Bergen County Camera Website

Focus Session Schedule

Class Information and Registration

Trip Information and Registration

Stay informed – Signup for Bergen County Camera Newsletters and always be among the first to know when we schedule events. Signup and receive a “$10 off a $20 purchase” coupon to use towards your next purchase. Our newsletters are also a great way to stay in touch with what’s going on at the store, new product arrivals and helpful tips and information.

Come out to Bergen County Camera in Westwood and meet the Canon factory representative. Check out the line of Canon DSLR’s, point and shoots, lenses, flashes and binoculars and get your questions answered. Of course if you’ve seen a rebate advertized, more than likely we have it too. Hope you can join us. Just a reminder our free Saturday focus sessions resume in Westwood and Englewood on January 7.

Deadline for entries: Tuesday, October 18 Looking for our Fall Foliage Tips & State Websites?

Enter your favorite photo that in some way reinforces the gratitude, the change or seasons, or a notable moment. It may be a Fall or harvest landscape, a seasonal celebration, a special family moment, or perhaps something humorous yet engaging.

The entry selected will win a $3.000 Gallery 270 “Portfolio 2” – A collection of 6 stunning, limited edition photographs. The winning image will be featured in Bergen County Camera’s Thanksgiving Card. See a store employee for complete details.

We’re requesting an entry fee of $10 per image ($5 per image for students.) The full entry fee will be donated to Table to Table, which successfully and tirelessly fights hunger in our region.

Contest Details

Photos may be submitted in-store only. Deadline for submissions is October 18, 2011. All formats welcomed. Submissions must be accompanied by a 5×7 print for judging.

Thanks for attending NJ Photo Expo 2011 – Have Photo from the Expo? We’d love to see them – post to Bergen County Camera or NJ Photo Expo Facebook Page

When you arrive at Bergen County Camera’s NJ Photo Expo September 25, you will receive our FREE booklet of EXPO-ONLY SPECIALS.  Inside, you’ll find amazingly low prices on some of the hottest, most desirable items in photography today.

Here are just a few examples of what will be at the Expo:

Presenting Sponsor Canon will be showcasing their complete line including the Canon 7D SLR

Presenting Sponsor Nikon will be showcasing their complete line including a first look at the Nikon 1 System – 1st area appearance! & Nikon D7000 SLR

Benro travel tripods — Grab some and go somewhere!

Casio‘s complete  lineup including the TRYX camera

Cinevate‘s awesome Simplis Solo DSLR bag

Crumpler will be showcasing their 5 Million Dollar Home bag ($5 Million? Wow! Check it out!)

Expo Imaging‘s brilliant and versatile Ray Flash.

Fuji will be showcasing their lineup including the X100

Gary Fong‘s amazing Collapsible Diffuser – should be in everyone’s camera bag.

Gitzo will stand strong with their GM556IT Monopod

Ilford will be showcasing their Galerie Smooooooooth Paper

Leica will be showcasing their complete camera line and Leica DLUX5

Lowepro will present their tough Slingshot 202 bag

Lumiquest will shed light their Softbox III

Hoodman will be showcasing their Hood Lupe - Can you see us now?

Manfrotto will be stand tall with their 560B monopod

NIK Software — the complete collection to make your digital life better

Nissin will be showcasing their Speedlight DI866

Optech’s Rain Sleeve will keep you dry.

Panasonic will be showcasing their lineup and Lumix G3

Pocket Wizard invites you to check out the Pocket Wizard Plus II

Quantum will power you up with their Turbo 3 battery

Samsung will be showcasing their Samsung MV800 digital camera

Sekonic will be exposing their L-308DC meter

Sony will be be happy to show you their lineup including the Sony Alpha A55 DSLR

Tamron will focus on their lineup including the 18-270 DI VC lens

Tenba will be showcasing their Messenger bag

Think Tank – check out their new Retro 5 bag (New? Retro? Yes!)

Vanguard will support you with their Alta Pro 263 tripod

Come early — beat the crowds — do your holiday shopping this Sunday!

