The Photographic Society of America (PSA) held its annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA between October 8 – 14, 2017.  I went for the entire week, arriving in the afternoon on Saturday, October 7, and leaving on the following Saturday, October 14.  I enjoyed the whole thing, from the galleries of winning prints, to the presentations and workshops, to discussions with vendors, meeting new people, and attending both the formal tours and the informal “walking tours” from the hotel in the early mornings and late evenings. 

In this short article, I just want to focus on the tours.  I had set myself a challenge.  After shooting with a Canon 6D DSLR since 2014, I decided to upgrade to the new Canon 5D Mark IV.  I purchased it on Thursday, October 5, two days before arriving in Pittsburgh.  I intended to learn it by using it all week.  I also brought my tripod, monopod, and complete set o’ lenses,  although nearly all my photographs were taken either with my 100mm macro f/2.8, or with my 24-105mm f/4L IS II – it shouldn’t be too hard to tell which was which in my photographs in this article.  

The PSA’s formal tours in Pittsburgh were extremely popular, and many sold out weeks before the conference.  Most of the tours were front-loaded in the week’s agenda, before the presentations and workshops got going.  I had selected three of them (highlighted in blue):

•  Covered Bridge and One-Room Schoolhouse Tour
•  Just Ducky Tours (Street and River Tour in WWII Amphibious Vehicle)
• Mt. Washington Overlook of Pittsburgh and the Three Rivers (3 trips)
• Carrie Furnace of the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area (3 trips)
• Phipps Botanical Gardens, Cathedral of Learning, and Heinz Chapel
• Sunset Dinner Cruise
• Ohiopyle State Park and Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright)
• Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium
• National Aviary – Dine with the Birds

In addition, the Photo Antiquities Museum hosted a free reception (with complementary local beer) for the conference attendees on Sunday evening.  They had an unmatched collection of Lincoln photographs on exhibition.  Photo Antiquities is dedicated to the preservation, presentation and education of the history of photography. The museum’s collection includes images, cameras and accessories that capture the earliest days of photography.  We had a guided tour of the history of photography from the Daguerreotype c. 1839 (the first commercially viable photographic image produced onto a silver coated copper plate) to present day digital photography.  It really was amazing, and I’d say the museum is a national treasure that sadly struggles to make ends meet.

Instead of going  on an official bus tour, I decided to go up to Mt. Washington on my own to photograph Pittsburgh and its rivers as the sun set later in the week.  This ended up being fortuitous, as one of the official tours up there was a bust with rain.  I used a combination of walking, the subway, and the incline cable car to get there. 

And then there were the informal Photo Walk tours.  These were offered between 6:00 – 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 – 11:00 p.m. nearly every day from the Marriott conference hotel lobby.  Anyone that wanted to go just showed up.

I have to give a lot of credit to the tour lead, Fred Doerfler, Jr., a born-and-raised Pittsburgher that only joined PSA last December, but jumped in to lead the tours.  He added his personal knowledge of Pittsburgh history, geography, and architecture to each tour.  I don’t know how he had the energy to keep it up morning and night, and attend the conference in between.  He even gave three of us a private tour of Pittsburgh hotels, train rotunda, and an opera house on Sunday afternoon during his “free time”. 

I took a lot of pictures, and spent a little time selecting and adjusting my favorites to send home each day.  I’ve included some of these from a very fun trip!  I’m looking forward to next year’s PSA Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT between September 30 – October 6.  In addition to local tours during the conference, there may be a side trip to Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Moab after the conference as well.