Photography - I have been into 35mm photography since about 1983 and I'm still learning. Prior to that, my only experience was with point & shoot 110 & 126 cameras. I now own several 35mm bodies including a mint-condition Kodak stereo camera that my friend, Tom gave me for Christmas some years ago. I have been playing with digital photography for a couple of years now and have had 3 digital point & shoot cameras. Just recently, I have added a Pentax Digital SLR (*ist DL) to the inventory. I had been watching the market for about 3-4 years waiting for Pentax to produce a good camera at a reasonable price that could use my existing lenses and accessories. So far, I'm pretty impressed with it, but I recommend a good digital imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop CS2 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 to make corrections and/or changes. I use CS2 and Corel Photo-Paint 6.0 and 8.0. Corel has changed their product names, so I'm not familiar with any of the newest software or what it's capable of doing. While I was doing my research (before deciding to purchase the CS2), I noticed that Microsoft has a product called Microsoft Digital Image 2006. Again, I didn't try the software before making my final choice, but it is available in 3 different versions from 'Standard' to what they call 'Digital Image Suite Plus'. I have been using Photoshop since version 4.0 and Corel's products since I can remember, so I decided to stick with what I know. Little did I know how much Adobe Photoshop has grown since the days of version 4.0. Now I'm looking for a good deal on an Epson R2400 photo printer.

With a 1-GB SD card, the new DL can take about 345 6-megapixel photos at the highest resolution. I have yet to fill up the SD card at any single shooting. The price of the camera has dropped substantially since I purchased it just a month ago and the prices of the SD cards are dropping, too. The best part is you can find good (manual focus) lenses for practically nothing that are compatible with the new body. I don't know how these people can afford to just buy all new gear every year or two - I can't. My 25 year old Takumar 135mm works beautifully with it and if you want to know he truth, I'm sorry that I bought the body and standard (18mm-80mm) Pentax lens. I should have just bought the body by itself. Since the original purchase, I have acquired a ice Sigma 28-105mm AF lens that is way better than the standard Pentax lens. I have been wanting to try the Sigma 24-135mm, though. I'll make due with what I have for now. Since buying the camera, I have gone up to Mt. Rainier, out to Neah Bay/Cape Flattery, and up to Snoqualmie Falls. As soon as the weather gets a little nicer, I'll go up to the tulip and daffodil fields in Skagit County for some nice colorful shots.

I am considered a semi-professional, in that I have been paid for my work (weddings and such), although not for some time now, so take what you read here with a grain of salt. Hopefully, this new digital SLR will help me to make y mistakes at a minimal cost. It'll be way cheaper than procesing slides and throwing them into the trash. I have been listed with One Model Place for a couple of years and you can see a couple of examples of my work. As you can guess, I cannot put too many photos on that site. I have literally thousands of photos - box loads.

Hunting, Fishing & other Outdoor Activities - Here's a good place to thank my dad for taking me fishing when I was a kid. I don't know what he was thinking at the time, but I am sure that it is one of the coolest things a parent can do for his kids - take them fishing, I mean. I guess it doesn't really matter if you catch anything or not. Obviously, it is much cooler to catch and release than not to catch anything at all. Then again, I kinda like fish, so I tend to eat whatever I catch. It doesn't matter if it's a 10-inch trout or a 39-inch Striped Bass. If you catch it, clean it & cook it, it tastes good. This reminds me of the many times that my friend, Tommy and I had gone mushroom hunting. We came home with grocery sacks full of morels, chanterelles, and wild leeks. The following morning we would make omelets with the fish and herbs that we had caught and found. Man-o-man! It doesn't get any better than that.

Come to think of it, I could write a small book documenting all my adventures hunting & fishing and probably another small book on hiking & backpacking. I'll forgo that for the moment and just post these links. As I explained on the front page, this is just an experiment. I may have to elaborate or develop more pages for this site at a later date. We'll see if anyone is interested. If they are, I'll write more. If not, it makes no sense to write if you know what I mean.

I have done business with all the companies that I have linked to on this site. I highly recommend all the companies that I have listed below. If you ever get a chance to visit any of the stores, do it; you will not be disappointed.

Aircraft & Flying - I've always been interested in aircraft, flying & even spacecraft. When I was a kid, my dad was chief flight line mechanic in the USAF. I joined the USMC with the idea that I would be able to work on (and possibly fly) a Harrier jump jet and a helicopter. Well, that didn't happen, but I flew in a lot of different aircraft and after I got out of the service, I took some flying lessons. I would encourage anyone who is interested in flying to take an introductory lesson. Introductories are usually less expensive and more informative than a regular lesson. You learn a lot about the (fixed wing) aircraft, what makes it fly and get to take off on the very first lesson.

