Frank Farese's recent photos http://birder.smugmug.com/ Started taking pictures in my high school years. My Dad got me an SLR body to match his lenses. I shot slides with Agfachrome film. Slides do teach you how to get the exposure right as the exposure latitude is quite narrow and bracketing was too expensive A friend had a small darkroom and that got me hooked on developing black and white so I joined the yearbook staff as a photographer so I could use the school darkroom equipment. I loved the magic of seeing an image come to life n the mixing trays and old fashioned dodging and burning to adjust a photo to what i 'knew it could be' was a labor I enjoyed. My favorite black and white shot was my girlfiend's full page year book photo...yes, Margaret and I are childhood sweethearts! I devolved into a 'snaps' shooter for pictures for the photo albums of the kids, vacations, holiday events and the like. Being a 'techie' and enjoying PCs, I was intrigued when digital cameras arrived and had a succession of quickly improving point and shoots. I enjoyed using digital darkroom programs such as Paint Shop Pro and then Photoshop Elements, upgrading every release as amazing features evolved. Then in early 2008, I bought a real camera-a Nikon digital SLR, the new D300. I have been quite hooked on nature photography ever since. I do enjoy shooting events and people, especially when achieving a story told by the shots. You must have a large 'nerd' side to develop the digital darkroom skills needed to fulfill the vision seen through the camera. Adobe's Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2 are a continuing learning challenge as new features and capabilities keep coming. Margaret and I took ornithology together while working on our Biology Degrees. This proved to be a gift for a lifetime as we thoroughly enjoy being 'birders'. We continue to enjoy nature outings, and especially birding wherever we find ourselves. Photo equipment includes: Nikon body: D300s Nikon lenses: 50 mm f/1.4, 105mm f/2.8 micro, 18-200mm, 300mm f/2.8; 1.7x tele-converter Tripod: Gitzo 3531LSV Head: Really Right Stuff BH-55, Wimberley Sidekick Flash: Nikon SB-800, Better Beamer Backpack: Tenbo Software: Photoshop CS3 Lightroom 2 Photomatix Pro 3 Noise Ninja 2 My LinkedIn business profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/11/384/5a3 Photo Credit to BeaAnn Kelly for my Bio picture. http://www.smugmug.com/img/feed-icon.png Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:26:06 -0800 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:42:17 -0800 http://www.smugmug.com/ Copyright 2010, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. http://birder.smugmug.com/Other/My-Smug-Mug/1002080509-copy/469736258_Eej5p-Ti.jpg Frank Farese's recent photos http://birder.smugmug.com/