And so it begins.

I have been kicking this idea around, for a while now. I have finally gotten off my butt, and am doing something about it. This blog is meant to be an exploration of photography, from an amateur’s point of view. Right now, I am using a Canon PowerShot A650 IS. Through the years, I have used an older Canon SLR my mom gave me, so I could take pictures for a photography class in school. My first digital camera, was a $1000 Sony 2.1 MP camera, my then wife and I bought with our tax returns. More recently, I have had a Canon A640, and now this A650.

These last two cameras have revived my love of photography, that has sat dormant for years. I am coming to realize, I have always had the bug, just never let it out of the bag, so to speak.

Even though I have not been taking photographs much, I still consider myself an amateur. I have had some formal training, in High School. I have used a darkroom, and developed my own film. I am VERY thankful, we do not do that anymore. I learned a lot, yet what I took away from the class was the feeling of impending dread. It seemed that my projects were ALWAYS behind. From taking the shots, to developing them, to mounting them for the teacher each week. I did ok, but it was not a class I would want to do again. The class was taught by a man that loves the craft, though. He had little anecdotes, the one that still sticks with me, is how he would use his flash to turn off his neighbor's street light, from time to time. To a teenager, the story was quite hilarious, and spoke to the devious side of my nature. He also told us, how the chemicals we were working with.

I would have to say my mom, is the one that started me down this road. My FIRST real camera, was a little camera that took 110 film. Of course, it was given to me, by my mom, who had been using it, and moved up to a nice Canon SLR camera. About a decade later, this SLR would in turn belong to me, for school. She moved up to a new FANCY 35 mm that actually could auto-focus. :-)

Well, there it is. As all things have a start, and ending, here is the start. My first post. I look forward to seeing where this hobby, and blog will take me. I hope you enjoy the trip, and maybe learn something new about photography, for yourself.