My first camera was a Canon AE-1, bought used from a classified ad when, at age 12, I developed a fleeting interest in photography. I never learned to use it.

Fast-forward eight years. I landed a job as reporter and photographer for the Havelock News, a small but professional and well-regarded weekly paper. I had a Nikon D100 digital SLR camera and a couple of lenses at my disposal. With no formal instruction, I started snapping, an overnight photojournalist with a developing eye but without a clue when it comes to technique.

I faltered. I bumbled. But, occasionally, I came away with a passable photograph. I won two photo awards from the North Carolina Press Association.

Both failures and successes appear in this account and in these albums, though the latter do outnumber the former.

Fast-forward another three years. I'm now public safety reporter at a medium-sized North Carolina daily. I don't take many pictures for pay, but I'd like to start experimenting. Maybe I'll even learn the technical basics that eluded me when photography was in my job description.

It's all tricks of the light -- sleight of sunshine. I just have to figure out the magician's secret.