Lakewood Ranch Digital Photography Club |
2025 Board of Directors
The Club is governed by a Board of Directors. Any member who is interested in filling a seat on the Board may apply. The Board takes those names under consideration, evaluating the candidate’s skills, desire to serve, and other relevant factors. After due deliberation the Board appoints the new Board members. The Executive Board includes the president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. The Executive Board is approved by the membership.
In addition to the permanent members there are members-at-large, each having a one year term. Any club member may volunteer for a member-at-large position. The member-at-large positions give the opportunity for Club members to be on the Board and participate in decision making.
If
you are interested in filling a Board position, or just attending a
Board meeting, contact one of the current Board members. Click one the
e-mail links below to send an e-mail the respective board member. Please
meet the current Lakewood Ranch Digital Photography Club Board of
Directors below…
Dick Foster and his wife, Mary, moved to Venice from Nashville, TN in 2016 after retiring. Initially, he spent 16 years as a civil engineer in Atlanta. The remainder of his career was in the software industry in a variety of positions including technical software training, sales support and marketing project management.
He has been a member of LWRDPC since 2016 and on the Board since 2020. Dick has been the webmaster for several years and continues to work with some aspects of the website activities.
His initial photography interest was in black and white, which included building a cramped darkroom in an apartment bathroom many years ago. After retiring, he again took up photography as a hobby. He focused initially on bird photography because of the awesome variety of big birds in the area. Dick also enjoys landscape and, most recently, macro/close-up photography.
Vice President / Community Affairs - Judith Ramlow
Judy was raised in Kent, Ohio and was the little kid with the camera.The first one was a Brownie box camera and was won selling magazine
subscriptions in school. It may have been Girl Scout Cookies !! She and her late husband, a teacher, operated a water theme park in the Cleveland Ohio area. She has two daughters and five grandchildren. Although she spent many years in dental sales she also owned a gallery shop and high end floral business in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She had a catering business here in Sarasota. She and her husband moved to Sarasota in 1995.
She and her partner John, enjoy traveling internationally having recently traveled the Adriatic coast of Italy on a small ship.
She is currently using a Canon 7D Mark ll and enjoys street photography and sports. She also has way too many pictures of her three cats!
LRDPC is a dream come true not only for the novice photographer and also the accomplished image maker. The amount of information that is offered is sometimes overwhelming and so worth the readers effort.
Treasurer - Dennis Holly
Dennis was born in Michigan. He is a partner in CPA firms in both Michigan and Florida resulting in audits of several nonprofit organizations as well as serving on various boards. Further, he was directly involved in developing various commercial properties in various states such as rental properties, restaurants, amusement facilities, and other related ventures. For example, he developed an amusement ride in Orlando that ended up on the Discovery Channel’s show Extreme Thrill Rides. Dennis and his wife Jan just built a new house in Bird Key, so Sarasota has now become their full-time residence.
He has always been interested in photography and currently shoots Nikon using the D 850 together with a new Nikon Z9. Dennis enjoys a wide range of photography types and really likes travel photography. For example he has done photo shoots in Cuba, the Amazon River, New Zealand, Europe, and many other locations. He also has a large photography studio in Sarasota and enjoys sharing the facilities with other photographers while having fun learning from each other.
He is very impressed with LWRDPC to include the many talented members and the various top notch workshop opportunities in many different areas of photography.
Debi Lander's interest in photography stems from her work as a travel writer. She has visited and photographed in over 70 countries and 48 U.S. states. When she’s not traveling, she likely at her computer writing or post processing her pictures.
Debi grew up in Arlington, Virginia and graduated from Roanoke College. She also received a Master’s Degree from Temple University.
Debi has lived in various cities in Florida since 1997, but moved to Lakewood Ranch in January 2019. She credits the camera club for keeping her going during the pandemic and improving all areas of her photography.
Debi is looking forward to serving as secretary. She has been a past member-at-large for the club.
Past-President - Susan Beausang
Susan is originally from Philadelphia PA and has lived in Sarasota since 2001. Susan came to Florida retired and enjoying playing golf and tennis. She is an accomplished golfer playing with a handicap as low as 5.6. Her previous careers include a registered stockbroker, a trader on the floor of the Philadelphia Stock exchange and a manager and buyer in a high-end women’s boutique. Shortly after moving to Florida, Susan formed a company called 4women.com; an on-line boutique that catered to women and girls experiencing medical hair loss. Susan designed a fashion forward scarf that holds two US Patents. She served as President of 4women.com for 14 years before selling her company 4 years ago.
