Tonight’s topic:  Photography Goals

We’ve done this for the past several years, and have had a great discussion!  It is a great way to start the year.  (Credit for the original idea came from the Worcester Photography Meetup group)

The topic for our September Education Night will be a discussion about our individual artistic goals for the coming year  This meeting will start at 7:30 pm and take place at 17 Fox Hill Drive in Natick as usual.

I’m starting with the assumption that we all have our own ideas and our own pace.  We don’t all work the same way, and different approaches help each of us be productive.  That said, it is generally helpful to envision where you’d like to be in a year’s time and to express it in your own words.  This will be an open-ended discussion, including:

• What type of goals do you want to set for yourself?  Will you have succeeded if you produce a certain number of pieces, if you complete a specific project, or if you spend the desired number of hours each week.  How will you decide that your goal has been achieved?

• How much detail to you want and/or need?  Is it enough for you to just state your goal, or would it be helpful for you to identify some interim steps (milestones) in the direction of your goal?

• Would it help you to put your goals down in writing, or are you more comfortable just discussing them?  Would you be comfortable sharing your written goals with the group?  Would this help you?

• What can NELP do to support you and encourage you?  What can you do to support and encourage the rest of us?

• How often would you like to discuss progress towards your goals?  Annually?  Quarterly?  Monthly?

Please give a little thought to the above, and come prepared to discuss your goals (if you have any) for the coming year and how NELP can support you.  Please come even if you’re not sure what you want to set as goals (spectators welcome).  I’d like to have as many different perspectives represented at the meeting as possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tonight’s topic:  Elyssa Conley will present “Creating Abstracts With Photoshop”

Elyssa will demonstrate the Photoshop Twirl technique along with some more advanced variations that can be used to create stunning abstract images from ordinary photographs.  Recent versions of Photoshop include more than two dozen blend modes, which each blend a layer with the ones below it in a different way.  There are also a wide variety of filters used in this technique including: distort, pixelate (Mezzotint) and stylizing the image.  When these effects are combined, the possibilities are endless!

For example …

Please join us on Monday (November 28) at 7:30 pm for the next NELP Education Night.  This month we’re having our annual “Book Night”.  Books offer so much by way of inspiration and technique, and this is an opportunity to learn from each other about book’s we’ve found useful.  Each year, we look at books from a different perspective, similar to the themes for our Image Review nights.

For this year’s Book Night, I’d like to focus the discussion on composition.  If please bring a book that illustrates image composition techniques that you find useful or interesting.

Option: If you don’t have (or can’t find) a book you’d like to share with the group, you can share a Web site or article with us instead.  If you wish to do this, please send me an email with the URL prior to the meeting.

Tonight’s topic:  Discussion: High-key and low-key images

Tonight’s topic: Movie Night

Please join us for our annual Movie Night—we’ll be streaming a movie via Netflix or Amazon.  You’re welcome to bring some refreshments to share with the group – just let me know what you’re bringing so I don’t duplicate.  I’ll provide cups and paper goods.  You’re also welcome to bring your dinner with you if you wish.

The following movies feature the theme of photography in some way.  I’ve added some new movies that I recently became aware of, and removed ones that are no longer available.  Feel free to bring any other suggestions to the meeting.  We’ll choose one of the available options, based on a consensus of those who are attending.

• Chasing Ice (2012)
• Tales By Light (2016-7, series)
• Abstract (2017, series)
• Everybody Street (2013)
• Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
• What Remains: Life & Work of Sally Mann (2005)
• Fred Lyon: Living Through The Lens (2013)
• Bending The Light (2016)

On previous Movie Nights we’ve watched Monk with a Camera,  Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and Public Eye.  Please join us for an enjoyable evening.

Tonight’s topic:  Photography Goals

We’ve done this for the past several years, and have had a great discussion!  It is a great way to start the year.  (Credit for the original idea came from the Worcester Photography Meetup group)

The topic for our September Education Night will be a discussion about our individual artistic goals for the coming year  This meeting will start at 7:30 pm and take place at 17 Fox Hill Drive in Natick as usual.

I’m starting with the assumption that we all have our own ideas and our own pace.  We don’t all work the same way, and different approaches help each of us be productive.  That said, it is generally helpful to envision where you’d like to be in a year’s time and to express it in your own words.  This will be an open-ended discussion, including:

• What type of goals do you want to set for yourself?  Will you have succeeded if you produce a certain number of pieces, if you complete a specific project, or if you spend the desired number of hours each week.  How will you decide that your goal has been achieved?

• How much detail to you want and/or need?  Is it enough for you to just state your goal, or would it be helpful for you to identify some interim steps (milestones) in the direction of your goal?

• Would it help you to put your goals down in writing, or are you more comfortable just discussing them?  Would you be comfortable sharing your written goals with the group?  Would this help you?

• What can NELP do to support you and encourage you?  What can you do to support and encourage the rest of us?

• How often would you like to discuss progress towards your goals?  Annually?  Quarterly?  Monthly?

