My love for photography happened early in high school. A photography elective that got me into a darkroom and under an enlarger. Put a Pentax K-1000, a camera that I would seek out again to re-enter the hobby, and a variety of lenses in front of me. Didn't know how deep the hobby was, only dipped my toes and then backed out once high school ended and I had to turn in the camera. Then I didn't touch the hobby for another two decades. Dabbling when given a DSLR but never really having a passion for it again.

The exact moment that it came back into my life is a mystery but I can tell you it came back with a fiery obsession. Through some internet sleuthing I was able to get my hands on 2 Pentax K-1000s, one with a pretty large fungal invasion that I eventually had to get rid of. I shifted quickly into Nikon and getting the F3 I always wanted. Eventually collecting a Mamiya RB-67 that I've since used once and still not really sure how to load again.

May 2024:

It's been a few years and my collection of cameras has grown significantly. I've even collected an old enlarger that was in need of repair. A little elbow grease and it was working again. Nothing has been printed yet, but it's on the eternal to-do list. All of the chemicals are under the sink in the bathroom, it looks like a serious meth den starting down there. Invested in some niche equipment, an auto developer tank, heat pool, amber glassware. Does the time I put into the hobby justify all of this equipment? Absolutely not. Will that change at all in the future? It's just going to get worse (I need more space).

“True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.” ― St. Francis Of Assisi

Riker was born 1/26/26 on a farm. Adopted and brought home on 4/16/26, he has been my best friend. Half border collie, half german shepherd, all fluff. Obsessions come in many forms.

He's got it all.

KFC was collected from a parking lot after refusing to leave in 2021. July 3rd 2021 is his adopted date. After being locked in the house together during covid he bonded heavily to me, and now not only does he squat in my apartment, but also my heart.

Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us! - Fyodor Dostoevsky (2003) "Brothers Karamazov", p427, Bantam Classics

Is it strange to say he saved my life? Is it any stranger than saying Jesus saved your life?

“Does anyone beside me experience a deep sorrow that someone called a "Hero for the Planet" and a "star of the sustainability movement" is designing truck factories and Nike headquarters? Ninety percent of the large fish in the ocean are gone. Ninety-seven percent of the world's native forests have been cut. There are 2 million dams just in the United States. Once-mighty flocks of passenger pigeons are gone. Islands full of great aucks, gone. Rich runs of salmon, gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. The oceans are filled with plastic. Every stream in the United States is contaminated with carcinogens. The world is being killed, and this is the respond? Not only am I angry, not only am I disgusted, I am also deeply, deeply sorrowful.

And I am deeply ashamed.

We need to act differently. ”

― Derrick Jensen, What We Leave Behind