I'm Judy, I live in Dunedin New Zealand, and I've been taking photos for a year. Haven't really got past point and shoot, but I'm having so much fun!

(Wow, I wrote that long ago. At the end of the year, I'm reverting to regular membership, as I haven't been active at all this year, so my task now is to get my photos down to below 200 favourites)

Update: After seeing so many superlative photos here, I feel as if I've posted most of the artistically worthwhile phots I'm going to take, so I'm going to change focus for the rest of my pro year, and post phots about the issues I feel strongly about - walking and cycling in liveable neighbourhoods, sustainability and anything else of a green tinge

(That didn't happen, either, but it still might!)

This poem expresses how I feel about my world and photography.

"Once I thought the land I had loved and known

Lay curled in my inmost self musing alone.

In the quiet room I unfolded the folded sea,

Unlocked the forest and the lonely tree,

Hill and mountain valley, beach and stone;

All these I said, are here and exist in me.

But now I know it is I who exist in the land;

My inmost self is blown like a grain of sand

Along the windy beach, and is only free

To wander among the mountains, enter the tree

To turn again a seaworn stone in my hand,

Because these things exist outside of me.

O far from the quiet room my spirit fills

The familiar valleys, is folded in the hills."

Ruth Dallas (not me!)

Thanks to my daughters I've now got a pro account, but I've decided to try and keep the numbers of my photos limited - I'll say 300 max at the moment - as part of my efforts to live as lightly on the planet as I can. I'm limiting my photos to large size, for the same reason, and because I'm operating at 3.2 MP!