Very new to flickr. Have wanted a new camera for a couple of years. Last one I had produced all shots as daguerreotypes. So on a spur of the moment, I bought a Canon SD1100 IS. May not be what I really need, but, at least, it will get me started. I then added a Cannon E-520 SLR, appears to be rated very highly and in the medium price range. (So many dials, toggles, switches, buttons, etc.)

Over the years, I've noticed any number of scenes that I felt would make a good photo. Especially interested in play of shadow and light; color; distinctive views; industrial art; architecture, the unusual subject, (I'm avoiding people for fear of copyright complications. No pets, babies, people, holiday decorations, murders - all too mundane and messy.)

"The Dove of Peace" logo is by Asbjorn Lonvig of Denmark

www.lonvig.dk/denmark-en.htm

I must also say that I'm openly gay. The English have so many more terms than us Yanks. Two I love are "of the pansy tribe" and "of the lavender."

I also have to mention that I suffer from clinical depression, severe panic attacks, a certain degree of bipolarism, and who knows what else. Fortunately, I'm able to hold everything in check by a regimen of pharmaceuticals. No recreational drug use of any kind - no liquor, beer, wine. Not even communion wine. I'm too afraid of upsetting the very delicate balance I've been able to achieve.

December 8, 2008, I turned 63. Although, all my life I've felt like a very curious 12-year-old.

I live in a house built in 1958 that I inherited from my parents, which means it's paid for. I'm always in the middle of some type of renovation project.

There are also five other member of my family. Be'ard, the black and white mother cat; her solid black daughter, Minerva; her white and black daugther, Athena; Tiger Tiger who looks like a white tiger and whose presence is a long story (named after the poem by William Blake, "Tiger, tiger, burning bright.in the night"); and my newest companion, a beautiful tabby, Camille.

(Be'ard had three kittens from cohabitating with her brother Grae, whom died several years ago, and I still miss dearly. The third kitten was Hermes who died recently, and whom I also miss greatly; as I was leaving the vet I noticed a sign for their adopt a pet program, hence Camille.) The Egyptians considered the cat as a sacred creature as I do.

I retired in September of 2005 to become primary care-giver for my 90-year-old mother. Possibly the most difficult time of my life. She had a sudden stroke at the end of January, 2006, and was dead a few hours later.

I'm a lapsed Roman Catholic who has become a semi-lapsed Episcopalian. What I believe, what I have faith in, and what I do may be discrete categories. I do know that I can not accept a single path to what may or may not lie beyond the physical world. I frequently use the term "agnostic deist" as the default term for where I reside. This does not mean that I'm adverse to using the words and rituals of any belief.

I'm a very strong believer in the work of "The Holcaust Museum" in Washington DC and would designate it as my charity of choice. ""He who saves one life saves the world entire...." (Oscar Schindler)