Party! Party! Party! Xmas 2008

The Suds crew (or the Cult of Frank Van Riper as it is now becoming known more and more) partied hard at Steve and Tara's last night.

But don't take my word for it - See for yourselves...














Steve and Tara were wonderful hosts and their new place was really beautiful. Of course the great liquor store downstairs selling good quality beer and wine was the icing on the cake!

There were lots of informal photo sessions going on including these ones with a distinctly 'hands on' approach to taking portraits...

































The food was also a big hit and the tater tots became excellent (HTVs) Hotness Transport Vehicles for the vast array of hot sauces that Steve cracked out...some of which were 'quite spicy'. Especially the Dave's 'Temporary Insanity' that Steve tried here...














All in all it was a great night and a great turnout. I think we're all looking forward to doing it again next year!

Happy Hols everyone and a big thumbs up to the crew!















Attendees were Frank, Judy, Paul, Pat, Erica, Mark, Steve, Tara, Holly, Andy, Praveen, Adam, Dave, Matt, Chris, Renata, Graeme, Misha, Josh

Check out the images on flickr also.

New faces, Brangelina and Chadwicks

So, it goes like this. The planned meet up was Chadwicks in Georgetown at 7pm. I expected 3 or 4 people. At 5pm I headed over to Chrome in Georgetown to volunteer for Fotoweek DC and address as well as fill and seal envelopes - more commonly known in Fotoweek volunteer circles as 'stuff and lick'.

Anyway, I turn up at Chrome and sit down next to the owner and Fotoweek DC's main guy - Theo Adamstein in this swanky office with a big glass conference table. Next, before I've stuffed or licked anything, a Sierra Nevada is offered to me while listening to the innermost workings of the organization. Not a bad start. Next, Josh turns up and goes through the same initiation. I think Josh and I had a telepathic moment when we looked over at each other and both projected the words 'All Volunteering should be like this'.

Josh then tells me that he has sent the Suds and Silver invitation out to dcshooters.com and there may be some new people there. cool. next thing it's 7:40pm and with a decidedly bitter and dry tongue - not from the beer I might add - we realise we should get ourselves down to Chadwicks pronto.

Finally Josh, myself and another Fotoweek volunteer, Hilary, finally arrive at Chadwicks assuming that anyone who's made the effort to actually turn up has probably left by now. As we scanned the bar there was a distinct lack of beer drinking photographers (i.e none) and I started to feel like we'd done the Suds name a major disservice.

No new photographers would want to associate with a group that doesn't turn up to their own events, and if they did, they turn up so late that anyone who did make the effort - has left.

Dejected, and with a severe lack of spring in my step, I decide to check upstairs. Low and behold what i saw before me was a huge table filled with the regular crew as well a good number of new photographers all chatting away like they'd been members from day one! It was great to see such camaraderie. Not only that but 15 minutes later 2 of the organizers of FotoWeek DC turn up also!

In the end it turned out to be one of the best turnouts ever and a great meetup for everyone concerned. There was much interest in the W magazine that Erica brought along with the Brad Pitt shots of Angelina and the kids. The Suds crew certainly cast their critical eye over the shots made from old stock Kodak Tech Pan Film.

The list of attendees was as follows: Andy, Praveen, Holly, Matt, Josh, Graeme, Nick, Jay, Stacey, Hilary, Nadia, Isaac, Jason and Erica.

Return of the Van Riper

Friday's Suds and Silver meetup saw the return of Frank Van Riper back from his annual summer pilgrimage to Lubec, Maine. Along with Frank came his brand new book , the 8 years in the making Serenimissa, Venice in Winter.

The book made the rounds and the general consensus was that the design, printing and overall presentation was superb. Well done to Frank and Judy. We all can't wait until the book signing and exhibition at the Italian Embassy in Washington DC.

It was a good turn out also for our first friday Happy Hour get together. Attendees were Frank, Patrick, Graeme, Holly, Paul, Josh, Erica, Chloe and Giovanni.



