I make my living now as a software engineer, but my first career was in photojournalism.

My dream was to be a globe-trotting photographer who regularly bagged covers of Time, Life and National Geographic.

My reality was as a staff photographer for the Gastonia Gazette, a small town newspaper in North Carolina. My beat was known as "wrecks-and-checks".

In a small town, events like fires, burglaries, and even car wrecks are news. That's where the "wrecks" part of the beat name comes from.

When someone like the president of the Lions Club gives a check for a $100 to the orphans' fund, that's news too, and gives the beat the second part of its name.

What else do you do if you're the wrecks-and-checks guy? Bridal showers. County election night coverage. The grand opening of the new grocery store. Well, you get the idea. I even covered children's birthday parties sometimes.

In fact, I got the first hint that photojournalism wasn't my future that time I covered the publisher's son's birthday party. I came back to the office, went into the darkroom (yes, it was a long time ago) and opened the camera to take out the film. But there wasn't any film--I had forgotten to load the camera!

My boss was understanding. He said "that happens to everybody". Then, in a darker tone, he added "Once!". I got the hint and never came back from an assignment empty-handed again. But my photojournalism career was almost over by then anyway.

In the intervening years since then, I have been more or less serious about photography. I seem to be in a more serious phase lately. I recently got a Nikon D300, which I really love. I've been reading the Lightroom manual, a couple of photographers' blogs, and have been studying other photographers' work here on Flickr, all in the hopes that my work will improve.