The answer to that question depends on what period of my life we're talking about.
	I've been taking photos since a little kid in the 50's.  All my photos are products of the following.

	My first camera was probably a Kodak Brownie with a 2 1/4-inch square film size on 117 B&W roll film.
	I'm sure I have some old prints from that tucked away somewhere, but probably not worth fiddling with.
	And the same goes for my second camera, a Kodak Duaflex, a twin-lens reflex (TLR) that had three f stops
	and shutter speeds of "B" and "I" (about 1/30th sec.) and made 6x6 images on 620 roll film.  Focal range
	was 3.5' to infinity.  I do remember using it to take many pictures of New York City ('59 or '60), 
	including some from the Empire State Building - some of those I might dig out and play around with.

	My first "serious" camera (which I still have) was a Yashica 35mm fixed-lens rangefinder film camera, 
	but I really can't recall how I came to acquire it - perhaps it was a hand-me-down, sometime in the 
	mid-60's, I think.  Somewhere in the early to mid 70's, I was working from home doing minor repairs
	on cameras for a local camera store, which gave me a decent discount from them which I then used to buy
	my first SLR with interchangeable lenses - a Fujica ST701, which I also still have.  But neither of these
	two are currently functional, plus doing film vs. digital just isn't practical anymore.  Took a lot
	of pictures with the Fujica and the many lenses I had (macro to telephoto and filters).

	Then along came digital.  Good ones were above my pay scale at the time, so I decided to dip my toes into 
	that world with a Canon Powershot (an A95, 5.0 MP).  Circa 2005, I think.  Altho prior to that, we had
	a Nikon Coolpix 950 at work that one could check out from our business office.  That was actually my 
	first foray into the digital realm.  Took even more pictures with the Canon.  Then it died.

	Still not quite being able to afford a higher-end digital SLR, I chose a Canon PowerShot SX10iS, which is
	still my go-to SLR, even tho I now have an iPhone that takes great pix.  But, it's just not the same as
	holding an SLR up to your one open eye and the rest of the world disappears except for that single image
	you see in the viewfinder.  If I ever decide to go higher-end, I would stay with Canon since I can use
	my old existing lenses from my Fujica days.  The SX10iS does not have a removable lens.
	But it does a quite adequate job.  And, I am not taking so many pictures these days, preferring to work
	on the hundreds of good ones lurking in my computer's folders just waiting for me to pounce on them.

	Of course, over the years I have played around with other peoples' cameras, like Nikons, Leicas, and an
	incredible Sinar P a professional photographer friend of mine had.

	Google's Picasa.  Been using it for over 20 years.  But Google has decided to retire it and no longer
	supports it.  It still works just fine, altho I get a pop-up when I fire it up on my Mac Mini that says 
	it is not optimized to run under macOS 10.13.6.  So, I hope it will continue to work in future macOS releases.
	If not, I have an older iMac that I can keep at the current release and just not upgrade.

	I've tried Photoshop and others, but I didn't like their learning curves, especially to do something that's
	just a simple tweak.  Picasa is quite intuitive and does 99% of anything I would ever want to do to a photo.
	And on my new Dell 27" 2560x1440 display, it's even better!	

	I do them myself.  I know there are services out there that will do them if you don't have or want to own
	an expensive large format printer, but I want all that control locally in the safety and serenity of my home.
	To that end, I have a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 large format printer that can do 17" wide, since the majority
	of what I want to print are on the order of 16" x 20".

	I can also do my own cropping of a print with a Rotatrim 24" rotary cutter.  And I have a mat cutter.  
	I go to a local glass company to have glass cut to my specific dimensions and there are several art suppliers
	and framers I go to for specific frames I might use.	

