Long retired librarian/scholar. I started fooling with cameras in grade school. I spent 3 years in the Army with access to a complete darkroom with an excellent instructor. You learn a lot dealing with developing your own film (remember that) and working an enlarger to get good prints. When I retired after a long career in higher education I got persuaded to use a digital camera. I'm on my fourth camera now, a Sony with a nice lens that goes out to 600mm. I do a lot of work using the zoom, and very little approaching anything wide angle. I am always interested in the interaction of light, water (I live next door to an ocean), and the sky. And if there are critters around it is eve better. I've never sold a picture, but my pictures do get published now and then.