OLLI Clubs

OLLI Photo Club – Email Voting Procedures v2

April 21, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OPC Email Voting Procedure

Under those circumstances when the OPC 2nd Friday meeting is not held, voting for the Photo of the Month will take place via email. The procedure for email voting is as follows:

Candidates. Review the current month’s competition slideshow to select an image.
1. Click March 2020 Slideshow to be taken to this month’s slideshow gallery.
Selection. Note your selected image’s Number and Title which is found on the “Thumbnail Collage” image, the first image in the slideshow gallery (sample below).

**-- Thumbnail Collage of Candidate Photos --**

Ballot. Create an email following this example:

To: [email protected]
Subject: OPC Photo of the Month Vote
Email Body:
8 [this is the Image Number]
Tangle Creek Morning [this is the Image Title]

Submission. Send the email between the hours of 6 PM Thursday (eve of competition) and 10 AM Friday (day of competition).

Notes.

Numbering. USE NUMBERS ONLY FROM THE THUMBNAIL COLLAGE.

Automated Replies. Members will receive an automated reply a few minutes after sending the first email. The second email sent will have no reply.

Image Upload Period. Upload of images for the competition will be accepted only until 12 PM, Thursday noon before the 2^nd Friday.

Winner Announcement. The “Four Tops” gallery will be populated by noon on the day of voting (the first image in the Four Tops gallery is the winner). The winner will also be announced via email shortly thereafter.

Voting Rules. One vote per person and everyone votes.

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Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OLLI Photo Club - Photo Ops

April 6, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

Photo Ops

A list of opportunities for using the camera. The intention is to identify temporary exhibits, fairs, or other events not routinely available to the photographer. The list will resume its currency upon the end of our social isolation.

Photo Exhibitions in Washington, D.C.

American Association for the Advancement of Science HQ: “Nature’s Witness - National Wildlife Federation Exhibition” through February 28. The NWF has selected 50 images from its National Wildlife Photo Contest, a competition that celebrates the power of photography to advance conservation and connect both photographers and viewers with wildlife and nature.

National Geographic Museum: “Women: A Century of Change” through May 10. Photographs depicting women from around the globe, demonstrating what it means to be female.

National Museum of the American Indian: “Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” through June 7. An exhibition of the works of Rusel Daniels, one of three Native American photographers whose work focuses on issues in contemporary Native life.

National Portrait Gallery: “In Mid-Sentence” through March 8. An exhibition of photographs from the gallery’s collection, including public speeches, jokes, intimate conversations, lectures and political confrontations.

National Portrait Gallery: “Women of Progress: Early Camera Portraits, through May 31. An exhibition of ambrotypes and daguerreotypes from the 1840’s and 1850’s featuring portraits of iconic feminists Lucy Stone and Margaret Fuller, author Harriet Beecher Stow and abolitionist Lucretia Mott.

This one sounds weird:
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: “Challenging the Face of Science: The Bearded Lady Project” through April 30. An exhibition of 38 large-format, black and white female paleontologists conducting research while wearing fake beards, challenging preconceived notions on what professional scientists should look like.

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OLLI Photo Club - WIFT Themes

April 6, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

WIFT Themes

A reference of photography themes for social distancing times.

People and Other Animals

Social Distancing survival activities
- Neighbors walking, families bicycling, basketball games on driveways, etc.
Groups: Lines at grocery stores, dispersed gatherings at parks, the new rush hour, etc.
People and pets in cars at stop lights
Animals (Pets, Birds, forest creatures, bugs, etc.)

Places

One’s own backyard
Neighborhoods
Parks (Huntley Meadows, Lake Accotink, Burke Lake, Royal Lake, etc.)
Historical Cities (like Aldie, the old parts of Fairfax City, Alexandria, Clifton, Burke Station, Middleburg (cemetery), Clifton, Upperville (cemetery), Upperville (with cemetery), etc.)
New Cities (Fairfax City, Vienna, Tyson’s, Mosaic Center, Reston, etc.)
GMU Campus
Churches in Alexandria (see Google map)
Country and Urban Landscapes

Things

Celebrations (Easter, Passover, also see Observances in USA)
Spring blooms. (They're everywhere, let's see flowers!)
Mailboxes (unique designs, surrounded by plants, things repurposed as mailboxes)
Food
Railroads
Artwork (graffiti, public art, private art, art in one’s home)
Architecture
Historical churches and other buildings
Abandoned or decaying buildings
Astrophotography (religious observations based on earth/lunar cycles, flowers by moonlight)
Pre-, current-, and post-COVID photos
Transportation

Purposes

Portfolios
Exhibits (print and digital)
Education and Training (E&T)

Techniques or Genres

Conceptual Photography
- Conceptual Photography (Wikipedia)
- Conceptual Art (Wikipedia)
- E.g., Themes for Dan’s Course Galleries
Drive-by Photography
Before/During COVID Comparison
While Lying on Back
Same Time of Day
Riding a Bus (non-COVID)
B&W
12-Shot Project (Best 4 of a Film-sized Project)
Diary (for personal use)
Home Studio Work (portraiture lights, light tent, light box, etc.)
Macro
Window Portraits (frame subject in window)
Abstracts around the Home (found, not created)
Abstracts (found and/or created)

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OLLI Photo Club - The Producers! Workpage

March 26, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

The Producers! Workpage

A working page for creating videos of galleries, similar to the NBM Virtual Tour.

Gallery	Comments
Tidal Basin	NPS doesn’t want people to go to see the cherry blossoms this year
Harper’s Ferry	Nice variety of pictures
Hot Air Balloon	“Up, Up and Away”
Women in Arts	Lynn to compile background text, needs artists' names for captions.
Renwick	Abstracts, audacious colors? Heavy metal backing track.
Meadowlark	Have we covered every square foot of the gardens?
Car Shows	Not widely photographed by club members. Sound effects?
Flowers	From many galleries.
Animals	Include personal photos of domesticated animals, too?

