Member Bios
Keisha Becerra
I'm an artist and corporate educator based in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Growing up as the daughter of military officers, my global upbringing has greatly influenced my art. My travels have inspired me to create illustrations of diverse cultures and people.
I hold a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership and have combined my love for art and teaching throughout my career in corporate and public education. I've worked as a freelance illustrator for Resilient Walker, the Tennessee Department of Health, and Pixit LLC.
In 2019, I founded XavierArts.com, where I publish multicultural art books, stationery, and surface pattern designs. Recently, I have expanded into fine art and abstract photography, exploring street, nature, and macro photography.
In 2021, I received the Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville, recognizing my integration of art and business.
Photography Tools:
Canon EOS R
Canon EOS R5
iPhone
Photoshop
Lightroom
Topaz
Traditional Art Tools:
Graphite
Pen and ink
Watercolor
Clip Studio Paint
You can see my work on: XavierArts
David Price, EPSA
I took up photography as a hobby in 2011 after retiring from work. I am currently a member of two clubs, West Cumbria Photo Group and Keswick Photographic Society both in Cumbria in the Northwest of England.
I have been entering Exhibitions since May 2014 and joined PSA in September 2016. I like taking images of most subjects, although I particularly like to take pictures of people I meet on the street. I like to manipulate my images in Photoshop and convert many to mono in Nik Silver Efex. I frequently enter competitions and exhibitions and I was a regular entrant in Print of the Month. I have learned much through peoples honest and open critiques.
Victor Wasilov
My interest in photography stems from my father. I don't remember a time when he did not have a darkroom in the basement. Photography was my hobby until work and time pressures became too much and several decades past. Now that I am retired, I am re-engaging with this great hobby.
I prefer straight photography and try to limit the amount of digital darkroom enhancements. However, on occasion I do experiment with creative digital manipulation. My preference is to shoot land /cityscapes, street photography, and the occasional portrait or still life. I also volunteer my time as a event photographer for charities.
My carry camera is a Fujifilm X100V. I also use the Sony a7Riii, Fujifilm X-T4, and for film a Nikon F4, Yashica Mat 124G, and a Leica R5. I use various Sony, Tamron, Nikon, and Fuji lenses. I typically only carry 2 types of filters, ND and circular polarizing, preferring to do any enhancements in the digital darkroom.
For the digital darkroom I primarily use Lightroom, but also Photoshop, ON1 Denoise, and DxO Film pack 7. For Workflow I use Aftershoot, Excire Foto & Search, and Lightroom.
I do a number of volunteer shoots at charity events and each one usually ends up with 350-700 images. I rely on Aftershoot to cull the images, Excire to keyword the images, and lightroom to start the digital darkroom processing. This process saves me a great deal of time.
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.
Mark Burgess
My first real camera was an Olympus OM1, the original Olympus compact 35mm SLR. I always enjoyed photography loving the way that magic moments could be transformed into amazing memories.
<br />Now I am driven to find opportunities from things as simple as a walk along the beach that can be captured in a way that is precious to me and to anyone else that might enjoy my images.
<br />Searching through the lens for something special drives my daily passion for photography.
<br />Today I shoot with a Sony A7Riv and an Olympus EM1ii
<br />https://www.flickr.com/photos/136010940@N04/
Sophia Schade
Born in Athens Greece, spent my teenage years in Maryland and traveled the US and abroad with my job. My husband Dennis and I retired to Bluffton, South Carolina in 2015 and quickly found my hobby in Photography.
My interest in Photography began when we moved to Sun City, photographing the beautiful nature and wildlife that the low-country has to offer.
My goal is to capture the beauty around me and create memories that capture the moments to last a lifetime. I try not to just take a photo; I like telling stories with my photos. I’m on a constant journey of discovering a world flooded with beauty and I am grateful every day to have found such a fulfilling hobby.
I am a member of the Sun City photographers club, the Beaufort Camera club, CNPA and now PSA.
Four years ago, I joined the Sun City photography club at the novice level and have won enough ribbons to move to the expert category.
Richard Siersma
I have been interested in photography virtually all of my life, joining my father and older brother in their love of all things related to cameras when I was a small child.
In my 20’s, I was able to obtain a position as a studio photographer, but after a few years I had to find a better paying job to support my family. At that time, I embarked upon a career in information technology and communications with the U.S.Navy, retiring after 25 years of service.
I enjoy taking photos of all types of subjects, but my current interest is in Macro Photography which allows me to use my lenses, filters and tubes to discover normally unseen features of the natural world. My current cameras are the Nikon D500 and the D810.
I have been retired for a couple of years now and fortunately we have moved to a community that actively supports my three major interests: photography, pottery, and wood working. Moving to Sun City and joining the Photography Club enabled me to devote the desired amount of time to my pursuit of mastering the art of photography.
Rick Siersma