How does this apply to this blog? Many of the resources science educators seek are photos. Ok, it's a tenuous link, but the reality is that nothing thrills me more than shooting a great photo, especially of animals, preferably in the wild, but even in zoos and animal parks. I release the majority of my images under Creative Commons licenses and I hope people enjoy them and use them for good purposes. More about that in some future blog post. To be honest, this is primarily a way for me get into the habit of writing whether anyone else reads this it or not, it will be images that I captured that please me even if they are not perfect. Sometimes the reason will be because less about the quality of the image and more about the moment in time that it represents or some other topic I want to discuss and the photo is the vehicle to that discussion.
Now for some of my camera geekery--
I have loved taking photos since I got my first 126 cassette camera. I, then, started using my father's 35mm camera, and he finally bought me own, a Minolta X370, different from his so I couldn't borrow his lenses. I took fewer photos when I entered grad school, and primarily to document my work. When I moved into technology, the first digital cameras were hitting the market, and I had access to them through work (first a Kodak 1.1 megapixel camera, and then a Nikon 990), but I was not interested in them personally until they were closer to film in resolution and sensitivity. My first camera was a Pentax Option 750Z, which takes very nice photos, but I was frustrated by lag when taking pictures of animals, as I missed shots I would have made with my Minolta. This led me to my first dSLR, a Canon 20D. It is a fine camera. It led me to my current primary camera a Canon 7D. You will also see occasional shots from a Canon Powershot 870IS, which I usually have with me all the time because it is fairly wide and small. I also have an Intova IC-7 for underwater photos and graduated to a Canon S110 for which I have the canon underwater housing. I have added a Canon 6D to my line up and now I'm thinking of mirrorless cameras.
