Hobbies: Photography

Lets talk about hobbies and their benefits.

First - photography.
In my case, everything connected to photography started not longer than 2 years ago.
Before that, I only had a long term passion - reading, and some others that didn't last in time:
- programming: it was a real hobby for 1-2 years, as i enjoyed making programs and especially small games like: chess, table, poker, X-0; star-trek :). This passion has chances to reborn soon.
- building electronics from scratch. In high-school, there were almost two years of experimenting with electronics. I electrocuted myself a few times :) (my younger brother had something to do with it in one case), I burned my fingers in other occasions, and sometimes I even managed to build/modify something. For example, with some help I made a converter which transformed 9v into 700v - in order to power a fluorescent bulb from batteries (it is still working); also turned recorders into radios (by building a oscillating antenna circuit directly into the recorder unit); repaired broken equipment etc.

Anyway, that's in the past now.
My first digital camera was a second-hand one (3MP). No auto-focusing, poor sensor - awful pictures :), but good and useful experience.
Second camera: Canon A430 - a lot better picture quality, a form of manual control, and my first introduction into manipulating the camera settings in order to capture a good photo.
Third camera: Fuji S5600 - dslr like, but only on the outside. An improvement though reported to the previous one, but only comparing the manual control; the picture quality was lacking, especially in poor lighting conditions.
Fourth camera: DSLR - finally :). Nikon - D40, a whole new world for me.
Latest camera: Nikon D80 with the following lenses: 50 mm, 18 - 135, 55 - 200.

Considering that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'll better let some of my dearest photos say the rest ;)

I'll conclude with an introduction to hobbies benefits in general, and related to photography.
A hobby is a way to enjoy something, and sometimes even excel in that particular thing. Some hobbies can become a vice (gaming for example), but that's a completely different matter.
Doing something else, other than the normal chores, enables one to exit the comfort zone and experiment new things. Furthermore, these kind of activities help in meeting new people with the same interests and skills (motorcycling has definitely done that for us).
Concerning the photography, first it helped us understand that there is more to taking photos than point and shoot. In my case, it helped me understand the technical stuff behind the process (I believe in being more than just a consumer) and also helped in the creativity area, as the whole photography concept requires sometimes seeing things from a different perspective. But I admit that in many cases it is useful to be in the right place, at the right time :).
Last, but not the least, it's good to have something else to do when you're getting bored :) in various situations: by the talk around you, in a filed trip or in the bus towards an objective, at a party etc.

More to come on the hobbies matter. Andra will have something special to present soon ;)