In 2011, having retired from a career in Banking (26 years) and software development (14 years), I took up photography to keep me out of trouble. I shoot mostly landscape/architecture, using a Canon T3i and a Sigma 18-250mm or Canon 50mm 1.8 (fantastic plastic,) kit.

Early on I started playing with Lightroom and Photoshop and various Filter plug-ins, notably the Topaz, NIK and MacPhun suites (pretty much in that order) - probably to compensate for my ineptitude in image capture - I make no apology for the fact that most of the images I publish are enhanced in post-processing. I am particularly attracted to the idea of converting image captures into photo art, and while I claim no particular talent I think some of my stuff is pretty nifty.

When shooting I try to capture oddities of light and structure, shooting lots of frames then playing with images that most strike my eye as I review the shoot in Lightroom. I learned most of what I do by way of processing through videos I found on YouTube, largely from PHLEARN, Serge Ramelli, and Blake Rudis (but the mess I make of things is not their fault!) Most of my camera/shooting instruction I picked up in videos by Mike Brown, DigitalREV, and the excellent books by Tony and Chelsea Northrup.

For inspiration, I belong to a couple of local photography Meet-Up groups, and I follow several additional groups on Facebook. I also follow a bunch of photographers on Flickr. I religiously check photographs on these sources, and Like or Favorite those that I find appealing - that Jump Out At Me on first glance. I can't say I have any particular skill in evaluating images, and I don't concentrate on rules, but when a picture grabs me I am thrilled - and often stunned.