Our featured photographer this month is Clarence Carvell. While Clarence joined the club recently, he has a lifetime of photography experience.

ACC: How long have you been in photography?

CC: It was about 1990. Marti and I had just returned from a camping trip and had taken the film into a camera shop on Georgia Ave. to be processed. I laid out the finished prints on the counter and one of the salesmen, Elbert Morris looked over my shoulder and suggested I might want to look into a camera club. I guess the handwriting was on the wall and I was able to quickly locate the Silver Spring Camera Club.

ACC: What equipment do you shoot with?

CC: Initially it was a Minolta SRT-101. When I looked around, everyone I knew was shooting with Nikon’s so it was then I purchased a Nikon F3. From there I purchased some others and when they introduced the Nikon D100 digital, I immediately switched and have been digital ever since. I just recently switched to Nikon mirrorless cameras, starting with the D7 and D6iii. They just seem to have a more natural feel, like they can’t wait to take a picture.

ACC: What are your favorite subjects?

CC: I don’t think I have any. I shoot mostly for stock and publication and it’s always the thrill of making a photograph that I have never seen or made before. I do like to travel and create travel books, so far, 11 in all. My father taught me hunting and fishing so I naturally gravitate toward wildlife and for that reason, I spend a lot of time in the national parks. Blackwater National Wildlife Preserve is like going home.

ACC: What is your favorite lighting/time of day/indoors or out?

CC: I’m supposed to say early morning and late afternoon but in truth, I just like to photograph so I’ve learned to make the most of it, I like the challenge. I studied painting and none of those paintings exhibit characteristic deep shadows or bright highlights like you might find in a high contrast print.

ACC: Is photography a hobby or a profession?

CC: Yes!! It started as a hobby but when I went to some art shows and saw what photographs were selling for, I thought ‘why not’? The fun however was in meeting other photographers.

ACC: How long have you been in the Arundel Camera Club?

CC: Only recently. Over the years I’ve been in 6 camera clubs in the area and served in many offices. I like to teach and I’m always looking for new opportunities to help people and I’m always impressed when I see growth and originality. Age has slowed me down but I still enjoy seeing new and imaginative work.

ACC: What photographers have inspired you?

CC: Several photographers are responsible for getting me on the right path. My first workshop was the Owens Valley Workshop with Ray McSavaney, Bruce Barnbaum and John Sexton. John was Ansel Adams assistant for many years and it was through him I developed an appreciation for the highest quality black and white printing. Since then I have studied black and white image making with Lucien Clergue, Henri Cartier Bresson and Craig Stevens. Craig was instrumental in making the zone system believable. Bernie Myers at Maine Photographic Workshops put me on the right path for High Contrast Masking which has carried over to the fine art craft of digital image making.

ACC: How would you describe yourself?

CC: Driven!! I’ve always wanted to be the best I could be, through the years in the Air Force Band, college, career and family.

ACC: How would you describe your photography?

CC: Looking for change – too many years of chasing headlines and story telling. Too often when I click the shutter, I think ‘what do other people, including judges, want to see’. It gets in the way of creativity. Family, work, friends, all too frequently get lost in the shuffle. The artist’s dilemma.

ACC: Tall us about your first photos and camera.

CC: It’s summer 1941, about the height of the depression. My family had moved from Northern Maine to Connecticut, near the ocean, to find work. One day I was playing on the Connecticut beach while Mom and Dad were digging clams in the mud flats. I was left to play in the sand and while digging around, found a small black box which was something to play with. It wound up in the back seat of the car.

CC: Jump ahead a few months – An uncle back home in northern Maine was accidentally killed in an accident at work and my father went back for the funeral, December 7th, 1941. That morning, about 6:30 AM, the Japanese arrived at Pearl Harbor as if to help celebrate. Suddenly there was all kinds of work back in northern Maine, home to one of the few military bases in the US at the time. Pack up and head north, the little black box still in the back seat.

CC: Back home, a cousin recognized this little black box, a Kodak Brownie box camera, and with some cleaning up, was able to make it work. The first photos, now 84 years old, of my sister and I, contact prints no doubt, have stayed with me, in a wooden cigar box, most of that time on the top shelf of a coat closet.

Clarence Carvell