Bitten by the Shutterbug

Sometime last fall, I was bitten badly by the shutterbug.

I've been into creative photography to some extent for a long time. My wife P. had taken a photography course back in college during the mid-90s, and we both got into taking pictures as a casual hobby. We had an old Ricoh manual camera that we got a lot of use out of, as well as a basic Samsung 35mm. We eventually upgraded to a Nikon N50 in about 2002-2003, which gave us an incredible difference in quality.

At about the same time we got the N50, we also got a Sony HandyCam that took digital stills. Using scanned negatives from the Nikon and uploaded pics from the Sony, I started getting into photomontage a bit.

Last spring, P. bought a Kodak EasyShare 650, which was quite a step up from the digital pics from the Sony. We both used that a lot over 2006, but I found that I was starting to get a little bit frustrated with its limitations (fixed lens, no manual control over ISO sensitivity, aperture or shutter speed). I was also starting to get more and more into photography, and spending a lot of my free time on it.

When P. and I separated in March (long story with nothing juicy or melodramatic, but still probably not ever one for da blog -- I'm not the confessionalist type) she took the EasyShare and the Nikon. At that point, I splurged and bought myself a Nikon D80. All I can say is this: OMFG, this camera rocks. I'm still learning how to use some of the more advanced features, but it's easily 5 steps above any camera I've had before it.

So if you look to the left, there's now a Flickr widget here with some (well, kind of a lot) of my photos on it. I've been shooting just about every day I don't have the girls, and some days when I do. Once I get a little better, I'm going to see if I can start selling some prints as a second income. Wish me luck!