Member Bios
Group Administrator
Susan Albert
I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. I am a physician, and after practicing anesthesia for over 35 years, I retired to spend more time with my family and my hobbies.
Photography has interested me since I was a teenager. There are few photos of me from my adult life, as I was always the person behind the camera. I am self-taught, having never taken any formal training. I embraced the digital world when that emerged and have had several Canon cameras. When I realized that I was usually using my cell phone to take photos, I sold all of my heavy bodies and lenses and bought a Sony bridge camera. Yes, someday I’ll read the manual to figure out all that it can do. I’m also late to the post-processing party, having just recently signed up for a Lightroom Classic monthly subscription. I belong to a local camera club and have won many awards for my digital and print submissions.
I am the administrator of PTD Group 4.
Alan Lichtenstein
I was born in Brooklyn, trained as a chemist but now I'm a retired assistant principal who purchased a digital camera in 2006, used it for 3 years in automatic until I finally decided I ought to learn what all those features and icons in the menu were. I'm an SOOC ( straight out of the camera) amateur and do no editing whatsoever, save occasional cropping and resizing where necessary. I particularly like images of sunrises and sunsets and I enjoy the blue and golden hours. My wife and I travel extensively, having been from the top of the world to the bottom, visited every continent and visited a country in every one of the 24 time zones. Because we travel with groups, I've rarely had time to set up a tripod, so virtually everything I have is hand-held. I am an unreconstructed Olympus user, but I traded in my E-5 and OM-10 for the SONY a-7 IV because I got tired of the 2.0 crop. My wife and have been traveling just about 20 years and are still going as strong as our advancing ages permit. I look forward to discussion in the group.
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.
Pamela Liu, PPSA, EFIAP
I was born in Taiwan, grew up, studied in Los Angeles, California then worked in San Jose, California for 30 years. I got my Master of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Univ of Southern California, and I worked as an entrepreneur, and software engineer and taught computer classes at Univ of Calif, Santa Cruz. I retired last year and moved back to Taiwan to live close to my family.
After retirement I restarted my journey to be a painter, I learned Chinese brush painting while I was little and quit in college. And now, I am picking up again.
I started photography as my husband is a semiconductor lithography engineer and we plan to travel together when we both retire.
I am the CEO of the Photographic Society of China and the Chairwoman of the National Open University Photographic Club in Taiwan. I have been awarded several Gold /Silver/ Bronze medals in different International Exhibits and just received my EFIAP, and PPSA this year.
Being an over 30-year Computer graphic software engineer, I am well versed in many editing software such as PS, Nik, Laminar, On1, Raya, … etc, I am also an instructor of Photoshop in my photographic clubs. I will be more than happy to share my editing experiences.
Dr Edward Goldenberg
I am pleased to join the PTD discussion group. I am a retired interventional cardiologist. Retiring has allowed me to pursue a passion I have enjoyed since I purchased my first camera at 13 yoa. Although I am attempting to become an expert in post processing, my real interest is in taking images of people both during travel and as a street photographer. I am treasurer and chairman of PSA-PJ inter club competition for Delaware Photographic Society.
Tom Tauber, APSA, MPSA
I grew up in Vienna, Austria. After receiving an engineering education at the high school level, and then an M.Sc. in Physics from the Technical University of Vienna, I was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to come to the US to study Theoretical Physics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA (culture shock!) where I obtained a Ph.D. in 1970. I joined a smallish aerospace company in the Philadelphia area as engineering manager, received eight US patents for inventions that are contributing to the reliability of jet engines and helicopter transmissions, and eventually became the president of the company. After it was sold I co-founded a company that makes electronic equipment for the sports and climate markets. I retired in 2010.
Along the way I got into digital photography. I am primarily a travel photographer and am keenly interested how people live, work and entertain themselves in different parts of the world.
I joined the Delaware Photographic Society in 2007 and PSA in 2009. From 2011 to 2016 I held successive PSA offices of second and first vice chair and then chair of the Photo Travel Division. I directed the Photo Travel Study Group Program for three years.
I am currently Director of the PSA Travel Advisory Service Program. I hold 5 galaxies in Photo Travel, one galaxy in Color Projected, 4 stars in Small Color Prints, 4 stars in Photojournalism, 3 stars in Large Color Prints, 2 stars in Small Mono Prints and one star in Nature. In Who's Who in Photography 2014, I was ranked No.2 in North America in PT Prints and No.12 in North America in PT Projected.
I served as chairman of the Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and previously served for several years as judges' chair for the Wilmington International and for the Delaware Photographic Society. I have judged a number of PSA-recognized International exhibitions and club competitions.
PSA awarded me the PPSA distinction in 2013, EPSA in 2015 and MPSA in 2018, and elected me Associate (APSA) in 2018.
Dr. Isaac Vaisman, PPSA
I am a native of Caracas-Venezuela, born and raised there. I am still a semi-retired physician (Radiation Oncologist) and a self-educated photographer since the mid-sixties. As a teenager I was the youngest member of the Foto Club Caracas. Winner of the first prize in black and white prints in all three camera clubs of Venezuela, the same year. Did my own black and white processing and printing for many years, until I finished medical school and came to the US for postgraduate training in the 70's.
After a very long gap, I started with digital photography in the early 2000's and became more involved since I acquired my first digital Nikon D300 . I am a "Nikonian" by conviction. Have participated in many competitions and received several awards.
I joined the first Camera Club in Florida in 2008: Broward Camera Club, of which I was President for four years (2013 to 2016). Also was a member of the Pines West Camera Club, and currently I only attend the Coral Springs Camera Club that offers activities of interest.
I joined PSA in 2011. Completed the course of Image Evaluation a few years ago, and most recently (March 2021) the Advanced Photo Travel Course and was an instructor for a while. Appointed as 2nd Vicechair of the PSA Photo Travel Division in 2021 and Director of all the Photo Travel Image Discussion Groups.
I am an active member of four of the PID Digital Dialogue groups: 04 (General Photography), 58 (street Scenes), 59 (Sport) and 72 (Nature +). I am the administrator of groups 58 and 72. I am also a member of the PSA PTD (Travel Photography) group 04 and the PJ (Photojournalism) of Human Interest group 5 of which I am also the Administrator.
Early in 2022 I obtained my ROPA distinction QPSA, and in October 2022 my ROPA distinction PPSA. I hold 3 stars in Nature Exhibitions, 3 stars in Monochrome Class, 3 stars in Color Class, 3 stars in Photo Travel Exhibitions and 1 star in Photojournalism.