Member Bios
Bogdan Bricelj, MPSA, GMPSA, EFIAP/p
I was born in the year 1958 in town Jesenice, Slovenia. I graduated at Faculty of electrical engineering in Ljubljana. I was working for 9 years in steel factory as service engineer. Since the year 1990 I'm manager and co-owner of a computer company.
I was learning the art of photography and developing of black and white photos in the photo school in primary school. After that I pass over to slides. In 1973 my first slide was accepted on a state exhibition. More than thirty years I had an ordinary Praktica without any electronics on all my journeys.
I bought my first digital camera in the year 2004. All these years I use compact cameras with large zoom. In my opinion photographer is more important then the camera like driver is more important than the car. Although digital photography allows a lot of possibilities of photo modifying, my photos are as much as possible pure representation of moments captured. I prefer to make photos of nature: animals, flowers and landscape. I also like macro and underwater photography. The other preferred theme is sports, especially outdoor sports like skiing, ski jumping, kayak and swimming. Mostly I go photographing together with my wife Danila.
In the year 2005 I joined to the photographic club Fotografsko drustvo Jesenice. I'm sending photos to many exhibitions worldwide. In the year 2018 I've got title EFIAP/p and in 2019 GMPSA. Until now I have made 29 exhibitions of my own. I was the president of photographic club since 2009 to 2017. In these years the club was first or second most successful club in Slovenia.
My photographs were published in many Slovenian and foreign books, magazines and other publications. I've written also four articles for PSA Journal. I'm especially proud, that also National Geographic has published my photos.
Group Administrator
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
Past Director of the PJ Study Groups
Past Director of the PJ Image of the Year Contest
Past Chairman of the PJ Division and Chair of the Nominating Committee
Elected VP Divisions - Will assume office in October 2021
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. My Cara Mia, Carolyn Todd-Larson and I were married in January 2021. She is is also a photographer and member of PSA.
Karen Leonard, PPSA
Photography has been an interest since a trip to Europe during college. I toured many major art museums, and got a quick course in the history of Western art.
I had been studying print journalism and Soviet Studies, not art. But, I realized, if I ever got a camera, I would not photograph the human figure sitting, standing or reclining.
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 a few years later. 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!
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.
Carolyn currently serves as President of the State College Photo Club and has recently been appointed PA Membership Director for 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 40 stadiums in the process. She lives in Park Forest with two cats, a miniature poodle, and her husband John Larson.
Dave Ficke
Dave is a retired high school Biology and Field Biology teacher living in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. As a teacher and mentor he has been involved in Environmental Education at the local, county and state level for the past 30 years and was part of a team that developed the California’s Blueprint for Environmental Literacy for K-12 education.
Dave began taking pictures with a 35mm Nikon Nikkormat back in the late 1960’s, sending his film to the local Fotomat and waiting a week to get the results of his work. Now he embraces the digital age with his Nikon Z6II, D500, and the D850, using lenses appropriate to his work.
A life-long passion for the wilderness environment has focused Dave’s free time toward week-long backpacking trips, where he shoots, with his camera, wilderness landscapes and wildlife images. Since retirement Dave has added Sports Photojournalist to his resume, shooting for the Mountain News in Lake Arrowhead, California for the past seven years. Dave strives to get that peak moment that tells the story in his sports photojournalism photography, representing the great student athletes of Rim of the World High School.
Dave has been a PSA member since 2019, a member of North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA) where he placed in the top 250 in this year’s Showcase Competition. He is the past President of the Redlands Camera Club, in Redlands California. You can see more of Dave’s work at davidfickephotography.com.
Ward Conaway, MPSA2
I am a retired civil engineer living in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA. I am a graduate of West Virginia University. I earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering at WVU. During my engineering career I worked in Cincinnati, Ohio; Arlington, Virginia; Gallup, New Mexico; Billings, Montana; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Pago Pago, American Samoa (the most interesting) and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
I have had a camera(s) since I was in high school. My first camera was a Kodak Pony 35 mm range finder. It was stolen while I was in college; I wish I still had it. I am mostly a self-taught enthusiast. When I joined the Oklahoma Camera Club in 2000 and saw what my fellow club members were accomplishing with their photography, I became more interested in learning more and more about photography.
My interest in PJ Sports photography began when I accompanied camera club members to various sporting events. They have included auto and motorcycle racing, skateboarding parks, the local white water kayaking facility, D-League NBA basketball, college ice hockey, Paralympic track and field and my favorite: rodeo.
Ron Davis
Ron Davis is an amateur photographer who takes mainly sports photographs, sometimes travel when able. He started sports photography in a simple way about 1973, when as a player, he experienced a lot of injuries and found with a camera, he could still be involved. From about 2016, he restarted sports photography again, concentrating on suburban sports clubs. Nearly all of his photos are distributed to the clubs and players involved. He is a member of Ivanhoe Photographic Society, a local club, and has been granted Associate Membership of Australian Photographic Society by panel judgment, submitting mainly sports photos. He enjoys sports photography, as it is one of the few areas in our daily lives in which people express their emotions, especially through the face.