Barbara and I have raised two kids and are still figuring out what tomorrow may bring. I'm working in Program Management, organizing the 150th celebration for St. James' Episcopal Church, chasing trains, building a model railroad, and playing guitar with my friends.

I started in photography in the early 60's with my sister's Ansco 620 camera. My father bought me an Argus Autronic as my Christmas present when I was 10 - and that, along with a visit to the Kodak Pavilion at the NY World's Fair, was that.

My friend Orvy and I both had darkrooms and struggled with the chemistry - but his work was MUCH better than mine. I inherited an old Federal enlarger from my older brother and cobbled together a contact printer and equipment from various sources. The safelight was bad enough, but loading exposed film into a developing tank (in the dark) was almost impossible. My darkroom was a converted cedar closet above our garage - not much room, but the freshest smelling processing facility around.

I gave up on the darkroom after a few years of almost continuous bad results - between no money for equipment, and a room with no heat or air conditioning, it was just too frustrating to get good results. A few years later I simplified and went to an Instamatic 110 (sigh - what was I thinking?). Eventually I wised up and settled on a Minolta X700, followed by a Nikon FM2.

Took a wrong turn near the turn of the century and got into the Advantix craze - but the camera (Olympus) was small enough that I usually had it around, and the pictures were actually pretty good.

Digital photography has been great - I envied my friend Sue, who had a floppy drive 1 Megapixel Sony. Barbara got me a Konica, and now I'm using that plus a Fuji S9100. Photoshop Elements has gotten me into a digital darkroom, where everything actually works as it should.

Between scanning old slides and pictures, and new digital photography, having a great time. I am amazed at the caliber of work here on Flickr, which is an inspiration.

David