I got interested in photography around the time my daughter was born - about 11 years ago. I purchased my first digital camera, an Olympus D 490Z. It was a 2.1 MP point and shoot which carried a price tag of $679.99 (if I remember correctly, although my research showed that it listed for $499, that may have been USD at a much worse exchange than today)
Shortly after, I was given a couple of manual SLR cameras, and got into shooting film with a 'real' camera. That led to purchasing a Canon Elan 7N SLR, and then a Canon 20D DSLR. Fast forward a few years to where I am today, with much more equipment, and a long list of receipts in the hundreds of dollars - some more...ouch!
I decided along the way - maybe 7 years ago, to try my hand at making a little money from this hobby to try to pay for the gear - or at least subsidize it a bit.
The side business has continued to grow - which is great - but over the last few years I have struggled to find a balance between my day job, my hobby, spending time with my family, and taking care of myself. While I have never promoted myself or advertised, I have found I have been almost too busy over the last couple of years. I am starting to try to bring myself back on course and regain the balance in my life by limiting the work I accept.
I was extremely happy to go for numerous walks last weekend around Killarney Lake - and actually shoot some photos of the flora and fauna. It was great!
Technical: Canon 50D + 100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro. The woods can be quite dark, even in the middle of the day. I suggest a starting point of ISO 400, maybe higher. you will need this to get any sort of depth of field, or enough shutter speed to combat camera shake and wind. Another thing you can do is use some flash, for some of these I used the on camera flash with a flash exposure compensation (FEC) of -1.
