Calendar

The meeting will start promptly at 7 pm, but we’ll be onsite at 6:30 pm for setup. Our meeting room is located at the back of the library (enter the lot and park near the back). The room doors will be open, and should be easy to locate.

Join us for our Monthly Critique Night!

Our judge for June will be Jim Selkin.

Members bring prints for critique on the third Wednesday of each month. Prints accepted by the Judge will hang for up to 2 months in the Photographic Arts Building gallery.

Visitors are welcome, however, submitting images for critique is available for members only. If you’d like more information about joining Darkroomers, please check out our membership page and email us if you have any questions.

About Jim

Jim’s life in photography started early. At age four, his father handed him a Brownie Instamatic, and he never looked back. By age six, he was attending photo conventions in New York City. He still has that first camera today.

In college, Jim studied under Walter Rosenblum, whose teaching helped shape and clarify his photographic vision. While doing graduate work in architecture at Columbia University, Jim traveled to Tahiti to study the places where his favorite Impressionist artist, Paul Gauguin, lived and worked. That trip changed the way he saw the world through a camera.

Soon after, Jim became a contract photographer for Air France in New York. His assignments included serving as the official Air France photographer for the inauguration of the Concorde. A three-month international assignment took him to Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Paris, followed by additional work throughout France.

His travel photography was represented by The Image Bank and later by Getty Images. His images have appeared in Travel + Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, and through several Japanese agencies.

Jim later shifted into art direction, working with major New York agencies on travel and cosmetics accounts. He also served as a photography and commercial judge for The One Show. During that time, he worked with several influential creative figures, including Henry Wolf, Hiro, Anthony Edgeworth, and Pete Turner.

After moving to the West Coast, Jim continued working in travel photography and visual storytelling, with assignments for Tourism Fiji, Tourism New Zealand, projects throughout Southeast Asia, and a return to Japan. He also lived and worked in Saigon for three years, before and during the pandemic, where he created photo stories about daily life in the city through the eyes of an expat.

Jim has judged for photography organizations across California, including PPA, PSA, county fairs, and local photo groups. While he brings a deep technical and professional background to judging, his greater focus is helping photographers develop their own vision.

A former Canon Pro, Jim now photographs with Fuji and mentors photographers in several countries. He has led photo tours to France and Vietnam and continues to develop travel photography opportunities focused on Indigenous cultures and off-the-beaten-path locations.

One lesson continues to guide his work:

“Photography teaches patience.”

For Jim, that means slowing down, being present, and becoming one with the camera.

Come out and represent Darkroomers at the San Diego County Fair Exhibition of Photography! On Photo Club day, we’ll have a session where the community can come together and learn about various photography clubs in the San Diego area. We’ll have a table for Darkroomers and need volunteers to represent the club. Volunteers will receive free fair tickets, so come for the day and stay to help out at the evening reception. If you’re interested, reach out to Angela for more info.

Join Pete Liebig for a one-hour presentation on creating digital art with subject masking, Photoshop, plug-ins, and AI tools. This session will walk through the process of transforming a RAW photo into a finished creative image with an “out of frame” effect.

Pete will demonstrate how to start with basic adjustments in Lightroom or Bridge, select and refine a subject mask, desaturate the background, and move the image into Photoshop as a Smart Object. From there, he will show how to duplicate layers, refine selections, build a frame, use blending techniques, and add depth with shadows and background elements.

The presentation will also explore how plug-ins and AI tools can be used creatively once the main masking work is complete. Topics include subject masking, layering, matting, clipping masks, drop shadows, and preparing the final image for print or display.

This program is suitable for all skill levels. Attendees should have a basic familiarity with Lightroom and Photoshop, but no advanced experience is required.