January 17th Digital Photo SIG Meeting: Learn to Create Photo Ecards

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

The holidays are over. You intended to get your cards sent earlier. Maybe you got them done on time. Maybe you didn't get to them at all. You think, there must be a better way to send personalized greetings to your friends and family.

At this month's Digital Photo Special Interest Group meeting we'll cover how to create free photo ecards using 4 websites:

Phreetings
Webshots.com
JibJab.com
Smilebox

These sites allow you to put your photographs in greeting cards that can be emailed to your friends and family. All four sites are free or have free offerings.

When: Thursday, January 17th, 2008
6:30 - 8:30

Where: Maple Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library
5225 Library Lane
Maple Heights, OH 44137-1242
MAP

Speaker: Charles Burkett, SIG Leader

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Post Script: The Powerpoint presentation that I did, complete with links, can be found here.

Meet The Artist: David Bergholz January 29th at 7 p.m.

Fine Arts photographer David Bergholz will appear at a reception for his Play and Learn Photos exhibit currently on display at the Shaker Heights Main Library. He has been a long time photographer and was responsible for commissioning the work of nationally known photographers for 12 years of annual reports while executive director of the George Gund Foundation.

Artist Statement
“I have been a volunteer reader at the Play and Learn Center for the past few years. Since I started this assignment I have also been taking photos of the children. Some of these images on display are mounted in the Center and others are gathered in an album on display in the center. I am very busy in my "retirement" but my time at Play and Learn is the most rewarding fun I have all week. I hope you get some sense of that from viewing these photographs.”

About the Artist
David Bergholz is a fine arts photographer who has exhibited his images and conceptual work at SPACES, Heights Arts, Murray Hill Galleries LLC, the Cleveland Botanical Garden, Firelands Association for the Visual Arts in Oberlin and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. His work is represented by Bonfoey Gallery.

Meet the Artist: January 29, 2008, 7 - 8 p.m.

Exhibit on Display: Monday January 07, 2008 - Friday February 08, 2008, 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Where: Main Library, 16500 Van Aken Boulevard | Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 | 216.991.2030

For more on the exhibit and David Bergholz, visit the Shaker Heights Public Library website.

Herb Ascherman January 25th Gallery Talk: Bodies: 1967 - 2007

Please join Herb Ascherman at the Corcoran Fine Arts Gallery, Shaker Square at 7 p.m. on Friday, January 25th, 2008 for an informal gallery talk about his exhibit Bodies: 1967-2007. The work represents 40 years of Black and White and Platinum photographs that explore human form and sexuality. Admission is limited to those 18 years of age and older.

The photographs include this quotation from Alfred Hitchcock: "I have a feeling that inside you somewhere there's somebody nobody knows about."

What: "Bodies: 1967-2007 -- Photographs by Herbert Ascherman.
When: Through Friday, Feb. 15. (Gallery Talk January 25th, 2008, 7 p.m.)
Where: 13210 Shaker Square, Cleveland.
Admission: Free.
Info: Call 216-767-0770 or go to www.CorcoranFineArts.com.

About Herb Ascherman:

Herbert Ascherman Jr. has been creating fine art portraiture for over 30 years, specializing in stunning black and white and the resurgent art of platinum photography.

Internationally recognized for his photographs of people in creative, commercial, and social settings, Herb’s work has been exhibited and commercially published throughout the US and in Europe, Japan and India.

Plain Dealer art critic Steven Litt had this to say about the exhibit:

Cleveland photographer Herbert Ascherman Jr. is not one to turn down a dare. In a review of a 2006 exhibition in which he displayed borderline risque photographs, I wrote that he should "give free rein to his inner Robert Mapplethorpe."

Mapplethorpe was the gifted photographer whose notorious "X Portfolio" portraying gay sadomasochism helped launch the culture wars against public funding of the arts in the late 1980s.

Little did I know that the phenomenally productive Ascherman was more than ready to meet my challenge. It turns out while making a career locally as a busy portrait photographer he has been photographing nudes and various kinds of sexual encounters, gay and straight, since the late 1960s.

Apply for the JCC Photo Exhibit

Malvern Sunset by Caydie Heller, 2007 Best in Show

Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 Mandel JCC Annual Photo Show. Rules and the entry form are available on the JCC website. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners. The deadline for submissions is February 29 by 4:00 PM.

The Mandel JCC Photography Show is open to photographers from the entire community. Each entry submitted must be the original work of the photographer, and have been photographed within the past 2 years.

The show has been held annually for a number of years. For a list of the winners of the 2007 Annual Photo Show, visit this link.

Prizewinners will be announced at the opening reception held Monday evening, May 5, 2008, 7:30 p.m. at The Mandel JCC.

