Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I learned to appreciate the majestic natural scenery surrounding me. When I was in college I went on this foreign study program to Asia, and my mother gave me her old SLR camera to take photos with-an Olympus OM10. I took a bunch of rolls of Fuju Velvia slide film as well as some black and white film(I took a photo class the semester before).
When I got returned I entered one of my photos in the school travel photo contest and one of my images got first place overall. It was displayed in the library entrance for the rest of the year and every student there saw it, which I thought was really cool, especially since I had only taken one beginner class.

That is when I first got interested in photography, but after that trip I didn't do much with it for awhile. I moved down to the SF Bay Area to work on my masters and now life and work in California.

I also started taking oil painting classes and decided I wanted my own reference photos for my paintings, so I went out and got a Nikon D50 Digital SLR camera about two and a half years ago. I began to enjoy photography in its own right, and remembered how fun it was taking pictures. Recently I upgraded to a Nikon D300 and I now consider photography to be one of my favorite hobbies.