South Florida Camera Club

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.

The Theme for May’s photographic competition was “Wildlife” which is always a big draw because so many of South Florida Camera Club’s members are into wildlife photography.

Coming in first place was James McCallum with his photograph of a Mandarin duck entitled “Look at Me” which he photographed at the Palm Beach Zoo in West Palm Beach, Florida.

With a photograph also created at the Palm Beach Zoo, Marty Fuchs came in second place with his photograph entitled “On the Prowl” of a tiger!

Coming in third place was Jack Levy with his photograph entitled “Mating Dance” of two Great Blue Herons nesting in the Florida Everglades.

James 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. James, Marty and Jack have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year” Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, June 11th, 2010 to see James’ print is all its glory.

The theme for April was “Self Portrait” and has so far been one of my favorite themes for SFCC competitions. I can’t remember being more excited about seeing the entries for a South Florida Camera Club photographic competition!

Coming in first place is Jessica Adeline with her first photograph entered into any of our competitions. Jessica’s photo is entitled “I Don’t Give a Sh*t” and was created in her home studio. I asked Jessica to write us a little description about creating this image and this is what she wrote me.

“Sometimes in life you take a chance. This year I have made a promise to take a chance on me. The last year has been about transformations, breaking definitions, habits and boundaries. This pic of me, is just that, me. No filters, I smoke cigars, I love tattoos and cameras, I am less than perfect. I spent a lot of time behind the lens, in all aspects of my life. This pic was a gift to myself, 100 pounds lighter and feeling like myself again. Beauty is everywhere.”

Coming in second place is Lola Gets! with her photograph entitled “Water Nymph”. Lola took her photograph at a jacuzzi in her gym. Lola says she was inspired by the lyrics in a Snow Patrol song entitled “Set the Fire to the Third Bar”

“I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms”

Coming in third place is Daniel Korzeniewski with his photograph entitled “Me”. Daniel created his image in studio where he used two lights. One of the lights was used as a hair light and the other was used in the front as the main light. Daniel used a remote to fire off his Nikon D300 which used the Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 lens.

Jessica is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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. Jessica, Lola and Daniel have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year” Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, May 14th, 2010 to see Jessica’s print is all its glory.

We had thirty-six entries in the “Dreamscape” themed photographic competition this month! Coming in first place was Daniel Korzeniewski with his photograph entitled “Caribbean Beach”. Daniel created his image at Cable Beach in Nassau, Bahamas a few months ago using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) process. Daniel used five photos that he slightly over exposed and then merged them together using Photomatix, and then finalizing the photo using Lightroom and Photoshop. Daniel says he does not like his HDR images to have the overdone look or look extremely HDR, so he’s developed a technique that he uses to make them look as real as possible, and still bring out all the detail.

Coming in second place was James McCallum with his photograph entitled “New Dawn”. James made his photograph at the Coral Cove Park in Jupiter, Florida during sunrise. He used a Graduated Neutral Density filter attached to his lenses to keep the sky from blowing out with the darker part of the filter on the sunrise. James says he went there on several occasions trying to time to low tide as much as he could. He used Canon 1Ds Mark II on a tripod and a 16-35mm lenses set on 20mm.

Coming in third place was Bob Mulligan with his photograph entitled “Neverglades” Bob says the “Neverglades” idea came about in order to fit within the theme of the print competition, “Dreamscapes”. The boardwalk, which is in the Shark Valley area of the Everglades, had a nice diminishing perspective and great wood texture, the photo was exposed in order to practice with his HDR software. Bob then squished the boardwalk in Photoshop’s Liquid filter, he then saw he could have some fun. Birds and gators were standing by in his photo files, so he dragged them out and gave most of them a liquid twist. Only the great white heron was different, his bill got the zig zag filter. “My dreamscape was to be a nightmare! A cartoonish nightmare” Says Bob.

Daniel is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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. Daniel, James and Bob have also earned points in the competition for “Photographer of the Year” Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, April 9th, 2010 to see Daniel’s print is all its glory.

The big monthly winner for February is a brand new South Florida Camera Club member straight from New York City! Coming in First place is Florence Forman with her photograph entitled “Tango Argentino”. Florence created her image in Buenos Aries, Argentina of Jason Perline dancing tango with a tango dancer on the street.

Coming in second place was Daniel  Korzeniewski with his photograph entitled “Intimate Moment”. Daniel created his photo in his home studio using snoot lighting from the top of his subjects.

