We live in Berkeley, California, two (now retired) mechanical engineers with Fine Arts backgrounds. We've been here since 1967.

One of us takes an alarming number of photos with little thought about artistic or technical merit, the other takes few and exercises more discrimination and care, and neither has any motive other wishing to chronicle an event or adventure or to bookmark some visually (or socially) interesting scene or object.

Fred Lyon, in a TV program I recently watched, said the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur is that the professional CREATES photos (for some given purpose and with a deadline) while the amateur TAKES photos (after stumbling across them, which Fred does not disparage, indeed saying some of the most beautiful photos he has seen were "taken" by amateurs). We are clearly in the latter category, and almost all of our photos are gratuitous.

I (JHK) tend to find amateur photographers' work more interesting, often more beautiful and certainly more personal, and, while learning from both you amateurs and professional's examples, I don't expect to become a better photographer myself but I am acquiring a greater sense of what good photographs offer.

As hundreds of thousands of photographs pass my (JHK's) eyes, the brilliant colors and dramatic compositions still earn my admiration, but I am more and more admiring of subtle, often subdued palettes, and shadow and mist. But it is the subject matter that grabs my attention most often, things I've never seen before, things that pose questions for me, things that evoke memories and feelings (even some of which I was unaware before), and definitely things that show your senses of humor.

Those of you who sense any shared interests in subject matter or the aesthetics, we'd enjoy hearing from you -or, better yet, seeing your images.