Here are a few shots of the gang from friday night...

Are you ready to spend some money?

Canon has posted a teaser site that points to a new SLR: http://www.canon.com/moon/en/   The oldest camera in their lineup is the 5D and speculation is rampant that this is its replacement. My wallet is already trying to hide from me...

Deck, Part Deux

The Suds crew celebrated again Thursday night on Josh's roof in Dupont. We scared Dan with Mexican beer - and he scared us back with a giant bottle of tequila. Steve brought some prints of work he's shot in and around DC recently and Patrick delivered some amazing prints of his trip to California.  We also welcomed a few new faces, the cult just keeps on growing! 

Conversation ran the gamut from the sad demise of Polaroid, to the travails of travel writing for a major newspaper to a fierce debate about Windows vs. Unix technical architectures (our nerdiness knows now bounds). 

We had a few toys present as well: Josh brought a big, beautiful polaroid camera complete with with a big-ol-bellows and Steve, in krappy-kamera tradition, brought his lensbaby 3G to give his 5D the smooth, buttery blur in the images below. 

Finally, we planned the next Cult Group Shoot - we'll be attending a "mass baptism by fire hose" to hopefully capture the rapture and wetness of this bizarre and awesome event. Stay tuned for the results...

Decked Out

Tuesday night's Suds opener was a remarkably chilled affair. Andy, Holly, Paul, Graeme, Misha and Dan passed away the evening on Graeme's deck drinking *ALOT* of Andy's excellent home brew as well as Gold Coast's Red Seal and two offerings from the mighty Bells - Oberon and the Two Hearted Ale.

It was of course great to see Dan back from Mexico and he seemed to be very happy not having to drink the standard Mexican offerings...

Roll on Part-Deux on Thursday!

Big Week coming up!

Founding Suds member Dan is back in town.

This means BEER BEER BEER, oh yeah, and some photo chat...usually along the lines of 'how digital can't cut it....blah blah blah' - should be interesting to hear from him now that he is the 'proud' owner of a camera known to some of us, the lowly Nikon D40 .

Current plan is to meet up on Thursday August 21st on Josh's roof deck at 19th and R Streets - note THIS IS NOT THE SCIENTOLOGY BUILDING - if you find yourself in a room with an L Ron Hubbard shrine, meeting people you don't recognise who are overly friendly who want you to take a personality test - calmly scan your surroundings, pull out your camera to startle them and make a bolt for the door - if you suffer any resistance at all, run over to the shrine and sit yourself down firmly with your arms folded - this always upsets them (true story - more about this on thursday!)

We're also planning to meet on Tuesday at Graeme's and then go for beers at a couple of local pubs.

The Saloon isn't big enough anymore!

After swapping tables 3 times (with the same woman i might add!) we finally managed to get a long table (almost) big enough for the droves of photographers and their friends for the Suds and Silver's mid-summer get together at the Saloon on U Street, Washington DC.

Expert waiter Kalib once again gave us priority seating and delivered the cold, delicious brews on time and with his usual flare.





Amongst the riveting conversations that I could barely hear over the rabble were discussions relating to Medium and Large Format especially with the renewed interest in the humble Holga.

There were a number of new faces also...the full list of attendees is as follows:

graeme, erica, bill, misha, praveen, will (new) , andy, holly (new) , steve, josh and matt (new)

Congratulations to Judy plus next meetup!

Congratulations to Judy on her latest exhibition up north, down east. From Frank's account it sounds like everything went very well indeed.

The exhibition is on show at the Mulholland Bros, a market, gallery and gift shop located in Lubec, Maine. It's also the headquarters of Lubec Landmarks a non-profit that seeks to prerserve and restore the McCurdy smokehouse complex that Frank so beautifully photographed many years ago before it closed it's doors for good. You can check out Frank's images here.

Judy's show looked great - nice idea also with the torn seamless. Here are a few small images of the space courtesy of the show's expert hanger and official photographer, Frank Van Riper:






























Following on from the last meetup on Erica's roofdeck I propose we all meet up on Thursday July 31st at 7:30pm.

