So, you'd like to know more about me? Well, to summarize, I love God, my family, my country, photography, music, boating and the outdoors.

This site is mostly about photography, so that's where I'll begin…but who knows where things will end up.

From the time I was born, photography has always been a part of my life, mainly because of my older brother. He is 16 years older than me, and from the time I can remember, he was into photography. He has even won awards for some of his pictures.

Growing up, I was constantly photographed while he used me as a test subject to try out lenses, lighting techniques and different types of film. Unfortunately, because of our age difference, I didn't go on most of his photographic excursions to the Grand Canyon, Grand Teton National Park, Africa or any of the other places he visited. Fortunately, however, he was very detailed with his records and wrote all of his camera info on the back of each of his slides. I didn't get to see him take his photos first hand, but when he gave me a bunch of slides from his collection, I had a great starting point from which to learn.

When I was around 13, I had a paper route and one year received enough Christmas tips from my customers to buy a Pentax K1000 camera with a 50mm f/2 lens. I chose that camera because it cost less than others, was fully manual, and my brother and father said it would help me learn how to take better pictures than a camera that did everything for me.

At first, my pictures weren't very good, but I kept practicing and getting better. I tried to imagine what shutter speed my brother would use or where he'd position the subject to get the most dramatic photo. Gradually, I added other lenses to my collection, both wide angle and telephoto, but I found myself shooting mostly with the wide angles. Ever since, wide angle photography has been my favorite.

Throughout the years, I added other camera bodies to my collection and continued expanding my subjects, but after getting married I stopped taking pictures. A couple years ago my wife and I were going to Florida for vacation, and I didn't want to lug a big 35mm camera system around Disney, so my wife and I bought a great little point and shoot Olympus IQ Zoom that took great photographs. I used it mainly for taking family photos and then for outdoor photos, but something was wrong. I missed the feel of a 35mm in my hands and the range of features they offered.

By now my Pentax equipment was over 20 years old and feeling outdated. My brother had always used Nikon equipment, and I yearned for the crispness and quality his Nikkor lenses produced. Yes, they are pricey, but to me, the quality is amazing. Edges of subjects are razor sharp. Colors are brilliant. Overall, they are the epitome of 35mm photography.

After much begging and pleading to my wife, I finally got my dream, a 35mm Nikon system from Camera Wholesalers in Stamford, Connecticut. The photographs it takes are as good as the ones from my brother's cameras. For awhile I was on top of the world.

I love my Nikon film camera, but unfortunately, I bought it at the wrong time. Just a a little later digital cameras started getting popular, and because I'm a gadget freak, I wanted one of those. When my wife got pregnant, I convinced her that a digital camera was the way to go. We could shoot thousands of pictures of our son at no additional cost over the price of the camera.

In 1999, I purchased a 1.2 mega pixel Olympus on the advice of PC World, who had given it great reviews and rated it one of the best out there. I kept this camera for 3 years but noticed how much clearer, sharper and how much better color the newer cameras had.

Again I went back to my wife to do more begging & pleading. Well, nearly 3 years later to the day, I got my current point & shoot digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 4500. I love this camera. It's only 4 mega pixels, which doesn't seem much with the 8 mega pixels cameras being released now, but the quality is excellent, and the tilting lens feature is very convenient. I was back home…with Nikon, and once again in heaven.

Since then, I've upgraded to a digital SLR and am really happy with it. Digital SLRs offer everything a film SLR offers plus more. If you are truly into photography, and especially wanting to upgrade from a 35mm SLR, I would highly recommend looking into a digital SLR.

I enjoy shooting with telephotos, but my favorite style is still wide angle photography, preferably landscapes, mountains, rivers and streams. I am also starting to experiment with street photography. I am an avid believer in the rule of thirds, and looking at every possible angle to get the best photo.

I recently got a Nikon Coolpix 8800, and so far I love it. The biggest downfall I find is with it's slow speed. The pictures are razor sharp, which is extremely important to me. Colors are true and the white balance is pretty good, but when the camera is writing to memory, the viewfinder goes black. This is horrible if you're trying to pan with a subject while taking multiple shots. However, that said, if I could only carry one camera, this would be it. As of this writing, I couldn't find a 10x optical camera with vibration reduction that allows you to shoot from 35-350mm (35mm equivalent) while still hand holding 2 stops slower than without the VR. Another advantage is the compatibility with the newer SB-800 and SB-600 flashes.

I will be updating these pages as time permits, so stop back again and check out what's new.