Please give a little thought to the above, and come prepared to discuss your goals (if you have any) for the coming year and how NELP can support you.  Please come even if you’re not sure what you want to set as goals (spectators welcome).  I’d like to have as many different perspectives represented at the meeting as possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tonight’s topic:  Critique the masters

Please bring a few images from a photographer you admire (famous or not famous). We will critique these images the same way as our own work. We might ask:

• What makes the image work?

• Where is it weak?

• Does the cropping work?

• Presented with the same setting what might you do differently?

• If an older image, would it be more or less powerful if created today?

Please bring electronic files of each image (not web links) to keep the same flow of the critique as we normally have. You can get these files by saving the image from a web page*, or using one of the sites listed under the “Resources” link at the top of this page.

– Jere {jere[dot]williams(at]yahoo[dot)com}

—

* Before saving from a web page keep clicking on the image until it reaches its maximum size, then “Save image as” (right click mouse on PC, click and hold on Mac). Rename to something sensible, as names of these files tend to be garbage.

Tonight’s topic: Movie Night

Please join us for our annual Movie Night—we’ll be streaming a movie via Netflix or Amazon.  You’re welcome to bring some refreshments to share with the group – just let me know what you’re bringing so I don’t duplicate.  I’ll provide cups and paper goods.  You’re also welcome to bring your dinner with you if you wish.

The following movies and documentaries feature the theme of photography in some way.  I’ve added some new titles that I recently became aware of, and removed ones that are no longer available.  Feel free to bring any other suggestions to the meeting, or bring a DVD/Blu Ray disc if you have one you’d like to share.  We’ll choose one of the available options, based on a consensus of those who are attending.

Movies

• Closer (2004)  [A]
• City of God (2002)  [N]
• High Art (1998)  [A]
• Rear Window (1954)  [A]

Documentaries

• Chasing Coral (2017)  [N]
• The Art of Photography Artist Series (2016-17)  [A]
• Chasing The Light (2016)  [A]
• The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (2016)  [N]
• Bending The Light (2016)  [A]
• Finding Vivian Maier (2013)  [A]

FYI – There’s an interesting list of 40 movies featuring photography here.

On previous Movie Nights we’ve watched Monk with a Camera,  Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and Public Eye.  Please join us for an enjoyable evening.

Tonight’s topic: Visit Boston Museum of Fine Arts

For the April Education Night, we’re visiting the MFA!  For anyone who is not familiar with it, this is the largest art museum in the Boston area and it is recognized as one of the best art museums in the US.  The museum’s collection currently includes nearly 450,000 works of art!  See more information on the museum here.  This special Education Night will be held at a special date/time: Sunday, April 29 @ 2:00 pm.

There is a photography exhibit titled (un)expected families in Gallery 169/170.  You can see a preview of these photos here.  There is also an exhibit of drawings by M. C. Escher, in Gallery 155, as described here.  Both of these exhibits are on the first floor of the museum, per this map.  You are, of course, welcome to take a look at any of the other exhibits that interest you.  (I’ve always enjoyed the Asia exhibits.)

We’ll meet at the Huntington Street Entrance at 2:00 pm.  If you happen to arrive a bit late – not a problem – just join us in one of the above galleries.

Please join us for an enjoyable afternoon at the MFA.

Tonight’s topic:  Images from Cuba by Conrad Gees

Conrad showed us a few of his images from recent trips to Cuba at a recent Image Review night.  For this month’s Education Night, Conrad will talk about this interesting project. Here’s a summary of this presentation, from Conrad …

Havana is in the midst of dramatic change. There is some truth in the statement, it is a city frozen in time. This is clearly evident in the American cars from the 50’s, & the storefronts with their limited consumer goods, but it is a characterization which can lead one to a false sense of sentimentality or condescension.

The 1961 US embargo of goods going to Cuba has clearly limited its economic development, but Havana today is not the Havana of 1961. Rather it is the outgrowth of the 1959 Revolution & Cold War which forced it’s inhabitants to develop in ways they can speak of with pride as well as longing for more.

I concentrated on the sections known as “Habana Vieja,” & “Centro Habana” now UN World Heritage Sites, deciding to document not only the buildings but the people. Their homes, the means by which they get food, electricity & water, & even the newly sanctioned private entrepeneurs left me, an American with many privileges, awed & humbled by the resilience & ingenuity of the “Habaneros”

I will bring images of the city and it’s people as aids to talk about some the experiences I had while there. In particular I’ll focus on the last bit of work I’ve been developing; Cuba: Person to Person (Snap Encounters on the Streets of Havana. Following is the artist’s statement for that work.

“People to People Exchange,” check. This was the box I marked when asked by U.S. Customs for the reason I was traveling to Cuba. Although it allowed me to travel from the U.S. to Cuba it was a half-truth.

People to People as defined by the U.S. Customs regulations implies organized tours by groups of Americans planning cultural exchanges with groups of Cubans to foster better understanding between our two countries. I was traveling by myself with no planned agenda other than to wander the streets of Havana and experience what I could. Was I representative of my country? Yes, but certainly not the “People” and I make no claims that these images represent the “People” of Cuba.

These photographs are simply a record of chance encounters I had with individuals on the streets of Habana Vieja and Centro Habana. Written down are the exchanges I had, along with thoughts, questions and insights gained from these encounters, and in that is a universality that we as humans share whenever we meet “Person to Person.”