Locatation to be decided although possible contenders are:

erica's roofdeck (again)
the saloon (the tried and trusted favourite)
ned devines in herndon (yeah right)

Last of the Arto All Stars...

Without further adieu it gives me great pleasure to share with you the final shot from the "Goodman Van Riper Artomatic All Stars 2008 Suds and Silver Portrait Extravaganza"!

Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished guests, I give you our very own Mr Paul Sharratt:

















Great shot Frank.

Brand New Suds Member - application pending

Here is the newest recruit to the Suds and Silver Clan! Shown here with proud father Paul. The membership is pending of course until we know he can at least hold a wee leica and take a shot or two...we're sure it won't be long until father teaches him the basics!

Contratulations to the Sharratt family

Baby Exif:

Auden Waring Owen-Sharratt

May 22, 2008 12:52 p.m.

6 lbs. 5 oz.

20 inches

Lungs of steel

Artomatic and the Saloon

We had another great meet up on Wednesday for Suds and Silver.

This time we hit 2 locations! The first being Artomatic where Frank and Judy shot some great portraits of the Suds and Silver "Artomatic All Stars" followed by excellent beer and great service as always at the Saloon - thanks Kalib!

Here are Frank and Judy's portraits of the chaps at Artomatic -















Unfortunately the 4th "Artomatic All Star" as Frank put it, isn't in these possibly due to his wife delivering their 2nd child - a worthy excuse we felt unlike some we keep hearing - 'sorry guys but I've moved to mexico' being one of the less believable ones :)

On the new work front, Patrick has send some cool stuff from his corporate jolly to Bermuda where he more than brushed with some of the biggest movie stars of the day! nice work Patrick.

Of course we're all really excited and can't wait to attend Frank and Judy's Venice book signing at the Italian Embassy in November. It should be a wonderful evening and a great start to the inaugural week long photographic festival FOTO WEEK DC.

Finally check out my website/blog for details of Ryan's new documentary that he mentioned last night. It's called Down in the Hollow.

More Updates

After a short hiatus, suds and silver is back. full steam ahead captain! here is a quick collage i 'knocked up' from steve's 'drunk people shot from above "Cyanotypes"' mini project :) at the saloon on 3/12...

Stay tuned for a Suds and Silver 'Mexico Special' from Andy, Graeme, Praveen and Dan!

Don't forget you can still check out exhibited work from the following suds and silvers members:

Steve in DCist Exposed 2008
Graeme in Photo 08 at the Ellipse Art Center
Bill and M. Scott Mahaskey co-exhibition at Glen Echo
Paul (again) in Krappy Kamera 2008

Apologies to Paul, Steve and Stuart for the lack of mention for their work in the recent Student Exhibition at Glen Echo.

Don't forget that Master Class with Dr. Flash starts soon (April 3rd)

Old friends, New friends, War Photographers, Birthdays and Beer!

After much cajoling from professor Van Riper (quite rightly so, the word slacker does come to mind), the blog is back! and in the true spirit of democracy, here he is with the words of wisdom for this week...

"The March 12th meeting of Suds n' Silver produced the largest turnout ever by that august group of photographers and their always welcome friends and companions.

The occasion of course was Grame's 50th birthday. Graeme who does not look a day over 45, (I've got that right, don't I, Graeme?) was accompanied by his lovely lady Misha. Erica's tiny Diana camera and ring flash got almost as much attention as the cast on her foot (she's a trouper, that girl) and prompted a shooting frenzy among all in attendance.

Oh, and the beer was great as always."

I second that professor Frank. The staff at the Saloon were fantastic (as always) delivering cold, fresh, exceptional quality beverages. Here's a great shot (taken by one of us - who knows!) of the staff:














There was also some great conversations on many topics. Some of them were just too much for some of us. Here is Paul TRYING to stay awake as to the lovely Tara asks him the difference between aperture and shutter speed AGAIN!...

