Who's Behind the Lens?

My first camera

When I was a child I begged my parents for a camera.  When presented with a toy camera, I disappointingly replied, "No, I meant a real one." Happily when I was in the 2nd grade I received my first "non-toy" camera. An old Kodak 110 that used flipflash bulbs.  A few years later, I received a 35mm compact point and shoot.

Fast forward a decade to my senior year of high school: I began fiddling with my Dad's old Canon AE-1 SLR from the 70's.  This was my first real experience with photography.  As I am apparently hard to shop for, my parents were delighted to continue the camera gift giving tradition... and I received my first modern camera outfit as a graduation present.  My Nikon N60 was a true workhorse, and it began what would become a decade long obsession with nature photography.  Four years into my autodidactic photography adventure, I was looking to get a second SLR body....and my ever dependable and supportive family got me a Nikon N80 for Christmas!  The N80 gave me better options for learning technical aspects of composition, and my skills improved as I experimented.

Mount. Battie in Camden, Maine 2000

After hundreds of rolls of film, thousands of shots, countless hours behind the lens, I kicked and screamed into the future with a digital SLR purchase in 2007.   I purchased (nope, this one was not a gift!) a Nikon D50 as they were on their way out of production.  I wanted some of the controls and features of the 35mm bodies I was accustomed to, without a lot of digital bells and whistles.  I do enjoy the immediate preview digital affords, and my pocketbook jingles more without the cost of film processing.  Mainly I jumped into digital for lack of a good local film developer in my area.  So the switch was made to digital, and the shutterbug fun continues.

In addition to nature photography, I enjoy candid portraiture of friends and family...especially all the children in the family. They make great subjects! 

So that is the history of who's behind the lens.

**Note that shot of me on Mount Battie was taken by my Dad as I was thinking over what shot to take next.  I think this is the only shot in existence of me at work behind the lens until just lately.  The best part about being the photographer is rarely being the subject.  Below is a more recent shot taken while shooting photos for this blog!