I seemingly disappeared around the first of June and haven't posted a word since, ya?  So where've I been?  The short answer is "taking pictures".

Many years ago I decided I wanted to become better at photography. I always found myself seeing things and saying "wow, that would make a nice picture".  I dreamed of becoming a wildlife photographer and taking pictures of birds. But I didn't really know what I was doing, and I was using a crummy camera.

So in the early 90's I picked up a used Nikon 8008s for a hefty (very hefty) chunk of change and tried using that. The picture quality seemed better but I still didn't really know how to use it and didn't know where to go for advice. I loved taking pictures with it, but given the cost of film purchasing and developing, it became too expensive a hobby for me, and I put the camera away.  (And in the intervening years the camera has depreciated in value to the point where it is worth about 5% of what I paid for it.)

For the last couple years I've used a little Canon Digital Elph (a PowerShot s500) and I have a lot of fun with it. Without the prohibitive cost of film and developing, I can make up for lack of skill in volume. I may snap a couple hundred pictures in a few hours, and of those maybe only a handful are any good, but I'm happy to have that handful.

This having been one of the shittiest years in my life led to my wife wanting to get me something nice for Father's Day that I could occupy my time with.  This coincided wit me taking a renewed interest in 35mm-style SLR cameras.  I still can't afford the film but nowadays they make digital SLR's... so perhaps I could once again embark on my dream of becoming an excellent photographer without the prohibitive cost of film?  With my wife's blessing I started looking into digital SLR cameras.

My friend James had long encouraged me to start publishing my photos on flickr, and given the size of the membership there, that seemed like a good place to go for camera advice.  Checking the camera finder on flickr revealed that the most popular cameras used to produce their database of 525 million photos were the Canon Digital Rebel XT and XTi.  I posted questions on various discussion forums there asking for camera recommendations and talked with friends at work and elsewhere about cameras.  Finally I took a trip to Circuit City to play with the display cameras there and get a feel for them.  All the cameras seemed very cool, but I kept returning to the Rebel XTi... of all of them it felt the most familiar, probably because the icons and controls were similar to my PowerShot s500 which is made by the same manufacturer.

But the price was out of the park.   Circuit City wanted $899 for the camera.  I  was informed by the staff that the camera would come with a "temporary battery" and a small charger, but that neither of those components were standard and that I would need to by the standard ones for serious camera use.  This would be another $140 or so.  Then of course I needed a memory card and it had to be a high-speed (133x) card, which was a mere $50 more.  Add a camera bag to keep my equipment safe ($50), and Circuit City's 4-year warranty ($100) and you were talking about $1250... then add another $63 for sales tax.  Ouch.  I could never afford all this, so I took the information and went home to talk to my wife about it.

She encouraged me to look for deals elsewhere... maybe used equipment on eBay or a less expensive camera like the Nikon D40.  It always pays to comparison shop.  Eventually I checked out B&H Video out of New York (who had sold me my video camcorder a zillion years ago), from them I was able to price the same camera with the same lens for far less.  In fact it was so much less that I could add a camera bag, same exact high speed memory card, a USB card reader, an infrared remote control, and a UV-filter and still come out under the Circuit City price.  The kicker?  The kit B&H was selling came with the standard battery and battery charger at no extra cost.  And there was no sales tax.  After adding shipping it came to about $860.  Pat gave her blessing so I went ahead and bought my very own Canon Digital Rebel XTi.

It arrived on June 4'th, and since then I've been taking pictures pretty much every day.  I am really enjoying myself.  It's quite peaceful really, just contemplating a shot through my viewfinder and taking my time.  My plan (if you can call it that) is to start with still life, landscape, and macro shots. I'm glad my first lens isn't too specific because I also want to be able to use it as my "fam cam" for pix at the annual barbecue and get-togethers with friends and so forth, so for me maybe a more general purpose lens is good.

Once I figure out how to manipulate light (I am hopeless at this), frame a shot (I am dismal at this), and understand the ins and outs of the camera, I'd like to branch out into pictures of people and portraits. I love faces and pictures of people. When I get to that point, it might be a good idea to put away the general lens and get a 2-3 different lenses for when I want to switch between macro, landscape, and portraiture.

And then, maybe someday, if I can really get to the point where I don't suck, I'd love to try and take pictures of birds. I know that's very challenging but it has been a dream of mine for a long time. I love birds. If I can get there (and save up my pennies), I'd like to get a telephoto lens suitable for that kind of photography.

My photographic journey has been uploaded to flickr each day.  Feel free to check out my photostream--unlike my blog it has been very busy.  I've uploaded about 350 photos at this point and my stream has been viewed over 1,000 times.

• My PhotoStream
   
• My Sets -- this page shows the "albums" that I have grouped my photos into

Here are my 12 most popular photos:

I hope my inattention to my blog hasn't been too irritating to y'all.  I'll try to get back here and post more.  But in the meantime, you can find me posting on flickr.

Hope to see you in my viewfinder!

EDIT: The table of images was too wide... my blog was getting all stretched out, added a couple pix and narrowed it up a bit.