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!