I first picked up a camera in self defense. I had been unsuccessfully avoiding my mother's Brownie since I had learned to crawl away from her, and when I realized how many shoe boxes of blackmail material she had under her bed, I knew I needed some ammunition of my own. She was more successful in avoiding the camera than I had ever been, so I eventually gave up and started taking pictures of whatever caught my eye. My daughter once asked, 'would you like to take a picture of my doorknob?' In all fairness, I was taking pictures of her thermostat at the time. Portraits are my...more