Hello:
I think I joined a few months ago, and then just recently started reading the thread by Colin Southern on Portraiture, so I'm going to be more active here. This site seems to have so much information posted.
I started in photography when about 14-15 years old (a long, long time ago), with an Argus C-3. Built my own darkroom out of a non-used coal bin, and made an enlarger from an old Kodak "Pocket Camera." I've sort of collected old 35 mm and 120 cameras. Took most of my shots with Nikon F3 and F4 and then a 8008. After I retire in 1998, I started into painting--first with watercolor, and now everything except oils. From that time up to about a year or two ago, I used photography (now digital, Olympus D500L, then a C-750, which I rarely use now. Then about a year ago I got a Canon PS, D10 to carry with me all the time and started in taking a picture every day. This led to more interest in photography beyond just documenting my paintings and reference photos. I still have thousands of slides (I never throw anything away) and I'm trying to scan some of the good ones into digital format before they totally are unusable.
Some of my stuff can be seen in a couple places--mostly photography on
http://my.opera.com/Blackcalla. I have several albums there (used also for keeping updated with my son (Tim) in California and use the blog for updating my experimental painting works. My art website is
http://merleplaggeart.com. I've rambled enough--back to reading and catching up.