Ales and Apertures, March 12th at the Saloon

By popular demand and in celebration of Graeme's birthday, we are meeting at the Saloon on the evening of Wednesday, March 12th.

I want to give a quick shout out to David Luria's Washington Photo Safari. I took his very good "Photography as a Second Career" workshop last week. The bottom line (and quoted on the cover of the handout) is "Don't give up your day job". Aside from that reality check, he gave some really good advice on many different types of photography, what they pay, and how to get work. Note that the back of workbook included a list of suggested reading, among which was "Talking Photography" by some guy named Van Riper.

Near the end of the workshop, we had a discussion with local semi-pro photographer Stewart Davis and learned how he established himself and gets work.

Posted by Pat, the Olympus snob.

Holgas and Jalapenos - The Saloon 1/10/08

Suds and Silver certainly hit the new years ground running last Thursday with what was possibly its largest turnout in history! It was a truly eclectic mix of food, fotos and fermentation.

8 enthusiastic attendees (Andy, Frank, Graeme, Erica, Patrick, Paul, Praveen and Steve) ensured there was a lot to talk about, washed down with, as per usual, lashings of superb beer.

Paul once again was successful in making this years Krappy Kamera toy camera juried show. This wasn't surprising when we saw some of his prints he submitted to the jury. Here are a selection of winning images from the show. Great job Paul, and we can't wait to see your chosen images that will be featured.

One thing I promised Frank was the shot of Erica assisting me for our photo shoot a few weeks back. Here she is elegantly holding the flash while I shot the lovely Liz Morel on 14th street. This did somehow raise the issue of the lack of female members of S&S and any suggestions are welcome!

Frank filled in a few more details of FotoWeek DC, a brand new photography festival taking place in DC during November 2008. More details, including contact information for volunteering can be found on their new website. In addition, Frank has a new column out with LOTS of information on the festival and the kick off event. Check it out here.

Frank brought along a Nikon D300 (with the 18-200mm VR lens) that he was sent from Nikon to review. It was basically an excuse for us to play with it ALL NIGHT LONG. I can safely vouch for all of us and report that the general consensus was that it seemed a highly capable camera, excellent in low light, enourmously complex but above all a joy to handle (if a 'tad' heavier that Praveen's Leica M8). Suffice to say that the beast certainly made the rounds that night.

Frank also showed us some superb examples of different prints from one of Judy's Venice shots. Among the prints were an inkjet printed by Steve, a traditional print by Frank as well as print that was digitally scanned and printed by a professional lab. Despite the low light of the Saloon, was a great way to compare the different qualities and styles of each print.

There was a discussion (possible arguement - details are still a bit hazy) at some point in the evening about Annie Lebowitz and the Queen which then focused on some other royal photographers. Frank was correct in naming Anthony Armstrong Jones (or Lord Snowdon to his mates) as the shooter in question. Graeme was had obviously had one too many at this point and mumbling the name of another royal image maker - Lord Litchfield.

Once again the iphone was on top form as we viewed some of Steve's recent honeymoon shots from Rio and Argentina.

Finally Andy, Praveen and hopefully Graeme are looking at heading to Mexico in late February to visit founding S&S member Dan. This trip would most likely follow Praveen's workshop with Mark Ellen Mark. Details are still being ironed out but stay tuned for further updates.

New Work (Erica in Rome, Steve in Brazil and Graeme struggling on 14th St)

Just like the Washington DC bus network, while waiting patiently for some new work to be posted, suddenly it comes - In threes.

Erica posted some moody and atmospheric black and white shots from her recent trip to rome. Click here for details.

Steve sent us some of his awesome honeymoon shots from Brazil and Argentina. Click here for more details.

Finally Graeme posted some shots from his weekend shoot on 14th street where he felt he really didn't do very well at all! See the results here.

Hopefully we can find out more about this work on the blog soon. Either way, it looks like we'll have alot to talk about this thursday!