I like to take pictures of nature's patterns and textures.

I currently work with a Minolta Dimage Z1, which I picked up because I wanted the high optical magnification and to challenge myself to use the various manual controls and settings that are associated with the more sophisticated digital cameras today. The only limitation currently of concern is the 3MP maximum picture size.

I use the following programs to one degree or another:

Paintshop Pro 9 (Primary Resource)

Microsoft Digital Image Pro 7

Helicon Filter (Freeware)

Neat Image (Freeware)

Packages that I own but have not experimented with yet:

Corel Painter 8

CorelDraw 12

I use Paintshop Pro for the bulk of the work I do. I still use Digital Image Pro for some things because it was the first program I used and I can still do some things quicker with it. I have experimented with Helicon Filter for the one month trial of the full version and really liked the distortion correction features among other things, but they are not as robust in the freeware version. So I am trying to duplicate the functionality I found there in Paintshop Pro. I also used Neat Image for a while to eliminate noise problems, but have moved to Paintshop Pro in that area as well.

If I ever get around to it I would like to assess the potential of CorelDraw and Painter, but that is not at the top of my to-do list.

I have been submitting pictures to the stockxchng since 1/14/06 and have recently become more active in that community. The address for that site is www.sxc.hu/

I'm anxious to learn more about flickr and how it can help me in my development as a photographer.