I am a native Coloradoan.

Photography is one of the very few forms of art that I feel talented in, the others being writing and, forgive the stretch, cooking. Yet all of these have a certain structure, which meshes nicely with my personality and mind.

I am a very curious person. Spend enough time around me and you'll hear me pondering questions ranging from "Why is there no Terminal D at Logan airport?" to "I wonder what film speed our eyes are."

I was once out hiking and had the rare fortune to glimpse a bear. Unfortunately, I was armed with nothing more than a flip phone, complete with 1.3 MP. Naturally, this bear ended up looking like a little black smudge. The photographic disappointment of this sighting was finally what triggered me to buy a camera that could do it justice, should that opportunity ever arise again.

Now that I have my new Digital Rebel XTi, I'll finally be able to express myself artistically, and let as few opportunities like that slip away as possible, stored only in my neurons.

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Photography is not necessarily a way to capture things "in their most beautiful form," as was recently suggested to me, but "in their most real form." Pictures of people standing in front of a landmark or at some gathering and smiling at the camera, are, in my opinion, insanely boring. They have such an obviously fake and contrived nature to them. I mean, how many of us, on our own accord, stand somewhere with our friends, a feigned smile on our face, staring in some random direction?

One of the best pictures of my grandfather and I was taken purely by accident. The shutter virtually went off in my dad's hand, but it is one of my favourite family photos. Life can be so fleeting in the first place; why force something when it is so much more genuine without our intervention?

Here's to being in the right place at the right time with the right gear.

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Equipment:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6