I'm a professional geek and aspiring artist. I write, some, and hope to write more as time goes on. I've always enjoyed photography, but never had time to learn darkroom techniques. Luckily, the digital world makes the old-fashioned photography that I used to know a little about all obsolete. I started with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, with two lenses so I could learn about photography again. In October 2011, I upgraded to a Canon 5D MkII and some more lenses, like a 100mm macro lens and a better zoom and a "nifty fifty", which is still the camera body I use today. I'm still here to have some fun, make a little bit of something vaguely artistic, and, maybe, get out of the house a bit more and get more active again. Having my camera gave me an excuse to get out and meet new people and take some personal risks with my life. It got me thinking and moving in the world in ways that I had previously not considered.

Also, since I've done the 365 day project thing, I've gotten more comfortable being in front of the camera. At least, a little. I still fight the continuing battle of the sedentary office worker, trying to keep my weight down, my energy up and make my cardiologist happy. I try to remember that it's a process.

I mostly take photographs for myself and for my wife. Occasionally, I take photos for her business, the Organizing Decorator. She organized my life and she can do the same for you!

Let me know what you think of my pictures, and don't forget to check out the blog!

Also, you can follow me on Twitter as @TheNetworkGeek or on Tumblr at J. K. Hoffman

Back up your work!

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013, the network-attached hard drive I was using to store my photos crashed, hard. In a few short minutes, I lost five years and roughly 18,000 photos. The best of them are here, of course, but many others that weren't for public consumption, for one reason or another, are simply gone. After checking out the prohibitive cost of data recovery services, I decided to just accept that I was being given a Clean Slate.

On Banning: Okay, look, I really don't like banning people, but here's the deal... I made one joke about foot-fetish people getting off on one of my pictures and suddenly a bunch of people who were looking for fetish porn started favoriting my pictures and friending me. Not cool. So, if I banned you, it's nothing personal, but you just freaked me out with your obsession. Oh, hang on, it *is* something personal. Don't be creepy on Flickr!

And all this time, I thought it was about photography.