But I might be back again...

We've finally managed to buy my wife her new car, so now I can start funnelling the money from my website into a new camera & laptop.

It's been months since I last stopped by to post, but I've been reading the whole time.

Sorry to see the site issues James - glad you're back up and running again.

I'm leaning towards the Nikon D80 at this point, and hopefully should have one home before Christmas. Might even take a run at doing some pet portraits and starting up my pet photo website (I own www.propetpics.com, but it's not live at the moment.). My three pups will love me harassing them when I bring home the new camera...LOL

Well, one will love it, one will "deal with it" and the third will probably smack me, as that's her solution to everything.

Man, can't wait to get back into photography "for real". I'm covering more events for the enthusiast magazines I write for (not nature-centric, automotive) and may take a stab at getting some shots at events that are nature-first, auto-second (if that makes sense).

Anyway, just wanted to say hello to everyone again and wish everyone a pleasant fall photo season.

Duane

Glad to see you back Duane. The D80 seems like a really nice camera. I don't think you could go wrong with it!

Thanks Julie - nice to see some familiar faces still here. Your work just keeps gettign better, too.

Hey Duane,

Thank you very much for the compliments on the site. I was very worked up about the time that we were down as we have really developed a nice group of folks who come and visit. I was afraid that I was going to lose a lot of folks. Curiously, traffic seems higher than before (though the posting has slowed a bit) - which is really cool.

Please keep showing us your work as you get comfortable with the D80.

James