	That's complicated.  Since I don't claim to have a specific "style" or "genre", I've been influenced by many.
	There are the obvious ones like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and other B&W photographers.
	Not that I try to emulate what they did, but more of an inspiration to "see" things a bit differently with
	black and white images - even converting from color to B&W to make an ordinary color shot take on a new life.
	Growing up, our household was full of LIFE and National Geographic magazines.  Saturday Evening Posts with
	Norman Rockwell covers.  I would peruse photography books at the library, and later in life, buy scores of
	them as well as How-To books on photography, lighting, darkroom techniques, etc.  And scores of "coffee table"
	books by photographers and artists like Weston, Adams, local artists Larry Kanfer and the late Billy Morrow 
	Jackson (both of whom I've met and talked with and proudly hang some of their works on my walls).  
	O'Keefe, Monet, Braque, Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Caillebotte, Klimt, Pollock, Rothko.
	Art books, history of art books, impressionists' books, cubists' books, etc., etc.
	All these and more have influenced me.  Every work of art I've ever viewed has gone into the Cuisinart of
	my mind.  What comes out are my photos.

	That is a rather very long, convoluted, seredipitous story, and I will have to link the answer to this 
	question to a whole separate page because you're probably already tired of my verbosity.  I'm working
	on it.

	Email me (preferred) or call and let me know which print and we can go from there.  I am not keeping an 
	inventory (no room), so they will be printed and signed (or printed, mounted, matted, signed, and framed)
	on demand.  If you are not local (i.e. not at a convenient distance to come to my home), then we would have
	to discuss shipping and insurance costs.  Since I've never done that, it is currently an unknown cost. 
	Since I am not in this for the money (nice pension, thank you very much!), I am keeping it as simple as
	possible.  No sign-in to the web site, no Paypal mechanism or credit card purchases.  Just cash or check.
	If by check, nothing happens till the check clears - unless I know you.  :-)  Doesn't sound like a great
	business model does it...  C'est la vie.  I'm terrible at business.  If you REALLY like one of my pieces,
	then we'll find a way to get it to you.  But it won't be Amazon Prime Overnight.

	True.  You can do that.  I have no problem there.  I've done it - downloaded images that really moved me.
	Printed them out on 8x10 photo paper and framed them or used them as desktop backgrounds or screen savers.
	I was there when the internet was born and also when the world wide web was born.  I knew Eric Bina and
	Marc Andreessen from my time at the U of I in Urbana, IL - was almost their sys admin when they were
	really ramping up their Mosaic Project - Mosaic being the first web browser and upon which Microsoft's
	Internet Explorer was based.  They went on to produce Netscape, and well, we all know it went on to
	change our world.  What I'm saying is, I always felt the internet and world wide web should be free.
	My photos are on a public web site.  They're free for the taking.

	Now, having said that, I do put Copyright watermarks on the samples I post online (lower right or left).
	So, yes, one could Photoshop them away or snip off the bottom (which would in almost all cases, ruin
	the cropping effect I made).  If you are using the image(s) for your own pleasure and not to make money,
	it's perfectly all right.  However, attemptimg to make money from my pictures could result in the Copyright
	Nazis on your tail.

	It's coming.  Probably a separate page.  Takes time to do it.

	Right.  Fair question.  For me, it's about sharing.  Think finding a fine wine and now you want to share
	it with like-minded friends.  Ok, not the greatest analogy, and it will cost you just a few bucks for me 
	to share some of what I think are pretty good pictures with you, but I think the amount of money you might 
	spend for one of my creations is not out of line, given production costs, potential shipping costs, and 
	helping recoup some of the capital investment. And they really will look good in large format hanging on 
	your wall of choice.  Conversation pieces.

	You can't.  I don't do Facebook.  Never have.  The GUI (graphical user interface) is butt-ugly, confusing,
	and most of it makes no sense - besides being an anti-social cesspool of negative and cynical snarkiness.  
	That's not to say I won't EVER have a Facebook presence, but it too would be as minimalist as possible.  
	Don't hold your breath.  Linkedin is another story - I might explore that rabbit hole.

	You can't do that either.  As far as I'm concerned, Twitter is aptly named, i.e., it's for twits.  
	Witness our most infamous twit goofbag who lurks somewhere on Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C. and constantly
	abuses it and his power.  And that's the only political commentary you'll find on this site.  'Nuff said!

	I did.  I figured they pretty much run the gamut of what most folks might ask.  If you have a question,
	email me and I would be happy to add it here and try to answer it the best I can.

This web site authored entirely with vi text editor.
page created: 08/05/18
page last updated: 08/05/18
author: P.L. Nelson
contact: lnelson at BRF-LLC.com
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