Member Bios
Group Admin
Oliver Morton
Oliver ("Pete") lives in a suburb of Washington D.C. Although he does not recall when he first became fascinated with photography, he does remember his first camera and the experiences he enjoyed with it very fondly. Oliver was in 9th grade and was living in Taiwan. He was an army brat. He recalls that his best friend at the time was a young man named Chen Lung. Chen spoke very little English and Oliver spoke about the same amount of Mandarin. Carrying English/Mandarin dictionaries with them became their best way of communicating. But, this did not deter their friendship. Chen was eager to share the beauty of his country and wanted Oliver to experience it all. Oliver would capture all that he saw with his camera and still treasures the memories of their trips together through the mountains and into the cities of Taiwan.
Since his father was in the army, Oliver's family moved a great deal during his childhood. He got to experience life in Japan, Germany and Taiwan as well as numerous locations in the USA.
Oliver's advanced education was in physics and he worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 48 years dealing with computing technologies and NIH medical research grants. Now that he has mostly retired he is able to devote much more time to photography.
Every aspect of photography fascinates Oliver. Today, with his Canon 5D Mark IV in hand, he shoots anything that triggers an emotional response in him. That ranges from candid portraits to beautiful landscapes and a variety of other subjects. To Oliver a key goal of his photographs is to instill the same feelings in the viewer that he had when he initially captured an image.
Oliver has been using Photoshop for a long time and on two occasions has been sponsored to travel to England to teach it. However, he feels there is a lot more he can learn about this full featured (and evolving) processing product. He is especially interested in learning how to enhance the feelings created by his pictures.
LuAnn Thatcher
Born and raised in Minnesota, LuAnn Thatcher has spent her retirement years behind a camera. Her wide interest in the medium includes landscape, street photography, nature, and environmental portraiture, with a particular focus on woodland macro and monochrome photography.
She is a member and a competition salon judge for the Photographic Society of America, through which she also teaches the Image Evaluation course, and is the administrator for PSA Study Group 3. She lives in the Twin Cities area, where she now dedicates her day's work to her passion for photography. She published her first photography zine, Spring, Summer, Fall in 2020.
Achievement:
2022 - PSA Service Award for exceptional and valued service to the Society.
Her website is www.LuAnnThatcherPhotography.com
Emil Davidzuk
I was introduced to IR during one of my Photoshop classes, the instructor showed a few of her black and white images taken with a Hoya 72R filter. I liked the tonality and decided I would try it using this filter. After fits and starts, I finally got a few images but it was a hassle so I had my 5D Mk II converted with a 590nm filter in 2014. The hardest part of IR was learning how to process raw images, there was no central resource that I found. I learned by getting bits of information from the web and keeping at it. Last year I had a Canon 7D converted to 720nm. I use LR to catalog my images, I edit using PS with NIK and do some final edits in LR. My ideal compositions include clouds, a man-made object and foliage.
My wife and I moved to St Louis in 1972 after we graduated from Purdue. I started work at McDonnell Douglas as a novice Aero engineer and my wife started teaching math. We raised three children; two daughters and a son. They are all own their own, married, and we have four wonderful grandkids with another due to join our clan this month. I retired from Boeing in 2012 after a good long run developing missiles.
Mark Braun
Mark’s interest in photography began as a young teenager when his parents gave him his first single lens reflex camera. Experience as a high school yearbook photographer, freelance photographer for a weekly newspaper, and later a product photographer for catalogs and training programs at Stanley Tools helped mold his technical and artistic skills.
After college as a young professional in business, he put his cameras away for 20 years to pursue what he thought was a more practical path. A trip to Yellowstone National Park in 2000 and encouragement from friends reawakened his passion for photography.
Since then, photography has become an increasing part of his life.
- His photographs have been accepted and displayed in St. Louis at the Foundry Art Centre, the 20:08 Gallery along with several others.
- In 2007 his work was shown along with his mother’s watercolor paintings in a mother/son show in Cleveland, OH called "Reîections".
- He’s also received recognition in several international competitions and attended The Maine Photography Workshops, studying under Freelance and National Geographic photographers.
Mark has been a member of the St. Louis Camera Club since 2005 and has served on the board, multiple committees, was co-chair of the annual seminar for 5 years and judged for the club on several occasions.
Mark has also been involved with the IPHF (International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum) since its move to St. Louis. Initially, he was on the transition committee during the move and rented the facility for his first retirement in 2013. He has served on the inductee selection committee for the past 5 years and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors to be co-chair of the 1839 Society.
He is also a commissioner on the Kirkwood Arts Commission and a member of the Kirkwood Arts Foundation.
He currently has work on display at The Willows and Soulard Art Gallery.
His photographs, cards, and other works can be seen at www.braunsOriginal.com, 500PX, Fine Art America
Bunny Laden
After quitting work in January 2019, I joined PSA and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Camera Club. I set a goal to learn the craft of photography in earnest. Prior to that time, I used a prosumer zoom camera and primarily did travel photography. My philosophy was to make the best possible picture in-camera, no post-processing except color correction. In 2019 I purchased an MFT Lumix with interchangeable lenses and learned to use it. I participated in two Digital Dialoguesâ”Group 16 (General) and Group 77 (Fine Arts).
COVID-19 put a damper on travel photography but it caused me to focus on improving my knowledge of post-processing tools, macro/close-up photography, and anything I could photograph indoors or on my immediate property. I completed the PSA History of Photography, Image Analysis, and Still Life courses. I now want to focus on monochrome to learn more about form, light, and tonal range. If I can improve my monochrome images, I think all my photography will improve.
Bob Legg
Bob is a newer member in the Mid-Atlantic Chapter after moving South from NH & MA. Bob has been a member of the Manchester NH Camera Club for 40 years and served over 20 years as its President. He started photography as part of a college design course in the 60’s. His first digital camera was the Nikon Coolpix 995 in 2001 and has moved forward with Nikon Cameras to the present D780. He’s always been a non-conformist and started using "Mac" computers in 1996 and never tempted to go the PC route. He uses Lightroom Classic & Photoshop as well as Topaz Studio for his Creative & Abstract images. Bob has always shot landscape, nature, flowers and many Photojournalism images while serving as small NH town fire department photographer.
Since the pandemic Bob has almost exclusively shot local landscapes and flowers, but not just regular flowers, as most have taken on a Creative/Impressionistic or Abstract look. Bob likes Great compositions, Vivid colors and images with IMPACT.
Israel Yosef
I was born in a country that no longer exists (the Soviet Union)
In 1990 I returned with the whole family to the land of our forefathers.
I have two daughters, one does a doctorate and the other serves in the army.
I have two grandchildren, I'm waiting for more.
I'm a high school teacher.
I started filming with a film while I was in high school, then I stopped.
About ten years ago I went back to filming.
Until recently I took a Canon camera
Six months ago, I switched to a Sony camera
I photograph landscapes, animals, portraits, nature, seas and models.
I love traveling with my family in Israel and abroad with my wife.
My wife is very supportive of me and helps me with the photographs.
My knowledge of photography: books, courses, videos, workshops, I travel with photographers.
I joined the group in the hope of learning from other photographers and also get criticism from other photographers (that I lack).