Calendar
The meeting will start promptly at 7 pm, but we’ll open the room at 6:30 pm for setup and social time.
Join us for our Monthly Critique Night!
Our judge for September will be Andrew Hertel.
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 Andrew
Andrew Hertel is a fine art photographer specializing in black and white landscapes, wildlife, and nature photography. He is drawn to the way light, shadow, shape, and texture come together to define a scene, creating images that reflect the quiet beauty of the natural world.
Beyond photography, Andrew has a deep love for adventure and exploring remote landscapes. Whether on foot, motorcycle, or bicycle, he finds inspiration in the wild places he visits and the ever-changing conditions that shape them. His work has been exhibited at fine art shows and galleries, and he leads photography workshops in places like Death Valley and Kyrgyzstan, helping others experience and capture the landscapes in their own way.
For Andrew, photography is more than just creating images—it’s about being out in nature, embracing the journey, and sharing that experience with others.
Interclub competitions connect us with photographers beyond our own club. Selected images represent Darkroomers and are judged alongside work from other camera clubs in the region through the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs (SCACC).
For submission instructions, please visit the Darkroomers Member Handbook.
Join Darkroomers for a full day of photography at the Miramar Air Show. This is an all-day event, but you are welcome to stay for as much or as little of the day as you like.
The air show offers plenty of opportunities to photograph fast-moving aircraft, aerial demonstrations, and displays on the ground. For the best chance of filling the frame with aircraft in flight, bring your longest lens. A 500–600mm lens is ideal, but don’t let that stop you if you don’t own one. You can rent a longer lens for the day or simply bring the longest lens you have.
What to bring:
- Your camera and longest telephoto lens
- Extra batteries and memory cards
- Water and sunscreen
- A monopod, if you have one (tripods are not permitted)
- A blanket for sitting on the pavement, or a portable chair or stool
- For a list of acceptable and prohibited items, click here.
General admission is free, including the open “blanket” seating areas on the pavement. Reserved grandstand seating is also available for purchase through miramarairshow.com.
Plan to arrive early. Gates open at 8:00 AM. The Miramar Air Show is a large and busy event, so it may be difficult for everyone to meet in one place once we are inside. On the day of the event, please use the Darkroomers Slack channel or text messages to connect with other members who are attending.
Come prepared for a long day outdoors, lots of action, and some rewarding photography opportunities.
For more information, visit miramarairshow.com.
For this meeting we are going to try something a little different. We hope you will find it both interesting and inspiring. Afterward, we’d would love to hear your thoughts–what you enjoyed, what you did not, and whether you’would like to see more meetings like this in the future.
This is not intended to replace our Member Spotlight presentations or our regular critiques. Instead, it is an opportunity to explore photography from a different perspective and add another type of program to our schedule.
This will be an informal, interactive group discussion centered around two activities:
1. Share an Image
If you would like to participate, bring one or two photographs–either printed or in digital form (on your laptop or a flash drive).
The photographer may ask specific questions or simply invite discussion. From there, we will open it up to the group. Comments might include what draws you to the image, questions it raises, what could be strengthened, the story it tells, the emotions it evokes, or even the experience of creating it. The conversation will go wherever the image leads us.
Think of it as something between a traditional critique and a conversation about photography.
2. Explore Photography Through Others’ Eyes
I subscribe to an extensive online collection of photographic articles, essays, podcasts, interviews, and photo books. I will select a few pieces for us to explore together, and wee will discuss the ideas they present, the photographs they contain, and the different perspectives they offer.
Rather than analyzing whether an image is “good” or “bad,” we will consider why it affects us, what the photographer may have intended, and what we each take away from it.
A Different Way of Looking
If you’ve attended one of Bernard Mendoza’s presentations or workshops, you will have an idea of the spirit We’d like to capture. Bernard approaches photography in a thoughtful, philosophical way. He emphasizes the art of photography–the story, meaning, emotion, and personal vision behind an image–far more than the technical details.
While technical discussions are certainly welcome if they naturally arise, we would like our primary focus to be on the artistic side of photography: what makes an image meaningful, memorable, or emotionally engaging.
Our hope is that this meeting will encourage all of us to think a little differently about photography, to hear perspectives we may not have considered before, and to enjoy a lively conversation with fellow photographers.