Member Bios
Group Administrator
Carolyn Todd-Larson, PPSA, AFIAP
Even as a child, Carolyn Todd-Larson always enjoyed taking photos. It was the advent of digital photography that caused her to become serious about moving beyond snapshots and automatic cameras. She bought her first digital camera in 2002, and joined the State College Photo Club in 2010. Numerous courses, workshops, competitions, and cameras since then have helped her fine tune her skills. Not to mention software upgrades…as the art of photography has become even more dependent on mastering editing techniques!
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<br />Travel photography is her strongest interest areas, especially as retirement from Penn State has allowed more time to visit other countries and cultures. Another strong interest is documentary photography such as street scenes, sports or community events. Landscapes and macro photography are also passions, and she experiments with creative abstracts from natural surroundings as well as black and white conversions.
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<br />Carolyn currently serves as Chair for the Photo Travel Division of the Photographic Society of America. She is a dedicated Penn State football fan who followed the team wherever they played for over two decades, visiting over 50 stadiums in the process. She lives in Park Forest with two cats and her husband John Larson.
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Phyllis Peterson
I've been around photography my whole life. I am a Navy Brat which means we moved around as my father followed his Navy assignments. But my father was a photographer and I learned about film development in my his darkroom. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic and I took photos of friends and family and I enjoyed making scrapbooks out of my photos.
I have a wonderful husband, Bob and we raised 4 boys. Along the way I photographed our children in all their activities and I made a photo albums for every year.
In the about the year 2002 I got Olympus digital camera and I started photographing wildflowers. In my spare time from my main profession which was teaching Life Science and Biology I would learn as much as I could.
When my husband and I lived in North Carolina, I began to photograph the parks and coastline. And I wanted to improve my skills. I joined camera clubs, notably the Carolinas Nature Photographers Association and Charlotte Camera Club. I became the president of the Charlotte Camera Club and I would host photo trips for the clubs. And I participated in many workshops in the Carolinas and Tennessee with some fantastic teachers. I was able to learn and improve my photo skills in a beautiful part of our world.
However now Arizona is home. My husband and I have moved to the Phoenix area to be closer to Grandchildren. I currently belong to the Province Photography Club and I am a board member in the Sun Lakes Camera Club here in the Phoenix area. I also photograph events for my Province community magazine.
David Somali-Chow, GMPSA, GPSA
David Somali-Chow is an adventurer and world traveler whose passion is photography. He has many photographs ranging from under the sea to the mountaintops. He is an avid scuba diver holding a Master Diver Certificate.
David received the following Photographic distinctions:
GMPSA/B - Grand Master Photography Society of America/Bronze
GPSA - Gold Photography Society of America Digital Portfolio
EFIAP/p - Excellence De La Federation Internationale De L'Art Photographique/platinum
GPU Crn4 - Global Photographic Union Crown4
E.FPSI - Excellence of Federasi Perkumpulan Senifoto Indonesia
Laurie Bergner
Laurie is an avid traveler and photographer. Originally from New York, she and her husband live in Central Illinois where she is a clinical psychologist. She joined her local camera club 20 years ago and has served as its president for 3 years, helping to keep it alive through Covid and beyond. Her travels have taken her near and far, loves Europe but also drawn to more exotic and underdeveloped countries as India and Ethiopia. She especially focuses on people and culture in other countries. Closer to home, she also photographs her family of two grown children and 5 grandchildren.
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.
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.
Pinaki Sarkar
I am engineer by profession and an amateur photographer (do not make money out photos). I love traveling around the world and going out in general with my camera and taking pictures. My Insta handle is pinaki.sarkar5. Usually, I post my photos there...