Photo Essay 2009

Save the date: March 22, 2009 (2-5 pm, Sunday afternoon). The Rossmoor Camera Club at Leisure World of Maryland, as part of its Sunday Slide Matinee Series, will host the 25th Annual NBCC Photo Essay 2009 program in Clubhouse II Auditorium at Leisure World. Note this is a private, invitational event open only to members of North Bethesda Camera Club, Rossmoor Camera Club, their guests, and residents of Leisure World of Maryland.

Photo Essay 2008

On Sunday, March 18th, 2008, NBCC presented its 24th annual photo essay program. As an adjunct to the NBCC’s community outreach efforts, this year’s program was again shared with the Leisure World of MD Rossmoor Camera Club and the residents of Leisure World. To facilitate this, Rossmoor Camera Club invited NBCC to present the 2008 Photo Essay program as a presentation at the Rossmoor’s Sunday Slide Matinee Series. This year’s photo essay program was arguably the best photo essay show presented by NBCC. The show drew an audience of 300, nearly a full house. Attendees included Rossmoor Camera Club members, NBCC members, Leisure World residents and guests. We are grateful to the Rossmoor Camera Club, and its President, Dave Young, for inviting us to be a part of their ongoing Slide Matinee Series, and to the staff at Leisure World for their assistance.

The show included twenty essays created by club members, plus introductions prepared by Tom Field and Frank Herzog. First-time essayists prepared many of the photo essays - and they were outstanding. Those submitting essays for the second or third time showed noticeable improvements in artistic and technical aspects. We are all continuing to learn how to use this format for sharing. One essayist, Dave Davidson, has posted his essay on the photodex.com website. Others may follow.

During the intermission – and after the NBCC-supplied refreshments, an essay -- including all the winning images from NBCC’s 2006-7 electronic projection competitions -- was shown.

Thanks to all who prepared essays and attended the event. Thanks to our hosts, the Rossmoor Camera Club. And special thanks to those workers behind the scenes who made the program possible, including the Production Team: Tom Field and Frank Herzog; the Creative Advisors: Gordie Corbin, Judy Switt and Nikhil Bahl; the Hospitality Team: Gene Haddon, John Barnes, Bev Gordon, Jean Hanson and Marilyn Jacox; the RCC-NBCC Liaison: Bob Dargel, and Dave Young, President of RCC.

Below is the list of this year’s essays:

The Maryland Renaissance Festival, by David and Wicca Davidson
White Water Paddling: Great Falls and Mather Gorge, by Roy Sewall
Views of Argentina: Sights, Ceremony & Symbols, by Les Trachtman
Robyn’s Garden, by Melissa Clark
Birds by the Water, by Nikhil Bahl
Arizona’s Colors, by Bill Richards
Kremlin: Inside and Out, by Mark Segal
Wyoming Winter, by Gigi Halloran
On Stage 2, by Alex Guo
New York: The Way I See It, by Tatiana Watson
Signs of Our Times (Get the Message?), by Janet Myder Hammack
Faces Along China’s Silk Road, by Don Martell
Hybrids and Surreal, by Shereen Kopp
Colorado Plateau, by John Burgess
A Tale of Two Cities: Paris and Buenos Aires, by José Cartas
Leaf Impressions, by Carl Root
Golden Week: Spring Break in Japan, by Jean Hanson
Fantasy Flight, by Jim Hawkins
This Ole House, by Gordie Corbin and Judy Switt
Canadian Rockies, by Tom Field

Photo Essay 2007

On Sunday, March 18th, NBCC celebrated its 42nd anniversary, and presented its 23rd annual photo essay show. This time, like the previous year, the show was all electronic projection. But this year, in an effort to reach to a broader community, the show was presented in the Leisure World of MD auditorium, as part of the Leisure World’s Rossmoor Camera Club Sunday Slide Matinee Series. This showing attracted an estimated 300 camera club members, Leisure World Residents and guests.

Twenty-two photo essays were presented. Each show began with a short introduction about the maker, and the essay topic. These introductions included several photos of the maker, along with narrations that were pre-recorded by our own Frank Herzog. Frank's narrations added life and vitality to the introductions.

During the latter part of the intermission, the photo essay from NBCC's 2006 annual dinner was shown. This essay consisted of the images that were winners in the electronic competitions during the 2005-2006 year.

Topics presented at Photo Essay 2007 included: the old town of Prague, the wonders of Yellowstone National Park, photo editing -- before and after, Norway's Waters, colorful and chaotic India, the "waltz of the flowers", ancient Cappadocia in Turkey, Bastille Day at Dominick's in DC, the photojournalistic "decisive moment" in black and white, the West Virginia wilderness, Smokey Mountain National Park, whimsical essays on vegetable sculpture and Disneyworld in August, wild Michigan, Abstract and Surreal images, Tuscany, variations on a theme of blue, images from the air, underwater images from the Caribbean, and the western deserts of Xinjiang in China.

Audience members commented how professional the whole show was, and how diverse the individual essays were. Many thanks to all who participated, to the Rossmoor Camera Club and the Leisure World staff, and to the team that put the production together.