Unless credited otherwise, all photographic images on this website were taken by me. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This was true until the summer of 2015 when others began joining me. Photos are all from the galleries of featured photographers on this website unless otherwise noted.)
I began taking photos in a semi-serious fashion when I was in the army. I bought my first 35mm camera at the PX in Frankfort Germany in 1967. It was an Petri. About a year later I purchased an Asahi (Pentax) Spotmatic. I took LOTS of pictures.
Later, when I returned to school, I started taking a lot of photographs of nature, especially on field trips. I took lots of photos and slides.
After school, I changed over to Nikons. I bought a Nikon F3, an FG, came up with an FE from somewhere. About this time I also put together a black and white darkroom. After close to 6 months with the black and white, I moved up to a color darkroom. Was that ever fun!
At that point, my photography got pretty serious. I read every photography book I could get my hands on, especially anything on nature photography.
There is no telling how many thousands of pictures that I took. Most of that time period I was in west Texas and spent considerable time between there and southern Arizona.
Then life happened and I got so busy that photography was pushed to the side. I did manage to take LOTS of pictures of my kids through the years but I was rarely involved in any outdoor activities so there were next to no nature photography. Somewhere along the way I changed over to Canon and had quite a few different Canons.
That began to change a little when I lived in Florida, but only a little.
It has changed tremendously since I have come home to east Texas. My camera is with me almost all the time.
Oh, I am back to a Nikon. I have a D60 which is a decent camera. I really need another camera body and a longer lens. That will come with time. Right now I have the D60, a 18 - 55mm Nikon zoom lens, a 70 - 200mm Nikon zoom lens, a Nikon Speedlite 230, a lightweight triod, a few common filters, a monopod, and that is about it. I am sure with time I will be adding to the equipment.
Michael is a former biologist and Texas Master Naturalist. Originally from Newsome, Texas (Between Pittsburg and Winnsboro), educated in Dallas & Garland schools, then off to the University of Texas system where he received a degree in biology and worked as a biologist with the University of Texas system. After many years away from nature and biology, he relocated to the banks of Lake O' the Pines where he has been rediscovering the joys of nature. He is somewhat surprised that he has become a birder. Most of his interest in nature was centered around reptiles. Perhaps just like birds evolved from reptiles starting in the late Jurassic, he has begun his own evolution. During his formal education, his interests in biology/nature grew to include community ecology and population studies, all with a binding of evolutionary processes. He liked birds, but they were secondary at best. All at once he finds them fascinating.
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