Michael Massaia interview on WPIX

• Photograph live models – bring your camera and shoot professional models in a studio setting
• Macro shooting area – shoot still-life images with our professional lighting and coaching
• Classic Cars and Motorcycles to shoot – (Weather Permitting)
• Classic Car shooting area  – Get up close with great vintage show cars and motorcycles (outdoors, weather permitting)
• Equipment Demo sessions – All the best names, all the best equipment. See it demonstrated, and try it yourself
• Professional Photographic Artists – talks and book signings from some of the greats!
• Raffles, giveaways and prizes!
• Area Camera Clubs will be on hand – Join them and develop your photo hobby
• Table to Table charity – Our favorite charity will be on hand. Please support them.
• Thanksgiving Photo Contest – Winning entry receives over $1,000 in photo equipment.

This presentation is sponsored by NJ Photo Expo presenting sponsor Canon USA.
Tickets are just $10. Seating is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis here:

FREE NJ Photo Expo tickets are available using this link:

Meet Michael Massaia at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.

When one looks at the works of Michael Massaia, the logical assumption made is that given the obvious mastery that the prints show, one expects to meet an 80 year old who has spent his entire life perfecting this difficult art. Since Michael was born in New Jersey in 1979, he’s no stranger to digital technology. The next thought one has is that there must be some “digital trickery” going on here, and we’d again be wrong! Michael works with 4×5 and 8×10 view cameras on the sturdiest tripods to record all the precise details his meticulous prints demonstrate. I have had the joy to know many artists in my life, but none more compelling and compelled to do their work than young Michael Massaia. Since 2006, Michael has worked on nothing else other than the constant and relentless perfection of his photographic process. He eats only occasionally and may sleep just  two or three hours every other day. He shoots most often in the early morning hours and hones his  prints with a perfectionist’s eye during the remaining hours. Michael’s platinum prints bring the  sharpness of a silver gelatin print together with the expanded gray scale and warmth of platinum in a way that I do not believe has ever been seen before!

At the right, we show an example from two of Michael’s eight completed bodies of work. For his Jersey Shore series “Afterlife”, Michael sneaks into fenced off boardwalk pier amusement park areas in the early morning hours to depict these normally bustling areas completely devoid of humanity. He can only accomplish this one or two days a month during the lowest tide times. At any other time, the waves breaking on the piers cause camera shake which would result in camera movement during the very long time exposures that the artist’s vision requires. Like all of Michael’s work, it is notable for its otherworldly sharpness and unprecedented tonal range. Highlighted portions of the prints almost appear to be actually lit from within the print. Like much of the best photographic work, they compel your immediate attention and continue to delight and unfold with repeated viewing. His largest prints are not really viewed; it seems that one can actually “enter” the photograph!

For the “Deep In A Dream” series, Michael roamed Central Park in the wee morning hours for a precise period in the days of March just before the trees fully sprouted their leaves. To be able to capture what Michael wanted to depict, no other season or time would work. If the trees had fully sprouted leaves or if the trees were completely barren of any foliage, the photographs would not appear as they do. Michael has an amazing way of imposing difficult parameters on himself in order to be able to depict the elements he wants us to see. He is driven to constantly do unprecedented work both in the taking of the photographs and the printing of his images. Whether it’s the limited
time dictated by tidal movements of his “Afterlife” series, or the short window of time when a tree begins to blossom, but before the leaves actually emerge in his “Deep In A Dream” Central Park series, Michael does not make it easy on himself! Though he does not give many of the specific details, there are many encounters with the unusual when one chooses photography in Central Park during the mornings’ wee hours!

At this point, Michael has realized 8 different portfolios of work during his five years of 24/7 photography. He tells me that he has many more conceptually completed portfolios of work in his mind’s eye that he can execute at any point he chooses. He is passionate about doing original work that has never been accomplished before, is completely self taught in photography and controls every aspect of his work. He creates his prints in four [soon to be 5] sizes including the largest platinum prints in the history of photography. He accomplishes this unprecedented size by reconfiguring and re-engineering analog printing equipment to his specs. The hauntingly beautiful and groundbreaking platinum photographs of Michael Massaia begin at $1000.