The photography demands of 4women.com led Susan to purchase a camera and become familiar with product photography. This led to a new passion for photography which grew very quickly. She enrolled in Ringling College of Art and Design’s Continuing Education program and received a certificate in General Photography. She recently completed the Florida Camera Club Council’s judging course and received her judging certificate.
Susan graduated from Marymount University with a degree in fashion design and also graduated from Chestnut Hill College where she received a BS in business. She was the tennis coach at Chestnut Hill College for 4 years.
Susan and her husband Jack have 5 sons and 7 grandchildren that are scattered across the country. They love visiting them as often as possible and of course, on the lookout for photography opportunities while traveling.
Membership Director - Gunilla Imshaug
Contact Gunilla Gunilla was born and grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. After graduating from University of Stockholm in 1982 with a Masters degree in Behavior Science and Personel Management, she moved to Connecticut with her husband on a company transfer visa, planning to stay just for six month.
Six months fast became numerous years and she and her husband Knut built on their experience and together started a Plastic Engineering business, settled down and started a family in Connecticut. Gunilla moved permanently from Connecticut with her family to Sarasota, Florida in 2001. Upon moving to Sarasota, she pursued a career freelancing as a Graphic designer, helping clients develop successful marketing materials and planning strategic marketing.
She also devoted time as a board member in different non-profit organizations and helping them raising funds. Presently she is actively involved with Save Our Seabirds, a non-profit organization whose mission is to rescue and rehabilitate sick and injured birds.
Gunilla has always enjoyed taking photographs but the advent of digital photography inspired her to develop a hobby into a passion. She enjoys nature and wildlife photography the most. After joining the photography club, she has learned so many new aspects and technics of photography and is now exited to be able to give something back serving as a Membership Director.
Together with photograph Gunilla loves boating and anything water.
She is, together with her husband, also a passionate kiteboarding, kite and wing foiler and spend a fair amount of her spare time out in and on the water.
Competitions Director - Reena Walkling
Contact ReenaReena is originally from Iowa, receiving her Journalism degree from University of Iowa. She spent her career in marketing, planning and development roles in hospital systems throughout the mid-west and south regions eventually settling in Philadelphia where she retired. It was here where she got the camera bug and bought her first DSLR in 2012 to support her blog sharing stories and poetry of her travels and daily life. But as a self-starter, she felt she needed more instruction and over the next several years, enjoyed several summer photography courses at Maine Media in Rockport, Maine, where she and Ralph spend summers.
In 2016, Reena and Ralph moved to Lakewood Ranch and Reena joined LWRDPC in 2018. It was through the club that Reena became more serious about her photography by participating in the programs and competitions sponsored by the club and began seeing definite improvements in her craft. In addition to LWRDPC programs, Reena has participated in numerous destination workshops with such photography pros as Jennifer King, Ian Plant, Kathleen Clemons, Art Meyerson, Joyce Tenneson, and other pros in Maine during her summer stays.
Reena enjoys all aspects of photography and dabbling in all styles. Most recently, she has been focusing on landscape and night photography and especially enjoys post processing where an image comes to life from its RAW format with unlimited visual possibilities. In appreciation for all the club’s activities, Reena recently completed the Florida Camera Club Council’s judging course and received her judging certificate in hopes of giving back a little of what she has learned.
Education Director - Art Napolitano
Education is headed up by Art Napolitano who has been a member of the LWRDPC for 3 years. He has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration. He spent the first twenty years of his career as an engineer before moving on to the Management side of the Aerospace business.
He has worked on 48 distinct satellite payloads designed to take images of the earth, the universe, and our solar system from both earth and planetary orbits as well as from the surface of Mars. Art also spent several years as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut specializing in Business Statistics, Economics of the Firm, Operations Management, and Policy/Strategic Planning in their MBA Program.
He and his wife Lynn retired to Sarasota 10 years ago. His photo interests include birds - especially birds in flight, landscapes, travel, and low-light street photography.
Meet Joseph "Joe" Nuzzo, of Lakewood Ranch, Florida! By day, he's capturing the perfect real estate shots, making brides and grooms look like movie stars, and herding families into frame with the finesse of a seasoned photographer.
