About the Club
About Us
Meetings
Officers
Overview
Program Calendar
Guidelines
Contact
Library/weather
Directions
 
Other (onsite) pages
contests
Links Page
member night
More Links
PhotoShop
Software
Future

Somerset County Photography Club
http://somersetcountyphotoclub.org/

*

Opening Comments for 2011-2012

Assigned Topics for 2011-2012

Children / Babies [Oct 11]
Food Markets [Dec 13]
Patterns & Designs [Jan 10]
Waterfalls [Feb 14]
Black&White;     Leading Lines [Mar 13]
Nature [Apr 10]
Flowers [May 16*] (* date change)

Our meeting location is the Bound Brook Memorial Library meeting on the 2nd & 4th Tuesday evenings.  We will be starting our meetings at 7:00 PM because we have to vacate the building before 9 PM[Street Map] [Bound Brook area]

We are now able to project digital images for competitions and presentations.  Members will still able to submit prints for competitions as follows:  Three digital images per maker per contest submitted up to and including the day before our meeting.  Prints will compete separately with a limit of  three prints per maker per contest.

Because of more emphasis on digital media, we will have one presentations relating to digital photography.

Important Notice:  Geocities no longer hosts websites since Oct 26, 2010, and incidentally hadn't allowed archiving since 2004, so we have relocated site from http://www.geocities.com/somersetcountyphotoclub to http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com (best to link directly to this page as fhttp://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/index.htm).

 Skip this page, go to Links 

Program for 2011 - 2012  (#planning)

About the Club  (#aboutclub)

Our meeting place was changed Sept 2007

We will continue meeting at the Bound Brook Memorial Library  and our meetings start at 7:00PM on the 2nd & 4th Tuesday evenings.  Please come earlier for informal discussions, but we must start at 7:00PM because we have to vacate the building by 9PM.  [Street Map] [Bound Brook area]

No program changes are currently anticipated, but this HTML document will be more up to date than our flyer (but not before the flyer has been printed), and will include names of judges as they become know.

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About Us  (#aboutus)

The Somerset County Photography Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the appreciation and enjoyment of photography.  Competitions and critiques include projected digital images, as well as prints.  Presentations include instructional meetings, travelogues and other shows by club and out-side speakers.  We are affiliated with the New Jersey Federation of Camera Clubs.  Annual dues are $30.

Our club is affiliated with the New Jersey Federation of Camera Clubs (NJFCC), which maintains a list of member clubs in New Jersey and a few clubs close to NJ in Staten Island and PA.

Most of our membership is in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties and nearby areas of Middlesex County.

Meetings  (#meetings)

The club meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, September through June, at the Bound Brook Memorial Library in Bound Brook, NJ.  -- Guests and visitors are welcome:
Presentations and Competitions are open to the public, only members may submit prints or projected images for competition.  Guests are encouraged to come in at least 15 minutes before 7:00 P.M. to discuss photography with members – bringing in some of your pictures adds interest. 

Meetings begin promptly at 7:00 P.M. -- (Digital projected media must be submitted online on or before the day prior to the competition.  We must leave by 9:00 PM.

Not getting your club email:  Try emailing yourself to see if it gets through, maybe your mailbox is full, maybe you changed your ISP, maybe you gave us your old email address (or meant .net instead of .com).  If you change your email, or other contact information don't forget to tell us.

Officers  (#officers)

  President:David McRitchie
  First Vice President:Anthony Peluso  (Presentations)
  Second Vice President:Evelyn Wahl  (Judges)
  Treasurer:George Hall   (also NJFCC Delegate)

SCPC -- 2011-2012 Overview  (#overview)

First meeting of the 2011-2012 year:  (Show & Tell)
  Tue Sept 13 Open House: Bring samples of your Summer vacation images or anything you want to display.  This is not a competition so you can submit 12-18 images for projection of pictures plus additional prints which can be in albums or mounted. 
At the September 14 meeting returning members, guests, and visitors are welcome to participate in a "show and tell" of what they've been doing.  About 8-18 projected images (digital) from each person should be fine.  Tables will be set up to help with display of prints, which can be any number, and can be in albums.

Competition nights:  During the 2011-2012 club year:
There will be Eight competition nights which will each have an Assigned Topic and an Open competition for digital projected images and for prints. 

Preparation of digital images for contests.  Images will be projected at 768 pixels on the long side as described at http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/contests.htm, and it would be best to do your own resizing even though the software will do some limited resizing.  Directions on that web page tell you how to resize and submit your digital images for projection.

Deadline for projected images:  Try to at least aim for the Sunday before the contest, images will be accepted the day before the contest but not later.  The limit is 3 images per contest.  Show and Tell and critiques will allow additional images. 

