Personal Interests
For the most part, the pictures I take are focused on nature; people aren't my forte. I used a basic digital camera for many years before upgrading to a higher end, DSLR-type camera. Vacations are when I take most of my pictures but I find great scenes and items everywhere I go. I always make sure to bring my camera when I go to a new, interesting place. Shown below are a selction of pictures from different places over the years. All my pictures are unedited by software, they are straight off the camera. I only uploaded a handful of pictures in each group, there is a link to a DropBox gallery which holds more and in higher resolution.
Iowa State Reiman Gardens
California
My Local Area
Yellowstone National Park
Florida
My engineering interests (building, designing, reparing) take most of my time. But I find time for other things on occasion. Photography is my longest running hobby outside engineering, so most of this page is dedicated to it. However, recently I have become interested in paper projects, like flowers and gears. Another hobby is ceramics. I haven't had the opportunity to do that since high school, but I have posted the items I have made. I also consider landscaping to be a hobby, even when done as a necessity. This is why I include it here as well as under 'Repairs'.
Here are quick links to each subject:
My interest in ceramics started in high school when I was required to take an art class (t was part of requirements for graduation). But after taking the introductory course I realized I enjoyed it and signed up for the next level course. I took those courses in my senior year. Since I attended college right out of high school I haven't planned the time to come back to it since. Here are a ew of the items I made in the two high school courses. These are hand made, not molded or spun on a pottery wheel. Two of my items won an award in a local art show.
I stumbled into this subject mostly by accident like ceramics. Origami has always been intersting but it was more advanced than I wanted to get. I came across people making paper flowers on the internet. I enjoy growing real plants but my luck with that has been limited. This seemed like a good alternative. In 2016, I made a paper orchid plant for Mother's Day. In 2018, I made another orchid plant for a friend. I have also made one rose flower design. The shape of the flower petals are templates I discovered looking at different projects that have been done. Everything else was my own choice based on real orchids I researched. In another chance situation, I came across a website of paper gears and simple paper gear machines. I haven't made any gears either but I keep it in mind.