For more information, contact:

Deborah L. Bobrow
Special Projects Coordinator
Jewish Community Center of Cleveland
phone: 216.593.6278
dbobrow@clevejcc.org

Panoramic Photography Class Offered At Lakeland Community College

Epcot Panorama by d4rr3ll *

Would you like to know how to create panoramic images including Quick Time Virtual Reality Images? Would you like access to specially designed tripod heads, and software that facilitate stitching together still images? If so, you may be interested in taking a course in Panoramic Photography at Lakeland Community College this spring.

Course Description:
PHOT 2600 - Panoramic Photography Introduction to theory and methods of production of Quick Time (TM) Virtual Reality images. Students study and produce both QTVR Panorama and QTVR Object Movies. Course is appropriate for photographers, graphic designers, and others interested in panoramic images. Although not a prerequisite for this course, students will benefit from having taken PHOT 1100 Basic Photography prior to taking this course. (4 contact hours: 2 lecture, 2 lab)

Instructor:
Frank Gwirtz
I have worked in the visual arts for over 30 years. I have a varied background that has included work in painting, printmaking, graphic design, photography, film, video, digital imaging, and interactive communications. I have produced a variety of commercial work for corporations, large and small, including brochures, television commercials and multimedia presentations. I have also produced a substantial body of personal work including paintings, serigraphs, photographs and documentary films.

Cost:
$330 for non Lake County residents + $64 Lab fees

Meeting Dates:
Every Tuesday evening, January 14th through May 5, 2008
6 p.m.

Location:
Lakeland Community College
7700 Clocktower Drive
Kirtland, OH 44094-5198
Building H, Room 32
map and directions

For More information:
Photography Department: Dr. Bruce W. Cline, 440-525-7218.
Instructor: Frank Gwirtz, frankgwirtz@windstream.net
Registrar's Office: 440.525.7101

*This image is not associated with the class but is shown here to illustrate the type of images that can be created with the software and techniques taught in the class. For an example of a Quicktime Virtual Reality image, visit here.

Put Your Pictures in Video Greeting Cards With JibJab.com

Click here if the video does not work

You can now create animated movies with your own photographs using the site JibJab.com. The card above is free and allows you to import five different photos into the animated snowball fight. You can upload your own faces, or pick from the list of famous faces that Jibjab supplies. Other cards have a small charge based on credits you purchase. The results are hilarious.

I inserted my face along with the famous people above. The faces of Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey came from the photos provided by Jibjab. I uploaded the Albert Einstein and Halle Berry images and cut out their faces.

The website is easy to use, allowing users to upload photographs and isolate faces using a services of movable dots. Once uploaded, the faces can be inserted into the card of your choice. You may recall Jibjab is the site that creates those funny political animated videos are all over the media. Here's a review of the e-cards that appeared in the Seattle Times.

You can feel comfortable uploading your photos to Jibjab. Jibjab is a licensee of the the TRUSTe program, an organization that reviews the privacy policy of companies to make sure it is consistent with government and industry guidelines concerning the use of your personal information.

Happy New Year!

CPS Photo Classes Start January 9 & 12

The Cleveland Photographic Society will be offering a new round of classes in Fundamentals of Good Photography, beginning January 9. Also, NEW for 2008 is a course designed for those just beginning to explore photography Basic Digital Photography, with classes starting January 12. And for those who found Photoshop Elements or a similar software package under the tree, new classes in Introduction to Digital Photo Editing will begin February 9. Click here for all the details.

As a part of their enrollment, all students in the Fundamentals and Editing classes receive a FREE four month membership in CPS, commencing with the first week of classes. Students in the Basic class receive a FREE two month membership in CPS.

I took the Digital Photo Editing class last year and found it very helpful. For the first time, Photoshop Elements (and Photoshop) made sense. The class also provides a CD with the step by step instructions and the projects demonstrated.

January 30th Exhibition of Work By Alternative Process Photographers

The Cleveland Society of Alternative Process Photographers presents the opening of an exhibit entitled "The 21st Century with a 19th Century Vision".

The Cleveland Society of Alternative Printers seeks to encourage, enhance and preserve the 19th Century photographic techniques known as The Alternative Processes. These processes include, but are not limited to: Daguerreotypy, Platinum, Albumen, Collodian, Cyanotype, and Gum Bichromate printing methods among others.

The work of the following photographers will be featured:

Herbert Ascherman
Jeannette Palsa
Charles Caito
Roy Woda
Richard Wolf
Ryan Durdella
Bruce Gates
Greg Martin

Where:
The Plain Dealer Gallery
1801 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio

When:
January 30th, 2008
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Please note that the gallery is not a public space and anyone wishing to see the exhibition other than the opening must make arrangements.