Ok, hopefully it's not too bad of form to reply to my own post, but if I don't do it now, I know I'll forget since this week is far too busy
I know I'm young-ish (comparatively) but I've been reasonably serious about photography for quite a long time. I loved my polaroid and my pocket instamatic (it was pink with a blue button for the film advance, and the flashes were the coolest thing). I'm sure that my mom has albums filled with my pictures. I know I remember putting them into albums, and I have a suspicion that they're still around. And then I had a pretty decent point and shoot film camera, but it always sucked because I'd cut people's heads off because looking through the viewfinder didn't give you the same view as the lens got. And then I got a film SLR for a trip, and I was pretty happy with the pictures I took there. Film was expensive though, and for a Christmas I got a digital point and shoot (I still have that one, and the film SLR... both are Canon
). Eventually I got my d50, which I love.
So I'd say that I've been seriously into my photography for longer than I've had my d50. It was always about producing pictures as good as mom
lol now I get compliments from her. So it's taken a while, but I think that it was all leading up to where I've gotten to so far.