My brother-in-law, absolutwade, who like many of the photographers here is a very gifted and talented photograper, encouraged me to join the Flickr family. So here's my story.

I have a BA in Photo Arts (minor in Marketing), and worked as a full-time photographer for several years, but now pursue photography as a hobby mostly (although if you want to pay, let's talk).

I just realized the other day I'd been shooting seriously for about 30 years. Wow! I grew up around art with an aunt who was a renowned oil painter. I used to go with her to art shows when I was a wee lad. I also paint on occasion, write (completed a screenplay), and dabble in other mediums. I tend to find art in most things I do- even if it's just crafting that perfect email response to the corporate hack that Cc'd God and everybody when asking you a question.

I started out wanting to shoot still life and products but got shifted to people early on and did a lot of editorial work. Later, I shot for some model agencies, which when you get down to it is really just environmental portraiture of the predominantly beautiful. I've used all formats- large, medium, 35mm, digital. I prefer the smaller formats as they're more intimate. A lot of that comes from their speed, but their size and portability also helps. I find when photographing people I don't want the equipment to become a distraction, so the smaller the better (I don't get shooting people with view cameras unless you're going for that "hold the pose" 19th century look). Plus, with the smaller formats you can get in closer as the lenses have shorter focal lengths for the same field of view. When I was shooting full-time I preferred using Contax 35mm for the Zeiss lenses. In my opinion they're warmer, and better for skin tones. Now I'm a Nikon man, but I'm kind of excited about the Zeiss lenses that are becoming available for my D200.

I like digital for its immediacy. I would have made the switch from film earlier, but wanted to let the technology grow a bit more. I think you now have enough control you can achieve most any of the film effects I used to hole myself up in a darkroom for. And the quality is probably better in the "similar to 35mm" format, although I do miss the dark a little. It was Zen-like to work in that room with your favorite music hammering at you, the soft sound of the water slowly running in the wash tray, and the only light being the reddish glow from the safelight. If there is any downside to digital, it's that there will be photographers who will never experience that feeling.