I was a child artist, and could draw realistic imagery by the time I was six. Growing up, I longed to do something that allowed me to express myself artistically. I got my first SLR Nikon camera (don't remember what kind) and some lenses in 1986, while serving in Germany in the Army. The photography bug hit then, and I've strived to continue that, with unfortunate lapses in-between. I self taught myself photography, and became quite a geek with technical terms related to the craft. I was doing (badly) door to door sells in Kansas City, MI, in 1991 when my car, with everything I owned including all my camera gear, was stolen. The police found my car the next day, what was left of it, but I never recovered anything else. After a stint of homelessness and trouble with the law, while in Louisville, KY, I made my way back to Bandon, OR, the place I grew up. I got myself into, and graduated from the University of Oregon, with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts, in multimedia and animation. (what good that did) During that time, I owned a Pentax K-1000 and later replaced that with an Olympus OM-1. I loved my Olympus, with which my photography bug grew even further. The day I went digital, I replaced my Olympus with a Nikon Coolpix 8000, the only camera I've ever hated. I lost passion for photography and longed for the days for the control of an SLR again.

After saving enough up, I purchased my first DSLR, a Canon EOS 50D, along with a Canon 18-200mm kit lens, and a Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. I fell in love with photography again, and would be taking pictures of something almost every weekend. I then found Flickr, which really helped me realize, I didn't know crap about photography. I met some great friends, some who I consider very close friends, and felt like I became part of a larger family of like minded people. I've discovered this amazing new world, and have gone on some amazing adventures, some of which have almost killed me, but I'm still here. The inspiration I have found from the imagery, as well as the people on Flickr, have helped my to grow significantly as a photographer. It made me realize that before Flickr, I was just an ordinary snap shooter.

Now I'm finding stories with each photograph I take, something I didn't have before. I'm looking at things in new ways, and find beauty in almost any condition, whether it be bright sun, total gray sky, raining cats and dogs, or that spider sitting on a leaf. I've come to believe that a beautiful photograph can be taken under any circumstance or condition, and the fun is in trying to find that beauty. I hope that I never loose this new found vision.

Now the bad:

The afternoon of March 27th, 2011 in Mary S. Young Park in West Linn, Oregon, I was a victim of theft. While roaming this park for the first time, someone smashed the passenger side widow of my car, and stole my camera bag, with well over $4,000 of camera gear in it. I had no renters insurance, and my auto insurance doesn't cover things like that. Being hit hard by the economy myself, I didn't have the funds to replace any of that gear. I was completely crushed!

Stolen:

My Canon EOS 50D camera

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Lens

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 Lens

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens

plus my entire collection of filters and memory cards, of which I had many.

Not Taken:

Canon EF-S 18-200mm kit lens.

My big Sigma 150-500mm big long range lens.

My tripod.

Now the good:

I had it in my mind that I was done with photography, but my Sister and good friend Darlisa (whom I love both very much) teamed up together and pushed me to start a donation fund. With the help of 62 people's donations, I was able to purchase some camera gear to partially replace what was lost. The generosity of so many people, some whom I didn't know, banning together to help me out, really helped put that faith of human kind back in my mind again. It allowed my to continue with my passion of photography, with only a short gap in-between. I am so very grateful to the people that have helped me out, and sent encouraging emails, text, and calls my way. I can't think this show of support from so many people enough.

New Gear with donations:

New LowPro camera bag, given to me by Val.

Used Canon EOS 50D camera

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens

Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Two 8GB UDMA Compact Flash Cards

Marumi 77mm DHG Circular Polarizer and 3-Stop ND filters.

Thank you all, everyone!!!

Please, please, please don't add any flashy graphics, or group invites with graphics to my stream. I just get annoyed at those and will delete them. Also, I'm one of those that could care less about making it into explore, that is not what Flickr is about for me.