Radio Control Models & Model Railroads - I've told some people that I think single guys go to great lengths to fill their time with hobbies and fun things to do in order to stay out of trouble. One of the things that I've enjoyed over the years is model-building. After building 'static' models for 20+ years, I built my first radio-controlled aircraft - a 2-meter sailplane called a Two-Tee. I was instantly addicted and have built radio-controlled sailplanes, propeller-driven aircraft, boats, air boats, cars, monster trucks and more. I know there are a lot of good hobby shops out there, but when I was really busy model-building, Tower Hobbies was very good to me. I highly recommend them and I have never had a bad experience with them. I've probably spent no less than $3500 over the years and when I get into my own home again, I'll probably take up both R/C model-building and also set up an "N-Scale" model railroad. When I was in junior high school, my dad bought me an HO-Scale railroad that someone had already built on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. It was one of the most fun & interesting things that I remember as a kid. Thanks, dad. One of the most fascinating things about this hobby it the miniaturization technology. When I was a kid, we used to have prop-driven models in the shape of jet fighters, but Jet Cat USA makes a miniature turbine engine that weighs 1.87 pounds, is 3 1/4" diameter and produces 13 pounds of thrust. O.S. Engines makes a model engine line second to none including a Wankel (rotary) that weighs in at less than 14 ounces and produces 1.27 horsepower at 17,000 RPM. Yup - I typed it right; 17000 RPM. Among their line of 4-stroke engines is a 5-cylinder radial (suggested retail $2800) and a 4-cylinder flat - opposed that looks like an old air-cooled VW engine. It's called the Pegasus and retails for $2400. Big boy toys indeed. This hobby has come a long way since I was a kid watching 1/2A control line toys in the school yard. In fact, the world record control line piston-powered model speed record was set in 1987 at 313.54 Kph. That's about 195 miles per hour for those of you without a calculator handy. BVM Jets (Bob Violett) in Florida has been producing some of the most detailed, sophisticated and fastest ducted fan and miniature turbine model airplanes you could possibly imagine since the early '80's. I borrowed a couple of photos from his site (see below). Prices of these 'toys' range from a few thousand dollars for a starter kit to over $20,000 for a complete, ready to fly version). I hadn't really intended to go to this detail on this page, but it should also be noted that the sailboats, power boats, air boats, and helicopters have kept pace with the hobby. It is more exciting than ever. With all the emphasis on R/C models, don't forget about the static displays. Pacific Aircraft's Warplanes has expanded to include ships, submarines, space craft & more. It's a small world, after all.

Russian Language & Russian culture - If you visit my "Chat Friends" page, you will see that I chat with many people online. I'm not sure exactly why so many of the ladies I like are from Eastern Europe, but it sure makes life more interesting for a single guy like me. After chatting with people in Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belgrade, Hungary and many other countries, I decided to start studying Russian. Wow! I was amazed to see how many Russian-speaking people are right here in the Seattle area (tens of thousands). They have been moving here since before WWII. There are three newspapers and at least three magazines published right here in the area in Russian. I found them in a little Russian restaurant in Kent and some of them are free. There are also many local websites that are available in both Russian and English.

The other night I was at my Russian teacher's home for a birthday celebration. She and her husband, John have business guests visiting from Russia for 2 weeks and it was Andre's birthday. Granted, I didn't understand a lot of the conversation as the majority of the group was Russian, but it was a very interesting evening. Tradition is very important to Russians and last night was no exception. We had shots of vodka - each preceded by a toast (tradition) and honey cake with tea after a fantastic meal. Russian music was playing on the stereo for much of the evening. For the main course, we had the most tender, marinated chicken I have ever tasted on a bed of rice. After dinner, we all went outside and gathered around a fire and continued the conversation and toasts until I left at about 1:00 in the morning. This year Andre' had two birthday celebrations as he is half a world away from home & his wife and family started celebrating several hours before it was the same date here in the USA. He was bestowed with a few 'traditional' American gifts including two classic western DVDs and a very nice set of horse shoes to play when he gets home.

I could dedicate an entire site to the lessons learned since I started studying Russian just a year or so ago, but that is not the intent for now. I just wanted to let some people know about a new & exciting phase in my life. The doors are open after so many years of misinformation, secrets, and suspicion. These are some of the warmest and most interesting people that I have met in my 47 years. As a side note, one of the young ladies that I have been chatting with online has met a man from Maine. They met in Paris for 2 weeks and got engaged while there (Eiffel tower proposal). I could not be more happy for her (them). It is a wonderful thing and she is very excited.