 Meet Michael Massaia at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.

FREE NJ Photo Expo tickets are available using this link:

Meet Peter Liepke at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.

To be the director of a photography gallery in today’s modern world is to be besieged by hundreds of electronic portfolios [as well as postcards that direct to a website of electronic images]. The often perfectly competent work is frequently indistinguishable or just not very interesting. That I was immediately so taken by the electronically transmitted work of Peter Liepke, speaks of the craft, power and beauty of his imagery. He is a great photographer as well as a master of two terribly difficult and painstaking processes: platinum/palladium and gum bichromate printing. If called for in a particular image, his real tour de force is the combination of both processes in one image! Comparatively few people still use either process, he may be one of a handful in the world who combine the two and very recently added a third antique process, cyanotype. Some of his latest work combines all three, surely unique in all the world!

It’s also amazing to me that the handcrafted nature of Peter’s work got through to me even through the medium of the computer.

Peter led a fairly conventional studio and commercial photographer’s life until recently. He has taken his formidable commercial photographic skills and knowledge honed over the last 20+ years and turned it toward creating a gorgeous body of fine art photography of staggering resonance and beauty. He pursues his imagery solely to uplift and inspire. His work stands out in stark opposition to our current “ADD” way of living today. We never seem to have the time to really stop and enjoy something of beauty for long. We get interrupted by a text message, cell phone call or e-mail and we are cut off from the beauty before us and move in a completely new direction. Peter takes his time, observes, waits and skillfully captures the fleeting moment with his 100 year old Graflex [the antithesis of today’s modern electronic camera that only requires aiming]. It’s quite startling to find out that none of Peter’s photographs are set up in advance, since the compositions are so perfectly framed and his captured moments so fleeting. In addition to his skill and patience in making the image we now add the time consuming nature of the gum or platinum [or both] process. And we are still not done yet with the complete work of art that Peter presents to us for our visual delight. Peter then crafts a completely handmade frame chosen and stained to complement the final image.

Peter Liepke to Exhibit at NJ Photo Expo

Only by seeing a complete Peter Liepke work in person can the complementary and prodigious skill set he employs [photographer, printmaker and woodworker] be appreciated. Peter produces images in 25 unique expressions from each image. Platinum prints begin at $700.

 Meet Peter Liepke at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.

FREE NJ Photo Expo tickets are available using this link:

Meet Elliott Landy at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.

Elliott Landy was one of the first music photographers recognized as an artist. He began documenting the underground music culture in New York City in the mid 1960′s. This happened as a result of his returning to the US from Europe to photograph the big peace demonstrations taking place in New York and Washington, DC. Since many of the leading musicians of the period were also politically active, it was a natural progression for the idealistic photographer.

After exploring that world, Elliott moved on to other inspirations and art forms, photographing his own children and travels, creating impressionist flower photographs and doing motion and kaleidoscopic photography in both still and film formats. He is currently at work on an extensive project that uniquely combines still photography, music and moving images. Additionally, he is compiling an intensely beautiful and intimate body of work of his own life in a project called “Love After Sixty”.

His photographs have been published worldwide on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post, Life Magazine and Rolling Stone. Some of the musicians who have been a part of Landy’s “vision” include The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt. He was ”the official photographer” of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. Among the great albums graced with iconic Landy photographs are Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline”, Van Morrison’s “Moondance” as well as “The Band” and “Music From Big Pink” by The Band. Fans of these landmark recordings will be thrilled to see a more complete rendering of the images taken during those same album photo sessions.

Elliott is the author of six photographic books and his images have been exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the world. Elliott’s handmade darkroom photographs begin at $900. Signed books begin at $30.

Meet Elliott Landy at the NJ Photo Expo, Sunday, September 25.