Programs

Tuesday, March 19th – Program Night.

In Person Meeting

Jeffrey Sipress presentation:

The Craft of Image Making

It was in 1975 that Jeffrey Sipress borrowed his friend’s 35mm camera and exposed his first roll. Contained within were a few frames that caught the attention of the camera’s owner, and he simply wanted to give the camera to Jeffrey! He soon got his own, and combined with his love of nature, traveling, and backpacking, began to photograph the wonderful locations that he visited.

Still, he always admired the work of well-known landscape photographers, like Ansel, Elliot Porter, and David Muench. After over fifteen years of learning through trial and error and yet still desiring to better execute his vision, he began a more formal training through class instruction with Stuart Scofield and other workshop instructors in the mid-90s. About that time, the first practical digital cameras were being introduced, and Jeffrey used them to their full potential, which wasn’t very high then. In late 2002, digital technology came of age with full-frame pro-cameras.

Jeffrey fully immersed himself in the new methods of capture and printing, with excellent results, and stored all his film gear permanently. That is, until he discovered the view camera, and plotted a new course in mastering the 4×5 film camera. With film back in his life, he learned to truly understand what can be had from a good black & white negative, and the inspiration of the
past masters was once again driving him. Now equipped with large and medium format cameras, and his well-developed expertise in digital printing, Jeffrey combined the best of both worlds to finally achieve satisfaction in creating large dramatic prints. His images have appeared in magazines, guidebooks, and calendars.

He has had over 15 fine art photographic exhibitions in the Santa Barbara area over the past twenty years. He will talk about inspiration and the value of studying photographic craft before heading to the field. He will debunk some popular myths, and separate the the technical from the creative – – – asking why we photograph. Also the value of established “rules” and when to break them. His talk will conclude with a 16-minute presentation about a photo journey to Cuba that taught him to embrace portraits of people for the first time.

 


Send your ideas, suggestions, and contact info for possible presenters to: [email protected]