Lonna Ramsey was born in Madison, WI, and raised in Boscobel, Wisconsin. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where she received a bachelor and master’s degree in secondary education. She taught high school business education (computer literacy, accounting, basic business, employment skills, and desktop publishing) for 26 years in Wisconsin and two years in Tennessee.

Ramsey and her husband of 40 years have four children — two biological boys, two adopted daughters and six grandchildren. They moved full time to Sun City in 2020 and have been discovering the fun of the city since.

“There is so much to do here that I wish there were more hours in the day,” Ramsey stated. Apart from being an active member in the Camera Guild, she is a part of the Stars Swim Team and enjoys biking, yoga, reading, sewing and traveling.

Ramsey became interested in photography when she started having children. Her first camera was a Pentax K1000 (film) and eventually graduated to a Cannon DSLR. She now has joined the mirrorless group and is shooting a Sony camera. While shooting with her DSLR she was rarely was out of auto mode as she hadn’t had any real instruction. However, in 2018, she bought a book to learn more about photography in general and started exploring different setting and techniques. Ramsey also enrolled in an online class called iPhone Academy, which taught how to use all the camera features of a phone and included composition, lighting and basic photography. Once she moved full time to Sun City (she is a second generation Sun Citian), she became interested in the Camera Guild and joined the team in early 2020. Unfortunately, Covid hit at this time so she could not utilize the facilities for some time. Once things opened up, Ramsey was able to start taking classes at the club and has learned Photoshop, how to print, how to mount pictures and what makes a good composition.

“This has truly sparked my desire and passion to want to learn more and to glean every bit of information and knowledge I can from this club,” she stated. “This is an amazing group of people with so much talent, a willingness to share their knowledge, and a desire to see you grow in your skills. I love it!”

As an added note, Ramsey recently received an acceptance ribbon from the Arizona Camera Club Council’s fall competition.

View more of Ramsey’s work at suncityaz.org/recreation/clubs/camera-guild-of-sun-city.