Your email address must have been entered into the server by the administrator for your images to be accepted on the server.  If you have never submitted digital images before, be sure to submit them well ahead of time to be sure that you have been set up properly.  (see our contests page)

Prints:  and separate print competitions (3 prints total per contest per maker), Prints must be 8"x10" up to 16"x20", digital prints are eligible. 

Judge(s) may be an outside judge or a club member, and will be announced before each competition. 

To print the Program make a selection using left+drag, Ctrl+drag, Ctrl+shift the selection area does not need to be contiguous. Then click on this link → view selection *

2011 - 2012 Program Calendar  (#calendar)

2011 - 2012 Program Calendar - Somerset County Photography Club
2nd & 4th Tues 7:00 PM at the Bound Brook Memorial Library
website:  http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/index.htm
Contact:  David McRitchie, 732-469-8481, dmcritchie @ verizon . net

SEPTEMBER, 2011
13:  Show and Tell:  12-20 samples of recent work
      (Please get your projected images submitted well before the meeting date,
      you need to be entered into the system before you can submit images to
      the server.)
27: Presentation: "Enjoying Street Photography -- Discussion/Techniques/Tips" by Arik Gorban [flyer] [handouts: notes, rights, legal]

OCTOBER, 2011
11:  Competitions:  Children / Babies & Open,  Judge:  Jerry Fornaratta
25:  Presentation:  "Photo Composition Workshop" by Phil Witt [flyer]

NOVEMBER, 2011
08:  (Election Day -- No Meeting)
22:  Presentation:  Olympics & Sports Photographer, Ron Wyatt [site][bio][C-N Oct. 21, 2011]

DECEMBER, 2011
13:  Competitions:  Food Markets & Open,  Judge:  Brien Szabo
27:  No Meeting - Happy Holidays!

JANUARY, 2012
10:  Competitions:  Patterns and Designs & Open,  Judge:  Dave Mills
24:  Member critique

FEBRUARY, 2012
14:  Competitions:  Water Falls & Open,  Judge:  John Sandstedt
28:  Presentation:  "Self Assignments -- Challenging yourself to become a better Photographer" by Brien Szabo (links)

MARCH, 2012
13:  Competitions:  Black&White   &   Leading Lines,  Judge:  Nat Clymer
27:  Presentation:  "Off-Camera Flash on Location -- Still Life" by Anthony Bianciella [bio] ...

APRIL, 2012
10:  Competitions:  Nature & Open,  Judge:  Klaus Dieter Schleim [bio]
24:  Presentation:  "Intro to Histograms" by Tibor Vari [bio]

QR code
MAY, 2012 competition meeting rescheduled -- library closed May 8th
16: (Wed) Competitions:  Flowers & Open,  Judge:  Howard Knauer (rescheduled from May 8)
22:  Presentation:  "Landscape in Art and Photography" By Harry James

JUNE, 2012
12:  End of Year Competition -- Digital Images and Prints;  Judges:  Terry Antoniewicz, and Bill Newkirk.
26:  Planning Meeting for 2012-2013 Season; all members welcome

Club Members as Presenters: This area (and judge/speaker links above) will be updated after brochure is printed.

Ed Barry, began teaching photography courses locally in 1976, workshops in 1989, and is a past president of SCPC (1982-1985), last gave a presentation entitled “Using Color as Both the Primary and Supporting Themes in Photography!”.

Arik Gorban has been judging competitions and giving presentations throughout NJ for clubs with the New Jersey Federation of Camera Clubs, is very active in photopoints.com and his website is www.agphotoworks.com.  Arik is a past president of SCPC, gave the presentation “Bad Weather Photography”, and last year gave “Digital Photography – Tools of the Trade” on Nov 23, 2010, and this year "Enjoying Street Photography" [Doc] on Sept 27, 2011.

Harry James, next presentation will be on May 22, 2012, “Landscape in Art and Photograhy” -- Land expresses itself in rocks, waterfalls, forests, clouds, heights, vistas, reflections, sunsets… and the list goes on. Why do we go out into wild land, to visit and spend time in it? And what do we hope for when we make images of the natural landscape? — This presentation will examine images of the natural landscape from the 1800’s to the present. We will view images of the North American landscape made by painters and photographers in many styles including utopian, dystopian, pictorialist, realist, abstract, surreal, expressionist and impressionist. The images and ideas will invigorate your own landscape photography.

