I was born exactly halfway through the 20th century - January 1st, 1950 on Long Island, New York. Being more than half a century old, I have developed a number of interests and skills over these many years.

My first interest as a kid was in collecting coins and stamps, like a lot of kids getting started with donations from older family members.

My interest in photography came from my desire to take pictures through my telescope, and of the night sky. The problem was the photo developers always assumed my film was blank (or just had dust specks on it) and never printed it. So I built my own home darkroom when I was eight and my interest in other types of photography grew from there. In particular I used to love shooting lightning photos on the nights when it was too stormy to use my telescope.

After graduating high school I was preparing to go to college as an astronomy major but ended up joining the U.S. Navy instead. I learned electronic maintenance in the service and got lucky enough to spend my last 3-1/2 years in Okinawa, Japan where I was able to buy all sorts of great camera equipment and where I first taught photography to U.S. servicemen.

After my 6 years of military service I returned to California with a new goal - to become a photography teacher. I enrolled in Jr. College and while taking my basic arts classes I got interested in geology and began enrolling in field-trip classes just for the 2-3 week long trips paid for by the school. At first I was only into taking photos on the trips but after more than 75 units in geology, the science became as interesting as the pictures.

It was during this time I helped create a new Geology Club at school and shortly afterward I got the idea to create a club Newsletter. I joined the school newspaper as a photographer to get access to their Macintosh computers to create the newsletter with, and so my typesetting career was born.

After graduating from Jr. College I switched my major to Computer Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona where I earned a degree in computer design and programming.

After graduating, I spent five years as a digital design engineer for General Dynamics (until they shut down). After that I decided to use my combined art & computer skills to start a graphic design company, keeping my old Lighthouse Publications name.

At the same time I got interested in horse racing from my Dad who was a jockey when he was young. He got me started with parlay betting and over the next few years I began writing computer programs to help with the parlay wagers and ended up developing several wagering systems and writing half a dozen books and programs for bettors. I created a new company called "Bettor Solutions" and learned web site design to sell my racing products.

Around that time a friend approached me with the idea of selling about 75 old U.S. Navy Ship Plaques he had gotten from a friend many years ago and didn't know how to get rid of them. So we teamed up and I created another web site to offer them for sale on the internet (even before eBay).

After that I turned my talents to photography once again. This time I decided to write a How-To book on taking pictures of UFO's - yeah, you read it right - Flying Saucers! You see, I get so annoyed whenever I see video of UFO sightings on the news where the shooter was such an idiot when it comes to camera handling I start screaming out photography lessons to the TV. So I decided to write a book for UFO enthusiasts that would help them to take better and more usable footage, combining my engineering, science and photographic backgrounds. And once again I created another web site (The Conundrum Group) to market my book.

So that brings me to the present. After taking over 75,000 photographs during my lifetime I’ve decided it was time to gather them all up and scan them into my Mac and turn them into hundreds of slide shows on DVD's. So far I’ve scanned and retouched only about 15,000 so I have many years of work ahead. But the work has made me a de facto expert in Photoshop and I now do some work for local professionals.

Having decided to let go of my past I’m using eBay to thin out my garage and closets and give someone new a chance to use and enjoy many of my former precious possessions, professional equipment, collections and "toys."

If you share any of my experiences or interests I would enjoy hearing from you. And of course I hope you may find something of interest on my various web sites.

Thanks for listening and good luck hunting!

Jim