The Secret to Great Pet Photography

By Ellen Bedrosian

With the polar vortex blanketing the region, a lot of us have been sticking to indoor photography. There are all kinds of possibilities for warm weather wussies — flowers, fruit and other still life subjects — but for those of us lucky enough to share our lives with some cuddly companions, pet photography offers a tremendous challenge to hone our photography skills.

The January 26, 2014 New York Times Magazine online features a video of Walter Chandoha, Lessons from a Master Cat Photographer, explaining how he captures such compelling images of cats and dogs.  Not surprisingly, his first piece of advice: Get eye level with the subject.

My kitten, Cheech, resting on my desk.

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The art of food photography

By Ellen Bedrosian

Photographs of food are everywhere. From Instagram lunches to Facebook feasts, social media has made sharing photos of Thanksgiving dinner at granny’s or an elegant appetizer at Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare ubiquitous. When I was in Thailand, one breakfast featured the exotic dragon fruit. I was so taken by its beauty, that I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of it with my point & shoot before digging in. After many attempts with different exposures and angles, I managed to capture one half-way decent shot before totally alienating my dining companions.

Dragon fruit and a sweet bun for breakfast

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Capturing the Colors of Autumn

By Ellen Bedrosian

When the email from Olympus hit my inbox with the above title, it was one of the few times I didn’t click it into the trash without reading it. I think it’s safe to say that for most photographers, autumn is the favorite season for shooting. For photographers inexperienced (or unsatisfied) at capturing this miraculous phenomenon of nature, Olympus offers some excellent tips on exposure and post-processing.

The leaves are turning every day, so it’s important to keep track of where the fall foliage is optimum. One good website is The Weather Channel where you can enter any zip code you want to see what’s happening and plan your travel.

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New Rules!

We hope everyone has been having a wonderful summer capturing images from your vacations near and far. And if you’re thinking of entering some of these images in this year’s upcoming competitions, there are a few changes you should be aware of.

New Size for Digital and Nature Images

The biggest change for this year’s competitions is the new size for digital images in both Nature and Pictorial competitions. The club has invested in a new projector with different image size specs than the old one. When sizing your images for competition, two things to keep in mind are the new pixel length and the maximum image size:

1. Image size must be 1050 pixels along the longest side (horizontal or vertical) including borders. Square images, where both dimensions are 1050 are acceptable.
2. Maximum file size is 1.5 megabytes.

For a complete list of the new Digital Image Competition rules, please refer to the rules on TCC’s website or click on the link.

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JCC on the Palisades is seeking artists to feature in 2014

The Kaplan JCC on the Palisades holds monthly art shows and they are looking for artists interested in exhibiting their work in 2014. To be considered, send a brief bio, an artist’s statement, and 3-4 high res jpegs of your work to Rochelle Lazarus at rlazarus@jccotp.org. If you have a website of your images, include

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Frank Crommelin Awarded Photographic Society of America Distinction

The Photographic Society of America (PSA) is pleased to announce that Frank Crommelin, EPSA has been awarded the Excellence Distinction (EPSA) in recognition of his photographic achievement record in PSA recognized International Exhibitions of photography. He has also been awarded the Galaxy 3 in the new PSA Projected Image Division (PID). To qualify for the Excellence Distinction, 700 or more acceptances

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