Some (many?) of you might wonder, what could persuade a 30-something year old to try to get into photography…. And I don’t just mean photography in the sense of “Oh, I like to take pictures for fun” – but rather “I love taking pictures, and I’d thoroughly enjoy making some money off them.”

That’s a good question – I’ve always had a love for photography – ever since my mother gave me a cheap focus-less cartridge camera when I was in the low single digits.

However, a busy life and a somewhat compulsive attitude made for many interesting years – many of them ignoring photography, though. (Cars, then rock climbing, then scuba diving, then motorcycles… What’s next?)

I have always desired to be artistic in some way – I love using my hands to create things – and I see beauty in situations/scenes that others often don’t notice (or so it seems). Photography feels to me like a good way of conveying this message; showing others what I see – and maybe what they’re missing.

I have been doing a lot of reading, studying and trying to learn…. Lighting techniques, “golden rules” et cetera – all in an attempt at catching up to what others have learned at much earlier ages.

Some of my favorite photographers are Strobist, for teaching us all how to light on the cheap; Chase Jarvis for being badass and honest; Bert Stephani for teaching us about beer goggles; Thomas Hawk for arranging photo walks (and teaching us how to deal with pesky security guards ), and a dozen others. (An aggregate of my photo reading can be found here.)

Since I’m not good with endings, here’s a thanks to all of you photographers out there willing to share your knowledge with us fledgeling photographers…. 🙂