Enter Rockville Living’s First Photo Contest

>Rockville Living is having its first ever contest called “Stay Warm, Rockville!”. I’ve already entered. You should too!

At LA Boxing "I burn 1,000 per hour by kickboxing to stay absolutely hot" Photo by Francine Duley.

It’s simple. You need to send along a picture of you or a friend doing whatever it is you like to do to stay warm in Rockville during these frigid temperatures. Helen Triolo suggests “eating chili at Hard Times, drinking a steaming espresso at Lola Cafe, downing a bowl of delicious New Orleans’s Gumbo at Potomac Grill, working out at Gold’s Gym – wherever you like to go to stay warm and toasty when it’s snowing or gray outside.”

To enter you can either upload the photo to Rockville Living’s Facebook page or email it to news@rockvilleliving.com.

You need to tell:

• Where the picture was taken
• By whom if it’s important, and
• What caption you’d like to go with the photo.

The picture will be posted on the Facebook page and at Rockville Living starting on February 1st. Specifically the photo will be placed on the listing page for the business. If the person in the photo also owns a business, it will appear on that listing page as well. Helen explains “For example, if Ruth Hanessian sends a photo of herself having lunch at El Mariachi, the photo will appear on both the El Mariachi page and the Animal Exchange page.”

What can you win?

For the business with the most entries as of 5 p.m. February 28, 2010, we’ll send a gift certificate for $25 to each of 5 people with entries for that business (or a check for $25 if gift certificates are not applicable). If there are more than 5 entries for one business, we’ll do a drawing. If there are fewer than 5, we’ll include people from the business with the next highest number.

You can submit for more than one business/organizations. Of course, they all must have a Rockville address.

Photos Are First for The 150th Celebration

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The banners and signs are noticeably furled around the City and even though Rockville won’t officially be 150 years old until March 10th, the celebration began yesterday with the opening of a photo exhibit at the Glenview Mansion featuring 43 photos submitted by residents along with a Then and Now photo retrospective.

You might think we are looking back to celebrate our sesquicentennial but the exhibit is an energetic new eye on Rockville which leaves you squinting for more. Dena Balistock’s Window on Town Center ($600) takes an unique shot through the window of the delivery bike often parked outside Taste of Saigon. Evan DeFoe’s Jefferson Plaza ($85) turns my favorite building into an artwork on the edge. Sally Guardia’s Fireworks Over New Mark Lake (NFS) combines a fountain and firework moment I’ve never experienced. Allen Melser’s Flow of Geese ($150) captures a smirk as the flock waddles through Federal Plaza. The exhibit will freshen your outlook on the familiar.

I love seeing how places used to look and as I wandered through the second floor gallery listening to people surmise and remember, I realized I’m not alone. Seeing the Wire Hardware building through time, a steam engine instead of metro train, the Congressional Airport instead of today’s mall, and the old main street instead of our Town Center, turned into a real treat. Oh yes, wasn’t Rockville coolest during the 70’s with that new mall and those funky cars?

A board detailing the history of the Civic Center Park and one room filled with gowns worn by Irene Smith Lyon from 1917 to 1953 add a sense of place to our shining centerpiece of civic participation. If you don’t know who she is then you really must head over to Glenview Mansion.

As you can see, the house was packed for the concert by the U.S. Navy Band Chamber Players who played different instrumental combinations including guitar and sax for Body and Soul by Johnny Green and the full brass treatment for a Suite from the Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky.

Unfortunately I was at my son’s Musical Theater Center performance of the Pajama Game and could not make the opening festivities. (Let me interject that MTC did an amazing job with these talented middle school students in the production, really first rate.) Max van Balgooy attended the opening ceremony and you can read Max for Rockville and see his photos to get the scoop on who attended at the beginning of the event.

The photo exhibit and retrospective will be open to the public daily through February 2, 2010 and it’s free. Glenview Mansion is open 9 AM to 4 PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9 AM to 9 PM Tuesday and Thursday.

