I has been a photographer for a long time now. I have 2 rules of photography. Rule one: The equipment is no more important than the artist's brush, but good brushes help. Rule two (this is the important one) Photography is the art of selective elimination. My first camera was a Zeiss Super Iconta B folding 120 roll film camera that my dad gave me in the early '60s. If you know what that is raise your hand. Eventually I scraped up a few bucks to trade that classic in on a new Nikkormat. Oh, well, I was young. I spent the next few decades working with 35MM Nikons, a twin lens Rolli, then a Bronica S 120MM SLR that usually worked. I gave up trying to make a living in photography and got simple for another couple of decades with cameras that fit in my pocket and fell back on my 2 rules. Digital cameras were a natural fit for me. I sold all my darkroom equipment and never looked back. I still have a 35MM Nikon and 5 or 6 lenses and that balky old Bronica, but their shutters are still now. I currently have a Canon A80 that has an underwater housing and uses AA batteries which can be very convenient, a new Olympus Stylus 1030 that is waterproof to 10 meters and fits in a pocket and a Nikon D80 that feels really sweet in my hands. The Nikon 18 - 135 zoom replaces 5 lenses I used to carry back in the day and the 70 - 300 covers the rest of my usual range and that VR is oh-so-nice. I could not resist a 50mm 1.4 just for old times sake and on the DX format, it's rather like the old fast Nikon 85mm from days gone by. I still believe it's not the equipment that makes a good picture, but the equipment is a joy nonetheless and it certainly does help, especially with digital equipment. When it comes to pixels, more is more and VR is awful nice. Also - it's very hard to decide between fishing and photographing. . . Another thing: There are a lot of fine photographers in the world and I love and admire their work. You can see a lot of them here on Smugmug. http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com/Other/BackEnd/Alex-Hemmingway-Sepia-small/226872587_yhDYs-300x300.jpg http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com/ 2009-01-25T12:07:10Z Copyright 2009, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. SmugMug <p><a href="http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com">AlexBakerPhotoz</a><br />Jelly at Monterey Bay Aquarium</p><p><a href="http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com/Underwater/In-the-flow-Below/4018271_vopER#234116656_xnJth" title="Jelly at Monterey Bay Aquarium"><img src="http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com/Underwater/In-the-flow-Below/MOV00848/234116656_xnJth-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="Jelly at Monterey Bay Aquarium" title="Jelly at Monterey Bay Aquarium" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-25T12:07:10Z AlexBakerPhotoz http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com http://alexbakerphotoz.smugmug.com/Underwater/In-the-flow-Below/MOV00848/234116656_xnJth-640.mp4