Coming in third place was Linda  Bernhard with her image entitled “Pigeon Passion”. Linda captured her image at a park in Paris, France of a man feeding pigeons so comfortable with him that they are sitting on his, lap, hands and shoulders.

Florence is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 March. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, March 12th, 2010 to see Florence’s print is all its glory.

Coming in first place for the month of January is no stranger to the winner’s circle! Keith LeBlanc has done it again with his photograph entitled “Gold Rush Fever”. Keith’s photograph was captured out in Utah which is an area of the country that Keith is very found of photographing.

Coming in second place was Inge van Rosmalen with her photograph entitled “Holocaust”. Inge’s haunting photograph was captured at the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial. Coming in third place was Marty Fuchs with his photograph entitled “White Bloom”.

Keith is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 February. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, February 12th 2010 to see Keith’s print is all its glory.

Coming in first place for the month of December was Raul Dominguez with his photograph entitled “Humpty Dumpty”. Raul’s print was from a series of photographs he did photographing eggs in different ways. Raul said this image was his favorite one from the series.

Coming in second place was Keith LeBlanc with his photograph entitled “Desert Storm”. Keith said the annual rain fall in this area is almost zero, so the fact that there were rain clouds in the sky was quite an unexpected treat.  Coming in third place was Jeff Zwickel with his image entitled “Stairway to Heaven”. Jeff took this photograph while on a European vacation cruise aboard the Carnival Freedom.

Raul is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 January. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, January 8th 2010 to see Raul’s print is all its glory.

Results of November’s Photographic Competition.
Coming in first place for the month of November was VIONETTE with her photograph entitled “La Belle Abbesse” which she made on her photographic vacation to Paris last year. After finding out she won, Vionette told me she almost didn’t compete this month because she didn’t know what to compete with, and at the last minute grabbed this winning photograph, got dressed and came out to the camera club meeting.

Coming in second place for the second month in a row was BOB MULLIGAN with his photograph entitled ”Roll and Rock”. Bob made his image at a recording studio in Boca Raton of the owner’s daughter modeling on the floor with a guitar. Coming in third place was CARL LEON PRIME with his photograph entitled “Nika’s Melody” of a nude model he photographed as she played the piano.

Vionette is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 December. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, December 11th 2009 to see Vionette’s print is all its glory.

Results of October’s Photographic Competition.
We have a friendly little competition going on in South Florida Camera Club between two of our members for the most first place wins. Both of these members (JOE MCBROOM and JESSICA SAVIDGE) have been with the club since the beginning, and both are now tied again with five wins apiece. I think Joe and Jessica need to start looking out for JAMES MCCALLUM JR. sneaking up behind them. This year will mark the first year for SFCC that we will also be celebrating “Best Photographer of the Year” along with “Best Photograph of the Year”. The prize for that prestigious title will be announced at the big party!

As you may have figured out by now, October’s first place winner was JESSICA SAVIDGE with her photograph entitled “Daylight”. Jessica made her photograph on an engagement shoot in the early morning on a boat a quarter mile off the coast of Boynton Beach.

Coming in second place was new member BOB MULLIGAN with his photograph entitled “Loxahatchee Sunset”. Bob made his photograph using a composite of two photographs of the sun setting on the Everglades at Loxahatchee. One of the photographs used was of the sun just before it set, and the other was of the boat going by just after the sun set. Coming in third place was Lola Gets! With her photograph entitled “And then there was light”. Lola’s photograph was a self portrait she made using a lamp to light her body.

Jessica is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 November. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, November 13th 2009 to see Jessica’s print is all its glory.

Results of September’s Photographic Competition.
My personal favorite theme of the year “Street Photography” took place this month and the photos entered were awesome! Our winner for the month of September is no stranger to the winners circle with three first place wins just this year. Second place was tie and in the run off the winner of second place took it by just one vote, these competitions can get pretty tight!

Coming in first place was James D. McCallum Jr. with his photo entitled “Street Fantasy”. James’s photograph was captured at the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival that takes place annually in February. James says he took many photographs of this scene at different angles until he was satisfied with the look he wanted.

Coming in second place was Lana Dotsenko with her photograph entitled “Dreamer”. Lana took her photograph at an event that took place at Markham Park near Weston. Coming in third place was Joe McBroom with his photograph entitled “Jesus Christ Loves You”. Joe captured his photograph at a protest that took place in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

James is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, October 9th 2009 to see James’s print is all its glory.

