Unsure of whether I should introduce myself on the forums or here in my journal, I decided I'd do both!

As my user name suggests, my real name is Joe. The more intuitive of you might also figure out that I'm from Daytona, Florida. I moved here from Massachusetts about four years ago to pursue an education in aviation, particularly air traffic management. I graduated last month from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

At various points in my life I became interested in photography, but never to a serious extent and it always ended when my then-favorite camera broke or became outdated. During my last semester at Riddle, I took a single photography course with my girlfriend (who you can blame for introducing me to dA) ~Eynjehl. It was a basic, general course but it taught me a lot that I didn't know before, and it pretty much got me hooked.

Shortly after graduated I picked up my Canon 40d and a single lens: the nifty fifty 1.8. This is my first SLR camera, and I consider this to be the first time I have been more than just a "point and shooter." The photographs you see uploaded here on my gallery are my first attempts at serious photography, taken within the month of picking up my camera.

As you can see, I prefer to take action shots of extreme sports, particularly skateboarding. I am starting to get addicted to street shooting, but it's really difficult with only a 50mm lens. My next one will be a 70-200mm 2.8, and then probably a fisheye or just a nice wide angle.

Please take a look at my stuff and leave critical comments when possible; I really want to improve and while "perrtty!!11!" makes me feel good, and is still much appreciated, I'd benefit more from learning why you like it or why you don't.

Thanks so much for reading, I'm excited to be here

Joe