Written 1/1/10 and updated 06/08/2011.
Welcome to you old-timer NikonSniper bloggies. I also want to welcome many new people that fallen off a log into the NikonSniper blog over the past several months. Many of you have even joined in the last few days so I thought I would tell you all a little bit of what NikonSniper is all about.
First, My name is Stephen Baird and I am from Woodstock, Illinois. I am no spring chicken any more. I was born the day that President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (NASA) so I am truly "space age". I have been taking pictures for more than 32 years and many of them were and still are completely horrible. Some of those 32 years were more spent on family video than still photography when our 5 children were growing up and getting into trouble. I have thousands of photo prints from the film days so I paid my financial dues so to speak. Now I am gramps to 6 darling girls and about 10 years ago I began taking digital photos and have collected hundreds of thousands of them since. My wife and I were probably the only ones to ever look at them because I kept them in digital form only and they just kept filling up hard drives. Less than 3 years ago, I started to post some of them on NikonSniper. I knew nothing of blogging. I still don't write much on the blog because I really don't want to tell you too much about the photos before you decide what a photo means to you. I don't want to crowd your thoughts with mine. I am always fascinated by which photos people respond to favorably.
Why the name NikonSniper? Well, I have had a few friends that are hunting and fishing types over the years and I was never that much on hunting to kill animals. I am not trying to say it is wrong. I rather enjoy the taste of both of these ventures. However, I have always felt like a bit of a sissy with the hunting side of that equation. It was kind of ironic though because I spent hours and hours of my weeks aiming a zoom lens at turtles or red-winged black birds to get that perfect shot. I practiced doing what many hunters did even to approach an animal and yet I just carried my Nikon. No fellas, I wasn't a complete sissy. I had for many years a Federal Firearms License and still own handguns but I was more of a target shooter than a hunter. So, think of NikonSniper as a name for a guy that would rather shoot moose with a Nikon than a rifle. Now, I would have no problem shooting said moose with a rifle if say it wanted to stomp me and my Nikon into the ground.
As I mentioned, I live in Illinois. For the last 27 years, I have worked in the printing industry for a great company called Web Printing Controls. My career with WPC has me on the road visiting customers for about half the year in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. And, yes, ... I haul my camera everywhere I travel and I photograph between 10-15 thousand photos per month. NikonSniper has become a mix of my work travel photo opportunities, personal trips to many other places and my huge backlog of files.
My favorite place on earth is Australia. Australia is very special to me because I had a photographic awakening there in 2005 while on our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I began to see the incredible beauty of creation there in Australia in a very new way. I came home with opened eyes for the many very simple and beautiful things we have all around us every day. And I have continued to record them to show others near and far from the flatlands of Illinois.
I want NikonSniper to be an encouragement to you. Only you can see and photograph the world that is close to you. Only you can report on that beauty that is uniquely yours. I learn from everyone I see post photos. Many of you may wonder how on earth I found your blogs. I find them many many ways but the way I prefer to find them is to find others that list photography as an interest. You all teach me new ways and some very cool ideas to bring to photography.
I hope you enjoy yourselves while stopping here. I love to hear your comments. And Yes, you can call me a sissy if you are a real hunter. Welcome aboard.
All the best to you in 2011 and beyond!
NikonSniper Steve
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