Results of August’s Photographic Competition.
Anything goes for an open themed photographic competition, and that’s just the way things turned out for our August competition with the photographs ranging the spectrum.  Our winner took the runaway lead with fourteen votes! Second place had nine votes, and third place was a tie breaker between two eight vote competitors. So who were our lucky winners for August 2009?

Coming in first place was Sam Robles with his photograph entitled “Eye of the Tiger”. Sam’s photograph is from a series of sports related images he’s been working on. Sam says he shot a ton of photographs before he had accomplished the look he was going for, he then went to work in Photoshop to complete this amazing image!

Coming in second place was brand new SFCC member Bob Mulligan with his photograph entitled “thrilled”. Bob captured his photograph at Butterfly World where he asked a little girl to pose with a butterfly. Coming in third place was Neil Schaffel with his photograph entitled “July 4th North Carolina Style”. Neil captured his photo at an Independence Day party at Westglo Spa in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

Sam is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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 September. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, September 11th 2009 to see Sam’s print is all its glory.

South Florida Camera Club moves to ArtServe!
Because of the rapid growth of South Florida Camera Club we were forced to look for a new location that would be able to hold more people at our meetings. Thanks to the suggestion of SFCC member Lewis Hootin, we will now be holding our meetings at ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale. The meetings will now take place in a large auditorium that can seat over 150 people! In addition to a sound system so we’ll be able to hear our guest speakers clearly, we also have a great system for hanging competition prints on the wall for viewing before voting takes place. Our first meeting at our new location will take place on September 3rd 2009!

ArtServe
1350 East Sunrise Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
Click here for map

New rules for non-members.
In the past we allowed non-members of South Florida Camera Club to attend meetings where we had guest speakers or held workshops for free if it was their first time attending our club. Because of how large our club has become, it is now impossible for me to know anymore if this is the first time or not for non-members, and there are many people taking advantage of this past policy by coming to many meetings for free without joining.

From here on out, all meetings in which we have a guest speaker or are holding a workshop, there will be a $40.00 fee for non-members. Non-members will then have the option to use that $40.00 fee towards a full membership within 30 days. Photographic competitions will remain free for non-members to attend to meet our awesome group of photographers and see what were all about.

Travel Logs
Our travel log presenters for August were Ben Baron and Rick McCawley. Ben’s travel log was from his trip to Germany and Rick presented a travel log from his trip to Costa Rica. If you’re interested in presenting a slide show of one of your travels, please contact Elaine Fitzgerald prior to the second meeting of the month. Elaine can be reached at 954-956-8999.

The theme for July was “The Seven Deadly Sins” and many people were asking what the origin of the seven deadly sins was. Most of us have seen the movie but otherwise had no idea, so to Wikipedia I went where I found the answer.

The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of the most objectionable vices which has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man’s tendency to sin. It consists of “Lust”, “Gluttony”, “Greed”, “Sloth”, “Wrath”, “Envy”, and “Pride”.

The Catholic Church divided sin into two principal categories: “Venial sins”, which are relatively minor, and could be forgiven through any Sacramentals or Sacraments of the church, and the more severe “Capital” or Mortal sins. Mortal sins destroyed the life of grace, and created the threat of eternal damnation unless either absolved through the sacrament of Confession, or forgiven through perfect contrition on the part of the penitent.

Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Christian culture and Christian consciousness in general throughout the world. One means of such ingraining was the creation of the mnemonic “SALIGIA” based on the first letters in Latin of the seven deadly sins: superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, gula, ira, acedia.

Now that we know the answer to this question it’s time to get to our winners for this exciting competition! Coming in first place was Lola Gets! With her photograph entitled “The Sin”. Lola didn’t create this self-portrait for this competition, but it sure was perfect for the theme and one of the many reasons it came in first place.

Coming in second was Kenneth Alvarez with his photograph entitled “Wrath”. Kenneth created this image with a model that was looking for a distinctive look for a project she was working on. Coming in third place was Same Robles with his photograph entitled “Sloth”. Sam created this image specifically for this competition using a friend as a model. If you look at the image closely you can even see a rat in the background!

Lola Gets! is now eligible to win a brand new Nikon D300s or Canon 7D 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. Make sure to attend the Gallery Night Party on Friday, August 14th to see Lola’s print is all its glory.