Last year Harry presented on April 26th, 2011, “A Study of the Styles of Famous People-Photographers”.   Description: To inspire our people photography we will look at the photographs of people taken by five famous photographers.  The study will include portraits, candids and street photography.  Though some of the work is photojournalism, the selected photos will focus more on people and less on events.  The photographers surveyed: Walker Evans, in a style he called documentary, took his most famous photos of poor people in the rural South during the Depression.  Henri Cartier-Bresson did street photography and also portraits in France and the USA.  He said he was looking for the moment of inner silence in his subjects who he called his "willing victims." From 1936 to 1975 Charles "Teenie" Harris photographed life in the black neighborhoods of Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Courier.  Arnold Newman was noted for his portraits of artists and politicians in the "environmental" style, where the surroundings of the subject add to the composition and the understanding of the subject.  And finally, William Klein, who is famous for his street photography in a style he called pseudo-ethnography, produced photobooks on his wanderings through Rome, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and New York.

Last year Harry gave his first club presentation on one of his favorite techniques “High Dynamic Range Imaging” on Nov 24, 2009.   The HDR process is an answer of sorts to the frequent problem of capturing high range scenes with low range camera sensors.  The presentation gave an overview the HDR process, showing many examples of the process and the results.

Phil Witt, "Photo Composition Workshop", October 25, 2011, basic principles of composition--rule of thirds, watching the edges of the images, capturing the moment, choice of focal length, and so on. Participants will learn what equipment can be used to achieve different effects. By the end of the workshop participants will understand lenses, camera bodies (mostly digital single-lens reflex cameras), megapixels, shutter speeds, f/stops, focal lengths, apertures, exposure histograms, and depth of field - and how all of these can be used to take good nature photographs. Beyond equipment, the workshop will begin to cover the principles of composition and digital editing. Although the focus will be on nature photography, many of the same principles and equipment needs apply to other kinds of photography as well. Phil Witt and Dave DesRochers run a series of Digital Photography Workshops at the NJ Audubon center in Bernardsville, next series will begin Sat. 10/22, in case any of our members are interested.

Other Speakers and Judges: Many of our speakers have web sites, click on the links in the program and on our links page.

If a presenter or judge has their own photography website please use contact email so it can be added to our site somewhere on links page.

Guidelines  (#guidelines)

Open Competition:  Pictorial no restrictions.

Nature Competition (PSA rules):  must not show the hand of man, no man made trails, roads, structures, power lines, cultivated plants.  No people, no domesticated animals.

Assigned Topic Competition:  subject must fit the assigned topic, please don't make the club or the judge disqualify your entries.

Entered as Critique only (not for points):  some members prefer to have their work critiqued only without assignment of points, so for each contest there will be an alternative critique only topic.  Essentially dropped for lack of use, can be easily reactivated upon member request, but including it had been confusing new members.

Member Nights:  Even less formal than our other informal meetings, as always members, guests, and walk-ins welcome.  No restrictions on print sizes, can be shown in albums.  We will try to have an extra table or two.  To make viewing easier by members.

Submissions:
Projected image total per contest topic per maker limit is three, and prints total per contest topic per maker is also three.  In order to separate critique only images they will be entered as if they are a separate "contest" for their topic, because that is how they would be treated so as not to confuse the judge, and certainly that is how it must be done for software.

Year End Competition:  Entries that placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, HM, and with 8 points and above are all eligible for year end competition.

Contact Information  (#contact)

Somerset County Photography Club
c/o David McRitchie
410 West Maple Avenue
Bound Brook, NJ 08805-1209

website:  http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/index.htm

Phone:  (732) 469-8481 email: send email

The email link above will only work if JavaScript is turned on.  If JavaScript is turned off type this address into your email --> (electronic mail, address must be typed not copied into email)

Not getting your club email:  Try emailing yourself to see if it gets through, maybe your mailbox is full, maybe you changed your ISP, maybe you gave us your old email address (or meant .net instead of .com).  If you change your email, or other contact information don't forget to tell us.

Library closings due to Weather or other Causes  (#weather)

The Bound Brook Memorial Library may close due to weather conditions.  Such decisions are usually made before 3 PM, compatible with businesses in the area.  Although the library will try to notify a member of the club this may not always be successful.  If in doubt call the main number at the library, if the library is closing early the recorded announcement would be changed.

Directions to Our Meeting Place at the ...  (#directions)

Bound Brook Memorial Library
402 E. High St (corner of E. High and Hamilton)
Bound Brook, NJ 08805
(732) 356-0043

 
[Street Map] [Area Map]     Maps are dragable:  Click and hold on an open area of map and drag to change the centering, use mouse wheel to zoom in or out.

