Hello there! I started off in college these many years ago wanting to be a photojournalist and learned the basics of photography on an old Minolta Maxxum, but ended up getting a job in the IT field and then there was family and life in general and I kind of lost track of photography for a long time. About a year and a half ago I got an iPhone 4 and started taking pictures with it and using many of the apps which reminded me how much I loved photography and so I went out and got a D3100 and have been having such a wonderful time with it and learning how to process my own photos. I'm definitely still a noob as far as the technical side of things.

I have recently determined that I really like the challenge of capturing birds, though I am horrible at it. They move very fast, but they are so beautiful. I'm sure I need to work on my stalking technique. lol

My gear at the moment consists only of a tripod of middling quality (sturdy but heavy), my D3100, a Nikon 70-300 VR lens and the kit lens. I'm planning on getting a longer lens and possibly a new body in the next few months, but waiting to see if Nikon comes out with anything else besides the D4.

Anyway, I found this site because when I lived in NC, I took a class with Charles Glatzer's daughter and he was also helping her with the teaching. I learned a lot from them both and was in awe of some of the photos that Chas showed during his presentation. Anyway, I was looking at Nik software and they had an interview with Charles, during which he mentioned this site so I came to see what it was all about and I read through a lot of the critiques and was glad to see that there was not a lot of conflict; just good helpful commentary and suggestions. I visited another photography forum and man, the amount of evil there was suffocating. So much negativity. So that's why I joined and posted a picture here yesterday. Looking forward to reading your thoughts and learning! I also added some of my thoughts on some of the photos in that section, though I don't feel able to critique technical aspects because most of you are far more advanced than I am, I do at least know what I like and usually even why.

Looking forward to getting to know you all!