How, What and Why

I've always loved taking pictures. As a kid, I had a Kodak 110 camera I would use to capture palm trees, waterfalls and storm clouds in Florida. I would take a couple rolls of film a year and couldn't wait for the film to be developed at our local film processor called Solar.

Since getting my first digital camera back in 2000, I've been taking loads of digital photos, mostly snapshot of the kids and places I've been. I would average about 1500 images a year, burn them to CD in January, and make three copies to keep in three different locations in case of theft or fire.

Learning a lot of things along the way, I began to crave a camera that could perform better than a 1.3 Mp, fixed focus camera. After a little research on Steve's Digicams and many other places I found this camera to fit my needs and still allow for some growth as I learn more about photography.

Here' s the digital camera I use to capture the photos on this blog:
It's a Fuji Finepix S5100 with an assortment of filters, a 10X optical zoom, many scenes and preset features, and best of all - full manual mode. I have a couple of tripods, a slave flash that works in conjunction with the built-in flash, a few XD cards (256Mb, 512Mb, and a new 1Gb (thanks John!)) and a set of good rechargeable batteries.

Since May 2005, I've taken over 4000 photos! Lots of them are junk - test shots that I've taken to experiment with depth of field and exposure, but the majority of them are decent shots. I'm going to use this blog to show some of the more interesting photos; they may not be works of art, but I hope they convey the intended message.