From the North on Route 287: (Exit #13, Bound Brook)
Left turn at end of ramp (traffic light) onto Union Avenue (Route 28).
The fifth light is Mountain Ave, continue past.
  (control light over 287, Tea St, Thompson Ave, Vosseller, Mountain, East Street)
Turn right onto East Street at the very next light.
Take the second right onto High Street.  Library is on left-side
Parking is in the street.

From the South on Route 287 (Exit #13B, Bound Brook)
Enter Union Ave (Route 28) heading East
The fourth light is Mountain Ave, continue past.
  (Tea St, Thompson Ave, Vosseller, Mountain, East Street)
Turn right onto East Street at the very next light.
Take the second right onto High Street.  Library is on left-side
Parking is in the street.

From the East on Route 22 West
Take the exit for "Bound Brook, U.S. Veterans Hospital, Mountain Avenue",
Turn right toward Bound Brook at end of ramp.
You will be on Mountain Ave heading South.
Continue past the traffic light at Union Ave (Route 28).
Pass Somerset Street on the left.
Turn left onto High Street.
The library is on the next full intersection.
Parking is in the street.

From the West on Route 22 East
Take the exit for Bound Brook you will be on
You will be on Mountain Ave.
Continue past the traffic light at Union Ave (Route 28).
Pass Somerset Street on the left.
Turn left onto High Street.
The library is on the next full intersection.  Parking is in the street.

NEW Parking Restrictions
There are new 2 hour parking regulations near the library, so watch where and when you park.  The purpose is to ease the parking situation for the library but will impact anyone parking on both sides of E. High in the block in front of the library before 7PM on both sides.  Parking on Hamilton and on the other side of Hamilton for E. High is okay after 6 PM. The entrance we use is on E. High.  There are signs posted. 

The meeting room is at the top of the stairways to left of the check-out counter.

Small restroom facility is immediately to the left of the check-out counter.


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Watch That Page  (#watchthatpage)

If you want to know when the content on this page or other pages of interest change you can set up a free account at Watch That Page and you can choose the frequency that you want Watch That Page to check for updates such as daily or weekly, and the url and changed text will appear in an email to you if any of the pages you are watching get changed.  For instance if you wanted to keep tabs on this page, the links page, and the NJFCC newsletter you might create two folders and place the urls within those folders.  For example:

NJFCC (folder)
   http://www.njfcc.org/cable_release.htm
   http://www.njfcc.org/photorama.htm

Somerset County Photography Club (folder)
   http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/index.htm
   http://somersetcountyphotoclub.bravehost.com/scpc_links.htm

When you review your list at the "Pages" tab at Watch That Page, the "http://" prefix will not be shown, and the webpage title will appear on the right side.  When you receive email of changed pages you are also provided links for reviewing/changing your profile, and watched pages.

Viewing Requirements of some webpages linked from here (#viewing)

The following must be allowed in hosts file.  The “#” at the beginning in the hosts file will comment out entire line.
#127.0.0.1 images.secureserver.net #to view pictures on GoDaddy.com

The following may be added to hosts file to reenable viewing of this page without severe annoyances. 
127.0.0.1 kronos.bravenetmedia.com #huge wandering ad
127.0.0.1 redvase.bravenet.com #popunder ad and neverending page loading

Firefox users can further protect themselves with the Adblock Plus extension, and the EasyList filter subscription, plus these filters.
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Viewing Suggestions for PDF format files  (#pdf)

An abbreviated HTML listing with just the 2011-2012 program can be brought up for viewing and printing (it may not be up to date).

PDF and/or printed copies of our program are not currently available. The last printed version was **2010-2011 Program in PDF formatAcrobat (Service Mark) Portable Document Format.  Such copies were never corrected during the year. 

The following directions may be useful in viewing PDF formatted files such as from the New Jersey Federation of Camera Clubs, "Cable Release", newsletters.

Best viewing of PDF files is directly through the Adobe Acrobat Reader,  use "Ctrl+L" to toggle to/from full screen viewing, use "Ctrl+2" for full width, "Esc" will return to normal view.  Suggest setting options on View menu to Single Page, and fit width ("Ctrl+2"). To toggle (navigation) thumbnail images at left use "F4" (View>Zoom>Reflow).  To toggle the toolbar off/on during a session use "F8" or "Ctrl+H" for Read Mode. Use "F9" to toggle menu bar. 

For more PDF keyboard shortcuts see Accessibility Features in your Adobe Help ("F1").

Restore missing underscored letters in menus (turned off by default in Windows 7) (item #9 approximately)

For those that prefer to use browser plug-ins:  Use "F11" for full screen viewing,  use "F11" once more to return to normal view within your browser.


Contact Information

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