featuring Nikhil Nagane What Does it Mean to be a

What Does it Mean to be a PSA Member?

Tom Kredo

]I’ve been a member of PSA for a few years now, and I’m finding new things every year to be happy about my purchase.

Club Membership

Club membership is very basic and only gives us access to the club competitions. We are participating in the Projected Image Division (PID), and the Projected Image Division Creative for the 2019-20 season. There are three rounds of competition, Nov 15, Feb 15, and April 15. For each round, eight images from eight different photographers are used. Awards will be given to the top clubs at the end of the competition, as well as individual awards to the top scoring images. Competitions are judged by members of PSA camera clubs. We also compete in the club newsletter competition which we did very well. Congrats to Jim Hooper!

Individual Membership

For $45 a year I receive the following benefits without any extra charge: • Online Courses • Exclusive Webinars on Photographic Education • Image Evaluation Services • Mentoring • Study Groups • PSA Journal • Create a Member Gallery • Earn ROPA Distinctions, Star Ratings, PSA Honors

I have basically used all of these services, except for the online courses. Let’s do a deep dive into these services.

Online Courses

Working with accomplished instructors you could take a course in Creating Competitive Images, Portraits, and Still Life Photography for example. Many of these classes last over six months.

Webinars

So far in 2020, there have been 16 webinars for PSA members that last about 90 minutes. All of the courses are recorded and available on the PSA website for viewing at a later time. I have been to about seven of these and found them to be excellent. Some of my favorite ones have been with Lisa Cuchara who is an excellent photographer and instructor. Lisa’s subjects have been Creating Sweeping Panoramas, Wabi Sabi, and Urban Exploration. The webinars are moderated and you are fee to ask questions at the end of the webinar.

Image Evaluation Services I have sent in at least 100 images for critical feedback by PSA accredited photographers. There are separate categories for different types of photography. The basic process is to enter three images on the website, pick a category, and wait for a few days to receive your feedback in an email. Evaluators provide an email commentary regarding what was good and what could be improved. Topics covered include: exposure, depth of field, lighting, interest, composition, ways to increase impact, ideas for different techniques, how to better communicate a photographic message, and presentation. The evaluators are assuming that you want to enter these into international competition, so they will provide feedback if they think the image would be accepted into these competitions.

Mentoring

I have not used this service. Basically there are PSA members that volunteer to work with you on their expertise. You contact the expert in the area you are interested in, and they email you and you both agree to start a correspondence. Some of the mentors are experts in HDR, Portrait, Underwater, Websites, and Wildlife Photography.

Study Groups

I have participated in three study groups: Macro, Black and White and Nature. There are about 8 group members at any given time. There is a moderator that is in charge of the group. You upload one or two images each month, and everyone in the group gives you written feedback and sometimes a 1-10 rating (depending on the group). This is all on the website and everyone in the group can see your evaluations. It is not anonymous if that is a concern for you.

PSA Journal

You have the option to pay a bit more for the PSA journal to be mailed to you in a hard copy. I find many of the articles to be interesting and worthwhile. I like the hard copy just because.

Member Gallery

You can upload your images and have them shown on the PSA website.

ROPA, Star and PSA Honors

There is a whole international industry dedicated to looking at your images and providing a score for a fee. Literally hundreds of PSA accredited contests are available each year. The goal is to get as many of your images Accepted into the show which is about the top 35% of all images in the show. Once you have 18 images accepted, you can apply for a one-star rating, and then keep progressing to have letters after your name like FPSA, MPSA. Typical charges are about $45 for maybe 10 images per show. Some people have thousands of acceptances which can get very pricey.