Calendar
The meeting will start promptly at 7 pm, but we’ll open the room at 6:30 pm for setup and social time. Our meeting room is near the back entrance of the Spring Valley Library. When you enter the parking lot, go around the left side of the building and park in the back. You’ll see the open doors to our meeting room.
Join us for our Monthly Critique Night!
Our judge for July will be Aaron Serafino.
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 Aaron
Aaron Serafino has been a photographer since 1987. His work reflects a broad range of photographic experience, shaped by his interest in many tools and techniques of light-based image making. From pinhole photography to digital processes, Aaron finds something to explore in nearly every part of the photographic medium.
Aaron studied photography at Brooks Institute of Photography, graduating in 1996. He has taught photography courses throughout the San Diego region, including at Grossmont College, Palomar College, and UC San Diego.
He has extensive experience in location and studio lighting techniques, which he enjoys sharing with students. As an educator, Aaron works to make the learning process engaging while helping students build a strong foundation in both the technique and art of photography. Aaron also provides consultation in photography, printing, color management, and digital workflow.
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.
The meeting will start promptly at 7 pm, but we’ll open the building at 6 pm for setup and social hour.
Join us for our Monthly Critique Night!
Our judge for August 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 black and white nature photographer based in San Diego, California.
His work is shaped by time spent in wild places. Deserts, mountains, coastlines, and remote backcountry often explored on foot, by bicycle, or by motorcycle. For Andrew, photography is not just about reaching a location. It is about being immersed in the landscape, slowing down, and responding to what it feels like to be there.
Largely self-taught, Andrew creates quiet fine art images rooted in contrast, simplicity, and mood. His photographs are less about documenting a place and more about translating the emotional weight of the experience. A snow-covered tree. The curve of a sand dune. Fog moving through a forest. Without color, form and feeling come forward.
Andrew grew up in the Midwest, but the open spaces of the West Coast changed the course of his life and his creative work. His ongoing body of work, Images from Nature, reflects how he sees and experiences the wild places that continue to shape him.
Alongside his fine art photography, Andrew leads immersive photography workshops in extraordinary landscapes, helping photographers slow down, connect with their surroundings, and develop their own creative vision.