I've been at this craft for about 25 years now. I first got interested when I was at Northeastern University in 1972. I took an elective course called "History of photography" which peaked my interest. My father and grandfather had both been amateur photographers all my life, so it seemed like the thing to do.

I went out and bought a Hanimex Practika SLR (chosen because it was less expensive than a Pentax, but was compatible with Pentax lenses). Within a year I found out why it was less expensive when the shutter stuck open. Then I bought myself what I had really wanted, a Pentax Spotmatic II. I collected a nice set of lenses for it too.

Being a geek, one of my strongest interests was in darkroom work. There had always been a darkroom in my parents cellar, even though my father only rarely used it. I revamped it and moved in.
I developed all my own film and made enlargements up to 16 x 20 with an Omega B22XL. I even processed my own color slides and prints using the Unicolor process. I also built my own enlargement light meter to determine exposures in addition to a electronic timer from Heathkit. I studied the Kodak technical spec's on their films and chemicals and tried many different ones, black and white, color, and even Infra Red.

I even won first prize the Northeastern University annual photo contest in 1973! (with this portrait)

I've tried about every subject from micro-photography of bacteria to astro-photography of stars, comets and eclipses. Everything interests me. That's always been one of my weaknesses. :-)

When I got my own apartment in 1976, and then later my first house in 1980, I really missed having a darkroom. It was just too much work to set up a sink drain and faucets etc in my cellar, and I never got around to it. I still continued taking pictures though.

When the batteries for the Spotmatic II got too hard to find, I bought a Pentax ME Super. Pentax had switched from thread mount to bayonet K mount lenses, so I had to replace most of my favorites. I never found a good, inexpensive, 400 mm telephoto with a K-mount for a reasonable price though.

The Digital Transformation...
I've tried to keep all the negatives I've shot filed properly, but it gets pretty tough after 30 years. :-)
I'm trying to get around to scanning them all in and indexing them all in a database.
Also, I'm editing all that 8mm home movie film footage my father shot in the late fities through the seventies and burning it onto DVDs.

The advent of digital photography really excited me, since this was my chance to get control of my pictures again!
Darkroom? I don't need no stinkin' darkroom! I'll do it all in my PC. I'm still working on mastering Adobe Photoshop...
I think one could make it their life's work!

I started with an Olympus C2100 2.1 Megapixel with 10x optical zoom (non-interchangeable lens however). That was great for a couple years, but when the 6 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel came out in the Fall of 2003, I just had to have one. Finally a digital camera with interchangeable lenses! So I bought a Canon 75-300 mm Image Stabilized zoom when we went to St John in 2005 and now I can do decent nature shots again!

I hope you enjoy some of the shots I've shared here on the 'net.