, clarity, etc. I used selective sharpening as well. I then processed the image in NIK Silver Efex Pro, choosing a preset that I liked, and then I applied a film emulsion pre-set for Kodak Panatomic X. I then brought the image back into Lightroom and adjusted a post crop vignette to darken the edges. The image was printed on metallic paper.”

Coming in third place was Kyle Carter with his print entitled “Junk in the Trunk”. When asked about his photograph Kyle said: “I saw most of Weston’s work as emulating the human form. I found a couple of ladles at Dollar General that were curvy and reminded me of butt cheeks. I put my camera on a tripod and held the ladles in front of me. A softbox was up high pointed down at the ladles with a piece of foamcore as the background.”

Rick is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of March. Rick, Bob and Kyle have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, March 11th, 2011 to see Rick’s print is all its glory.

A brand new year has begun and the opportunity for everyone to score a win for the month, or score some points to win “Best Photographer of the Year” has started! The theme for January 2011 was “Open” which allowed everyone to compete with the photo they felt was strongest to start the year off.

Coming in first place for January 2011 was Keith LeBlanc with his print entitled “The Sands of Time” which he created last December at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park. Keith took the photo with his Nikon D300 and a 17-55mm lens set at 17mm. Keith used a Singh-Ray LB / warming polarizing filter to enhance the colors in the sand and sky. In addition, a Singh-Ray 3 stop soft step graduated neutral density filter was used to balance the brightness in the sky. Keith says the photo was shot 6 inches above the ground surface to provide a dramatic foreground element.

Coming in second place was Daniel Korzeniewski with his photograph entitled “Old Truck”, which he created this past summer along Route 66 in Arizona on his way to Grand Canyon National Park. The name of this structure is Hackberry General Store and Daniel says it was created using a 14-24mm lens and the HDR was done with nine shots and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Coming in third place was Jason Perline with his photo entitled “Croatian Castle” which was made in a sixteenth century palace in the scenically beautiful Croatia. Jason says the challenge was to capture the photo in varied lighting conditions. He says he accomplished this by shooting several different exposures and then choosing the image that was exposed best for what he wanted. He then used Lightroom to make any additions adjustments needed.

Keith is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in Brew la~la Cafe throughout the year. Keith, Daniel and Jason have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”!

The theme for December was “Open” which allowed everyone to bring their favorite photo to compete against other photographs that are made up of many genres of photography.

Coming in first place is someone that’s no stranger to winning photo competitions, and that person is Daniel Korzeniewski! Daniel created his photograph entitled “Basketball Player” outside his Miami photo studio. Daniel says he had to do many dry runs and take up to sixty or seventy photos to get the photograph exactly the way he wanted.

Coming in second place was Keith LeBlanc with his photograph entitled “Valley View”. Keith is also no stranger to winning photos competitions at South Florida Camera Club! Coming is third place is another very strong contender each month and has won many competitions as well, and that person is Jack Levy with his photograph entitled “1956 Chevy”.

Daniel is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in Brew la~la Cafe throughout the year. Daniel, Keith and Jack have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”!

The theme for November was “Shadows” and was described as “the literal and philosophical contrast between light and dark that gives our photographs depth and intrigue.” Our winners this month not only had amazingly interesting photographs but also played by the rules of the theme perfectly!

Coming in first place was Tracy Mendy with her print entitled “Spiderwoman” which was created at her in house photo studio and outside portrait garden called The Mendy House. Tracy says this photograph was taken at the end of a long shoot well after the sun was gone. Tracy set up flood lights to create the strong shadows behind the model and asked her to pose in different ways to find the best pose for creating the shadow she found most interesting.

Coming in second place was Linda St. Hilaire with her print entitled “Shadows of Manhattan” which she captured while walking her friends dogs through Washington Heights, New York City. Linda says she was intrigued with the juxtaposition of tree shadows cast upon concrete buildings. She created the photo with her Lumix GF1 using a 20mm pancake lens.

Coming in third place was Raul Dominguez with his print entitled “Stripes” which he took while walking in Holland Park in Hollywood, Florida. Raul says while walking in the late afternoon he noticed and interesting pattern of vertical and horizontal shadows on the walkway leading to the observation tower, he then made his photograph before the shadows were gone.

Tracy is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. Her photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in Brew la~la Cafe throughout the year. Tracy, Linda and Raul have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”!

The theme for October’s photographic competition was “Documentary.” As described by the 2010 theme committee, documentary photography is a historical and candid documentation of the world around us through the lens of our cameras.

Coming in first place was Juan Reyes with his photograph entitled “Children of the Streets” which was taken in Juan’s home country of Paraguay and in the city of Caacupé. Juan visits Paraguay often and says the problem of children living on the streets is becoming more of a problem lately. Juan says the little girl was sitting on a sidewalk next to one of the most visited churches in Paraguay, the Basilica de Caacupe.

Coming in second place was Barbie Pearson with her photograph entitled “Balinese Women” which she took in 1999 in Bali. Barbie says the scene was a funeral procession for a prominent man that lived in this small village.

Coming in third place was Linda Bernhard with her photograph entitled “Peruvian Poverty” which she captured while visiting a small Peruvian village in the Andes Mountains. Linda says the woman was walking up to people on the street begging for money.

Juan is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of November. Juan, Barbie and Linda have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”!

The theme for September’s photographic competition was “Painting with light” which in my opinion is best described by searching “Painting with light” at Flickr.com. Many of the prints in the competition were excellent and truly embodied this month’s theme, but one of them pulled away from the rest and placed first with twenty-two votes!

Coming in first place was Daniel Korzeniewski with his print entitled “On Fire” which was photographed with a wide angle 10-20 lens and his Nikon D300. Daniel mounted his camera on a tripod to take two minute exposures and then used a red flashlight with a red filter to paint over her body. He then used an LED flashlight with a diffuser in front of a snoot made of cardboard in order to have the light concentrated and avoid light spill. With the LED light he painted on top of the burning red light to create the white lines over her body. The last step was to walk around her with glow sticks to create the light streams around her.

Coming in second place was Svetlana Chapman with her print entitled “Lilly of Fire”. Svetlana created her image in her home studio using a black background. She then used her friend as a model and a candle as the lighting prop, and took four or five photographs before she created the one she liked best. Svetlana then used photoshop to enhance the models eyes but left the rest as is.

Coming in third place was James McCullam with his print entitled “Lanterns”. James made his image at Morikami Bon Fest in Delray Beach, Florida. The Bon Fest is a festival saying thanks to one’s ancestors for one’s quality of life and is the cornerstone of the Bon Festival held every August at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. James used his Canon 1Ds Mark II camera and 135mm lens to create his photograph and shot the exposure 1/50 of a second at 2.8.

Daniel is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of October. Daniel, Svetlana and James have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, October 8th, 2010 to see Daniel’s print is all its glory.

The theme for June’s photographic competition was “Fill the Frame” which was understood or interpreted in many ways and perhaps a little confusing. The competition was stiff however and the prints were beautiful as ever! It was suggested this meeting that we be more critical in our critiquing of the prints, and I believe because of this the competition was much more productive.

Coming in first place was Jack Levy with his print entitled “Look at You” which was photographed at Jungle Island in Miami.

Coming in second place was Jeff Zwickel with his print entitled “I See Who?” and in third place was Len Sackler with his print entitled “Bromo Dawn”.

Jack is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D400 or Canon 8D at the end of the year competition for “Best Photograph of the Year”. His photograph is being framed by Frame Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, and will hang in UNCOMMON Gallery throughout the month of July. Jack, Jeff and Len have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year”! Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, July 9th, 2010 to see Jack’s print is all its glory.