Get Involved for our 150th:

• Plan your own commemorative event.
• Visit a restaurant for a specially-designated meal or drink.
• Plan official 150th anniversary flowers in your garden.
• Design and paint a fire hydrant in Town Center.
• Register for the Memorial Day Parade.
• Attend an event like the photo opening!

The details will all be posted at www.rockvillemd.gov/events/150

Call For Student Photographers And Why We Should Encourage Our Youth to Enter

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Photo from the 2009 Student Exhibit by Alex Rubenstein

VisArts is offering a young photographers a fantastic opportunity to showcase their work. Students in grades 2 through 12 can enter two photos for consideration in the exhibition Points of Departure which will be on display from February 5 to March 27, 2010. The deadline for the Call for Entries is January 11, 2010 and it’s easy to upload the photos here. Entry is free. The photographs will be juried by a stellar panel of Canon’s Explorers of Light (Steve Inglima, Clay Blackmore, Gregory Heisler, Eddie Tapp, and Joyce Tenneson).

Photo from 2009 Student Exhibit by Sam Oshinsky

I was very pleased to be able to ask Digital Arts Director, Tim Hampton, about his experiences when he was younger and why this exhibit is important for the students in our community.

The biggest challenge when I was a creative young person was being taken seriously by adults. But there was a shift when I was recognized by Scholastic for a short story in early high school. I had an amazing feeling of validation that helped nourish me through times when there was a lot of pressure to give up on my various imaginative endeavors.

That’s why I think it’s so important that we provide students with opportunities to be recognized for their creative talents outside of the school environment. Not just pat-on-the-head recognition, but a chance to have their work seen by pros in their particular artistic field. And there’s a double benefit — not only do we encourage students, but we all benefit by encountering their artistic work.

A small but very fulfilling part of my job at VisArts is coordinating the annual Student Photography Exhibition. Student works are juried by the same all-star panel as our main (non-student) photography show, and their works are displayed in a public gallery for all to see. I hope being showcased in the exhibit will help encourage creative students not to give up on their dreams.

For the full details, download the PDF Flier.

For questions, Tim Hampton can be reached at digitallab@visartscenter.org.

Call for Digital Cameras

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Image from the Montgomery Avenue Women's Shelter website

We are delighted to pass along this request from Rockville Central friend, Janet Brown who has sent along several enticing POTD submissions. Now she is volunteering her photography talents for a very special project and needs your help.

Do you have a digital camera you don’t need any more? You know – the one you don’t use now because you have a newer model. The one that is too good to throw out, so you put it in a cupboard and forget about it?

Well here is a worthwhile cause that can make excellent use of your discarded camera and give homeless women in Rockville a chance learn a skill and express themselves through photography.

As a retired photographer, I’m volunteering with Montgomery Avenue Women’s Center to help the ladies at engage in the digital photography project: “See My World”.

Montgomery Avenue Women’s Center is a registered charity and a safe haven for women facing the challenge of finding themselves homeless. At the center they can get food, shelter, clothing and day care in a friendly and caring environment. MAWCTR will welcome any donations of your discarded cameras for this new and exciting photography project.

Once we have the cameras, the ladies at MAWCTR will start an absorbing photography art project that is relevant to their lives. They will learn to illustrate their view of the world and share it with others through simple photography techniques.

The women’s photos will be printed using enhanced digital printing techniques and a portfolio of work will be compiled.

There is great a value in expressing how you see your own life through pictures. When we have a collection of photographs, we can make a portfolio, put pictures on the wall and we hope to hold an exhibition. We would also like to make a movie of the pictures, illustrated with narrative from the women, describing how and why they took the pictures.

Getting this project up and running is totally dependent on donations of cameras and printing materials. If you have any type of still digital cameras (including disposable digital cameras) that you would like to donate, or photographic inkjet printing paper, please let me know by emailing Janet@studioposeidon.com.

I know we have at least one camera sitting around unused. Now I just have to find it! Hope you will too!