Member Bios
Group Admin
Dr Isaac Vaisman, PPSA
Dr. Isaac Vaisman, PPSA
I am a native of Caracas-Venezuela, born and raised there. I still am a semiretired physician (Radiation Oncologist) and a self-educated photographer since the mid-sixties. As a teenager I was the youngest member of the Foto Club Caracas. Winner of the first price in black and white prints in all three camera clubs of Venezuela, the same year. Did my own black and white processing and printing for many years, until I finished medical school and came to the US for postgraduate training in the 70's.
After a very long gap, started with digital photography in the early 2000's and more involved since I acquired my first digital Nikon D300 . I am a "Nikonian" by conviction. Have participated in many competitions and received several awards.
I joined the first Camera Club in Florida in 2008: Broward Camera Club, of which I was President for four years (2013 to 2016). Also was a member of the Pines West Camera Club, and currently I only attend the Coral Springs Camera Club that offers activities of interest.
I joined PSA in 2011. Completed the course of Image Evaluation a few years ago, and most recently (March 2021) the Advanced Photo Travel Course and was an instructor for a while. Appointed as 2nd Vicechair of the PSA Photo Travel Division in 2021 as well as Director of all the Photo Travel Image Discussion Groups. Now I am the First vice-chair pf the PTD.
I am an active member on five of the PID Digital Dialogue groups: 04 (General Photography), 58 (street Scenes), 59 (Sport), 72 (Nature +) and now group 15 (Birds). I am the administrator of groups 15, 58 and 72. I am also a member of the PSA PTD (Travel Photography) group 04 and the PJ (Photojournalism) of Human Interest group 5 of which I am also the Administrator.
Early in 2022 I obtained my ROPA distinction QPSA, and in October 2022 my ROPA distinction PPSA. I hold 3 stars in Nature Exhibitions, 3 stars in Monochrome Class, 3 stars in Color Class, 3 star in Photo Travel Exhibitions and 1 star in Photojournalism.
Bev Caine
I began my interest in photography about 1977 when we were planning a trip to Europe and I threatened my husband, telling him if he fell over another bench while taking pictures I would leave him there. He suggested I take a course. I did, After my first course, I submitted a photo I took in Madeira to a local contest and took first place winning a week in Mexico, and the rest is history.
I am a semi-retired travel agent, living in Boynton Beach, FL., and my love of travel offers me many opportunities to enjoy my photography hobby. I also enjoy photographing people and flowers.
Pinaki Sarkar
I am engineer by profession and an amateur photographer (do not make money out photos). I love traveling around the world and going out in general with my camera and taking pictures. My Insta handle is pinaki.sarkar5. Usually, I post my photos there...
Bruce Goodman
After working for 40 years as a Human Resources executive in financial services ( 35 of them involving a daily 3 hour round trip to NYC) I retired in June 2018 to enjoy family, travel, cycling, and other hobbies. I bought my first camera in high school and was an active photographer in college for a daily newspaper, the university press , and the yearbook (mostly sports). Several years ago after dabbling with digital point-and-shoot cameras I finally bought an Olympus OMD EM1 (and EM1-Mark II). I mostly shoot with a 12-40mm f 2.8 and a kit lens 14-150.
In retirement I joined a local photo club and have been exposed for the first time to competitions and critique. I am trying to learn new skills, struggling with composition, and with post-processing (mainly with Lightroom and some with Photoshop).
follow me on Instagram @photosfrombrug and @madebybrug
Ed Taje
I started in my teens using Kodak Brownie camera’s more to get snapshots of things I was doing and general family events. In the late sixties I purchased a 35mm SLR and started with scenery pictures, family and various local events. With darkroom I developed black and white, along with ecktachrome ( E6) slide film, including printing the slides with Cibachrome. Work changes moving and travel resulted in a time away from continuing the learning process and not much was done with photography for about 20 years. During this period I as a work requirement was only taking robot images as they may have related to work requirements. After retirement along with my spouse I joined the Cowichan Valley Camera Club in the fall of 2018, and restarted with new digital equipment. At present I enjoy landscape particularly, but participation in the Camera Club has contributed to an increase interest in other forms and processes. I do very little editing , using Lightroom, Photoshop (which I have just started using), the Nic Collection, and two Topaz programs. I am working on expanding my knowledge of post processing. One project I have started is to scan my slides and negatives from the past to redo old film images. I have take the PSA Photo Analysis course, the CAPA (Canadian Association of Photographic Arts Judging course, and am enrolled in the History of Photography course through PSA. Currently, I am the President of the Cowichan Valley Camera Club.
Sergio Mussini
I am from the city of Buenos Aires in Argentina and I have lived in the city of Malmö in Sweden for just over 2 years.
I started photographing in 2002 with a Canon EOS 500 N analog camera and 4 years later I bought my first digital camera, also from the Canon line, and since then I consider myself a Canonist.
I studied basic photography at the Fotoclub Argentino and I also studied lighting for portraits at the Motivarte School, both schools in Buenos Aires.
For 10 years I worked as a photographer at rock concerts in Argentina.
I worked as a photography teacher teaching private courses for 8 years in the city of Buenos Aires, and I was also a photography teacher in the courses of the Directorate of Culture of the Municipality of Ituzaingó in Buenos Aires for 3 years. I have also been a photographer for companies related to gastronomy.
In 2018 I began a trip through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador photographing their cultures, people, customs, etc. On that trip that lasted a year, I gave photography talks in the cities of Cuenca - Ecuador, in Cusco - Peru and in Buenos Aires - Argentina.
In the two years that I have been living in Sweden I have done street photography in black and white since I like to compose my images with lights and shadows, geometric shapes, reflections, etc.
Last year I traveled through Asia for 6 months, visiting India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand where I was able to take images of their people and customs. I am passionate about taking portraits of ordinary people on the street when I travel.
Most of my photographs are single shots in RAW format.
I hope and wish to be able to contribute my knowledge and learn from you as well.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of this group.
You can see my work on: Instagram and Facebook and Flickr
Kathleen McCrary
My name is Kathleen McCrary and I live in Seattle. As a kid my dad's interest in photography rubbed off on me. I shot film for quite a while before finally going digital in 2006.
The primary subjects I'm interested in are architecture, candid images of people, transportation, and travel. I shoot pretty much anything that looks interesting or has some kind of challenging element such as difficult lighting situations or movement. I nearly always shoot available light, handheld. Occasionally I use flash for fill. I don't like to be encumbered with bulky equipment so I shoot exclusively with a Canon S95. I own a DSLR and a mirrorless camera but I rarely use either of them. I shoot everything in RAW format, manual mode.
I work on my images on an old Dell laptop using mostly Canon's Digital Photo Pro (an older version, which has an HDR tool I like). I also have the Nik suite and use Nik SilverFX (I think that's the name) quite a bit because I create a lot of monochrome images.
Which is why I'm very excited to be part of the Monochrome study group. I'm brand new to PSA so I am still learning my way around. I look forward to participating in Group #99!