Sources

Lynn

1. Since the National Park Service doesn’t want people to go to see the cherry blossoms this year, in order to maintain social distancing, I think it would be nice to use the 2019 Tidal Basin field trip for a video.

2. The 2017 Harper’s Ferry field trip has a nice variety of pictures for a video.

3. This was before my time in the club, but I enjoyed seeing the 2016 hot air balloon trip. The song I imagined was “Up, Up and Away” in my beautiful balloon. Someone who was on the trip would be in a better position than me to do this one.

4. Per our earlier discussion, I could get compile some background text for the Museum of Women in the Arts that could fit the photos of the building itself (mostly that ground floor with the marble and chandeliers) and see if I can find the names of the artists for individual pieces that were photographed.

George

1. Renwick (201603, 201808). This gallery has a lot of strange and colorful images. Combining these with similar photos gleaned from other galleries with a backing track of heavy metal could be interesting.

2. Meadowlark (201605, 201704, 201804, ). The Gardens would certainly be a good theme. And arranging these photos by region within the gardens might give us some ideas about where to focus future field trips after the virus.

3. Car Shows (201601, 201609a, 201901). I think only a few of us have gone to the Fairfax City and the DC Convention Center car shows, so arranging these images might interest some other folks for a future field trip. A bunch of us ended up at the Mazda product shoot. Sound effects for hot rods, freeways, crashes, screeching tires, etc.

4. Flowers from Meadowlark, Kenilworth, Botanic, Green Spring (201605; 2017-02,04,07,11,12; 2018-04,07; 201903a). Lots of classical music inspired by flowers. Arrange by color, type, single vs multiple.

5. Animals. Scattered throughout the galleries. Include personal photos of domesticated animals? Chopin’s Minute Waltz (The Little Dog Waltz).

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OLLI Photo Club - WIFT and Zoom

March 22, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

WIFT and Zoom

THIS PAGE IS OBE as of June 9, 2020

What is the WIFT?

The WIFT (Weekly Individual Field Trip) is a cousin of the WIP (Weekly Image Potpourri). Both are intended to be activities for photographers to share their photos created outside a physically proximate group activity. So, given with the current coronavirus situation, the WIFT and the WIP will allow us to engage in physically separate group activities and share the results over Zoom. The most significant negative about the WIFT is the lack of after-photo lunches – we must all offer sacrifice to the social-distancing god. 😉 Please see the note below regarding Virginia Governor Northam's Executive Order.

The WIFT will have themes similar to the Competitions and the Photos of the Month. However, the themes will be flexible – some folks’ travel may be restricted by choice or circumstance, some may prefer to photograph in areas with few or no people, some may want to photograph in areas that do attract other people. Thus, unless one theme could cover all these travel conditions, we may opt for multiple themes in one week.

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NOTE: Please see Virginia Executive Order Fifty-Five

Please heed Virginia Governor Northam's March 30, 2020 Stay at Home Order (or most current Order) to “...stay home except in extremely limited circumstances. Individuals may leave their residence for allowable travel, including to seek medical attention, work, care for family or household members, obtain goods and services like groceries, prescriptions, and others as outlined in Executive Order Fifty-Three, and engage in outdoor activity with strict social distancing requirements." Extracted from Governor Northam's news release of March 30, 2020.

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Zoom, Definition and Instructions (Draft)

“Zoom Video Communications is a remote conferencing services company headquartered in San Jose, California. It provides remote conferencing services that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. [1]“

The OPC will use either Zoom’s meeting or webinar service. These services allow collaboration among individuals at dispersed locations over the web through implementation of

a Hollywood-squares-style live video stream,
the sharing of a participant’s own device’s display with all other participants, and
additional features.

For OPC activities prior to OLLI formalizing the process, members will use the Zoom “meeting” service by registering for a Zoom account and downloading Zoom software onto their device.

Register for a Zoom account.
1. Go to https://zoom.us/
2. Click “Sign up, it’s free” in the upper right of the screen.
3. Follow the screen instructions (I entered a personal vice work email).
4. You should have an account at the end of this process.
Install the Zoom “Desktop Client” onto your computer.
1. Go to https://zoom.us/support/download
  1. In the Apple ecosystem, one might have to load the installer from the “App Store.”
2. Follow the instructions to install the client.
3. This page also has the installer for mobile and tablet devices.
Run the client and join a meeting by invitation.
1. On a Windows PC, press Start, type “Zoom,” press Enter.
2. On an Apple PC,
3. On an iPhone,
4. On an iPad,
5. On an Android phone,
6. On an Android tablet,

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

OLLI Photo Club – Lynda

March 22, 2020 by George Bradshaw

Overview • Galleries (See Galleries) • Monthly Themes • Field Trips • Speakers • Projects

Lynda.com Courses for Photographers

Lynda.com (recently purchased by LinkedIn) offers "video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills." (From Wikipedia) George Mason University and local libraries currently offer their patrons free access to Lynda's products. The number of courses offered for photographers can be overwhelming to navigate. Some Lynda courses recommended by OPC members are listed below.

Lynda Access via GMU

GMU/Lynda Login Instructions

Enter http://lynda.gmu.edu/ into your browser.
Log in using your Patriot Pass / Student ID Credentials.
1. Enter your “NetID” and password.
2. GMU requires a new password at the end of each term.
Agree (or not) to allow GMU to “release your personal info” dialog box ➔ accept.
The linkedin.com Learning portal will open to your personal page where you may search or resume courses.