Member Bios
Group Admin
Barbara Asacker
Greetings,
I live in Massachusetts and am a member of a local camera club. I enjoyed taking photos for many years. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic. However, I always shot on auto mode. In 2016 I joined a camera club, and learned how to properly use my camera. It opened up a new world of photography. My learning journey began and continues.
I shoot with a Nikon D500, Nikon D850, and Nikon Z6 ll.
Gerard Blair
Gerard Blair was raised in Northern England and has lived in the South, in Scotland, Israel, Japan and now in the United States. Professionally, he is a Microchip designer and is pleased to note that in a summer job in 1986 he wrote the first drafts of a funding proposal for his Professor at Edinburgh University to start early research into CMOS digital sensors - although this doesn't actually help him take better photographs.
Gerard's first attempts at photography started in 1998 with a basement darkroom, and black and white film. Since 2000 he has moved into digital photography but has retained a love of contrast. His main outlet has been the Great Allentown Fair - an annual event including livestock and photography where he normally wins a first on one of the categories and has twice won best-in-show. Baa! Well, we all have to start somewhere. One consequence of this focus has been a preponderance of portraits in his portfolio … of sheep and goats and fowl and such; thankfully, several vacations have broadened his range of subjects to include wildlife, and flora, and various-scapes.
As a boy, he exhibited paintings with his mother's art club; but he lacked skill. Digital photography, however, allows him more easily to refine, repair, and craft images repeatedly and so to improve. Now, semi-retired, he is able to devote time to explore and study both the history of painting, and the creation of his own art using the camera. His plan is to learn until he can make pictures that bring him pleasure, and his method is to join the local photography club, to join PSA, to take courses, and to test his advances by entering into juried exhibitions.
Peter Elliston
Hello. I live in Taunton, Somerset, UK but was actually born in a much smaller place - Guernsey in the Channel Isles where as a teenager I was able to use the school darkroom to develop my pictures. Even then I was an enthusiastic photographer of people and this interest has stayed with me today as most of my shots are of people in informal situations. I very much enjoy photographs of everyday life.
Later, as a teacher, I had very little time or money to pursue my hobby except on holidays where most of my images were of my family - my wife Fran and my daughter Lucy as well as the rest of my family in Guernsey or my wife's family in Yeovil, Somerset.
But when I retired from teaching I started a business selling first edition fiction across the world and had a little more time for photography and by then the digital age had arrived. We had moved to the Isle of Wight but eventually moved to Taunton and I began photography again. I am a member of the Wellington and District Camera Club in Somerset and enjoy taking part in their competitions and in a digital critique group similar to this. I have also over the last few years started sending images to international exhibitions - with varying success! You soon get to realise that not all of your pictures are world-beaters! I very much look forward to taking part in this group.
I use a Fuji XT3 with mainly an 18-55mm lens. I process my images in Lightroom and then Photoshop occasionally using filters such as NIK and working with the images on an iMac. My printer is an Epson SureColor P600
Robin Mellor
I live in North Devon, in the southwest of England. I am retired and enjoy gardening, writing, walking - and, of course, photography.
I become hooked on photography in college when someone showed me how to develop and print black and white photographs. My first camera was a Yashicamat 6x6 and, all these years later, my preference is still for monochrome and the square format - but I do shoot colour as well. The Internet has revolutionised sharing photos and entering exhibitions, but I still like to make prints and for this I use an Epson SC P600 printer.
I use a Nikon D800 with a variety of lenses, and a small Nikon A; increasingly, I also shoot using an iPhone 15 Pro.
For processing, when I moved from the darkroom, I initially used Photoshop and Lightroom but have become dissatisfied with their subscription model so switched to Affinity Photo 2 (one off payment) which is excellent.
I enjoy photographing most subjects, but not sport or natural history, and look forward to seeing your pictures and sharing some of mine with you.
John Larson, FPSA, MPSA2
John F. Larson, Jr., FPSA, MPSA Autobiography
Updated October 18, 2020
609 Stoneledge Rd, State College, PA 16803
Jflarson114@gmail.com
jlarson2@scciowa.edu
Since 2004 I have been teaching at Southeastern Community College, mostly Math. I stopped face to face teaching in 2014 and now only teach online. Having recently moved to Pennsylvania I am always looking for opportunities to take pictures at local sports venues. There seem to be an abundance of State Parks which I am now exploring.
For PSA:
Manage the PJ Quarterly Competition
Manage the PJ Study Groups
Manage the PJ Image of the Year Contest
Past Chairman of the PJ Division and Chair of the Nominating Committee
About Me:
I graduated from Valparaiso University in 1966 with a B.S.E.E. degree. I worked for 28 years at General Electric as a Design Engineer and Manager of several groups including assignments in Schenectady, NY, Nashville, TN, Ft. Wayne, IN and Burlington, IA. I then worked as Engineering Systems Manager for Marathon Electric in Wausau, WI for 10 years. After that I "retired" and went to teaching at SCC in Burlington, IA. Two years ago, my wife passed away after a long illness and I am now engaged to be married once this pandemic thing settles down. My fiancé, Carolyn, is also a photographer and member of PSA.
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!
Gary Vandemark
Gary Vandemark Bio-2024
I am a retired Silicon Valley electronics executive with an electrical engineering background in wireless communications technology. In late 2023 I moved from the Coachella Valley in California, where I lived for 23 years, to Tucson, AZ.
I became interested in photography through scuba diving and underwater photography, armed with a Nikonis V underwater film camera. I also had an Olympus digital camera with an underwater housing. My first real camera was a Minolta SRT101 and before that as a teen I had a Brownie Hawkeye. I have been a member of the Coachella Valley Desert Camera Club for the past 7 years and recently joined Club Camera Tucson and PSA.
I presently shoot with a Canon M5 mirrorless SLR with 22mm fixed, 18-55mm, and 55-250mm lenses. I favor landscapes and action photos. I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and the Topaz suite for post processing, and previously used Affinity Photo and Paint Shop Pro.
I look forward to improving my photographic skills and helping others with theirs.
Gary Vandemark
Tucson, AZ