A human being who enjoys not being ordinary. Passionate about that which really matters. Successful at appearing to be really laid back.

My wife passed away in 2005 from breast cancer, and I lost interest in a lot of things. It's been a long and painful transition, but I've gradually come around.

A friend rekindled my interest in photography, and we graduated from digital P&S to digital SLR's after I could no longer deal with having so little control over the image-making process. I traded some camera lessons for computer/digital editing/uploading lessons (I'm Silicon Challenged!), and here I am. Although a slow process as I wrap my brain around all this cyber-techno stuff. Comments are appreciated and constructive criticism welcomed.

I've been surfing around Flickr for a while, and have seen some great pictures and interesting people. Now that I have something of my own to offer, I'll be making more contacts and feel more comfortable leaving comments.

I like traveling around photographing landscapes and the natural world, and these are the things I seek on Flickr.

Good friends and nice people really mean something to me, and I'm beginning to see that their good qualities show through to some extent in a person's photography. If I have a comment to make, I'll make it. If I see humor in a photo, I'll share that too ! (sometimes dry and/or off-the-wall).

But I won't be throwing large, gaudy clip-art at your photos, that's just not me.

Recently, a friend said to me "Tom, you're a complex man". "Hmmm.............how's that, Faye?", I asked. "You think.!" came the instant reply.

I'll just take that as a compliment.

---- ///\\\ ---- Please

--- ///--\\\ --- put this

-- ///----\\\ -- on your

-- Ill-----lll -- profile if

-- lll-----lll -- you know

-- \\\----/// -- someone who

--- \\\--/// --- is living with, survived or

---- \\\/// ---- has passed away

----- ///\ ----- from cancer.

---- ///\\\ ---- Thank You.

--- ///--\\\ --- ~Janet E. Hess Frank 1950-2005~ Aged 55years 5months 5days

A big thanks to my contacts, and anyone else who passes this way, for the comments on photos that interest you.

I edit some, not all, of my photos. My editing is not an attempt to improve, but rather to share what I saw, and not what the impersonal blue lens tells me to see. I'll leave that to the photo-journalists.