About Me
When I was a teenager of about 14 or 15, my Mom got a SLR for Christmas, which piqued my interest in cameras. I don’t remember exactly which model she had, but I seem to recall it was an Olympus OM-10, but I could be wrong. I know it was an Olympus camera, though. In any case, when she started buying photo magazines, I started reading them and getting interested in the art of photography. So much so, that I got myself a Nikon FG. I don’t remember if the FG was a birthday or Christmas present, but I loved that camera and it cemented my adoration of Nikons to this day. I even took two elective art classes in high school for photography. I took a lot of art classes throughout high school; commercial art, mechanical drawing, ceramics, painting, ad nauseam… but photography was by far my favorite.
In high school, I learned how to make photographs, not just snap pictures. We shot exclusively in Ilford black and white film. And my school was lucky enough to have a darkroom — complete with about 8 or 9 enlargers — for developing film and printing photographs. I enjoyed those photo classes and thrived at the “hobby.” I spent all my free time in the photo lab. After graduating high school, I decided to continue my education and enrolled at the Art Institute of Philadelphia to study photography.
One of the first things I did before I started classes was sell my Nikon FG at a camera shop in Philadelphia. I don’t remember what I got for it, but it was not nearly enough to cover the camera I bought to replace it. With some monetary help from my grandfather, I got a new Nikon F3 High Point, arguably the best manual-focus, professional 35mm SLR camera ever made.
My F3 was awesome! I loved that camera. I babied it like it was made of glass, even though Nikon professional cameras have a renowned reputation as being the most rugged cameras in the world. I was only 19 at the time, and it was the most expensive thing I ever owned at nearly one thousand 1985 dollars for the camera body alone.
However, life has a tendency of getting in the way. After two years in school, I realized the photography industry doesn’t offer many career opportunities. One thing led to another, and it wasn’t long before I left Pennsylvania and moved to Washington in 1990. To fund my relocation, I sold my Nikon F3 gear… a decision I still regret to this day.
Fast forward 20 SLR-less years, and I finally decided to buy a new Nikon D90 in early 2009. It’s like learning all over again. Capturing images digitally is a lot different than on black and white film.
I’m still figuring out how to shoot with my D90. There’s a lot more going on in the camera than there was in my old F3. I’m not a big fan of changing images in post-production, but I have the Adobe tools to do so.
I still live on Whidbey Island, and enjoy shooting landscapes and nature for the time being.
