A fantastic way to improve your photography is to get honest assessments of your pictures and suggestions of how you might be able to improve them.  The PSA (Photographic Society of America) provides just that – an effortless way to share your photos and get useful input while you’re also commenting on the work of others.

If you aren’t already familiar with PSA, here’s a brief overview:

PSA is an international, non-profit organization with about 6,000 members from over 80 countries. Our camera club is one of over 500 camera clubs that are PSA members. PSA provides a tremendous number of learning opportunities for both amateur and professional photographers. A PSA membership costs $45/year (or $60/year if you choose to receive the monthly journal in printed form instead of electronically). To learn more about PSA, go to psa-photo.org and click on “Thinking about Joining?”

I am a member of a Digital Dialog Study Group (Group 5) within PSA. (It’s free for PSA members to join Study Groups.)  There are about 75 different Study Groups on a wide variety of topics. Most of the groups are “general” with no specific photographic area of concentration. However, there are also groups that deal specifically with macro, High Dynamic Range (HDR), infrared, 3D, monochrome, and a host of other topics. There’s truly something for everyone!

Each study group has only a handful of members (a maximum of 7) and each month the members submit one photograph to the group. Then, during the month, the members all comment on each others’ images.  The comments are always supportive – pointing out the appealing aspects of the pictures and often suggesting ways that they might be further improved.  Also, study group members are welcome to browse other groups and give their input there as well.

One of the members of my study group is David Cooke who lives in the United Kingdom (www.davidfcookephotography.co.uk). David has an amazing ability to see wonderful pictures within a mundane scene.  Here, for example, are David’s before and after submissions for August 2017. (He gave me permission to show them here.)  You must look closely in the “before image” to find the man who is the subject of the final image.  I find it amazing to see what can be done with something that appears to be an ordinary scene.

I find pictures like this to be very inspiring.  And, the photographer’s description of how he took the shot and did his post processing are great learning opportunities.  Plus, the comments and observations of the other group members (and visitors from other groups) are equally valuable.
So, if you’re not a member of PSA, I encourage you to join.  And, if you already are a member, then consider joining one or more of the study groups.  I will be glad to discuss this further with anyone who’s interested.  Just send me email at Pete.Morton@yahoo.com if you’d like to know more.