Greetings:

I arrived here in April 2005 and hit 1,000,000 views on Jan 16,2012. Less than one year I reached over 2,000,000 views now. Over seven years to reach 1,000,000 and this new milestone in one year. For the last four years I have been unable to access my account due to problems with Yahoo and here it is April 2020 and I am back and I find I have now reached over 6,000,000 views. I can hardly believe it.

Many thanks to everyone who has found my page over the years and been interested enough in my work to view individual photos.

I am "Light Collector" (previously Whitebeard) a retired banker and retired antiques dealer. I started taking pictures about age 10 and got my first serious camera as a hand me down. A "Paxette" if I recall correctly. But it got me into 35mm and after putting a couple of hundred rolls through it, I worked through a few more 35mm cameras until i got a Pentax ES11 about 1974.

I continued to take pictures over the years using it and a Pentax Spotmatic II but found less and less time for the hobby. I received a Fuji MX-1200 as a retirement gift when I left the bank and found that digital photography rekindled my interest. Before too long, I graduated to a Sony DSC F828 and found it much more of a challenge to master (If I ever did).

While still using it, I went looking for a smaller travel camera and about 2007 I purchased a Canon A720 IS.

I found myself restricted with the Sony DSC F828 and in Oct 2010 I acquired a Sony a55V, my first SLR since leaving film cameras. And the learning curve began all over again.

Dec/13 - I just gave my Sony F828 to a friend who's son is going to be taking a photography course in school. I hope he gets as much fun out of it as I did!

I have since moved to a Sony A77ii which has become my principal camera.

I don't expect to set new standards for photography, but I do want to sharpen my eye for the world around me. I also find that photography gives me a reason to get out and spend creative time outdoors, which can't be a bad thing. I believe what sets the photographer as artist apart from the average photographer is that the former has trained themselves to see the world around them rather than looking at it.

My brother John introduced me to Flickr which has been great. He is a very talented photographer and his work can be seen here.

I look forward to seeing the great images created by others as a way to broaden my perspective as to what is possible with a camera.

Cheers