I'm an enthusiastic hobby photo-taker (won't call myself a photographer), who occasionally gets a lucky shot. My first digital was a 1.3 MP Olympus that took decent macros. Most of my lizard shots were taken with that.

I thought I was graduating upward when I bought a Canon A540 6 MP P&S, a temperamental beast that turned me off to photography for a few years. I've officially coined it the "Piece-O-Junk."

Next I went for a superzoom, and bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ35. It's a step down from a DSLR, and takes wonderful pics, especially with manual settings. It's nice to be excited about photography again.

Just a year later I stumbled across a really cheap Sony A550 mid-level dSLR, a camera I'd had my eye on for if I ever took the SLR plunge. I added a bunch of 20-something-year-old Minolta lenses and am having a blast. Kept the FZ35, as it is a great, versatile, lightweight camera that will still have many uses around here.

I'll never really be good at photography, but at least I'm having a ton of fun again.

Other than that, I love solo piano, especially music from the romantic era--Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert. Also love animals, reading, and good rhymed and metered poetry.