Welcome!

A prosumer is a term that is often applied to photographers who are not professionals, but who nevertheless acquire photographic equipment designed for professionals and advanced amateurs. I am one of very many. Some professional photographers may use that term in a derogatory way, but most prosumers don't see it that way: if the equipment is good enough for the pro's, it's plenty good for us!

Many (including you?) are like me. I started taking pictures with a Kodak Instamatic when I was about 10 or 11 years old. My father purchased it for me so that I could take pictures without breaking the Zeiss-Ikon he used (pictured here). His father had bought that Zeiss in Germany -- directly from Carl Zeiss, for all I know.

I used that Zeiss during a high school art/photography class, developed the film myself, and printed myself in the school's darkroom. After seeing my first few prints, I was hooked.

Although the Zeiss produced fantastic results, I wanted a "better" camera. I had to eyeball the exposure using the sunny/16 rule or the camera's built-in "meter," which was surprisingly good. However, in my eyes, it was not as good as my classmates' Canon AE-1s, Minoltas, and Nikons because I had to guess exposure whereas they didn't. I had to set everything manually (even estimate the distance to the subject because the camera was not a true SLR). Sharing my enthusiasm reluctantly, my father bought a Nikon FG for me. I used that camera for about 10 years before buying a Nikon N90s. Another 8 or 9 years later, I moved to digital in 2006 when I purchased my first D-SLR(unless you count a couple of Kodak digital point-and-shoots my wife used earlier).

The transition from film/slides to digital has not been easy for me. I haven't been completely happy with the results and am learning postprocessing quite slowly. I have a day job and photography is my hobby. And because I have a family, I am unable to spend as much time on my hobby as I would like (especially because I also have other hobbies). However, just like with everything else in life, I won't be happy until I get as good at it as I can.

I will share as much of my learning during that learning process so that hopefully you can avoid some of my mistakes and frustrations. I hope you'll share your learning experiences with me and others in the comments or in the associated Flickr group, LightTakes.

About me: I'm a patent attorney in Seattle. I've been using SLRs for over 20 years and purchased my first D-SLR about 3 years ago.