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.
Mandy Vien
In 2014, I bought my first DSLR, a day before a trip to Prague. Although I love taking photos, my focus was work as an I.T. analyst and raising my children. I used this camera during yearly trip, merely at other occasion.
During COVID-19 years, I explored more aspects of photography including nature, landscape, sport, and event. However, photos remain as raw files on hard drives. I look for motivation to go through them. Hence, I joined competitions and joined PSA this year. I am fascinated by all the well composed and perfectly processed images from worldwide photographers. I would like to excel my photography, joining study groups, enable opportunities for two ways image sharing and writing/receiving comments from the experience of others.
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
Adrian Schaub
I started taking pictures in my youth with various cameras of my father and grandfather, who were both enthusiastic amateur photographers. Around 1997 I discovered my passion for black and white photography and started to develop my pictures in my own darkroom. Today I take photos mainly digitally, post-process them in Lightroom and print them myself.
Initially I photographed with Canon and Pentax cameras in 35mm format. In 2004 I switched to medium format and have been using Hasselblad ever since, first analogue and from 2021 digital. My preference for the Hasselblad system is based on the compatibility of the camera and lenses since 1957 until today. I enjoy shooting with my fully mechanical CM 501 and the digital back CFV II 50C, which is a wonderful symbiosis of the analogue and digital worlds. However for everyday use and travel, I usually prefer the X2D for ergonomic and practical reasons.
My main interests are street photography and nature: In my street photography people are interchangeable anonymous actors, hence you typically don’t recognize their faces. Animals are part of the city life and their irregular activity contrasts with the regular form of streets and buildings. In general, I like regular shapes and structures of any kind, which is also reflected in my nature pictures.
Since 2021 I regularly participate in photo competitions and hold 1-2 exhibitions per year and have published two books as self-publisher.
I live in Switzerland and work as lawyer in the corporate legal team at the global headquarter of a multinational agrochemical company. Before I worked ten years for IBM. I am a widower with a grown-up son and live with my girlfriend at the border between Switzerland, Germany and France.
In this group I aim to learn new techniques and am happy to share my own. I sometimes have several versions of a picture with different cropping or treatment and am indecisive and would appreciate feedback of the group. Furthermore I would love to make pictures that trigger an immediate (emotional) reaction and am therefore interested in respective feedback to better understand why some pictures "work" and others don’t.
Website: www.adrianschaub.com
Chris Reinhold
I got started in monochrome images at a young age when my parents bought me a B&W kit with a small enlarger. I used my dad's Argus C3 camera with B&W film and my enlarger to create images. I continued my passion of monochrome images in high schools where I was part of a photo club and had the opportunity to take a couple of classes in photography. During that time, I entered a number of competitions as a student and won a number of awards.
I continued my passion of photography though not as much as I would have like in my early adult life. Family and my career took front seat. That was until the early 2000's when I bought my first digital camera and started working with Photoshop. I was immediately drawn back to monochrome images. With a digital camera and Photoshop, i no longer would need a darkroom. Since that time, I continued to improve and explore how use of digital tools to create monochrome images. On occasion, I will break out one of my film cameras and create images from B&W film. I still have an Argus C3.
Today, I focus primarily on nature and macro photography, but I will also occasionally enjoy some street photography. I enjoy monochrome images because it allows me to focus the viewers' attention to the subject without the distraction of color. I use a variety of digital tools to create my images which includes Lightroom, Photoshop and Nik Silver Effects.
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).