Member Bios
Group Admin
Tom Pickering, APSA
I'm a 60-something, born-again, computer geek, photographer, musician and one-time sword fight choreographer. I live & work (though now semi-retired) at web development and photography in Belleville, IL.
I've been capturing images, still & movie/video, for nearly 60 years now. I entered a dark room for the first time at age 13 and have been fascinated with the art of photography ever since. My first cameras were Kodak's - a Brownie and an 8mm movie camera. At the dawn of the digital photography age, I switched to digital and never looked back at film. I transitioned into professional photography in 2006, specializing in portraits, commercial and weddings, though I've since stopped shooting weddings to reduce stress.
Today, I am mainly a Nikon shooter, though I have been using my smartphone more and more. For lenses, I use a Tamron 60mm Macro, Laowa 25mm Ultra Macro, Nikkor 18-200mm, Tokina 100-400mm, Tamron 200-500mm, & Nikkor 50mm 1.8.
I use Adobe Bridge for the organization of my images, jumping into Affinity Photo, Photoshop CC, On1 Photo Raw 2024, Topaz Studio, Luminar Neo, and others. Though I aim for everything right in the camera, I shoot RAW (& JPEG), so will always apply post-processing to some extent to all my images, especially my more artistic endeavors.
Formerly a vice president of the Quad Cities Photography Club, I have also served as a competition judge and projectionist there, as well as teaching various Photoshop skills. I am now the PSA Director of Study Groups, a judge for various PSA clubs & councils, and an instructor of PSA's Intro to Photoshop course and PSA's Macro Photography Mentor. I am the developer and webmaster of the PSA PID Digital Dialogue Study Group website, the PSA PTD Image Discussion Groups website, the PSA PJD Image Discussion Groups website, and the PSA ND Image Discussion Groups website, as well as one of the administrators and a participant in several of the groups.
You can see my work on: SmugMug
Albert Zabin
I am a trial lawyer, currently retired from my job (thanks to COVID-19) as a volunteer at a legal services agency. My, wife, Judy, and I have three adult children and 9 grandchildren. Our two daughters-in-law and oldest grandson are very fine photographers. I have been photographing since I was about 11 and have done my own developing and printing from the very beginning.
I have been in the DD program for well over five years and have taught photography at our local Arts and Crafts Association (Lexington Arts and Crafts Society)
Rusty Pinckney
I live in Peoria, AZ, a northwest suburb of Phoenix. I am happily retired from the corporate world. I pursue my interest in photography via club activity and travel. In addition to PSA membership I belong to the Westbrook Village Photography Club that is affiliated with ACCC (Arizona Camera Club Counsel). We have monthly meetings as well as field trips. My responsibility for the club is to write about our past and future activities for the local news magazine. On occasion I arrange field trips for the members.
I use a Canon Power Shot SX10IS and edit with Elements.
My other interests include NFL football (Arizona Cardinals), AFL football (2014 World Champion Rattlers), cats, reading and writing. I look at the world with humor, which may be a bit off beat. I have a Face Book page and welcome members of our Digital Dialogue Group to “friend me.” I also find time to participate as a volunteer for Ben’s Bells, an organization that promotes Kindness.
Miriam Power
I'm from Dublin, Ireland and live in Dublin.
I've always been interested in photography & have always had a camera but it was only when my Dad passed that I got my first DSLR (reasoning that it would be the last thing he'd buy for me) & started to treat photography as a form of art as well as recording occasions.
I'm a member of Palmerstown Camera Club and for the past 3 years acted as competition secretary and this introduced me to PSA. This year I'm no longer on the committee & have a chance to try and improve my own photography and stretch my boundaries.
My interests include sport (particularly rugby), travel, nature, heritage....
I use a Canon 70D. My goto lens is Tamrom 16-300mm. I have a Tamron 150-600mm that I use for rugby games and some nature and a Canon 100mm macro that gets less use.
I have a super-supportive partner who will literally drive the length and breadth of the country for me to get a shot.
Hedva Rokach
Bio Coming Soon . . .
Brian Chen
Passions for arts were my dream when I was a kid. First time touched a camera when I was in middle school, after borrowing from a friend. We several teenagers, tirelessly worked overnights to develop those B&W photos, at a time with no dark room available. A good picture then only meant a clear image. Eventually I became an engineer with design skills for industrial plants. Yes another sort of art work.
On and off, I have played some old fashion cameras, digital cameras, mainly for fun, kids growing up, or travels. During the pandemic in spring of 2020, I started to use Sony A7R IV for photographing, and suddenly I realized that there are so many advanced features I don't know. The more images I took, the more I feel I don't know and want to learn about how to take a creative and meaningful picture.
Currently, I mainly shoot landscapes, macro images, and a few street pictures. I am using sony a7r iV, with LR/PS for post processing. Wide angles and Tamron 70-180mm for landscapes, sony 90mm for macro.
You can see my work on: 500px
Arabella Dane
Photography is such fun and I’m enjoying the path to learning. One step forward for many sideways for sure! I have a canon 70D and a lumix point and shoot and my phone of course, and enjoy using all of them.
I’ve been taking photographs all my life, but began to study it seriously in the 90’s. Most of my work has been teaching and judging photography divisions in flower shows and camera club, with an annual state fair competition with hundreds of entries.
I love plants, and all things nature except ticks and mosquitoes and poison ivy.
My go to lens for the canon is a 70-200, but I like my wide angle lens too. Thank you for letting me join the group and I look forward to sharing this path of discovery with you all.