Member Bios
Group Admin
John Roach
I live in the Richmond, Virginia area since July 2017. Previously, I retired in 2010 from hospital administration and have never looked back. I am focused on my journey through retirement and my passion for photography and travel. I have a photography website and travel/retirement blog where I share my experiences, travels, and vision of the world and a little bit about photography from time to time. These new experiences come on the tail end of education in business and engineering, a US Navy career, followed by many years in construction & facility management both in commercial real estate and healthcare.
I am a member of local camera clubs and Organization, the Photographic Society of America, Nikonians.org, and Coalition of Photographic Arts. I use a Nikon Df, D500, D90 IR 590nm and Z6 as well as a Fuji X100, X-E1, X-H1 and X-Pro2 as well as a Sony DSC-H90V and iPhone 13 Pro. I have learned many things about this great art and craft through membership at PSA and the other organizations as well as innumerable photography courses and workshops. My interests include landscape, seascape, architecture, floral, macro, and wildlife images with now a budding interest in street, infrared and black & white photography.
My blog includes information about the challenges of retirement, my travels, or even a short story enhanced with images related to my experiences. I exhibit from time to time large prints and occasionally make a sale, but always it is about learning and having fun captures images. Some of those images and a blog can be found at my Website: http://www.jdroachphotography.com.
Don York
I have been an avid photographer all of my life. I was Past President of St. Louis Camera Club and am currently Nature Chairman. I enjoy the outdoors for shooting landscapes, wildlife and especially MACRO of insects, flowers and other interesting things. Don's email is don@homeyork.net.
Chris Prior
Interested in photography 40 years.
Started out developing and printing B & W film and making Cibachrome prints from colour slides in my own home made darkrooms.
Member Australian Photographic Society 2005-2022.
Member Belmont 16's Photography Club (served as President for 2 years).
Regularly judge for local photography clubs and have also judged Australian National & International competitions.
Previously entered International photo comps and have won one gold medal, 2 bronze and a bunch of lesser awards.
Life member Catherine Hill Bay Boardriders Club.
Favourite photo subject- surfing.
Hundreds of photos published predominantly in surfing magazines including Tracks, Surfing Life, Waves, Surfing Snaps as well as other publications including People Magazine, Kodak's My Australia, Australian Photography and others.
Joined Photographic Society of America 2022
Motto- If it moves I shoot it, if it does'nt move I shoot it too.
Stan Bormann, FPSA, MPSA
Stan Bormann, APSA, MPSA has had an interest in photography since a 9th grade photography class when he created a contact print darkroom in his mother’s fruit cellar. This interest laid in the background until he acquired his first digital camera for Christmas in 2002. He has been the founding president of two photo clubs in Arizona, Grand Photos and West Valley Photo. He has also been the president of the Arizona Camera Club Council, ACCC and is now VP of the PSA Arizona Chapter. PSA positions have included Chair of the Pictorial Print Division and Conference VP. He currently has the PSA position of Director, Member Services, which resulted in him receiving the Fallon award in 2019. He is also the current chair of the Arizona Print Circuit. He has over 2,000 acceptances in international exhibitions. He has been an active digital photographer and PSA member since 2003. He is an active international traveler having visited 49 states, all Canadian provinces but one, and about 70 countries. The 7th continent was on the agenda in 2016 but the ship broke down. He has particular interest in architecture and creating conversions to monochrome and has been a speaker at the PSA conference on monochrome.
His current email address is snbormann@gmail.com
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
Stuart Ord
I am a 70-yr-old retired chemical engineer, in which I specialised in technical safety studies of chemical factories. I live in Cheshire in the north west of England. Cheshire is a nice place, but I prefer my native Yorkshire for its variety and scenery.
I have been a photographer of sorts for a long time. I was loaned a camera by my Aunt when I was about 12. It was a little Voigtlander. I was hooked and started reading everything, and saved all my money until I was able to buy a Zenit 3M SLR when I was 14. I got a Saturday job in a camera shop when I was 16, when my wages went on film and darkroom materials, a 2x tele converter, an electronic flash, extension tubes and a Weston Master V. I took mainly colour slides and monochrome.
At Leeds University aged 20, I became the Chairman of the Photographic Society, and equipped our darkroom with a simple colour enlarger. Results were disappointing though due to the simple equipment and need for exact temperature control. My wife bought me a Krokus enlarger and I had a mono and slide darkroom in our loft.
I went through various SLRs and lenses, the best being a Pentax MX with a motor drive and an early Tamron zoom, but by my 40s I got fed up with carting around a heavy case. Most of that time I was only doing record photography. Interest dwindled and I sold up in my mid-40s.
I started to get interested again in my mid-50s as digital cameras became practicable. After a Canon compact I had a couple of bridge cameras, but dissatisfaction with their capability led me to getting my first DSLR, a Lumix G3, micro 4/3 as I was wary of the weight of DSLRs. After a couple of years I had outgrown the G3 and bought an Olympus OM-D E-M5 mk 2, which was light and very capable. I swapped for an E-M1 mk 2 which was a distinct step up from the 5 in terms of shutter speed and focussing ability. I love its macro stack feature too. When equipped with an Olympus 14-150mm lens, it's even a "take it everywhere" camera.
For a couple of years I also had some Canon equipment, starting with a 9D and a 100mm macro lens and an MP-E 1x - 5x macro lens. I didn't lke the 9D and changed to an M50 mk2, which I thought was a brilliant little camera. However I decided to revert to Olympus (or rather OM Systems now) for macro as well as general photography, and have sold all my Canon items.
Recently I have upgraded again to an OM Systems OM-1.
I have a wide selection of Olympus and Panasonic lenses. And a Weston Euro Master! I keep adapting my lenses as Olympus bring out new ones where they seem to fit my aims of light weight, versatility and image quality.
I'm programme secretary in my local camera club in Whitchurch.
I can not specialise in any one branch of photography, they are all so interesting! But macro and monochrome do have a special interest to me. I use Serif Affinity Photo for most photo editing, but I have NIK Silver Efex 2 and Franzis Silver Projects for mono conversions as well. Comparing these on any image is quite interesting.
I am a strong believer in a book I read in my teens which said something like, "If colour is important to your image, use colour; otherwise use monochrome". I think it is also true that mono should enhance a mono image, so strong form and/or texture are needed. Due to my darkroom days, I like monos to have all shades of grey from 0 to 255, but that is easier said than done.
Jerry Snyder
I'm an amateur photographer who has been making images for 35 years. I live in Audubon, Pennsylvania. As a civil engineer I took photographs of engineering failures and used them to help tell a story. Gradually, photography became a hobby and more recently grew more serious after I joined two camera clubs, entered competitions and went on regular shootouts with other photographers. I tend to photograph images of shapes, patterns, textures, and colors. It is the graphical elements in a scene that catch my attention, whether landscape, nature, or urban scenes. I'm an avid reader of photography books, most of which focus on the ability to see. In my latest effort to improve my ability to see I am taking drawing lessons.