Hi! I'm the new kid in the Enchanted Lens Camera Club (ELCC) and Flickr. That's me, the fool all over that jungle gym up there.

 

I work as a technical writer at an education outreach program on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM called AFRL La Luz Academy. It's an education outreach program for fifth through twelfth grade students, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in collaboration with NM Tech. I just celebrated my five-year anniversary with them on Oct 1, 2008. We get NM students from fifth through twelfth grades excited about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with fun, hands-on science activities, working with scientists and engineers from AFRL and other organizations. If you've ever heard of Marsville, that's us--our fifth grade Mars Missions Flight program. The fifth graders simulate going on a manned mission to Mars. We have the largest Marsville program in the world. If you've ever seen Ty Shesky on KOB-TV4 talk about the current weather at some local middle school, that's us, too. That's our Pinpoint Weathernet program. We basically have a different program for each grade level from fifth through twelfth grades. It's a great program.

 

If you know of an NM student that you'd like to have involved in this program, let me know.

 

I make their monthly newsletters, manuals, and various other documents, frequently using Adobe Creative Suite, although I'm not well trained in the software. I just kind of figure things out as I go along.

 

I hope to learn a lot more about Photoshop.

 

I take a lot of pictures at work, mostly for my newsletter, of the students doing their various fun science activities and events, using my ancient circa-2000 3.3-megapixel Sony Cybershot DSC-S70.

 

I've been told, on occasion, that I take good pictures of the students. However, those people are not in ELCC or flickr. We'll see what YOU guys think of my photograpy skills, or lack thereof.

 

Almost everything I know about cameras and photography and Photoshop (all of which would fit in a very small thimble with lots and lots of room to spare) I pretty much learned from taking these pictures at work, with that camera, and seeing how they looked on the computer later.

 

That plus I took my cheap personal Sony Cybershot W50 with me on my 2007 summer vacation to New Orleans/Baton Rouge, Disneyworld, and St. Pete's Beach.

 

Didn't like it too much, so I did more research and got a Canon G9 (now upgraded to a G10) and a Nikon D40 with an 18-200mm VR lens.

 

So far, I like them better.

 

I stumbled across the ELCC web site, and decided to join the club. I'm hoping maybe if I hang around you guys long enough, some of your photography skills will rub off on me.

 

And now I'm trying to learn how to work this new thing I've found called Flickr.

 

Please be patient with me. I am painfully aware that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and all of you in ELCC and Flickr are like Photography Gods. I will do the best I can.

 

The picture below, Why Did the Pebbles Cross the Road, is my Most Interesting and, by far, Most Viewed pic, with over 2,300 views and counting. To find out why they crossed the road, click on the picture.

 

--Steve Burke 10/20/07, updated 11/26/08