But Joe's photographic journey started in college. It was there that he faced a dilemma. He could work a job and make money or eat less... a lot less. Clearly, food won that battle and Joe took a job working in the trenches of a camera store. Despite his culinary priorities, Joe's love affair with photography was born. He has since been known to snap a pic or two, or a few thousand, just for the sheer joy of it. Rumor has it he once photographed a particularly photogenic pizza just for fun – who knew sauce and cheese could be so camera-ready?
When he's not behind the lens, Joe generously shares his photographic wisdom on his YouTube channel and website, offering a blend of education and humor that makes learning about f-stops and shutter speeds almost as enjoyable as devouring a well-photographed pizza. Who says you can't have your cake and photograph it too? Joe certainly doesn't – he's too busy making every snapshot a delicious masterpiece!
Field Trip Coordinator - Pam Truitt
Pam has been a Sarasota resident for 40+ years. Retired for a few years now, her professional career began in urban planning and ended in the philanthropic foundation business. Parallel to her "official" jobs—and to fulfill her motto of 'making a difference'—she engaged with community organizations, holding leadership positions in many, including chairing the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, The Education Foundation of Sarasota County, Sarasota Chamber Foundation, Doctor's Hospital Board of Trustees and the Sarasota County School District Financial Advisory Committee. She is an alum of Leadership Florida, Leadership Manatee, and Leadership Sarasota.
Retirement has allowed Pam to rekindle her love of photography—a passion that began as a struggling college student when she was introduced to B&W photography on a Nikon F. Back then she was developing film in a makeshift home darkroom—remember those days? :-) Pam used several cameras over the decades but came home to Nikon in 2013 with the purchase of a D3200. Today you'll find her behind a Nikon Z7ii. She joined the LWRDPC in 2017 to improve her skills and continues to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities the club offers.
In addition to photography, Pam and husband Cliff are exploring America the Beautiful in their RV. She also enjoys golfing, long beach walks, sporting clays, pickleball, hiking, reading and Mahjong.
IT/Webmaster Assistant - Joseph Heil
Joseph was born and raised in the Washington DC area where he lived until 1993. He moved to St Louis in 1995. Joseph’s background is in Information Technology which he began in 1980. He spent 6 years in education with the Howard County Public Schools doing software development, 2 years with the Association of American Railroads in OS Utilities Development and 22 years in retailing at May Department Stores where he was involved in Operations, Data Centers, Technical Support, Applications Development and Financial Reporting. Joseph has an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.
Joseph relocated to the Gulf Coast in 2012 and currently resides in St Petersburg. He always had an interest in photography but after moving to Florida photography became a serious hobby. He purchased his first DSLR in 2013 and began to take photography classes. His photography interests are varied and many. He has an affinity for compelling landscape photography where he is successful at transporting the viewer into the scene using creative leading lines, buildings, and other elements. He tells a very interesting story through his photography and gives the viewer a brief visual escape into the scene. He also is fond of street photography where he has developed his own expressive technique and style. Joseph also enjoys other genres of photography such as macro, architecture, nature and even portraiture.
Joseph has been a member of LWRDPC for 6 years where he has served in many capacities. He is extremely proficient in both Photoshop and Lightroom and has taught classes in both through our education program. He has served on the board for 5 years and has been Education Director, Communications Director as well as our current Competition Co-Chairperson.
Meeting Location Liaison / Web Support - Dave Kurshan
Dave moved Florida from New Jersey in 2005. He was educated in mathematics and computer science. Former careers include airline pilot with Pan Am, technical manager at Bell Laboratories, and president of a software company specializing in network operations support systems.
He and his wife Ann are currently enjoying retirement in Lakewood Ranch. HIs goal in the club is to improve his photography skills, and he is also active in education and mentoring within the club, as well as being responsible for IT operations
Member at Large - Al Churilla
Al grew up in Connecticut where he graduated from college with degrees in Industrial Design and Marketing. After college he worked in the furniture industry for Ethan Allen as Director of Retail Operations and member of their Board of Directors.
He is a juried fine art photographer, past President of the Photographic Society of Rhode Island and was Vice-President and member of the Board of Directors of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC). Al has earned hundreds of awards and has had numerous one-man photography shows in the New England area.
Currently, he is a photographic judge for Florida Camera Club Council (FCCC) and Lakewood Ranch Camera Club (LWRCC). Official photographer for Venetian Golf and River Club Directory. He likes to photograph wildlife, landscape, architecture, family portraits and classic cars. Al has recently taken up RC Sailing and is a member of Sarasota Model Yacht Club (SMYC).
