ANNOUNCEMENTS:
|
CHANGE OF MEETING "LOCATION"
Meetings will be held at "Christ of the Hills UMC 700 Balearic Rd. East Entrace" Except for June, October & December Vertical Divider
|
PSA MEMBER BENEFITS
All webinars are recorded and PSA members can request access past productions. Webinar information can be found on the website under webinars. Note: Only 3 webinars may be checked out during any monthly password period and can take up to 2 wks for response Vertical Divider
|
With July 4th coming up shortly check out a few YOUTUBE video's on our Education / Resources for Photography tab.
|
|
Meet Tom Pickering
PSA Judge for Reflections April 2025 
|
I'm a 70-something, born-again, computer geek, photographer, musician and one-time sword fight choreographer. I live & work (though now semi-retired) at web development and photography in Belleville, IL (part of the St. Louis Metro Area)
I've been capturing images, still & movie/video, for over 50 years now. I entered a darkroom for the first time at age 13 and have been fascinated with the art of photography ever since. My first cameras were Kodak's - a Brownie and an 8mm movie camera. At the dawn of the digital photography age, I switched to digital and never looked back at film. I transitioned into professional photography in 2006, specializing in portraits, commercial and weddings, though I've since stopped shooting weddings to reduce stress. Today, I am strictly a Nikon shooter for most of my captures, though I do more and more images with my smartphone. For lenses, I mostly use a Tamron 60mm Macro, Laowa 25mm Ultra Macro, Nikkor 18-200mm and 50mm 1.8. Occasionally, I pull out my Tokina 100-400mm and Tamron 200-500mm for wildlife photos, though I mainly capture macro, floral, vehicles, landscapes & portraits. Though I aim for everything right in the camera, I shoot RAW (& JPEG), so will always apply post processing to some extent to all my images, especially my more artistic endeavors. I've been using Bridge CC for image organization lately as my Lightroom catalog became too unwieldy for my computer. The vast majority of my post-processing work is done in Photoshop CC & Affinity Photo, although I also use other apps as plug-ins from companies like Topaz, DxO, & Skylum to name a few of the many. I also create my own artistic backgrounds and have written several complex Photoshop actions to handle many of the mundane steps of post-processing workflow. I am the Director of Photographic Society of America (PSA) Study Groups. I am a former vice president of the Quad Cities Photography Club, where I also served as a competition judge and projectionist, as well teaching various Photoshop skills. I have also been judging for PSA clubs & councils for a few years now. I am the developer and webmaster of the PSA PID Digital Dialogue Study Group website and the PSA ND, PJD & PTD Image Discussion Groups, as well as one of the study group administrators and a participant in several of the groups. I am also an instructor of a Photoshop course and developing one for Affinity Photo. Most recently, I have become PSA's mentor for macro photography. You can see some of my photo artistry at SmugMug – https://tompickering.smugmug.com |
LATEST CLUB ACTIVITY
|
Several members of the club went to the WYE Mountain Daffodil Festival 2025 and took photos of the DAFFODIL'S. The daffodils covered 7 acres and we found 65 different varieties, what a way to celebrate spring with all the gorgeous colors of flowers. Every year the church puts on this daffodil festival, so enjoy the photos of spring, you may see all the photos of the field trip, on the Field trip photos page under Events, then WYE Daffodil Festival 2025, or just click on the Blue "DAFFODIL'S word above.
|
|
Dates to Remember
Bois D'Arc Photo Field Trip 28th of April 2025. We will be trying to take photo's of the various birds at the Bois D'Arc WMA, like the Marsh Wren, Bald Eagle, Purple Gallinule, Common Gallinule, Least Bittern and occasional rarities, such as Wood Stork and Limpkin. The area consists of bottomland hardwood and managed pine habitats, we will also enjoy taking pictures of the other wildlife in the area such as alligator's, squirrels, etc. there will be various flowers also to take pictures of. click HERE for sign up and times of departure and return.
Here's a couple of Websites for photographing Birds.
Here's a couple of Websites for photographing Birds.
May 13th Tuesday Meeting:
Results of Reflections (remember meeting location change)
Results of Reflections (remember meeting location change)
June 10th Tuesday Meeting:
Picnic Potluck - Cortez Pavilion - beginning at 4:00 ?? PM
Picnic Potluck - Cortez Pavilion - beginning at 4:00 ?? PM
AUGUST: GARVAN GARDENS PHOTO EXHIBIT
October Print Competition information click HERE
To see all the Camera Club Programs and Field Trips go to the EVENTS SECTION of our website.
If you missed our March Camera Club meeting check out the Prislipsky's "Elements Of A Merit Image" under the EDUCATION Tab.
Be sure to scroll down for the presentation!
Be sure to scroll down for the presentation!
If you missed our April Camera Club meeting check out the "Strut Your Stuff - Birds Only!" Check out our members bird photo's: click HERE
Monochrome Digital Contest - Best of Show
Elizabeth Workman - Columbia Icefield Canada
Digital Contest 1 - 2025 – Monochrome Winners
To see images of Monochrome competition click Here
To see images of Scapes click HERE
To see Eclipse photos click HERE
To see winner of Facebook Challenge March 2025 click HERE
