I'm a writer, photographer, self-professed optics nerd, and photo industry professional of 20 years, 10 of which have been combined in the field for Olympus, Sony and, now, Tamron Lenses, USA; the other ten I spent running production labs and camera stores, as well. I was a well-schooled color and chemistry technician before I ever owned a camera proving that there IS a backdoor to all this mess! Landscapes and nightwork are my catharsis, as are my kiddos, whom I continue to call kiddos even though they are 17 and 19, respectively, and are probably a lot smarter than I am.