My first love...

...is Photography. Without aging myself too much, I have to say that I loved "old school" photography. The real stuff. Film, the dark room, the chemicals, manipulating the photos with your hands and tools and light...not a computer. That is what I did in highschool and college. Once my degree title turned into "Photography...and Digital Imaging" I began to lose interest. I didn't want to do it on the computer. I didn't like it at all. Like an immature child, I took my toys and went home. I put my camera in the closet and moved on.

That doesn't mean that I haven't taken thousands of photos since then, but they were all just snapshots of friends, family, myself, and things that I found snapshot worthy. I took these photos with a snapshot camera and I was happy with it.

Lately the photo bug has been biting me so I went and bought a new camera and started dabbling with some "digital imaging." Don't laugh or criticize the next few photos. My goal was to take everyday things and turn them into something I wanted to look at. I didn't leave my front porch or back deck to take these. I put my zoom to use and had to hope the neighbors didn't mind. This is what I came up with. Not bad for not leaving my porch.

This little guy was on my porch. When I grabbed my camera he ran up the tree to the "hole" and sat there.

These flowers are waaaaaay far away on my neighbors back deck. Just a simple dandelion.
A little treasure in my other neighbors garden.