I have been a photography enthusiast for over 35 years starting out with a Kodak Instamatic 126 camera with an accessory wide angle and telephoto lens. Much of my photography back then was of hiking trips I took with friends and fellow students from the University of Portland where I graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Upon graduating I purchased a nice little camera for hiking and backpacking. It was an Olympus Pen FT Half frame 35MM SLR with accessories like a couple of nice lenses, case and a flash. This was a great little camera and I took lots of slides with it but it became limiting after a while since I wanted to do more close up and wide angle work and was unable to get the lenses I needed for that. Also the half frame image size was limiting for larger prints.

My next camera was a Minolta X-700 35MM SLR. With this camera I was much less limited and eventually accumulated a good assortment of lenses and accessories that allowed me to explore many more aspects of photography. The Minolta was and still is a great camera and if it wasn’t for the eventual development of the digital technology, I would probably still be using that camera.

But digital cameras have finally come to the point where they produce very fine images and allow a great deal of versatility and open up the freedom to really experiment and grow in photography.

My first digital was an Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom and I used it to capture many nice images but it did not replace the film SLR. It was only 2 megapixel so was not adequate to make very large prints. 8x10 was pretty much the limit.

The next digital camera I got was the Olympus SP-500. This really became kind of a bridge camera for me since it was 6 megapixel and had the ability to shoot in the RAW format so I was able to get my feet wet in processing RAW files. It still didn’t have the fast response and the ability to use some really nice lenses available to an SLR.

Finally, the E-System SLRs came out from Olympus and after doing a lot of research I decided on the Olympus E-510 10 megapixel SLR. This camera had the features that were best suited for the type of photography I liked to do and the kit lenses that came with it were quite good quality. I have added a longer telephoto and an ultra-wide angle lens to cover the full range of what I had with the old Minolta system and then some..

I find the digital camera with the resolution now available and the photo editing software on the computer to be a great tool to really capture the images I want and to allow me to grow in my photography.

The images I have posted here are mostly taken right here in NW Oregon. I find that if I really open my eyes and look around me I can find or see images that really show both the natural and man made world around me right here in the community.

My favorite images are those of the natural world. Plants, animals and mini landscapes taken with close up photo gear. I have also recently been seeing a lot of nice patterns and shapes and forms in architecture and the reflections and juxtapositions that arise.

Along with the images I have here and which are available for purchase, I am trying to include a little about where and when they were taken and a little description about the subject.

I hope you enjoy looking at my images as much as I have finding and making them.

Your comments are always welcome.