Member Bios
Group Admin
Dr V G Mohanan Nair, APSA, QPSA
I belong to Trivandrum, Kerala state ("God's Own Country"), the southern part of India. Did my post-graduation from Kerala University and Doctorate from Kurukshetra University. I was working as a Chief Scientist at the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvanathapuram, till April 2016. Photography, travel and listening to music are my hobbies
Even though I was attracted towards photography from childhood, I purchased my first camera, an Agfa-Isolly-II (120mm fixed focus) from my first salary in 1980. After 13 years, in 1993 I got a professional camera Pentax K1000. Two more digital cameras and one 3D camera were added to my small collection subsequently. In May 2022, I got a new Canon R5 camera with RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye lens.
The interest in photography as an art started after my visit to XXIII All India Salon of Photography by the Lucknow Camera Club. I joined this club to learn more about photography and started participating in local as well as national salons. I took PSA membership in 2003. I do not have much dark room experience as my photographs are developed and printed at professional studios. Digital images are processed by self using Photoshop (Ver. 6 & CS). From 2012, I am mainly concentrating on 3D photography. Received the Associate of PSA (APSA) in 2016. I consider myself as a student of photography as well as Photoshop and look forward to learning these from other experienced members of PSA.
Steve Wessing
I come from a long line of amateur and professional photographers, starting with my grandfather who participated in salons of the Amsterdamsche Amateur Fotografen Vereeniging in the 1940s and was one of the first to to teach photography in Indonesia. I got my first camera at age 5 and have been hooked ever since. I am active in abstract and travel photography, but my greatest interest is stereoscopic photography.
I inherited my uncle's stereo realist in my teen years, and still take mostly stereo images today. In the intervening years, my photos have been used as album cover art, and published in various magazines and books including a short time as house photographer for the Rock 'n Roll Probe.
I am currently on the board of directors of the Cascade Stereoscopic Club, and a member of the National Stereoscopic Association.
Signe Emmerich, HonPSA, EPSA
I live in East Troy, Wisconsin, and became involved with PSA after the younger of our two children went to college in 2002. This is also when photography became a serious interest for me in addition to traveling, quilting, and delving into the family genealogy.
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<br />My current cameras are a Fujifilm W3, Nikon D870, and a Sony 6000 mirrorless. I learned about the Fujifilm W3 camera at the 2009 PSA Conference and purchased one immediately after I got home. It wasn't until three years later, however, that I processed my images with Stereophoto Maker and entered into exhibitions. I try to enter as many 3D exhibitions as I can as a way to challenge myself since I don't have the opportunity to belong to a 3D camera club. I earned my first 3D Star in 2014.
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<br />As with my 2D photography, I enjoy taking photographs in almost all genres and with a variety of subjects. The third dimension adds a new "consideration" element to photographing a subject or scene and can really make the image "pop" ... I just love it.
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David Allen, EPSA
As can be seen in the old 1949 B&W image, I started taking photographs with my Kodak Brownie Reflex camera. It used type 127 roll film, had no shutter adjustment, leaving the exposure up to the processor of the prints. I still have a few of my old family photos and have many fond memories of the times and the camera. I have had many other cameras as well.
In recent years I have had a Pentax 110 SLR (cute little camera) and then used a Minolta SRT101 SLR. As I found myself interested in 3D, I then purchased two newer automatic electronic film cameras, mounted them on a bar and linked them with a common shutter release. Needless to say, at only 36 exposures per roll and two images needed for each stereoscopic image, I went through a lot of film. I digitized the print image pairs with a flat-bed scanner (in 8 bit dithered color). To eliminate the cost of roll film and simplify the conversion to the digital format, I next purchased a pair of digital Sony Cybershots (a big 3.3M pixels), put them on the bar and exposed a whole bunch of pixels. The next step up was to a pair of Canon EOS Rebel 350D XTs. I mounted them on a bar, linked the zooms between both cameras, and connected a common shutter release. These cameras were much better, with more flexibility and bigger raw images. The only drawback was the large size of the bar mount and the about 6 lb weight of the pair. With the introduction of the Fujifilm W1 and W3 3D cameras, I got one of each, and use them a lot more as they are small enough to carry around with me all the time. I still use the Canons when better images are desired.
