Yikes - Describe myself? Tall and uncoordinated, though a surprisingly good dancer are the things that come to mind first. In terms of photography, I would describe myself as a rank amateur whose enthusiasm, desire to learn and good intentions hopefully make up for what I don't know about photography.

I'm really passionate about birds, notably hawks and falcons. Trying to get a good shot of a raptor can be both humbling and rewarding, usually the former and less often the latter. I recently had a near-religious experience at an open house at the Santa Rosa (CA) Bird Rescue Center. I was so engrossed by these beautiful birds (and the opportunity to be so close to them) that on more than one occasion I found myself standing there, index finger motionless on the shutter button, mouth agape, forgetting to take the pictures.

I also enjoy taking pictures of cars at cruises and car shows. I find myself gravitating towards the Mopar stuff and I also seem to try to take shots of a car's main distinguishing features rather than take pictures of the whole car, not sure why.

I also have found that I really enjoy doing selective coloring on alot of my pictures. While I generally attempt to do as little Photoshopping of my pictures as possible, for whatever reason I really found other people's selective coloring shots to be very striking and wanted to try it for myself. Initially I tended to really try to make the colors I kept very vivid for the sake of contrast but have found that in most cases, muting the remaining color a bit seems to make for a more pleasant shot. And when I started, I found that I would just look at my pictures when I get home and thing "hey, that might be a good candidate for selective coloring" but as I have gotten more into it, I find myself taking pictures specifically with the intent of deleting all the colors but one when I get home. I am sure there are purists who probably think of selective coloring as being gimmicky but fortunately, I'm too ignorant to be one of them!

As for the camera gear, I am the (fairly) new and ecstatic owner of a Sony Alpha A350 DSLR. I bought it in part due to my large, clumsy hands - I had planned on buying a Canon XSi but it felt too small in my hands. I liked that the Alpha series cameras felt big, substantial and heavy. I also loved the fact that the A350 was compatible with the old Minolta Maxxum AF lenses. In fact, after I decided on getting the A350, I bought way the hell too many several Maxxum lenses before I even had a camera to put them on! This camera has not disappointed and was worth every penny. My favorite lenses are the 35-105mm f3.5-4.5 and the 100-200mm f4.5, though I have been using the 50mm f1.7 prime and the 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 alot as well. I use a Bogen Manfrotto 3018 monopod with a 234RC swivel head and recently bought a Giottos GB4180 tripod and a Bogen Manfrotto 3055 ball head in the hopes of taking some panorama shots of beautiful Sonoma County. I lug all my stuff around in a Kata R-102 backpack which I just love, though with the A350, the monopod and the 6 lenses I usually carry, it does get pretty heavy!