I started off in photography at a very early age... taking photos for my parents; as my dad (in particular) had a habit of cutting people's heads out of the pictures. In elementary school; friends still recall me running around with a vintage Brownie Hawkeye camera. When I was an exchange student in high school... my most treasured item that I took with me was a brand new Kodak flip camera, and lots of slide film. I later ended up dropping it off a castle wall (and almost going with it into a deep ravine)... and spent the bulk of my souvenir money on a new camera to finish out the trip. When I graduated from college... my first purchase as a new RN/ my first paycheck.... was a 35mm Ricoh camera and 2 lenses. From there... I got my first Nikon right after I got married... and have had a couple since... as well as a couple point and shoot cameras that I carried with me everywhere... and were my only camera when I was "between" Nikons (ie: broke).

My current camera, my ONLY camera at the moment; is a Nikon D300 with a short zoom lens.
One camera body, one lens.
For a professional photographer... this is insane to not have more equipment... but it is what it is.
I'm not complaining.
But I am pointing out... as a point of interest I suppose... that if you truly want to get into photography; it doesn't really matter that you have the latest/ greatest camera and equipment.
What is important; is that you take photos.
Alot of them.
Enjoy yourself.
Explore.
See what works for you.
See what makes you happy.... and what makes you wake up in the morning.

For me... it has always been nature shots.
For a long while... and during he start of my "career" as a photographer... I specialized in Infrared Black and White photography... and had a good side business hand painting and restoring old photographs. I loved it... and hope to get back into it again this year.
The photo for today's post is similar in effect of what I used to do by hand...