I started competing in PSA 3D exhibitions in 1998. I have entered 940 images in PSA 3D exhibitions since then and am working on my 6th star. I have won 15 PSA gold medals and have had images selected as First 3D image of the year in 2008 in the 3D PSA Who’s Who and forth and sixth in 2011 in the 3D PSA Who’s Who. Many of my best images are of the creative nature. I look forward to discussions of ideas and techniques with the members of Group 40 as to methods and PS processes for image alterations. I’ll probably still be interested in 3D images, but I know I can learn a lot from techniques used to enhance your 2D images.
Brian Davis, MPSA
I started taking pictures with a Selfix when I was at school and afterwards when I was cycling and I have recently found some of the pictures that I printed then they were 16 on 120 contract prints of cycling holidays and they all had crinkly edges.
I joined Basingstoke Camera Club when I lived down there in the early 1960s and I then moved to Chesterfield and whilst I visited the photographic society I did not join, the kids arrived and that slowed down photography other than family stuff.
I joined the Society in the early 1980s and soon after joined the committee in 1983 and I have been on it ever since, having served as President twice for a total of 5 years. I have also held most posts within the Society.
I went onto the N&EMPF executive (which is the regional federation of the PAGB) in the late 80s and served as alliance competition secretary for 17 years. I have also been President and I am now still the Treasurer.
I started entering stereographic international exhibitions in the early 1990s and having joined the PSA I am PSA3* Shirley, my wife, have been sending off to small print and digital exhibitions and we have had quite good success, both holding 5 stars.
I started off after the Selfix camera with various ones and my first SLR was a Practika and then to Yashica brand finishing off with them with the Contax range one of which my son Glynn is still using when he is using film. I then changed to Nikon and have had Nikon cameras ever since currently using a D850. I do all of my stereo using this camera on the double image technique which I then combine with SPM. All my stereo is self taught so that all help is very acceptable
Barry Rothstein
Unlike most of my friends in the 3-D photography community, I didn't own a View-Master™ as a kid, and don't remember ever seeing a 3-D comic book.
An amateur photographer since my teens, I spent several years mostly doing black and white darkroom photography, and never in that time aspired to show it to people beyond my friends and family. I lived my first full fifty years unaware of 3-D photography.
Seeing a stereoscope in an antique store during the winter of 2003 changed my life. How was it I knew nothing about this, when before my eyes I could see the civil war was shot in 3-D. I was instantly fascinated, and within a few months was making hundreds of my own 3-D images for the stereoscope. My wife bought me that stereoscope along with a handful of old stereo cards.
That was in the early days of digital cameras becoming popular. Digital photography, 3-D imagery, and my computer geekiness gelled perfectly in me. I spent a year or so making cha-cha stereo images that could go into the stereoscope and pestering friends and family to look at my stereo images.
The next summer I attended a National Stereoscopic Association convention, where Steve Hughes and Terry Wilson exhibited some phantograms. Steve Hughes also conducted there the NSA's first workshop on how to make them. At first I created a number of "tabletop phantograms" of various household items and art piece chachkas, but soon turned my attention to producing outdoor nature phantograms.
After the NSA convention I joined the Stereo Club of Southern California (SCSC), and later on the National Stereoscopic Asosciation and International Stereoscopic Union.
In the spring of 2005 I published my first book, "Phantograms from Nature, Western USA." "Pop-Up 3D", my first children's book followed in 2007, and on the strength of Phantograms from Nature, Chronicle Books contracted me to produce "Eye-Popping 3-D Pets" (2009) and "Eye-Popping 3-D Bugs" (2011). That year I also self-published "Crossview 3-D", a collection of crossview 3-D images by 26 stereographers.
I was president of SCSC from 2008-2010, and have taught workshops on shooting and processing phantograms at numerous NSA and ISU functions, as well as exhibiting over a dozen Maker Faire and other events over the years. I've participated in and curated a number of art gallery 3-D photo exhibits.
On Christmas day, 2010, I emailed out my first "Image of the Week", a weekly 3-D image blog, usually of my own phantograms and other images, but occasionally by guest artists, and have continued sending them out to this day. My 3-D image blog also became political just before the 2016 presidential election, and since then several posts have contained rants in opposition to Trump's presidency.
And finally toward the end of 2020 in partnership with Jim McManus I produced "Macrophant 3D", a book of macro phantograms.
You can see my work on: Barry Rothstein 3-D books, cards, tutorials and Barry Rothstein author website and Official website of Macrophant 3D