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Car Show Photographic Meetup with Kenmore Camera and Michael Sladek, August 29 8-11 am
British Car Day at the Exotics at Redmond Town Center on Saturday, August 29 from 8:00 am -- 11:00 am. You’re invited to join for a morning to photograph cars at Redmond Town Center on British Car Day and meet with fellow photographers. They will have a Zoom meeting on September 12 to review and talk about your photos. More information here.
Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest, ends August 2nd
Last chance! Inspired by the region’s natural beauty and rapidly changing city, this exhibition showcases artists who told the raw story of Seattle in the 20th century.
Ingrid Weyland: Topographies of Fragility, Foster/White Gallery, August 6-22
Ingrid Weyland photographs remote landscapes, then folds, crumples, and manipulates the prints to explore humanity’s physical and environmental impact on nature. Your newsletter editor wants to put a shout out for Ingrid. If you haven't seen her work before it is well worth making time to see it. You can get information and to see some of the work here. There is an artist reception on First Thursday from 6 - 8 pm.
Perseid Meteor Showers, August 12-13
The American Meteor Society lists the 2026 Perseids as active July 17–August 2, peaking August 12, with 0% moon on peak night, which is unusually favorable for night-sky photography
Ballard Photo Walk with Kate Hailey, August 15, 10 am
Meet outside of the National Nordic Museum (near the troll). From there, wander along some of the waterways, streets, and alleys, seeking broad scenes and details. Reserve a spot here.
PCNW: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit, ends August 16
The photographs in this exhibition move between defining moments and everyday life, placing events like the commemoration of Stonewall, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and civil unrest surrounding ICE enforcement alongside quieter, more intimate scenes. Together, these images suggest that history is not separate from daily experience, but embedded within it.
Dahlia Show at Sky Nursery, August 22-23
Go see dahlias and if desired come home with your own bouquet. More information here.
Shadows of a Fleeting World, ends September 13
In commemoration of the second printing of the seminal 2011 publication Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club, Cascadia Art Museum presents an accompanying exhibition to celebrate the new edition in cooperation with the University of Washington Press. As the main author, Cascadia Art Museum’s curator, David F. Martin has assembled over seventy rare, original photographs from various sources.
The Seattle Camera Club folded in the Depression but some members formed SPS in 1933. In visiting, you'll connect with SPS past.
Jorir Minaya: To Hell with Hibiscus, Henry Art Gallery, ends May 2027
The exhibition at the Henry showcases the versatile language of textiles that Minaya has developed to critique the making of a global Tropics—a fabricated realm for the “exotic” extending from the Caribbean to the Pacific. From her storied Aloha shirts to the floral spandex cloths she designed to cloak colonial monuments, the works on view will weave new myths and cannibalize worn stereotypes, using Seattle as a touchpoint to imagine shared histories that connect across the Global South.rst Thursday in Pioneer Square! Always fun to visit when it's warm and light outside. There is free parking available. More information on that here.
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Vote for the Traveling Salon
In August we will be voting for the Olympia Camera Club. Starting on the first of the month, you can view the images here and then vote for your top five here SPS and the NW Council of Camera Clubs thanks you.
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The Creative Spark
From the Editor's Desk
Long exposure photography changes considerably depending on the amount of available light. In daylight, the main challenge is reducing the light enough to reach the shutter speed you want.Even at a low ISO and a small aperture, you will likely need a neutral-density filter to blur motion.A moderately strong filter may be enough to soften motion, while a darker filter can extend an exposure to many seconds or even minutes. It helps to decide on the creative effect first, then choose the filter that gets you into the right shutter-speed range.
Twilight is often the easiest and most rewarding time to work. As the light falls, longer shutter speeds become possible without very strong filters, and the remaining color in the sky can add richness to the scene. The fun, and perhaps the challenge, is that the light is changing quickly. You can go from a five second exposure to a twenty second exposure in short period of time. It can be interesting to shoot through twilight and see how the changing light affects the image.
At night, the pace slows again. Focusing and exposure become more deliberate. Autofocus may struggle, so it is often easier to use live view, magnify a bright light or distant object, focus manually, and then leave the focus alone. Exposure becomes a matter of testing and refining. City lights require careful attention to highlights. Darker landscapes may need much longer exposures or a higher ISO. Photographing the Milky Way requires careful focusing and a balance between ISO and the longest shuttle speed you can use before the stars begin to streak, a different long exposure use case than we've been talking about.
The way you work changes with the light. Daylight is about controlling excess light. Twilight is about responding to rapidly changing light. Night is about working slowly and methodically with very little light. In each case, the goal is not simply to make the exposure as long as possible, but to choose the shutter speed—and the working method—that best expresses the movement and atmosphere of the scene.
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Bill Ray's Classes
Right Place, Right Time Toolkit: Planning ahead can boost your odds of success on landscape and night photography shoots. Bill’s new class demonstrates how to use apps like PhotoPills, The Photographer’s Ephemeris, and Astrospheric, using real-life PNW examples.
Southeast Utah Red Rocks Slideshow: Bill’s SPS recap of his week in Southeast Utah. Includes expanded guidance on backcountry road navigation and fuel planning.
Lightroom Classic to Desktop Migration: Simplify your workflow. Learn how Bill transitioned from Lightroom Classic to the streamlined Lightroom Desktop interface, dropping catalog complexity 2 years ago without sacrificing editing capabilities.
Details and registration at billrayimages.com
Be Spam Aware
We’ve been made aware of scam emails that may appear to come from SPS or club officers. Please be cautious — SPS will never ask you for money or gift cards via email. If you receive a suspicious message, do not reply or click on any links. Instead, report it to SPS so we can follow up. Stay safe and keep your inbox scam-free!
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