I discovered photography by using disposable cameras doing urban exploration, or vadding. Vadding takes you to some really beautiful places but with horrible lighting. I decided to go SLR by first getting my feet wet with a film Nikon N55. Most of my photos without Exif data are from this short period. I expanded from vadding and practiced with a small tabletop studio.

After a year and tons of photos, I realized that this wasn't one of my many fad hobbies and decided to plunge into digital with a Nikon D50. I would say going digital as easily made my private study go a lot faster, and I would recommend it to anyone without a personal darkroom.

I would say my skill in photography is not where I want it. Often I have a shot in my mind, and I never am able to relay that into the camera. The shots I take are nice, they just never match my mind's eye. I'm not sure if this is normal though. Sometime while I'm experimenting, the results are better than expected, and so I work with developing that.

I guess you're successful when your friends want you to take photos of them. So lately I've been studying form, poses and outfits (ie. checking out women). When a woman catches my attention, rather than just enjoying it, I'm now analyzing what is specifically catching my attention. I've also had to buy more a reflector and a large tripod, and next month I'm turning one of my rooms into a small studio.

if you have any questions, please put them in the comments and I'll answer them in future entries.