Hello, my name is Benjamin Le and I reside in San Diego, California. Photography is a hobby for me... maybe an obsession! Recently, I was able to afford several digital cameras and lenses. Maybe not afford since I'm still paying for them right now.

I've always wanted to be an artist when I was little. I can still remember winning first place for drawing a shooting star in second grade somewhere in Houston, Texas. It was a very simple drawing but it started my career of being a part time artist. Soon my interests grew beyond drawing... I come to enjoy pottery and craft making, sculpting, painting and astronomy. Why astronomy you say? It is because I like to draw planets and stars... and also learn about them. A few years ago, I can name all the known moons in the solar system for each of the planets!

Now, I work in the software engineering field. It does not allow much for creativity but in my free time, I can be creative with web pages. With a digital camera in hand, I can be quite dangerous. How dangerous am I? On a one zoo excursion, I managed to take over one thousand pictures! Everyone is camera shy around me. If not, please write me! :-)

In the past, I've cycled through several cheap 110 film cameras. Our family then upgraded to an "expensive" Canon Autofocus fixed lens 35mm. Anything more than for a camera was expensive then. My life hasn't changed yet due to this camera. I think we still have film in it from 8 year ago!

Not until I won an Epson PhotoPC 650 1 Megapixel digital camera did my life changed... not sure if it is for the better or for the worst. Never have I been able to take pictures of just about anything I want to. It was an instant hit for me. I began taking pictures everyday.

Taking pictures was just a fun activity for me in my Epson days. It wasn't until I picked up the Olympus Camedia 2100 Uz (Ultra Zoom) camera did my photography skills really took off. This is due mostly to research online and being in a very helpful and friendly Olympus C-2100 Yahoo! discussion group.

I've sinced upgraded to a Canon 10D and then recently the Canon 5D Digital SLR with several lenses. I think my parents fainted when they heard the price I paid for both cameras and lenses. I had to forgo replacing my aging car to upgrade to the Canon 5D. The camera days are over... at least for me.

The Canon 5D camera, like the others I have in the past, is an extension of myself. You are seeing what I'm seeing. If the picture is of a cold shower, I might be freezing on the other end! The Canons allow me to have more controls over how I take pictures as the Olympus has in the past in a more limited degree.

Some people may disagree with this statement: "You don't need a good camera to take great pictures" You don't? I didn't think so at first too until I saw the soul of a photographer through pictures taken with a cheap plastic camera. Composition, lighting and framing all comes together to make a normal picture great. This is what a professional photographer excels at doing. This is what I'm striving to learn.

Due to my full time work schedule and numerous volunteer activities, I have less and less time for photography. I took on commercial works for half a year and in that half year, I've learned quite a bit. Unfortunately, because it is work related and most of my time is spent post processing, my enjoyment of photography vanished. I stopped doing commercial work a few years ago and hope to fully go back to enjoying this hobby once again. Now where did I misplace all my time?

Warmest regards,
Benjamin Le