Hello! I'm a self-taught amateur photographer, living in upstate New York, roughly 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of New York City.
If you are interested in what kind of pictures I take, you can find a sampling at
http://photo.net/photos/02Pete .
I don't claim to have a high level of knowledge or proficiency, but I have been taking pictures with various cameras since 1965. I take pictures of people and things of personal or visual interest -- family, travel, musicians, aircraft, scenery, buildings, you name it. (For what it's worth, I'm also an amateur musician, an inactive sailplane pilot, and a casual bicyclist, hence some occasional photos involving subjects in those areas.)
I'm not a systematic collector, but more a gradual accumulator of photo equipment. Phrased another way, I have a chronic, progressive and debilitating case of gear acquisition syndrome, for which most treatments have sadly proven futile. I started out with a used Kodak Signet 35 when I was 12, had an Olympus 35SP in college, used a Canon TLb when I had a young family, later got a Canon P and some Canon and Nikon LTM lenses, then a Leica M2, several Leitz and Leica M-mount lenses, and a Gossen handheld light meter, and eventually an old Nikon F and some pre-AI (a/k/a non-AI) lenses -- which started me down the road that led me here.
These days, my Nikon equipment includes Df, FM, and F bodies (I had a D5200 for a while, but sold it when I bought the Df); a variety of pre-AI, AI, AIS, D, and AF-S Nikkor prime lenses covering a range from 24mm to 200m, with most of the focal lengths in between; and a few old Vivitar lenses in pre-AI Nikon mount, just to remind me how good the Nikon lenses are. (Yes, I'm aware that a single 24-120mm or 28-300mm zoom lens could cover most if not all of that range. I had an 18-140mm DX zoom on my D5200 at one point, but sold it after a couple of weeks. I won't disparage either zoom lenses or those who favor them -- I just prefer primes to zooms for my own use.) I gravitate toward 85mm lenses, which somehow seem to suit the way I see things. I've never used lenses wider than 24mm, and have seldom used lenses longer than 200mm, so there is unknown territory still left to explore.
I look forward to sharing photos and observations with you, and to learning from all of you.
