I have been a photographer since I was a child. I started with a Box Brownie camera, learned how to develop film and print black-and-white pictures while in grade school, got into semi-professional photography in college, and have been a keen amateur photographer ever since. I’ve worn out SLR Pentaxes and Leicas (and even a Hasselblad), went digital in 1995 with Apple’s first camera (the Quicktake 150), and have steadily upgraded since then, exclusively with Canon cameras (Powershot series), until finally returning to SLRs with a Canon Digital Rebel XT.  I use the XT for more serious photography, but my iPhone for snap-shots on-the-run..while many berate the iphone for its puny 2 megapixel camera, when the light isn’t too harsh or it’s not too dark, this camera takes surprisingly good photos (the leaf project was shot entirely with the iphone, shooting in low light to maximize movement). What’s more, it’s always available for use!

     I recently acquired a Canon 70-300mm lens (1:4 - 5.6 IS USM) and that has opened up a whole new set of possibilities for photographs (several of the newest additions to the landscapes and flowers were taken with this lens).  I love the image stabilization, and the amazingly sharp focus of close-ups.

     I primarily use Aperture for managing and editing photographs, especially since upgrading to Aperture 2, and use Photoshop CS3 Extended for fine-tuning, and especially for stitching photos, and lens corrections (especially necessary with the French Doors project---I must remember to photograph first, and drink wine after!). However, I still have a lot to learn about Photoshop..

    In the past, I have created ‘books’ from iPhoto and Aperture that are a snap to construct and send to Apple for printing (and so reasonably priced!). Recently, I have also started to print poster-sized prints of several photos in my collection, using Apple’s printing service--their whole approach is easy to set up, quality is excellent, pricing more than reasonable, and the turn-round time amazing...