My life-long enjoyment with "taking pictures" became a more studied interest in the artistic side of photography after I took a landscape and nature photography class through a local (Montgomery County, MD) adult education program and joined the Gaithersburg Camera Club (http://gaithersburgcameraclub.org) in January of 2000. The club's newsletter editor for many years, I also helped coordinate our monthly member competitions and am currently the club secretary.

When I joined the club I shot with a Nikon SLR camera (N70, then N80) on Kodak print or Fuji slide film, converting my image to digital files with a Nikon Coolscan IV (then a Coolscan V) and printing through Adobe Photoshop Elements, with an Epson 1280 inkjet on Epson papers. However, the purchase of a digital point and shoot for a trip "down under" in January of 2004 was my first step into a continuing adventure with digital photography. After my first DSLR, the D70, now my equipment includes Nikon's D750 and D5500 and an Olympus E-M10II (Yes, I'm getting up in years, so looking for lighter equipment!). I also use a Lumix p&s. My printer is now an aging Epson R1800. I continue to find the creative possibilities of the "digital darkroom" more and more stimulating -- though the time-consuming and file managing aspects do tend to become a bit overwhelming.

My subjects are usually nature-related, but mainly I shoot what I like, for the pure fun of it, and I'm delighted when others enjoy the results. I'm a retired public school teaching assistant and live in Rockville, Maryland, with an ornery cat. I have two married children and four grandchildren who are my viewfinder's favorite moving targets.